Glass Everywhere!

Glass-art galore has been in galleries and museums around Tucson for months, but this weekend, the Tucson Glass Festival, ¡Viva el Vidrio!, really fires up.

Patrons can visit four separate studios to see artists work, and a bunch of receptions fete artists whose art is already glittering in the galleries.

A $10 pass gets you into events all three days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, April 8 through 10. A few special happenings will set you back $25. The $125 Fire and Feast VIP pass gets you into private events; all proceeds benefit the Sonoran Glass Art Academy's youth-development programs. Visit www.sonoranglass.org/events/tucsonglassfestival.html for complete information. Here are some highlights:

• Philabaum Glass Studio and the nearby Sonoran Glass Art Academy (633 W. 18th St.) have scheduled demos from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., all three days, with shuttles every 15 minutes taking patrons back and forth. Park at the academy, not Philabaum; $5 a day. Highlights include Tom Philabaum, organizer of the Tucson Glass Festival, doing a demo at 11 a.m., Friday, in his hot shop, and Pattie and Mark Johnson, whose work is now at the Tucson International Airport, working all day Saturday in the academy "warm shop."

• VIP ticket holders get to see Einar and Jamex de la Torre, the wildly creative Mexican brothers responsible for Borderlandia at the Tucson Museum of Art, work from 9:30 to 11 a.m., Sunday, at Philabaum.

• At Pima Community College West Center for the Arts, 2202 W. Anklam Road, artist James White does a neon demo from 5 to 7 p.m., Friday, April 8.

• New Mexico glass artist Flo Perkins does a demo at Philabaum from 1 to 3 p.m., Friday, then repairs to Etherton Gallery (135 S. Sixth Ave.) at 4 p.m. to give a talk, complete with hors d'oeuvres. A reception from 7 to 10 p.m., Saturday, formally opens New Earthly Delights, which showcases the glass cactus garden Perkins planted on the gallery floor, as well as paintings by Gail Marcus-Orlen and mixed-media work by Mayme Kratz and Tim Lanterman.

• At Jane Hamilton Fine Arts, 2890 E. Skyline Drive, a reception for fused-glass artist Lee Augst in the show Southwest Glass takes place from 5 to 8 p.m., Friday.

• Obsidian Gallery, 4320 N. Campbell Ave., holds a reception for the group show Mixed Media Glass from 6 to 8 p.m., Saturday.

• UA Joseph Gross Gallery hosts a talk at 3 p.m., Sunday, by Raquel Stolarski-Assael, a Mexican artist exhibiting in the Latin American Glass Art Invitational, followed by Mexican artist Ana Thiel, who will speak on her retrospective at the UA Museum of Art.