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Library Acquires “Phenomenal Resource” of Performance Art Records

The Rakow Research Library is delighted to announce our first acquisition of performance art documentation in contemporary glass, with the addition of the B Team Records. In 2018, B Team founder Zesty Meyers gave his collected materials on the B Team to the Rakow Research Library, which included historical information about the team, notebooks showing the team’s development and performance ideas, promotional materials, tour materials, photographic materials, and videos. The collection is available for research, and videos have recently been digitized and uploaded to The Corning Museum of Glass YouTube channel. The donation also included several glass pieces, which are housed in the Museum’s collection.

Evan Snyderman, Zesty Meyers, and Thor Bueno performing Fear Jar, Spontaneous Combustion, 1996

The B Team was a groundbreaking, ever-evolving group of performance artists working with blown glass, who delighted in an unconventional and experimental approach to hot glass, and who had a desire to share their ideas with others. Team members challenged preconceived ideas on everything from the definition of art and glass to gender roles.

Blown Away Contestants Talk About Their Time on the Hot New Netflix Show

We’ve been binge watching Blown Away on Netflix, and we hope you have, too. Has the fiery cast of amazing glassblowers inspired you to see glass in a new light?

We recently asked the contestants what being involved with Blown Away has meant to them. They also weighed in on the potential impact of broader global awareness of this material they all love, and what it means for artists who make a living working in glass.

Photo Credit: David Leyes, courtesy of marblemedia

**What has being involved with Blown Away meant to you?**

“I was ready for an adventure related to my work because I have been shifting away from design-oriented projects toward art endeavors. I knew that working on Blown Away would be demanding in unpredictable ways and was curious where that would take me creatively. I wanted to innovate new ideas through the challenges.” Deborah Czeresko – New York City, New York

Blown Away Launches on Netflix Today!

Glass is about to get its big break! Today Netflix launches Blown Away, the first-ever competition show featuring glass in the starring role. The groundbreaking 10-episode series will bring the art of glassblowing to millions of people across the world, as the competition pushes the contestants to creative extremes in search of the “Best in Blow.”

The show follows a group of 10 highly skilled glassmakers from North America who have a limited time to fabricate beautiful works of art that are assessed by a panel of expert judges. One artist is eliminated in each 30-minute episode until a winner is announced in the tenth and final episode.

Donor Profile: Dorothy Saxe

Since the early 1980s, Dorothy Saxe and her late husband, George, have been enthusiastic art collectors. Their comprehensive collection combines many different materials, compositions, and nationalities, but Dorothy holds a special place in her heart—and home—for glass.

Dorothy Saxe with Susie Silbert, curator of modern and contemporary glass.

“We are very lucky to live with all these treasures,” Dorothy said, having collected and supported artists such as Flora Mace and Joey Kirkpatrick, William Morris, Dale Chihuly, and Toots Zynsky among others, from a very early stage.

Originally from Michigan City, Indiana, on the southern shores of Lake Michigan, Dorothy was interested in art at a very early age and attended art history classes at nearby Northwestern University.

“This was lovely,” she recalls, “instead of looking at slides of masterworks, I could go into Chicago to the Art Institute and see all the masterworks in person!”

The Corning Museum of Glass Partners on Glass Competition Show Blown Away

The Corning Museum of Glass is thrilled to share news of an exciting collaboration on the forthcoming Netflix series, Blown Away, which will bring the art and beauty of glassblowing to television screens around the world. A visually compelling process often described as “mesmerizing” and “captivating,” glassblowing has never been the subject of any major TV programming—until now.

The art glass competition show created by Marblemedia, an award-winning entertainment company based in Toronto, Canada, Blown Away features a group of 10 highly skilled glassmakers from North America creating beautiful works of art that are assessed by a panel of expert judges. One artist is eliminated each episode until a winner is announced in the tenth and final episode. A co-production with Blue Ant Media of Toronto, Blown Away will air on the Makeful channel in Canada before coming to the Netflix platform worldwide later this year.

Today, The Studio announced the 2019 Artists-in-Residence recipients: twelve artists from around the world who will each spend one month at The Studio, researching and experimenting with new techniques to further their work. Additionally, two artists and two scholars have been selected for the David Whitehouse Research Residency for Artists and the David Whitehouse Research Residency for Scholars, respectively. These recipients will spend up to three weeks in the Rakow Library, utilizing the vast holdings to inform their practice or area of research. Each resident will provide a public Lunchtime Lecture during their time at the Museum, describing their inspirations and work at The Studio and the Rakow Library.

2019 Artists-In-Residence at The Studio

Shinobu Kurosawa & Jim Butler
February 24-March 24; Public lecture on March 14

Translated literally, the Japanese word tonbodama means dragonfly ball. Since 2000, flameworker Shinobu Kurosawa has been making tonbodama beads that depict traditional Japanese landscape and nature scenes in glass.

In her March 2019 residency, Kurosawa will use The Studio’s resources to continue her research on tonbodama and expand her flameworking skills as she explores new possibilities in Japanese beadmaking.

The Corning Museum of Glass Surveys Global Contemporary Glass in Special Exhibition Opening in May 2019

Today The Corning Museum of Glass (CMoG) announced that 100 artists—representing 32 nationalities and working in 25 countries—have been selected to exhibit in New Glass Now, a global survey of contemporary glass and the first exhibition of its kind organized by the Museum in 40 years. The show, which will be on view from May 12, 2019, through January 5, 2020, will include works ranging from large-scale installations and delicate miniatures to video and experiments in glass chemistry, all of which demonstrate the vitality and versatility of this dynamic material.

Sarah Briland
United States, b. 1980
Problematica (Foam Rock)
United States, Richmond, Virginia, 2016
Foam, Aqua Resin, glass microspheres, steel, concrete stand
With stand: 96.5 x 52 x 45.7 cm
Photo: Terry Brown

In spring 2018, CMoG welcomed submissions of new works, made between 2015 and 2018 in which glass plays a fundamental role, for consideration by a panel comprising Susie J. Silbert, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Glass at CMoG, and three guest curators, including: Aric Chen, curator-at-large, M+ museum, Hong Kong; Susanne Jøker Johnsen, artist and head of exhibitions at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation, Denmark; and American artist Beth Lipman. More than 1,400 artists, designers and architects working in 52 countries—from Argentina, Australia, Indonesia and Japan to the United States, United Kingdom, and beyond—submitted works, which draw upon flameworking, glassblowing, casting, neon, carving, and kilnworking techniques, among others. Read more →