Glass Art Reflects
the Future: Art and technical glass from the collection of Paul
Vickers Gardner Glass Center
Guest curated by Margaret Rasmussen
March 14 - April 21, 2002
 |
This Ivrene
glass lily vase produced by Frederick Carder at Steuben, Corning,
NY (circa 1920) illustrates the technology of surface treatments.
When sprayed while hot with stannous chloride, a thin iridescent
finish forms on the surface, the same technology used today
to coat non-reflecting optical coatings for cameras, binoculars,
and telescopes. |
A special exhibition entitled "Glass Art
Reflects the Future" will open March 14 at the Schein-Joseph
International Museum of Ceramic Art at Alfred University. The exhibition
remains on view until April 21. Guest curator for the exhibition is
Margaret Rasmussen, executive director of the Paul Vickers Gardner
Glass Center at the University. The public
opening reception will be at 4 p.m. March 19 at the Museum, now
located in Binns-Merrill Hall on the AU campus. Dr. W. C. LaCourse,
the Kruson Distinguished Professor of Glass Science at Alfred University,
will deliver an accompanying lecture, "Glass Art and the Genesis
of Glass Science" at 4:30 p.m., March 19, also at the Museum.
There will be a series of lectures, reflecting
both the art and science of glass, beginning March 26 and continuing
on Tuesdays at 12:10 p.m. through April 16. All lectures will also
be held in the Museum's new space on the top floor of the newly
renovated Binns-Merrill Hall on the AU campus.
The following lectures are scheduled:
March 26: "King Tut Beads Scrutinized by Electron Microscopy,"
by Ward Votava, scanning electron microscopist in the School of
Ceramic Engineering and Materials Science at Alfred University,
and Origins of Color, by Dr. Alexis Clare, professor of Glass Science
in the School of Ceramic Engineering and Materials Science.
April 2: "The Holy Grail - Vessel of Glass?" by Dr. L.
David Pye, professor of Glass Science, and "Casting and Blowing
Glass" by Stephen Dee Edwards, professor of Glass Art and co-director
of the Paul Vickers Gardner Glass Center.
April 9: "Telling the Broken Glass Story" by Dr. James
Varner, professor of Ceramic Engineering and "ABC's of Annealing"
by Dr. Arun Varshneya, professor of Glass Science and Engineering.
April 16: "Past is Prologue," the inaugural Paul Vickers
Gardner lecture," delivered by Dr. Thomas Seward, co-director
of the Paul Vickers Gardner Glass Center and director of the National
Science Foundation Industry-University Center for Glass Research
and professor of Glass Science at the School of Ceramic Engineering
and Materials Science.
The exhibition is based on the historic concept that once science
and art were inseparably intertwined in the process of glassmaking,
commercial art glass reached its peak of perfection, simultaneously
expanding scientific understanding of the mysterious non-crystalline
solid. Glass objects from the collection of the Paul Vickers Gardner
Glass Center at Alfred University will be exhibited with the technical
glass that has evolved from the art, reflecting dramatically the
origins of 21st century glass technology.
Rasmussen, who is also assistant director of the Industry-University
Center for Glass Research and editor of The GlassResearcher, noted
that the opportunity to view glass art that has evolved into today's
advanced technical glass comes from the keen awareness of the late
Dr. Paul Vickers Gardner, first curator of glass and ceramics at
the National Museum of Natural History's Smithsonian Institution.
Gardner was an Alfred University alumnus, class of 1930, and benefactor
of the University's educational glass center. |
