The Burnt Asphalt Family is an artist collective co-founded in 2007 by Jessica Jane Julius, Erica Rosenfeld, Emma Salamon, Sam Geer and Skitch Manion after leaving a residency at Wheaton Arts in Millville, NJ. They have since grown to over 30 family members and have hosted events at various institutions including Wheaton Arts, Urban Glass, The Studio at The Corning Museum of Glass, Pittsburgh Glass Center, The Studio at The Chrysler Museum, Pilchuck Glass School, The Bay Area Glass Institute and The University of Louisville. Jessica Jane Julius, Erica Rosenfeld and Emma Salamon curate, facilitate and organize the group. They are made up of artists, designers, fabricators, chefs and educators that have been brought together by a common interest in glass and community. Their work celebrates the cultural histories of glass making, food making and crafting. Through hosting events using glass and food as their primary media, they strive to make participatory artwork that becomes a hybrid of performance art, an installation, a dinner party and a happening. Past events have focused on community in order to breakdown the barrier between the maker/entertainer and the viewer. They try to raise awareness of the various properties of glass as well as new applications of traditional glass techniques. The group seeks to allow people to question their own ideas of craft, entertainment, social values and consumerism.