An Evening with Duncan McClellan

Duncan did not attempt glassblowing until the age of 30.   He held various jobs beginning at the age of 14 when he created a line of leather belts for Winter Park and Orlando boutiques.  He had dreams of opening a restaurant, so he enrolled in business classes at Hillsborough Community College and began working with clay as an elective. In addition, he also was a graphic designer, an advance man for a traveling circus, a maitre’d at a restaurant in Busch Gardens and part owner of a cosmetics company. 

During a business trip to New York he discovered a working glass studio and remembering his childhood enchantment with glass, he signed up for classes.  For several years he commuted between Ybor City and New York.  After a time, he left the cosmetics business and began supporting himself by selling his glass works at outdoor shows.  Eventually settling down in St. Petersburg’s Warehouse Arts District where he purchased a 7,800 square feet former tomato-packing plant on 24th Ave South. 

Duncan was one of the first tenants in the Warehouse Arts District and his facility features works by McClellan himself and another 60-some artists from around the country.  In addition to the gallery, there is a working studio, classrooms, and a mobile glass lab parked out back.  

Come and enjoy a wonderful evening with this important artist in the Warehouse Arts District.