Taking in an exhibition at the Worcester Center for Crafts' Krikorian Gallery is an exciting experience. You're almost able to crawl inside the work, feel the clay being rolled into shape, the glass being molded, or sense the moment the paint landed on the canvas. The gallery is perhaps the best salesperson for the classes taught at the Center - you can see the excellence right in front of you.

"It's museum quality," says WCC Executive Director David Leach proudly of the works featured in the gallery named after Spencer Products founder, community minded businessman and visual arts supporter George Krikorian and his wife Anna.

If you didn't know the artists featured in its early summer exhibition "Transformation" were artists-in-residence, you wouldn't have known the works weren't made by world renowned artists - which many WCC students have gone on to become. "It's one of the best we've had in a while," Leach says. "It's beautiful, it's provocative, it tells a story. It's a good example of what makes us unique in Worcester and beyond."

This is a special year for the Worcester Center for Crafts. It was founded 150 years ago in 1865 by the Worcester Employment Society with the intention of providing women with the skills necessary to be able to support themselves through the creation and sales of craft items. While it now strives to welcome any and all that are interested in craft-making, it's still has the goal of providing people with the means to make a living and in doing so, play a role in the growth of Worcester as a cultural destination.

The anniversary arrives after a period of self-evaluation for the institution.

"It's been really good for us in terms of creating a focus and thinking about where we came from and where we want to go in the future," Leach says. "The organization worked the same way for 40 years. This year has been a year of change. For 150 years, we've been a catalyst. We've been thinking about what we offer and what our role is in the community."

They've been at their current Sagamore Road location since 1958; they moved there to better be able to provide opportunities for retirees, returning servicemen and youth to practice a hobby. "The gallery, store, and classrooms that were established then are still integral to what we are today," Leach says.

In 2004, the WCC made a major investment in its future by opening New Street GlassWorks off of Lincoln Street in Worcester.

"Glass is a leading edge of craft at the moment as ceramics were in the '70s," Leach says. "The studio is unique. The only locations nearby like it are in Boston or at the Rhode Island School of Design. You can manipulate the glass. It's fluid, it's fiery, it's dangerous, it's brilliant, and it's elemental. People have spent hours just watching it being made."

The glassmaking classes - much of the work is team driven - are attractive to people in the 30- and 40-year-old range as well as retiring baby boomers returning to earlier creative interests.

"Beadmaking is wildly popular." Leach says. "We have Friday Night Fun with Glass Nights. For a small charge, you'll arrive knowing nothing about glass and leave with a paperweight."

The art of glassmaking will be the focus of what promises to be one of the region's most memorable exhibitions in some time. "New England Glass: The Quiet Force" opens on Sept. 8 and continues through Oct. 5 at the Krikorian Gallery. William Warmus, a past editor and currently contributing editor to "Glass Magazine" and who was formerly the curator at the prestigious Corning Museum of Glass, assembled the show.

"Alex Bernstein, who heads the glass program there, asked me to curate a show and the only constraint was that it should focus on New England glass artists; the artists didn't have to be associated with the Center for Crafts," Warmus says. "They simply wanted to do a good show to celebrate their 150th anniversary and we decided it should be more of a brainy show than a brawny show - it didn't have to have large scale works or lots of pieces. We wanted to explore a theme that would make a contribution to the discourse in the field without being too scholarly."

Warmus has wanted to explore the evolution of studio glass made in the region for a long time.

"Before World War II, in order to work glass, you pretty much needed to work in a factory because the furnaces were the size of 18-wheeler trucks," he says. "After World War II the cofounders of studio glass Harvey Littleton and Dominick Labino developed a small furnace that was more the size of a desktop and that had a huge transformational effect on the whole field because suddenly artists could use glass in their own studios."

A second transformation occurred when glassmaking began to be taught at schools and colleges around the country. "We had a huge explosion of wonderful artists working in studio glass and with various aesthetics," Warmus says. "One of the biggest centers was the West Coast where there was an aesthetic focused on Dale Chihuly's flamboyant work that is marked by intense colors and large-scale installations like chandeliers that come out of abstract painting. He's probably the most famous name in studio glass."

Meanwhile, Warmus says, New England glassmakers have a more minimalist aesthetic and a more self-confident, or quiet approach. "The rise of craft of glass in the 1970s coincided with the decline of manufacturing in the United States and the industrial aesthetic," he says. "Much of the Northeast, including New England, became known as the 'rust belt' in the post-war era and the region lost population. But at the same time, a lot of emerging artists adopted industrial processes like glassblowing as their own and if you will, saved them from extinction.

