The Olio
- The Olio served as a 501c3 social enterprise focused on utilizing the arts as a learning tool for entrepreneurship, sustainability, and community building, and featured a furnace glassblowing studio in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA from 2014 to 2020.
- The Olio featured a Youth Apprentice Program for 14-24 year-olds experiencing barriers to employment and a Retail Product Line using recycled waste glass collected from the community and melted in a 400 lb. crucible furnace.
- Staff, Volunteers, and Youth Apprentices facilitated thousands of classes, workshops, field trips, team-builders, and community events to the Winston-Salem and surrounding areas, utilizing the programs to offer an immersive and exciting approach to arts and entrepreneurial education for our youth participants.
- Offering handblown glassware for sale in the retail gallery and fusing workshop, as well as countless commissions and orders, The Olio featured a unique recycled waste glass and flux system, and diverted millions of bottles from the landfill over the years through cups, vases, awards, sculpture, and much more.
- Professional development, entrepreneurship, sustainability, and learning through the arts were core to the organization’s mission.
- Due to Covid-19, The Olio closed in October 2020.
- For more information, please contact Rebeccah Byer, Founding Executive Director.
“The world is before you, and you need not take it or leave it as it was when you came in.”
~ James Baldwin