Dave and I stopped by the Pittsburgh Glass Center on Penn Avenue one afternoon. According to their website, "Pittsburgh Glass Center is the largest arts organization on Penn Avenue in Pittsburgh's East End and is a cornerstone of the Penn Avenue Arts Initiative's redevelopment of an underutilized part of the city through the arts." We'd wondered where all the neat street art along Penn Ave was coming from; apparently, it is attributable to the Glass Center. Awesome work, guys! It is great to see this neighborhood being revitalized and full of art and color. 

Inside the Glass Center's section of art for sale, we were immediately drawn to the ducks commemorating the giant rubber duck's visit to Pittsburgh. We just had to buy one of the small ones, who we've named Alfred. Alfred graces my bedside stack of books and journals and brings us absolute delight. Alfred was created by local artist Travis Rohrbaugh. 

You can also take classes at the Glass Center, including date-night blown glass classes for two, something that's definitely found its way to our "someday" list of things to do. 

The Glass Center's gallery is currently displaying the Lifeforms exhibit, which was truly amazing. 

Think about it: this entire sculpture is made of glass. Glass is such a fragile, delicate medium; it seems amazing to be able to create such detail. 

We were "blown" away by each piece in the gallery, which were submitted by glass artists from everywhere. The Pittsburgh Glass Center is one of the top art glass centers in the world! 

Submissions could be mixed media as long as they were primarily glass. 

Ants were a popular subject matter for artists. 

We had so many more pictures from the Lifeforms exhibit; each and every piece amazed us. 

As a visitor, you can walk through the entire Glass Center, even the studios where artists work. There wasn't much work going on when we visited, but it was amazing to see the giant ovens and kilns they work with. 

This was another neat discovery in a city full of surprises. We can't wait to see what we find next!