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 Quadco participants make beads for Toledo Museum of Art project
Colorful clay and wooden beads fashioned by participants at Quadco’s Defiance Center and Senior Activities Center will soon be on dangling on a curtain at the Toledo Museum of Art. The beads were made as part of a community outreach art program called “The Bead Goes On” operated by the museum.
Jennifer Bandeen, Community Outreach Coordinator and Community Gallery Manager for the Toledo Museum of Art, visited Quadco’s Defiance Center on June 21 and worked with each person as they created their beads for the project. She said sessions like the one at the Defiance Center meet one of the goals of the program, which is to introduce new groups or ones who haven’t been involved in the museum by participating in a specific art project or exhibition.
 “The Toledo Museum of Art cares about the entire community,” she said. “We just want to make sure everyone in the community has the chance to be involved in the project.”
Each person at the center crafted their colorful lumps of clay into beads that were round, circular, oblong, three-faceted, some a singular color and others with hues mixed together, including the occasional one that held the colors of a favorite university. Then a skewer was used to create a hole so the bead can be hung in the pavilion.
While the clay beads were hardened in an oven, Ms. Bandeen distributed paint and paintbrushes that the participants used to decorate wooden beads she passed out to each person. Those also will go onto the curtain.
She reported that over 2,000 beads have already been made by famous glass artists, students and people in the community such as the group from Quadco and strung on the curtain which is presently on display in the Glass Pavilion at the museum. She said it will take about three weeks before the ones created at the Defiance visit would be strung so they can be seen hanging there. 
In the end they hope to have 10,000 beads hanging on the curtain which is destined to debut at the world-famous Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art in November. She said she hopes that once the curtain is completed, the final artwork will be made into a permanent part of the exhibits there.
Soon the participants at the Defiance Center will be able to say with pride that some of their work can be seen hanging in the Toledo Museum of Art!
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