“Can anyone find the ability to build a house in the air?” – Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chanania

In fall of 2020, Rach Klein began to sort through their father’s archive. They pulled out dusty boxes from the furnace room, and found themselves among hundreds of slides, hours of film, notes, and letters, all showing the lifework of master glassblower, Toan Klein. Born 1949 in Manhattan, Toan went on to photograph farmland in Ohio, glass factories in Mexico, and the mountains of Appalachia before he immigrated to Montreal in 1972 and weaved his way into the history of Canadian craft. On the 10th-floor of 10 Ontario Street, with windows overlooking Place-des-Arts, Toan set up the first hot glass art studio in Montreal. In the fifty years following, Toan would go on to create extraordinary work that expands the possibilities of glassmaking through its unique combination of photography and sculpture, and which can be found in museum and personal collections across the world.

Meditating on the alchemy of glassmaking in Jewish storytelling, How To Hold Glass is an experimental documentary made through a combination of archival ephemera and contemporary interviews. On April 27, please join us for a film screening and artist talk-back, moderated by Ara Osterweil. Beverages will be available for purchase at our bar (payable by card only).

Doors open at 6:30pm. Documentary to begin at 7:00pm.

This event is a part of the Museum of Jewish Montreal’s Microgrant Program for Creative or Cultural Exploration, which is funded by the Quebec Community Group Network's Community Innovation Fund. We also thank the Jewish Community Foundation of Montreal (JCF) for their support.

Please note that the upper levels of our building are currently not accessible to visitors with limited mobility. This event will take place on the ground floor. Masks are highly encouraged at this event to protect the safety of our guests.