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Thursday January 19, 2012 | by ktmo5678

Corning Museum plans $64 Million expansion into shuttered Steuben facility

FILED UNDER: Museums, News

two glass artist demonstrate finesse and teamwork in the showroom; courtesy of Corning Museum of Glass

Our Winter 2011-12 edition of the print edition of GLASS Quarterly (#125), includes a feature article entitled “Flawless to the End” by Lee Brooks, which examines the storied history and recent demise of Steuben, the premier American glasshouse until it officially closed down production in late 2011. Although Steuben continue to ship remaining goods for online orders, the company’s one-time owners at Corning, Inc., have decided to use the shuttered facility for an expansion of The Corning Museum of Glass. According to an article in the Ithaca Journal newspaper, The Corning Museum plans to expand their exhibition area as well as their facilities to offer the public hot glass demonstrations.

“The [contemporary] pieces tend to be larger in scale and the exhibits are very popular with the visitors, and we don’t have room to display the collection,” Corning Museum senior communications manager Yvette Sterbenck tells the newspaper. It is likely that recent acquisitions by the museum of larger-scale works such as the 9-foot-tall assemblage entitled Forest Glass by Katherine Gray or Marta Klonowska‘s Lynx After a Sketchbook Page by Albrecht Dürer, which is nearly three-feet wide, may have played a role in the need for more space.

Groundbreaking for the project is expected to this spring and construction is expected to be completed by 2014. It will be the first major expansion of the museum since 2001.

-Katharine Morales

Glass: The UrbanGlass Quarterly, a glossy art magazine published four times a year by UrbanGlass has provided a critical context to the most important artwork being done in the medium of glass for more than 40 years.