Founded in 1987, ten students and graduates of The Ohio State University Glass Program came together under the name Glass Axis. The group built a portable glass blowing studio and traveled all over Central Ohio teaching glass art, with a focus on the Greater Columbus Arts Council’s Artists-in-Schools Program. Five years later, the organization (by then, 20 members strong) established a more rooted glassmaking studio in what is now Columbus’ Arena District and in 2001 moved to the Grandview area of Columbus. Since then, Glass Axis has grown to over 120 members and includes amateur and professional artists. In 2014, Glass Axis made yet another move to a larger space in what would become the Franklinton Arts District. During 2024, the board and staff of Glass Axis chose the new name, Columbus Glass Art Center, as a way to better define the organization now.

 

Since then Columbus Glass Art Center has made the move to a new space in Franklinton, located directly behind a neighborhood staple, Tommy's Diner. This space is a comprehensive glass-making facility, encompassing molten glass, casting, fusing, neon, stained glass, cold working, and torch working. The space offers first-class facilities to glass artists in all stages of development, hundreds of classes and public programs each year, exhibition and retail space, high school and college internship programs, and a work credit program to help keep artists in the studio. The Columbus Glass Art Center has become a civic hub for glass art creation and learning and is a place of cultural equity that continues to adapt and grow.

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