Connie Beckers is an award winning glass artist in North Minneapolis, MN. She operates a retail gift shoppe, The Goddess of Glass & Friends, and a glass studio at The Funky Bungalow.
She began her career in 1995 with an introductory stained glass class through Patrick Henry Community Education for her 40th birthday. She has since pursued additional training in stained glass and kiln-working at J Ring Glass Studio in St Paul, MN and Gaytee Glass in NE Minneapolis. She began selling her creations on consignment at local gift and coffee shops. Next were craft fairs and then on to fine art festivals. She even hosted and organized shows of her own to help promote the work of her artist friends. She began teaching glass classes in 2000 and has sold over 800 fusing class vouchers through a variety of daily deal companies.
Also during this time, Connie devoted several years helping organize a local arts organization to build a strong network of artists in North Minneapolis; Artists who would participate in, and be recognized for, their contributions to community enrichment.
When she left the organization in 2009, she opened a gift shoppe in her neighborhood featuring consigned artwork from the the varied and talented people she’ has met in her her journey. Today, The Goddess of Glass & Friends is filled with the work of over 60 local artists and offers custom picture framing. She works with The Lowry Cafe to share exhibitions from local artists and is helping develop The Lowry Corridor Business Association.
MEDIA
The Goddess made her national television debut in November 2011 on the DIY Network. Producers asked her to create a glass tile back splash for a kitchen make over, which you can see by clicking here. Her portion comes in around 13 minutes into the video.
Winner of Mpls Arts Commission award for Community Involvement in Public Art
This window was commissioned by The Friends of Loring Park in 2004 and was completed and installed in August 2009. Jon Olson from the Mpls Park Board introduced the idea to The Friends group to design a 4′ x 4′ quatrefoil window for the Community Arts Building in Loring Park. The design is by Reynaldo Diaz, an artist and resident of the neighborhood. Connie worked with apprentice Sarah Ruehmann and assistant Sherry Nolan to transform Rey’s color pencil drawing into the magnificent window you see today. The artists incorporated both Tiffany-style stained glass and kiln-made glass to stay authentic to the artist’s rendering.
Click here for more on that project.
Through a contest on Facebook, The Goddess of Glass won a visit from a Cash Mob on National Cash Mob Day, March 24, 2012. The competition went over about 10 days exclusively on Facebook with The Goddess of Glass sliding in at the last minute with 4 votes for the win. There were about 150 people at her little shoppe that day and the sales doubled the entire month total. The event was covered by local media The Camden News and North news but KARE 11 are the only major media outlet to show up and report. Click on this link for the video. And click here for another local media story about supporting small businesses.
The Insight News community newspaper recently featured The Goddess of Glass in a cover story. Click here.
Connie was the Northside Arts Collective’s Featured Artist in February 2012 . Click Here
View my YOU TUBE Videos here.
