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Valentines from Visitors

The Education and Interpretation Department at The Corning Museum of Glass likes to experiment with different methods of evaluation. Often these evaluations require participation from our visitors and we learn a great deal from them in the process. It’s also fun to see how they interact with the artworks in the collection.

On Friday, February 14, 2020, we asked our visitors to celebrate Valentine’s Day by placing a heart-shaped post-it note next to their favorite object in the Museum. Our Guest Services team handed out paper hearts all day long, and after the last guest had gone home, members of the Education Department collected and counted the notes. We collected 208 hearts in total, finding them scattered throughout every gallery at the Museum. In some cases, guests even left cryptic messages on their hearts.

We started in the 35 Centuries of Glass Gallery.

There were two objects competing for the top spot in this part of the Museum: Window from Rochroane Castle, Irvington-on-Hudson, New York made by Tiffany Studios, and Ghost Walk under Infinite Darkness by artist Andrew Erdos.

A Toast to 20: 2300° reaches a new milestone

February 17, 2000, was a cold, clear day in Corning, NY. It’s not likely that many people remember that particular fact, but Rob Cassetti does. Cassetti is the senior director of creative strategy and audience engagement at The Corning Museum of Glass, and he remembers that day vividly, for just as the sun was setting the Museum opened its doors and welcomed the very first guests to 2300°.

Artist Kristina Logan sits at a table turning a small piece of glass over a flameworkers torch. — Flameworker Kristina Logan brings her signature style to the first 2300° of the 20th season.

It’s now 20 years later and the Museum is still throwing the hottest party in town. An excuse to get dressed up, have a drink, dance to incredible live music, and see some of the best glass artists working today. There aren’t many places you can do all that in one night—let alone in a small town during the “off-season”—and still call it fun and educational.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary year, the Museum has revamped festivities with a new look and feel, but still the same energy and excitement that made the original 2300° so groundbreaking at the turn of the millennium. As Scott Ignaszewski, events and program manager, describes it, “We’ve kicked it up a notch!”

Always happy to reminisce, Cassetti remembers the planning of that inaugural event and the ways 2300° has evolved over the years.

The Quest for Opal: Specialty Glass Resident Mark Peiser Finds Joy in the Journey

There is something fascinating about obsession. About searching for a form of perfection that proves so elusive, it’s the journey itself that becomes sustaining and gratifying, if maybe only to you.

The Specialty Glass Residency, a collaboration between Corning Incorporated and The Corning Museum of Glass, creates an environment where that pursuit is not only welcomed but encouraged.

Artist Mark Peiser working next to his assistant, studies a large piece of clear glass on a tabletop. — Mark Peiser with his assistant Jeremy (Jake) Chamberland working at Sullivan Park.

I interviewed Mark Peiser, the 2019 recipient, shortly before he began his year-long residency in Corning, and what struck me most was his passion to develop a glass that might so closely resemble mist in a bottle, or “the haze on the Blue Ridge Mountains” as he described it, that you could be forgiven for thinking yourself lost in those Appalachian hills whenever you peer into the depths of his glass creations.

Peiser thought then that he might find a glass at Corning that would bring him closer to that goal. When I caught up with him more recently, that discovery was forefront in my thoughts, and it didn’t take long to get to the heart of the matter. “This residency is an extension of a body of work I started years ago,” he confirms. “Which is essentially an investigation into opal glasses and new forms of opal.” Here is his connection back to the mountains and valleys of home and the beautiful opal-blue aura to which his surroundings surrender themselves.

What’s That Noise?

Visitors to The Corning Museum of Glass are often greeted with a loud and mysterious noise. But it doesn’t take long to discover the source of all the strange clattering and chiming. At the entrance to The Shops as you approach from the Admissions Lobby, sits S’Marblous by local artist George Rhoads.

A 6 foot tall kinetic marble machine stands in the middle of the Museum shops. It has multiple tracks and obstacles that marbles roll along, interacting with instruments to make noises as they go. — The yellow features and loud sounds of *S’Marblous* are easy to see and hear from afar.

Standing 6 feet on all sides, S’Marblous is a large glass-sided cube with a very commanding presence. But as you get closer you begin to see exactly what’s going on inside. S’Marblous is a rolling ball sculpture, a form of kinetic art that involves one or more balls rolling along different tracks and through specially designed obstacles in an endless, gravity-powered loop. Our machine features large colored marbles that roll along three separate tracks. Two of the tracks run marbles continuously up and down, around and around, while the third is reserved for when a special marble is purchased and released from a spiral dispenser. Sounds are produced intermittently by features such as a Hammer Chime and glass bells that the marbles interact with along their route. And there are lots of interesting obstacles too, such as a Loop de Loop and Catch Basket, to entertain the eye. Each mechanism is designed to reveal the way it works, and all the mechanisms are spaced far enough apart so they’re easy to see, which is important when the marbles pick up speed.

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!