Be Blown Away by the Beauty of Culture, Art, Community and Sacred Spaces: Glass House’s Agility towards Inclusivity in Minneapolis

Lavender Magazine had the incredible opportunity to sit down with Alyssa Lundberg, the managing director of the highly acclaimed Glass House; a glassblowing factory and event space that supports the wholeness of their artists, clients, culture, and co-located community partners, Hennepin Main.

“Glass House provides a diverse venue that caters to not only the art community of glassblowers to make a career out of their art, but special events, and cultural engagements/happenings,” Lundberg says.

More specifically, The Great Northern Festival is hosted and curated by Glass House with the intention of networking a fellowship toward the movement of sustainability. The owners of Glass House, Joe and Jax, have a deep and sincere passion for community and have made significant efforts to create a space where all are welcome. The Great Northern Festival is a 10-day winter event in the Twin Cities that aims to bring insight into environmental concerns such as climate change through awareness and encourage shared responsibility.

We know that Minnesota’s winters can be grueling and expect harsh cold. However, Glass House emphasizes that the resilience of the North is a stepping stone in staying present and action-oriented in continued community during such conditions. For example, the food collective K’óoben has a pop-up on February 2. This event aims to highlight and spotlight Latinx chefs and mixologists to share their culture with the Glass House community.

In a gesture to uphold sustainability, Glass House has partnered with local food banks to donate excess food from the events. Even further, the chefs partaking in the event are also sustainability enthusiasts who’ve made significant efforts to adhere to this shared initiative: “So we’re really trying to make sure we are kind of mitigating our impact and lessening that as much as we can,” Lundberg says. It goes to show that although cultures may range from A to Z, there is a unified heartbeat at the center to coexist through shared awareness.

Glass House’s history stands firm in the theme of glass as it can be an allegory of the sustained light in each and every one of us.

“When you think about glass, there’s just that element of purpose where so many things that we use in our day-to-day are glass,” Lundberg explains. “But then there’s this beauty behind it too — It just brings, you know, this beauty to light. And for so many people, we don’t think about that kind of art behind glass.”

Speaking of themes, Glass House’s spaces, The Holden Room and Glenwood Lounge, have been motivated by their historical locations. This is just genius.

Light is a type of energy, and Glass House embodies this lively energy when they adapt their spaces to welcome inclusivity on purpose.

“We’ve been very fortunate to attract and host a variety of different cultural weddings, Lundberg explains. “And it’s so beautiful to see those come to life because each has their own dynamic, you know, elements, and it’s just beautiful to see.”

To maintain their community, Glass House has important aspects they’ve incorporated to be consistent, special and reciprocal through mastering the art of presentation while preserving their authenticity through having varied social events throughout the year called “Happenings.” The themes vary monthly/bi-monthly from lectures to live performances, encouraging guests to come back each time.

The demand of Glass House requires them to be extremely resourceful and cohesive. When COVID-19 forced them to shut down for a year, their operational resiliency stood firm to intentionally preserve their staffing to ensure those coming in shared the same sincerity in providing excellent customer service and excitement for events.

“You never know what’s gonna go wrong, and we don’t plan for it — took us a while, but we’re really in a spot where we have phenomenal staff,” Lundberg says.

To have staff trained in their specialty along with knowledge that supports this industry is just a bonus!

Glass House has intentionally provided safe spaces for members of the LGBTQIA+ community and has made sure to be mindful of their preferences while hosting.

“Talking with the team, we asked how we can ensure that we are continuing to see more of these couples to be excited and welcomed in our space,” Lundberg says. “We want to have an awareness of the type of language we are using. How are we representing our space through photos and imagery to convey that they are just as welcomed.”

There was a 10% increase in LGBTQIA+ weddings at Glass House, and they are seeing even more LGBTQIA+ members becoming a part of the Glass House community through other events as well. A mission to expand on how they intentionally utilize inclusive language in marketing has been a pillar for them.

If you would like to know more about Glass House and become a part of their network as a glassblowing artist, community events member and/or patron, please visit their website at www.glasshousemn.com.