Keep the Arts Alive - IAC is Tampa Bay's Original Community Glass Blowing & 3D Arts Education Center

Classes include Glass Blowing, Copper Enameling, Lost Wax Casting, Lampwork / Bead Making, Glass Fusing, Found Metal Sculpture, Metalsmithing, and Hand Building with Clay. Offerings include Saturday classes for kids in a wide variety of mediums.

Artist Founder and master glass blower Jackie Ballard offers the public a chance to get "hands on with hot glass" during Gulfport Art Walks from 6-10 p.m. every first Friday and third Saturday evening. We have a glass blowing menu featuring seven different objects the public can make with their own colors and blown with their own breath!

Executive Director Amy Oatley is well known in the Gulfport arts community as co-founder of Positive Expressions, a non-profit art gallery that was founded to empower the HIV-positive community and educate the public about the disease.

Board President Lynn DiVenuti has a long history as a performing artist and business owner in the Tampa Bay area. As the CEO of a business development firm, her guidance and creative thinking is steering the Industrial Arts Center toward success.

Jackie Ballard operated her own studio in Gulfport for more than 12 years before joining with Gulfport arts supporters to establish the IAC.

The IAC building is the first facility in the nation built exclusively as an industrial arts education center. Hours of research and design were essential to ensure a safe and modern facility with an ability to serve a wide variety of industrial arts. The exterior walls are solid concrete with fire-rated doors. A high-tech ventilation system exchanges the air in the building six times an hour to prevent fumes and heat accumulation for the safety of the artists. Plus a large electric panel was installed to accommodate existing equipment and future expansion.

1. www.IndustrialArtsCenter.org

2. The IAC is the only facility in the nation built from the ground up as an industrial arts teaching facility.

3. The IAC teaches creative applications of the industrial arts, traditional 3-D arts and other creative arts that go beyond flat art.

4. The IAC is dedicated to involving the public by providing hand on opportunities at many of its public events.