Glass Games: Museum learning with students from Syracuse University

Students from Syracuse University’s Graduate Program in Museum Studies recently worked with Museum staff to create a game as part of their Public Learning in Museums course. Students worked with Warren Bunn, collections and exhibitions manager, and Mieke Fay, youth and family programs educator, and traveled to Corning to tour the Museum. At the culmination of the project, students hosted a reception in Syracuse, where they invited guests, including Museum staff, to play the games they created.

Student Noël Frodelius shares more about the experience:

“Creating a board game is not as easy as you might think. When we learned that we would be working with The Corning Museum of Glass to develop several board game concepts, I expected a challenge. Of course, there’s the hard part of coming up with something new and original, or researching other games to see what rules and mechanisms you want to use in your own creation, but then you have to consider the look of the game and the brand it represents.”

“I knew that I wanted to make a game that centered on a function of glass, and I came up with the word ‘shatter.’ This became the name of my game, and gave me a place to start.”

According to Frodelius, the game Shatter took cues from Trivial Pursuit and Sorry. Trivia cards asked questions about glass on topics including art & music, science & technology, history, pop culture and more.

Jen Peters’ game, titled Exhibition, puts players in a fast-paced trading floor where art is on the market.

The instructions state, “What periods will you collect? As you trade, you will gather periods of glass from your fellow traders. Be the first to corner the museum and ring the bell by gathering all the pieces for your collections to begin your exhibition!”

One student even created a flash-based Make Your Own Glass app.

Thanks to Professor Dana Krueger all of the students for their fun takes on playing in the museum!