About Us

MJ Brovold and Colin Jemmott co-lead Glass House Arts, an Escondido-based studio building large-scale public sculpture that celebrates geometry, embraces playfulness, and stays approachable. Each piece is a learning engine and a community magnet - an excuse to teach, try harder problems, and widen the circle of people who see themselves as makers.

Glass House Arts grew out of our home workshop and has stayed rooted there (literally). What started as two artists making things together has become a community hub where hundreds of people have learned to weld, grind, and build alongside us. We're not a traditional makerspace or a formal nonprofit; we're a home that opens its doors, a partnership that expands to include whoever shows up ready to work. We prototype in public, document what works, and fold those lessons back into safer, more durable civic pieces.

Over the past decade, more than 300 people have gotten their hands dirty building alongside us. We've taught 30+ first-time welders and introduced over 100 people to power tools they'd never touched before. Our work has found permanent homes in Escondido, Bombay Beach, and beyond—and we've been supported by grants from the City of Escondido, SDCAP, Youtopia, Burning Man, and regional burns across the West.

Glass House Arts is a creative partnership with fiscal sponsorship through the San Diego Collaborative Arts Project for larger public installations.