Bloomington native, Abby Gitlitz, only started working with glass when she dropped advanced physics in high school. She fell in love with the art and has been doing something with glass ever since.

While she did not go on to study art during her undergrad, Gitlitz said she first saw glassblowing the day before her college graduation. She spent the next two years looking for someone to teach her how to blow glass.

“Once I got my hands on molten glass, I have never looked back,” Gitlitz said, “and I’ve never really wanted to do anything else.”

Gitlitz was teaching glassblowing at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2000 when the Bay Area Glass Institute shared the idea for the Great Glass Pumpkin Patch. She worked a similar patch four times in Boston before earning her Master of Fine Arts in glass in 2009, and eventually moved home to Bloomington.

In 2010, Gitlitz started the first glass pumpkin patch in town as a personal fundraiser. The next year, she founded the Bloomington Creative Glass Center. According to their website, BCGC is a “nonprofit organization committed to bringing affordable, high quality education about glass to people in southern Indiana.”

Collection of handmade pumpkins from Bloomington Creative Glass Center's 11th Annual Great Glass Pumpkin Patch on Saturday, Oct. 10. Each pumpkin is assembled by a team of at least three artists.

Collection of handmade pumpkins from Bloomington Creative Glass Center's 11th Annual Great Glass Pumpkin Patch on Saturday, Oct. 10. Each pumpkin is assembled by a team of at least three artists.

Collection of handmade pumpkins from Bloomington Creative Glass Center's 11th Annual Great Glass Pumpkin Patch on Saturday, Oct. 10. Each pumpkin is assembled by a team of at least three artists.

Collection of handmade pumpkins from Bloomington Creative Glass Center's 11th Annual Great Glass Pumpkin Patch on Saturday, Oct. 10. Each pumpkin is assembled by a team of at least three artists.

For their first 8 years, BCGC operated out of Indianapolis. The Great Glass Pumpkin Patch was always a fundraiser to help purchase a building in Bloomington. In 2018, BCGC was able to move into their own space on W. Grimes Lane.

Since establishing a physical presence in Bloomington, Gitlitz said the institute has been able to begin teaching various classes. No experience is required for either glassblowing or fusing classes. Additionally, BCGC offers special courses for children.

Gitlitz said the Great Glass Pumpkin Patch typically features over 1,000 pumpkins; however, COVID-19 interrupted the normal production process. As a result, this year’s patch featured 440 pumpkins.

Similar to 2010, Gitlitz made 300 of them.