The North Carolina Glass Center (NCGC) is a public access glass art center offering studio and rental equipment, galleries, and educational opportunities for emerging and established artists. NCGC exists to launch and support artists' careers. NCGC also offers community programs serving youth, veterans and marginalized individuals. Outreach programs focus on STEAM education and healing arts through the creation of glass art, and NCGC maintains a curated sales gallery that represents over seventy artists. An adjacent gallery serves as an exhibition space with a rotating schedule of solo and group shows displaying fine glass art. The galleries are located next to the glass-blowing studio, which provides active demonstrations, directly educating the public and connecting them with both the material and the artists that use it. 

NCGC has committed as part of its strategic plan to reduce energy consumption 25 percent by 2025. This means eliminating reliance on carbon producing studio equipment and investing in electric equipment where available which the FCI Implementation grant will support. Solar panels are also being installed to help absorb energy costs. Because the studio equipment requires a lot of electricity NCGC will be able to absorb 100 percent of the solar energy produced. Additionally since there is no off-gassing in electric glass furnaces, BTU and flux gasses are not being lost. This allows NCGC to keep glass longer: eliminating waste, creating opportunities for sustainable glass recycling and saving money on a very expensive resource.