9-08-2026 9:22pm

Break Some Glass: Waynesville's Darren Goodman Brings Interactive Art Exhibit to Downtown Hamilton

Beth Callahan Editor

Darren Goodman shares how the Ohio Penat was made with shards of glass

HAMILTON, OH — Visitors to The Strauss Gallery in downtown Hamilton this Saturday may be encouraged to do something rarely welcomed inside an art gallery: break the artwork.

Warren County glass artist Darren Goodman is bringing his latest exploration of glass, art and value to The Strauss Gallery at Artspace Hamilton, where selected pieces of glass will be shattered by members of the public — only to begin a second life as part of future works.

The special event is being held Saturday, Sept. 12, in conjunction with Hamilton’s final High Street Bazaar Market of the summer. The free outdoor festival runs from 1 to 6 p.m. along High Street between Second and Third streets and into Journal Square, with vendors, downtown businesses, DJs, food, artists and entertainers. The Strauss Gallery is located at 220 High St., directly along the festival area.

Goodman said he expects to demonstrate some glassblowing during the afternoon before gathering people inside for the more unusual portion of the day.

“When I gather a crowd, then I’ll say, ‘Let’s break some glass,’” Goodman said.

A public celebration at the gallery is planned from 6 to 8 p.m., Goodman said. He was still working out the details of how visitors will be selected to throw objects at the glass installation and whether there will be a charge for some participants.

The breaking, however, is not simply about destruction.

By the time the event is over, Goodman expects a pile of broken glass to cover part of the gallery. He plans to collect those shards and create another installation that will remain as part of the exhibit.

“They’re not going to die,” Goodman said of the glass pieces. “They’re going to change form.”

Some of the broken glass will eventually become part of a large-scale American flag Goodman is creating with his fiancée Sophie. Other shards will find their way into works that have yet to be conceived.

That cycle — creation, destruction and creation again — fits into a larger question Goodman has explored throughout much of his recent work: What gives something value, and who decides what is art?

“This exhibit is kind of based upon consumerism,” he said. “It’s based upon what will sell, what has value.”

The approaching 250th anniversary of the United States also runs throughout the exhibit. Red, white and blue glass appears in stars, hearts, arrows, what Goodman calls “nuggets,” “lightning rods” and even red, white and blue “rockets.”

Some pieces will be available for purchase, while others are destined for the breaking installation.

Goodman has even incorporated his 97-year-old grandmother into the project. He has been blowing glass balls that she covers in red, white and blue designs.

“I wanted to include her in this exhibit because she’s 97, and I love her,” Goodman said.

Another centerpiece has already traveled hundreds of miles.

Goodman and Sophie began working on a glass mosaic American flag in Washington, D.C., in April. They took the project to the National Mall and invited strangers to help attach pieces of glass.

Goodman estimates 50 to 100 people participated, including children, adults, police officers, members of the National Guard and people experiencing homelessness.

“It was a fun endeavor and meaningful to experience,” he said.

The project later traveled to Nebraska, where Goodman spent four days around the Fourth of July at the Lewis and Clark center blowing and breaking glass and continuing work on the flag.

For Warren County readers, Goodman is a familiar name.

He grew up in Landen, now lives in Waynesville and has spent much of his life in Warren County. A Bowling Green State University graduate, Goodman apprenticed under glass artist Leon Applebaum in Corning, New York, and has worked professionally with glass for about 25 years. His portable glass furnace has traveled with him to locations ranging from Paris and Hawaii to the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington, and GlassFest in Corning.

Warren County Post readers also saw another side of Goodman's work earlier this year when he brought remnants of his “Tears of Joy” glass sculptures to Berry Intermediate School in Lebanon. Students were invited to break the glass as part of a discussion about stress, challenges and finding ways to turn difficult experiences into something new.

These shards have been reused and can be seen in some of the mosaics done by mosaic artist Lori Kay Farr, who also has her work on display with Goodman's.

That same philosophy is now moving into The Strauss Gallery.

Goodman said much of the new installation is being created from materials others discarded. He and Sophie acquired approximately 15 to 20 buckets of red, white and blue scrap glass from a glass factory. Shelves, wood and other objects used in the exhibit have also been reclaimed.

“It’s a little bit of a shame how we are so much of a throwaway society,” Goodman said.

But for an artist who sees potential in what others throw away, trash can become raw material.

“I look at trash as treasure quite a bit,” he said.

The exhibit also continues Goodman's fascination with artists such as Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol, whose works challenged conventional definitions of art.

Goodman wants visitors to consider similar questions while looking at his glass.

Is the piece on the wall art? Is it still art after someone smashes it? Does a pile of shards have value? And if those shards are rearranged into a mosaic, at what point does the artwork become something new?

Saturday, Goodman hopes visitors will do more than simply consider those questions.

They may get to throw something.....And, break some glass!

Hamilton’s High Street Bazaar Market

From 1 to 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12, along High Street between Second and Third streets and into Journal Square in downtown Hamilton, this outdoor event is free and family-friendly. The Strauss Gallery at Artspace is located at 220 High St. Goodman said the gallery’s public celebration will continue on from 6 to 8 p.m.