Corning Museum of Glass
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The Corning Museum of Glass, in Corning (city), New York, explores every facet of glass: its unique place in art, history, culture, science and technology, craft, and design.
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.
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[edit] The Glass Collection
The Glass Collection Galleries explore Near Eastern, Asian, European, and American glass and glassmaking 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, then America, and finally, to the small-scale furnaces that fueled the Studio Glass movement that began in America in the 1960s. The galleries contain objects representing every country and historical period in which glassmaking has been practiced.
[edit] 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 300,000 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.
[edit] The Studio
The Studio of The Corning Museum of Glass is an internationally renowned teaching facility that also offers various residency and scholarship programs.
Instructors from the United States and abroad teach at The Studio. Students at The Studio range in experience from beginning to advanced. Classes at The Studio are held throughout the year. 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.
[edit] The Museum's History
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 & Abramowitz.
Under its first director, Thomas Buechner, 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 of 1972, disaster struck as Hurricane Agnes emptied a week's worth of rain into the surrounding Chemung River Valley. The river overflowed its banks and poured five feet 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. At the time, Buechner described the flood as "possibly the greatest single catastrophe borne by an American museum."
Museum staff members 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.
By the early 1990's, 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, Scultpure 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 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 actively acquires new objects.
