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Looking back to ’72: The Junior Curators Honor the 50th Anniversary of the 1972 Flood

Even before I moved to Corning, I had heard about the 1972 flood. A few weeks before I moved across the country to take a position at the Museum, I spent my last day as a volunteer docent at the Eames House in Pacific Palisades, California. That day I struck up a long conversation with a friendly visitor, and as our conversation ended, I told her that it was my last day before I was moving to Corning. Her face changed. She said, “No, you’re not.” Confused, I answered, “Yes, I am.” She replied, “I’m from Corning, New York!” She then told me that she graduated in 1972 from one of Corning’s high schools, where she couldn’t properly finish out the school year due to a devastating flood. She had also participated in the Museum’s Junior Curator program and credited the program as her introduction to the arts. It feels like I’ve come full circle, from that encounter to now four years later working with this year’s Junior Curators on the topic of the flood.

Aerial view of flooded Houghton Park. Tom Gill, 1972. Image: Collection of the Rakow Research Library.

Worth the Wait: A Conversation with Blown Away’s Elliot Walker

With the release of Blown Away Season 3 now just days away, there’s no better time than the present to check in with Season 2 winner Elliot Walker to discover all the ways that winning the hit Netflix series has changed his life and how he prepared to work with our glassblowers during his winner’s residency in Corning.

So, settle in and prepare to be BLOWN AWAY again!

In March 2020, just prior to the pandemic heating up in North America, Elliot Walker was facing a different kind of heat in the finale of the Netflix series Blown Away. The pressure was on the two finalists to fill an empty gallery space with work representing their points of view as artists, and the Museum’s Hot Glass Team had arrived on set to assist.

Elliot Walker (third from left) and the nine other contestants at the start of *Blown Away* Season 2.

Hot Glass Team Collaborates on Special Project for Venice Biennale

I remember hearing the sound of rain hitting the roof of the Amphitheater Hot Shop on a Monday morning in March, but the atmosphere inside was anything but dreary. There was a lot of excitement, especially when the Hot Glass Team filled a child-sized swimming pool and placed giant wooden molds into the water. They were clearly doing something very different from our regular glassmaking demos.

Over the course of those wet, cold days in March, the Hot Glass Team worked with American artist Virginia Overton to realize her visions in glass. Known for her site-specific and sculptural work which often incorporates found materials, Overton was at The Corning Museum of Glass to do something truly special: develop glass components that would be used in her installation at the 2022 Venice Biennale. Those components? Giant pink bubbles in glass!

The Hot Glass Team has to work together instinctively when the object is big as Virginia Overton’s 20-inch glass buoys.

Book cover for *Asian Glass: Selections from The Corning Museum of Glass*, 2022.

It has been 30 years since the Museum published a volume dedicated to glass from Asia, so we are thrilled to announce the publication—thanks to the support of the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation—of Shelly Xue and Christopher L. Maxwell’s Asian Glass: Selections from The Corning Museum of Glass!

You already may be familiar with the most recent volumes of the Museum’s Selections book series, which have transported readers to both the far and more recent past.

Ancient and Islamic Glass by Katherine A. Larson, Curator of Ancient Glass

Modern Austrian Glass by Alexandra M. Ruggiero, Curator of Modern Glass

This latest volume in the series will also take you back in time as well as around the globe, with stories of more than 50 fascinating objects from the Museum’s Asian glass collection, illustrated with striking full-color photographs. Each entry contains detailed object information and contextualizing commentary about production, design, culture, and trade. The research is cutting edge, and many of the pieces are published here for the first time.

New Glass Review 43: An Outside Perspective on the Best of Contemporary Glass

Get excited and check the mail, because New Glass Review returns this month for its 43rd issue.

An annual exhibition-in-print, New Glass Review features 100 of the most timely, innovative projects in glass produced during the year. Artworks include sculptures, vessels, installations, and other works in glass by emerging and established artists.

A flagship publication of The Corning Museum of Glass since 1980, New Glass Review is a cyclical reintroduction into the world of contemporary glass and the artists who inhabit it; artists who continually push the boundaries of the material and the limits of their expression.

Following an open call for submissions that receives hundreds of entries every year from countries across the world, New Glass Review is curated by the Museum’s curator of postwar and contemporary glass and a changing panel of guest curators. While the search for the Museum’s next contemporary curator was underway this past summer, Samantha De Tillio was invited to lead the selection process. De Tillo was joined by Davin K. Ebanks, Kim Harty, and Kimberly Thomas.

Amy Schwartz & William Gudenrath Honored with 2023 James Renwick Alliance for Craft Award

The Studio’s Amy Schwartz and William (Bill) Gudenrath were honored on Saturday, May 6 in Washington DC with the James Renwick Alliance for Craft (JRA) Distinguished Craft Educator Award for excellence and innovation in education. The biennial award was celebrated at the JRA Spring Craft Weekend with a Symposium, Gala, and Awards Brunch. Recognized for their influence on future artists and significant contributions to American education in the craft field, Amy and Bill’s selection as honorees was the first time in the ceremony’s 20-year history that both makers and educators were honored at the same time.

William (Bill) Gudenrath and Amy Schwartz with their award at the Smithsonian Museum, Washington DC, May 6, 2023. Photo courtesy of the James Renwick Alliance.

Amy and Bill are the latest on a long list of distinguished honorees—the JRA Award has recognized some of the most influential craft artists in American history. This year, the other nominees included ceramic artist, social activist, and spoken word poet Roberto Lugo (the youngest artist to ever receive the Master of the Medium award); furniture maker Kristina Madsen; and curator, quilter, author, art historian, and aerospace engineer Carolyn Mazloomi.

CMoG Named One of the “7 Glass Wonders of the World”

Capping a truly momentous year for glass, The Corning Museum of Glass has achieved a new distinction: being named one of the “7 Glass Wonders of the World.”

The announcement was made during the closing festivities of the United Nations International Year of Glass (IYOG) 2022. The year officially concluded with a Conference and Ceremony at the University of Tokyo, Japan, on December 8-9, which was attended by our very own President and Executive Director Karol Wight. This event was followed by an official debriefing held at the United Nations headquarters in New York City on December 14.

Lino Tagliapietra in the Museum’s Amphitheater Hot Shop, May 13, 2022.

Lino Tagliapietra may be retiring, but not before one final visit to The Corning Museum of Glass. Last weekend was a monumental one for Lino, the glassblowers and staff at the Museum, and all the guests who filled the Amphitheater Hot Shop to see the Maestro at work during what will be his final performance in Corning.

To celebrate Lino’s enduring legacy, we asked those lucky enough to know and work with him, to describe the impact he has made on the glass world. To no surprise, the response was fervent and unanimous: Lino’s impact is, and will always be, extraordinary!