Tekst priredile: H. Mikić & S. Jovičić
Amy Schwartz joined the Corning Museum of Glass in 1995 to establish The Studio, a museum-based artistic and educational space for working with glass that offers programmes for people of all ages and skill levels. Amy develops curricula and programmes, engages internationally recognised glass artists as instructors, oversees student selection, awards scholarships, and manages all Studio programmes – including those for resident artists, the general public, groups, and enrolled students. From 2002 to 2014, she led all the Museum’s educational programmes, including museum tours for children and students, professional development programmes for fellows and junior curators, and educational programmes for the general public. From 2007, when she joined the Museum’s leadership team, until 2012, she served as Head of the Museum Development Department.
Amy Schwartz is a glassblower. She designs and makes functional and decorative objects, and is a specialist in simple, elegant forms in luscious colors. Her work is influenced by the aesthetics of southwestern Native American pottery, Venetian blown glass, and ideas from the Bauhaus school
Corning Museum of Glass, 2024.
As Director of The Studio, she advocates for the interests of glass artists and students of glass art. She is dedicated to providing opportunities for their growth through scholarships and residencies at the Museum. To this end, she invites leading artists and craftsmen to teach in The Studio and creates conditions in which participants can engage with people and materials that help them expand their practice and artistic vision.2
1. Corning Museum of Glass (2024). People – Amy Schwartz.
2. Ibidem.
What was your vision when you decided to develop the Corning Glass studio together with your husband? What were the challenges at the beginning and what are they now in developing a top-rated glass studio?
It was always in the Museum’s plan to have a studio. In the 1990s, there was a local studio run by a local arts organization. That studio went private when the arts organization could no longer fund it. Some local people worked to get the Museum to open a studio. The then director, David Whitehouse, invited my husband, Bill Gudenrath, and me to come up and build and run a studio for the Museum. David knew that Bill’s name and reputation would attract people and that I could make it all happen. In the fall of 1995 Bill and I moved from New York City to Corning, NY to design, build, and program The Studio. We opened with a sold-out series of glassblowing and flameworking courses in the summer of 1996.
Our vision was to build a high-quality space, invite esteemed artists and skilled craftspeople to teach and add all that is special about Corning (museum tours, library visits, lectures and tours by curators, scientists, and other experts, professional practices to the program. We included residencies for artists and scholars, rentals for artists to use our equipment, programs for all ages and all levels of expertise. We invited groups to come and try glassmaking. We were successful from the beginning and The Studio has only grown from there. In 2001 we doubled our space and added our Make Your Own Glass workshop where individual and family visitors try glassblowing, flameworking, fusing, and sandblasting. In 2024 we will complete another expansion, going from 20,000 to 60,000 square feet. We are growing our Make Your Own Glass workshop to accommodate more visitors and more glassmaking processes, adding a large-scale Casting Center, adding a Residency Center, improving and expanding our artist workspaces, and adding a two-year education program called the Glassmaking Institute. Our challenges are hiring enough staff to support all our programs and fitting all our programs into our spaces, even as we grow our spaces.
What is crucial in developing a public glass studio?
It is crucial that our facilities are top-notch. Students are hard on our equipment and we must keep ahead of them with quality maintenance, replacing worn equipment, and having enough supplies. Our reputation is such that people expect the best when they get here so we have to keep our reputation at a high level. Another crucial element is having a dedicated and excellent staff. Our staff works hard and is extremely dedicated. Our evaluations always recognize the staff. Without them, The Studio wouldn’t be the excellent place that it is. The Studio is a vibrant and active hands-on place. The students and instructing artists are eager to tell Museum visitors about what they are doing and it is exciting to the visitors. The Make Your Own Glass workshop has contributed to the Museum’s attractiveness. The Museum has a motto, “See glass, see glass being made (demos), and make glass yourself (Make Your Own Glass workshop).” Over 25% of the individual and family visitors to the Museum make a piece of glass at the Make Your Own Glass workshop.
Could you tell us how you came up with the idea to develop the program Make Your Own Glass and what was your vision with this program? This program provides the studio with $1.5 million in revenue. What is the secret to its success?
Seeing molten glass excites people. We originally came up with the idea to let people make a glass flower. This is an experience that allows people to pull and manipulate molten glass. It is an educational experience. Other experiences grew from that experience because the marketing department is always looking for new things to share with our visitors. We added blown ornaments next, then fusing and sandblasting projects.
The flower idea came from Bill Gudenrath’s teaching of glassblowing. He would have people pull gobs of glass into flowers as a way to get comfortable with hot glass. Another beginning glass exercise was making glass caterpillars.
Inspiracija za rad sa staklom često dolazi iz različitih izvora. Mnogi umetnici i dizajneri su fascinirani prirodnim oblicima i strukturama, kao što su kristali, voda i led, koji mogu pružiti uvid u to kako staklo može da imitira ili odražava prirodu. Šta vas inspiriše na rad sa staklom?
My inspiration is peacefulness, beauty, serenity, interior calm, transparency, deep luscious color, sensuality. I want my work to be a reflection of who I am as a person. If you own my work you have a piece of me.
How does the studio build relationships with the local community, and how important is it for the community to be involved in what you do? Can you give us an example of a successful program for the local community?
We have relationships with local visitors who bring their family members and visitors to make glass. Some people come every year for many years. We have classes for our local community. We host community groups. We teach a local high school, a regional youth center, we have a regional scholarship for someone living in our region who wants to have a future in glass, and we have a popular annual holiday open house and glass sale. We work closely with our community to support local youth who have an interest in glass and art.
How do you see the future of art glass? What changes have occurred in this field over the past 10-20 years?
I think we have a very bright future! Lots of artists are moving to Corning because they want to be near The Studio. Lots of people want to learn more about glass. Over the past 10-20 years we have seen more people building their own studios. We have seen more people interested in glassblowing. The Netflix show Blown Away has introduced many people to glassblowing and many of them want to take glassblowing courses. Our residency program has a record number of artists applying this year. The future is positive. Lots of glassblowing communities are growing internationally and this is the place to come to meet other people interested in glass.
Reference:
Creative Glass Serbia. (2024). Intervju sa Amy Schwartz. Creative Glass Serbia.
CMG – Corning Museum of Glass (2024). People – Amy Schwartz.
Neu, I, (1960). Erastus Corning: Merchant and Financier, 1794–1872. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Mikić, H. (2024). Svetsko čudo na staklenim nogama, bukvalno. Novi magazin. br. 668.
UrbanGlass (2016). Looking Back: Amy Schwartz on the Corning Studio as the program she helped build turns 20. UrbanGlass
This text is an adaptation of the work published under the title: Mikić, H., Jovičić, S. (2025) The Future of Studio Glass in: Mikić, H. (ed.) Glass: Heritage, Art, Creative Economy, Technology, Paraćin: Belgrade: Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship and Innovation and Foundation for the Development of Economic Science. ISBN 978-86-88981-21-7. It is the result of work carried out within the project “Preliminary Technical Assessment for the Protection, Preservation, and Revitalization of Glassmaking in Paraćin,” implemented by the Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship and Innovation, the Foundation for the Development of Economic Science, the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, and the Corning Museum of Glass. The opinions, findings, and conclusions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Embassy.