"A lot of this activity in the 1970s and early 1980s was focused around the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence where there was a strong glass department founded by Chihuly, and Worcester where these skills and traditions were kept alive. So the artists adopted them. When we say today that, 'All the manufacturing has gone to Asia, for example, and some say that we don't make anything in this country,' in fact, we make wonderful works of art in this country out of glass. This is a great chance to celebrate that."

The show will feature some very early cylinders made by Chihuly that were based upon Indian blankets; they're on loan from the collection of Michael Glancy whose work is also represented. Also noteworthy is an installation piece by James Carpenter, still lifes by James Watkins, and "Mega-Planet" by Josh Simpson.

"He makes these spheres of glass that are like planets," Warmus explains. "For me it represents the detached New England attitude of flying above things and trying to understand the big picture. I like that a lot."

Leach hopes aficionados and collectors of glass locally and nationwide will travel to Worcester for the show. "This show is important for us becoming known for contemporary art," he says.

Another highlight of the 150th anniversary season will be "Coming Home," a show featuring works by WCC alumni that will show where their careers have taken them since leaving the center. Amongst their prestigious alumni are former ceramics artist-in-residence Kristen Keiffer, former Wood Department Head and instructor Robert March, former professional studies student in ceramics Anne Elliot.

Traditionally, the Center's biggest event of the year is its Annual Festival of Crafts, which features the work of 55 artisans selling a wide scale of items from jewelry to ceramics. It takes place on Nov. 24, 25 and 26.

"It's a fun weekend," Leach says. "It's a Worcester institution. It's an amazing time to get Christmas presents, which is what most people come for. The artists look forward to it. They don't have too many opportunities to sell directly to the public."

As part of its changing mission, the craft center is looking to develop programs to make sustainable crafts a growing part of the local economy. They include continuing its high level of craft education, supporting craft entrepreneurs, and working to develop the retail craft market by nurturing artists who run their own businesses as well as holding a conference in the near future that will focus on the marketing, financing, and production of crafts. It's a goal the city shares.

"Worcester's Creative City philosophy shares the sentiment that a key component to city revitalization and growth is creative thinking, education, and entrepreneurship that supports social and economic development," says Worcester Cultural Development Officer Erin Williams. "The Craft Center's innovative and creative education and training programs contribute to youth, adult and community education, and professional craft workforce development. It embraces the spirit of education, entrepreneurship and craftsmanship that are the backbone of our cultural community. It's a living example of a creative economy initiative and certainly supports the city's Worcester Way philosophy."

There's no better example of the variety of works created within its walls than the craft center's gift shop, which focuses on contemporary crafts. It's a perfect place to pick up a truly unique one-of-a-kind memorable gift item.

"It features works by our faculty, alumni, and some of our students," Leach says. Each of its studios is represented, allowing you to purchase items made of wood, clay, metal and glass. "We're using the store as more of an active tool. It supports us and can link the artists with customers and collectors. Most artists learn by doing - the school of hard knocks. We hope to strengthen them as an economic force by helping them in marketing, selling, and exhibiting their work. By doing that, the cycle can only help things expand."

This fall, the Center will premier a new "Meet the Artist Series" that opens with Mary Ellen Latino discussing textiles on Oct. 19; upcoming talks will cover multi-media, paper, glass beadmaking, and photography.

Lest we forget, the Worcester Center for Crafts main focus remains its classes, which are held year round. Its fall catalog is now available, both at WCC and on its website at worcestercraftcenter.org. Session I takes place from Sept. 5 to Nov. 11 while Session II runs from Nov. 13 to Feb. 3.

"We teach a class in traditional furniture making, using a chisel and Tenon saw," Leach says. "Whenever you make an object, you're part of that continuum of the first person who threw clay into a fire and started to fashion an object. When you make something, you're tied to that first human being."

You can go way back in time in learning to build a Shaker box. While the course is centered in basic woodworking teachings, you'll also acquire knowledge of the Shaker mindset that goes into the work. There's talk of a boatbuilding course this winter, and of course, there's the cutting edge experience of learning to manipulate glass at high temperatures. A "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" workshop will be held from Nov. 15 through 19.

"We have a variety of classes that are project based so that you leave with something that you want," says Leach, who invites everyone to visit the craft center during its anniversary celebration this fall. "I want anyone who walks in through our doors to be changed in some way, that they see something or experience something they hadn't before, be it in the gallery, the store, the studios, or the bathroom - or if they just learn that we existed."

The Worcester Center for Crafts, 25 Sagamore Road, Worcester, is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. Call (508) 753-81883 or visit worcestercraftcenter.org.