Jan 23, 2009

Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Announces Licensing Agreement with Meixia USA/Truth in Glass

The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation announced today that Meixia USA/Truth in Glass is now the licensed manufacturer of Frank Lloyd Wright Collection ® Decorative Art Glass. The company will produce adaptations of Wright’s art glass windows, which he called “light screens,” the distinctive leaded-glass windows that figured for almost four decades in the buildings Wright designed.

“I am thrilled and honored to be able to work with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation,” said Bill Job, founder and President of Meixia, “and am committed to working together to bring the beauty and quality of Mr. Wright’s designs in our glass art to both new and old fans alike.” Meixia anticipates an enthusiastic response to the new products, whose subject matter is largely inspired by the natural world and that often feature abstract geometric designs and patterns. As Roger Ginnett, Jr., manufacturer’s agent for Meixia USA, enthuses, ” We can’t wait for customers to experience the new products and learn the unique stories behind these adaptations of Mr. Wright’s “light screens.”

Meixia USA’s Dallas-based division specializes in decorative art glass adaptations of museum-quality decorative art glass for museum stores, cultural gift shops and now, Frank Lloyd Wright sites. Working with an 850-hue palette, the company’s trained studio artists and craftspeople create premium-quality pieces of painted glass that capture the richness and detail of the original work of art. The colors fuse with the glass in firing and thus won’t fade or scratch off. Meixia’s exclusive process is ideally suited to reproducing the distinctive art glass.

The initial items of the new line are now in production and will include “Saguaro Forms and Cactus Flowers,” “Waterlilies” and one complete panel from the Ward Willits House Skylight. The Oak Park Home and Studio Entrance Skylight is currently in the development process and is expected to follow soon afterward.

Meixia/Truth in Glass will introduce these new pieces at the New York International Gift Show on January 25-29, 2009. They can be seen in the Frank Lloyd Wright Collection® booth no. 2963-2965. The NYIGF opens at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, Passenger Ship Terminal Piers 90, 92 & 94 in New York on Sunday, January 25, and runs through Thursday, January 29th. Exhibits open at 9 a.m. each day.

“This product category was, and is, a very important one for the supportive customers who have waited for the Foundation to find the right manufacturer to produce this product once again,” said Doug Volker, Director of Licensing and Product Development for the Foundation. “Over the past three years we have researched, visited, and reviewed over a half dozen manufacturers that we thought might be capable of creating this type of product. Our goal and marketing strategy was to be very patient and to wait for just the right manufacturer. It was important that this firm could produce Mr. Wright’s art glass in a manner that would take his creativeness and re-create the designs, so that they would be as close as possible to the textures and features of the original art glass windows. This is a highly technical process that is an art in itself.”

“The manufacturing process and the price points that Meixia USA/Truth in Glass are able to provide, will enable a larger customer base to own or give these high quality products at an affordable price. We are impressed with the integrity, dedication and professionalism of the staff at Meixia USA/Truth in Glass and are proud to be in this new partnership with them. The long search was very worthwhile,” concluded Volker.

About the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation
In the cause of architecture and the arts, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation serves as a global forum for multi-disciplinary discourse about the future of the built and natural environments, promoting education, scholarship, design and research. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., and established in 1940 by world-renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright, is the only organization that Wright himself established to protect and perpetuate his life’s work, and is the original organization to bear his name. The Foundation owns Taliesin in Spring Green, Wis., and Taliesin West in Scottsdale (homes and studios that Wright constructed for his personal use), the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture and the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives. More information about the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation is at www.franklloydwright.org.

About MEIXIA USA/Truth in Glass
Meixia USA/ Truth in Glass is a division of Meixia Fine Arts & Handicrafts Ltd., which was established in 1988 and is one of the oldest, and most socially responsible, fully US-owned enterprises in China.