Newark's GlassRoots has a new home, and it's twice the size of the old one. The glass-arts nonprofit celebrated the grand opening of its new space at 23 William Street in downtown Newark on October 6, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony running from 4:30 to 6 p.m. whose program featured city officials and funders at the organization's freshly built studio in Teachers Village.
The celebration, covered by NewJerseyStage.com, capped a move that GlassRoots has been planning for years. The organization moved into the new building, leaving behind its longtime home at 10 Bleeker Street after more than two decades there, according to GlassRoots. The new site sits roughly a ten-minute walk from the old one, the organization says.
GlassRoots describes its new facility as a state-of-the-art, 10,000-square-foot glassblowing studio — double the footprint of its former Bleeker Street space. The ground-level building now houses administrative offices, glassmaking studios, classrooms and event spaces all under one roof, according to GlassRoots. The nonprofit says the larger footprint will let it accommodate more school and community partnerships, with a goal of serving 10,000 students annually.
A Ribbon Cut, Then Turned Into Art
The grand-opening program featured a roster of local officials and funders as speakers, including Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka, Central Ward Councilmember Amina Bey, state Senator Teresa M. Ruiz, Invest Newark's Marcus T. Randolph, NJEDA's Barbara Bickart, the Nicholson Foundation's Jan Nicholson and Roger C. Tucker III, a former chair of the GlassRoots board, per NewJerseyStage.com's account of the event.
The ceremony's centerpiece was literal: after Baraka cut the ceremonial glass ribbon, he worked alongside GlassRoots Studio Director Rob Panepinto to turn the cut fragments into an original glass-blown artwork, the outlet reported. It's a fitting touch for an organization whose own origin story, according to GlassRoots, began with just two torches at the Boys & Girls Club of Newark.
Funding Pulled From City, State and Private Donors
GlassRoots' expansion leaned on a mix of public and private support. The nonprofit has said its new home was backed by the City of Newark, the Nicholson Foundation, 2020 capital campaign donors and RBH Group, with funding secured through the state's Activation, Revitalization and Transformation program, according to Newark Patch. That state program, run by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, is aimed at revitalizing economic centers in cultural destinations in Newark and Atlantic City.
A broader accounting of the project's backers, reported by ROI-NJ, describes funding drawn from NJEDA's Art Program, Invest Newark, the Newark Retail Reactivation Grant and private family foundations. GlassRoots' own materials list additional supporters, including the Common Sense Fund and the S. Irving and Anne Nevard Sherr Foundation.
A Milestone Year for a 25-Year-Old Nonprofit
The timing lines up with a bigger anniversary: GlassRoots is marking its 25th year in 2026. Executive Director Carol Losos, who leads the organization today, has overseen its growth from a scrappy torch-based program into an institution that GlassRoots now calls an anchor of Newark's Arts and Education District and a cultural fixture for the evolving Teachers Village neighborhood.
The nonprofit has also highlighted who its programming reaches. Per Montclair Local, women make up 62% of GlassRoots' programming participants, a figure the organization has pointed to as evidence of the doors its glass studio has opened for women pursuing an art form historically dominated by men.
Whether the new facility actually reaches its stated goal of serving 10,000 students a year remains to be seen, but the organization now has twice the physical space to try. For a nonprofit that started with two torches at a Boys & Girls Club, the move into a purpose-built studio in the heart of Teachers Village marks one of the biggest physical transformations in its history.
