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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.

From 363 to 2023: Bringing an Ancient Glass Workshop to Life in New Exhibition ‘Dig Deeper’

How was glass made in antiquity?

This is the question that drove a team from The Corning Museum of Glass and the University of Missouri to undertake the first focused scientific excavation of a Roman-period glass workshop at the site of Jalame el-Asafna in the 1960s. The resulting Jalame excavations, and what we have learned since are now the focus of the special exhibition, Dig Deeper: Discovering an Ancient Glass Workshop, which opened to the public on May 13, 2023, and will close on January 7, 2024.

We especially developed Dig Deeper to be an intergenerational space that can be enjoyed by visitors of all ages, with opportunities to touch ancient glass and glassmaking tools, peer at glass under a microscope, create your own archaeological story, explore the science of glass composition, and consider the ethics of museum collection of ancient objects.

Glassworks: A Reimagining of the Blaschkas, a Family’s Fragile Legacy, and the Unbreakable Bonds that Define Us

This week’s blog post comes to us from guest contributor Olivia Wolfgang-Smith, a Brooklyn-based author of fiction and non-fiction. Wolfgang-Smith’s debut novel, Glassworks, was published today, May 16, 2023, by Bloomsbury.

Glassworks, nominated a Buzziest Debut Novel of 2023 by Goodreads, tells a story that followers of The Corning Museum of Glass may well be familiar with, a story of passion and glass. Inspired by the intricate glass models of flowers and marine invertebrates created by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka over 150 years ago, Glassworks is a sumptuously told tale of familial connections and finding one’s place in the world.

Told like four novellas, each exploring the trials and tribulations of a new generation of a family bonded by blood or companionship, and how their ties to the past both hold them back and set them free. Through each section creeps a fragile glass thread, sometimes revealed explicitly, as in part one where the homage to the Blaschkas is forefront, but also just as frequently delicately protected close to the chest like a small glass bee pendant lost and found again.

Wolfgang-Smith discusses her introduction to the Blaschkas right here in Corning and how her epic saga blossomed from there like a glass bubble inflated by the breath of her imagination. Pick up your copy of Glassworks and find out what all the buzz is about.

The End of an Era: Celebrating the legacy of Amo and Jamie Houghton

We’ve all heard it before: Corning is synonymous with glass. Between the Museum exhibiting the history and present of glass, and Corning Incorporated creating the future with glass, it’s not a hard case to make. But there’s another name that, over the course of 155 years, has become synonymous with Corning: Houghton.

As the leaders of Brooklyn Flint Glass Works—later Corning Glass Works, then Corning Incorporated—the Houghton family has been an integral part of the Corning community since they moved their glass company to the city in 1868. Five generations of Houghtons led Corning Incorporated, building up not just a company, but an entire community. Now, with the recent passing of James (Jamie) R. Houghton and the memorial service of Amory (Amo) Houghton Jr, we’re looking back on their impact and legacy, on the Museum and on the city of Corning.

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.

Blown Away is Back! Season 3 Contestants Share Their Experiences

It has been over three years since the phenomenal launch of Blown Away on Netflix and now we’re back for Season 3! Joining host Nick Uhas and resident evaluator Katherine Gray, are 10 new contestants all competing to be crowned Best in Glass and awarded the coveted Blown Away Residency at The Corning Museum of Glass.

Join us as we check in with this season’s glassblowers to find out what makes the show so special.

The ten contestants from *Blown Away* Season 3 are joined by judges Katherine Gray and Nick Uhas at the start of episode 1. Photo courtesy of Netflix © 2022

What expectations did you have going into season 3?

“In all honesty, I didn’t expect to go as far as I did, especially with the all-star lineup they had this Season.” Trenton Quiocho – Tacoma, Washington (IG: amocat_lowlife)

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!

Aaron Colton is ready to ride his motorcycle through The Corning Museum of Glass. *

As the world’s foremost glass museum, we often entertain some interesting ideas—but perhaps the wildest one yet was a call we received two years ago from Red Bull. “We’d like to have a stunt motorcyclist drive around The Corning Museum of Glass—kind of like a ‘bull in a china shop.’” Sure, it would have been easy to see the impossibilities in that simple concept. We’re a glass museum! Motorcycles and glass absolutely do not mix. But… could they? Often, it’s the out-of-the-box ideas that yield the biggest rewards. And so, we embarked on an exciting collaboration that culminated in a video released today on Red Bull’s channels.

Red Bull athlete and stunt motorcyclist Aaron Colton was engaged to create a custom-built, all-electric bike for this unique exploration of our galleries and hot shop. Colton’s Bike Builds series is a staple of Red Bull’s offerings, and this episode would follow his journey of not only building a type of bike he hadn’t built before—during a global pandemic, no less!—but would show the effort it takes to turn “no”s into “yes”s. Too many times, an exciting idea comes about, and it stops in its tracks because a location can’t accommodate a traditional, combustion motorcycle complete with fuel and noise. Colton and Red Bull would literally be creating a way to turn ideas into realities.