Corning Museum of Glass

The Corning Museum of Glass, in Corning, New York, explores every facet of glass, including art, history, culture, science and technology, craft, and design.

Tower Sculpture containing 600 glass bowls

The Museum is home to the world’s most comprehensive collection of glass--more than 45,000 glass objects, spanning 3,500 years of glassmaking history. Visitors can also explore the science and technology of glass in a hands-on exhibit area, see live narrated glassmaking demonstrations and try their hand at glassworking in short daily workshops.

Located in the Finger Lakes region, in one of the most prominent glassmaking towns in America, the Museum is an educational institution, dedicated to the preservation and exhibition of the art, history and science of glass.

The Glass Collection

The Museum's Glass Collection Galleries contain objects representing every country and historical period in which glassmaking has been practiced, from antiquity through present day. They tell the story of glass creation, from a full-scale model of an Egyptian furnace to the grand factories of Europe and America and finally, to the small-scale furnaces that fueled the Studio Glass movement that began in America in the 1960s. The Museum's extensive collection of contemporary artworks includes pieces by significant artists such as Karen LaMonte^[1][2] , Dale Chihuly, Libenský / Brychtová and Josiah McElheny.

The Rakow Research Library

The Juliette K. and Leonard S. Rakow Research Library of The Corning Museum of Glass is the world’s foremost library on the art and history of glass and glassmaking. Its mission is to acquire everything published on the subject of glass, in every format and in every language.

The library’s collection of more than 400,000 items includes publications in more than 40 languages, and half of its books and periodicals are in languages other than English. These holdings range in date from a 12th-century manuscript to the latest biographies of contemporary glass artists. The library’s holdings also include personal and corporate archives and manuscripts, as well as sound recordings, postage stamps, calendars, and other glass-related resources.

The Studio

Master artist Davide Salvadore (left) teaches technique during a class

The Studio of The Corning Museum of Glass is an internationally renowned teaching facility offering a variety of classes and workshops for new and experienced glassworkers and artists.

The Studio’s Artist-in-Residence program brings artists from around the world to Corning. The artists spend a month at The Studio, exploring new directions in glass art, or expanding on their current bodies of work. At the end of the residency, each artist gives a presentation about his or her work. This is a free event held in The Studio Lecture Room and open to the public.

Classes are held throughout the year and are taught by experienced instructors, both American and international. Methods taught include glassblowing, flameworking, kiln casting, hot sculpting, engraving, cold working, fusing, gilding, sandblasting and more. Students of The Studio benefit from using the immense resources of the world’s leading glass museum, and the Rakow Research Library.

The Studio also offers half-hour Make Your Own Glass workshops for Museum visitors, as well as group glassmaking experiences. Both include activities appropriate for children as young as three years old.

The Museum's History

Live Outdoor Hot Glass Show

Conceived of as an accredited educational institution and founded in 1950 by the Corning Glass Works (now Corning Incorporated), the Museum has never been a showcase for the company or its products, but rather exists as a non-profit institution that preserves and expands the world's understanding of glass.

When the Museum officially opened to the public in 1951, it contained a significant collection of glass and glass-related books and documents: there were 2,000 objects, two staff members, and a research library, housed in a low, glass-walled building designed by Harrison & Abramovitz.

Thomas S. Buechner, who would later become director of the Brooklyn Museum, was the founding director of the glass museum, serving in the post from 1951 to 1960 and again from 1973 to 1980.^[3] Under Buechner's leadership, the Museum continued to assemble a comprehensive collection of glass, and its library acquired rare books related to the history of glassmaking. When Buechner accepted the directorship of the Brooklyn Museum, he was succeeded by Paul Perrot, who continued the expansion of the collection and the staff.

Museum Underwater

In June 1972, disaster struck as Hurricane Agnes emptied a week's worth of rain into the surrounding Chemung River Valley. On June 23rd, the Chemung River overflowed its banks and poured five feet four inches of floodwater into the Museum. When the waters receded, staff members found glass objects tumbled in their cases and crusted with mud, the library's books swollen with water. According to Martin and Edwards, 528 of the museum's 13,000 objects had sustained damage (1977, 11) ^[4] At the time, Buechner described the flood as "possibly the greatest single catastrophe borne by an American museum." ^[4]

Museum staff members, under the directorship of Robert H. Brill were faced with the tremendous task of restoration: every glass object had to be meticulously cleaned and restored, while the library's contents had to be cleaned and dried page by page, slide by slide, even before being assessed for rebinding, restoration, or replacement. On August 1, 1972, the Museum reopened with restoration work still underway.

Growth and Renovations

By 1978, the Museum had outgrown its space. Gunnar Birkerts designed a new addition, creating a flowing series of galleries with the library at their core, linked to the old building via light-filled, windowed ramps. With memories of the hurricane still fresh, the new galleries were raised high above the flood line on concrete pillars. The new Museum opened to the public on May 28, 1980, exactly 29 years after its first opening.

Building Entrance

By the early 1990s, The Corning Museum of Glass was once more overflowing its exhibition space, and increasing visitation put a strain on guest facilities. In 1996, the Museum embarked upon the first phase of a planned five-year, $65 million transformation. Under the directorship of Dr. David Whitehouse, the first element to be added was The Studio. This state-of-the-art teaching facility for glassblowing and coldworking opened for classes in 1996.

Architects Smith-Miller + Hawkinson designed an addition to the main Museum building, using glass wherever possible to convey the beauty and elegance of the art form in the building itself. The Museum's renovation was completed in 2001, and included a new visitors' center, Sculpture Gallery, Hot Glass Show demonstration stage and a hands-on Innovation Center with exhibitions designed by Ralph Appelbaum Associates. A redesigned 18,000-square-foot (1,700 m²) GlassMarket, one of the largest Museum shops in the country, filled the entire bottom of the Museum. The Rakow Library was relocated to new quarters across the Museum campus.

The renovated facilities now welcome more than 300,000 visitors from around the globe each year and the Museum is active in its acquisition of new objects.

See also

• S. Donald Stookey
• Robert H. Brill

References

The Corning Museum of Glass grants permission to Wikipedia to include text from its website in the article below.^{[citation needed]}

1. ^ Oldknow, Tina. "Meet the Artist: Karen LaMonte". Corning Museum of Glass. http://www.cmog.org/dynamic.aspx?id=11852#.TnTDPk-qtyQ. Retrieved 17 September 2011. 
2. ^ "Favorites from the Contemporary Glass Collection". http://www.cmog.org/dynamic.aspx?id=9790#.TnTAPU-qtyQ. Retrieved 17 September 2011. 
3. ^ Grimes, William. "Thomas S. Buechner, Former Director of Brooklyn Museum, Dies at 83", The New York Times, June 17, 2010. Accerssed June 18, 2010.
4. ^ ^{a b} The Corning Flood: Museum Under Water (Eds.) Martin, J. H. and Edwards, C. K. (1977) New York: Corning Museum of Glass

External links

Media related to Corning Museum of Glass at Wikimedia Commons

• Corning Museum of Glass
• Corning & The Finger Lakes Region

42°08′59″N 77°03′15″W / 42.149813°N 77.054297°W / 42.149813; -77.054297Coordinates: 42°08′59″N 77°03′15″W / 42.149813°N 77.054297°W / 42.149813; -77.054297