Our Glass Art Collection

Dale Carnegie once said "the essence of all art is to have pleasure in giving pleasure."

By that definition, Sonia and Isaac Luski are certainly essential both to art and to pleasure. The couple, lauded among Charlotte's premiere arts patrons by fellow collectors and curators across the state, hopes to give pleasure to visitors to the Foundation's headquarters with generous gifts from their extensive collection of contemporary glass art.

Pieces by artists including Jon Kuhn, William Carlson and Michael Taylor are showcased in the building. Sonia and Isaac share the gifts of these "important masters" with Isaac's brother Abraham and his wife Rose.

They carefully selected these particular pieces for their impact on the space. "They are dramatic and big, very architectural," says Sonia. "We thought they would make a good presentation in an office."

All three artists are alumni of the Penland School of Crafts, located near Asheville, NC. The Luskis initially visited the school in 1967 and met its first resident artist, Studio Glass creator Mark Peiser. "We were fascinated with the medium and bought four or five pieces that first day," remembers Isaac.

"The school is very experimental," says Sonia. "They would show you a piece just out of the oven, completely new, that no one else had done. The artists would send you to see each other's work."

Charlotte's Isaac and Sonia Luski have generously gifted pieces from their extensive studio glass collection to the Foundation. "All that we have are treasures to us, every single one," says Isaac. "That's what makes it easy to share."

The Luskis continue to visit the school at least five times annually, meeting with the surrounding glass, woodworking and other craft artists. They count those same artists among their closest friends. "We grew with them as they grew into their art," says Sonia. "They ask us what we think. They have become part of our family, and they are responsible for our collection. Our niche is not only the art, but the friendships."

And their collection is extensive. One need only visit their gallery-like home to immediately appreciate why a recent exhibit at the Gallery of Art & Design at North Carolina State University in Raleigh was titled "Passionate Collectors." Paintings and other art, including sculptures and weavings, cover nearly every bit of wall space and line their hall floor. Bookshelves are topped with glassworks of all colors and shapes, sprinkled liberally with human figures and fantastic landscapes. Tabletops, themselves art pieces, and museum-quality display cases hold more glass, as well as wireworks and woodworks. They modestly decline to quantify the extent of the collection, which they began in their native Cuba in 1952.

The Luskis fled the country in 1961, just 10 months after Fidel Castro took control. "We went to the airport with the children and the paintings," Sonia says. "Everything else stayed." Following a short stint in Florida, they arrived in Charlotte in 1962. Isaac and Abraham established a real estate and property management company, and their family and art collection flourished.

Their joy now is in sharing it with the world. "Art is for people to enjoy, to admire the creative process behind it," says Isaac, explaining their decisions to donate pieces not only to the Foundation, but also to the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County, Charlotte Country Day School, the Hickory Art Museum and numerous other institutions. "For the Foundation, it's creating a peaceful space to work in," says Sonia.