Operation: Art Of Valor Offers Glassblowing To Tampa Bay-Area Veterans
ST. PETERSBURG, FL — After serving in the Marine Corps for 24 years, most recently as part of its bomb squad, Chris Stowe retired in 2016, unsure of his next move.
Through an art therapy program at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland, he learned to oil paint. With a wide range of health issues following his years of service as a bomb disposal technician, including a traumatic brain injury and post traumatic stress disorder, he found himself drawn to the arts after this class.
“This bore my interest in the arts and to use a creative outlet for military veterans that isn’t being used in traditional medical programs,” he told Patch. “I found a lot of solace in the arts and wanted to find a way to do something more.”
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Back home in Tampa, Stowe continued to explore the arts, discovering glassblowing. This set him on a new path. Today, he’s the volunteer program manager for Operation: Art of Valor, which he helped found at the Morean Arts Center in St. Petersburg.
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As part of a Memorial Day fundraiser for the program, St. Petersburg’s Bayboro Brewing, collaborating with curator Jenee Priebe of No Good Deeds, will showcase works by several of Art of Valor’s artists on Monday. Pint glasses made by program participants will also be available to purchase.
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Stowe took his first glassblowing workshop about seven years ago at Zen Glass Studio.
“I found an instant love for it,” he said. “I’ve been doing it ever since. I wouldn’t have gotten started if I had not walked into that studio all those years ago.”
He quickly realized that other active service members and veterans might enjoy the medium and find that it benefitted their personal healing, as well.
“You get a ton out of it and I thought it would be an easy onramp for those resistant to doing other creative art therapies, like journaling or painting,” Stowe said. “It’s more physical and there’s more teamwork involved.”
Working with Christian Zvonik and other artists at the studio, he launched Operation Zen, a glassblowing course for military members.
About five years ago, he moved over to the Morean, where he is once again working with Zvonik, to launch Operation: Art of Valor. He made the move because he hoped to eventually branch out into different artistic mediums.
The Morean, a nonprofit arts and education organization, “is the connective tissue of the arts community in St. Pete,” Stowe said. “It’s an untapped resource in the area to bring this program to our underserved military community.”
Glassblowing, Art of Valor’s flagship program, meets every Sunday, 8 a.m. to noon, at no cost to its participants.
The program has since expanded into ceramics and photography, which are offered cyclically.
Since starting, the program has worked with more than 400 veterans. Most are referred by the Bay Pines VA Healthcare Center, James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital and other veterans’ healthcare facilities.
Veterans don’t usually know what to expect when they start the program.
“Some get in front of that furnace and go, ‘Yep, not for me.’ Other folks come for a while and then move off to other mediums. And I think it’s awesome as long as they’re doing something,” Stowe said. “Then, there are converts like me. The first time you put pipe in the glass furnace, you think, ‘Yep, this is for me. I’m in a lot of trouble.'”
Program participants can attend as frequently as they’d like. There are also advancement opportunities for those who take to the medium, including advanced classes and assistant instructor roles.
A 2019 University of South Florida study of the program shows how much it’s affected the veteran community.
“We heard everything from people saying it helped change their life so they have a more positive outlook on life, a sense of community and they’re allowed to explore something they never explored before; it’s something to look forward to every week and gives them a sense of hope,” Stowe said.
Priebe told Patch, “It’s really an incredible thing. It’s beautiful and it’s been just a healing project for people. It puts the arts in front of people as a healing option, as a way to heal from trauma or for mental health in general.”
The program has also created an unlikely community, bringing veterans and artists together.
“I just dig the community we created,” he said. “People who have served and not served get together. Military veterans have a preconceived notion of what they think the art community is, but we find common ground. We’re all in the same room where glass is the common factor. We’re all on this same weird little rock floating around in the middle of nowhere. It’s just a weird design that we’re all here together.”
It’s only recently that the program has focused on outreach efforts, like Monday’s fundraiser at Bayboro Brewing. Stowe said it will continue to expand, including buying a trailer to bring out a mobile glassblowing studio, which was donated to the program, to hold demonstrations outside the Morean Arts Center.
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