Kids Design Glass

2009–ONGOING

Exhibition Overview

Creating unique works of art in the medium of glass requires technical prowess matched with equally compelling ideas. For centuries, European glass houses (small factories) hired artists for their designs and glassmakers for their expertise in turning the designs into functional or decorative objects.

Museum of Glass asked, “what if children were the designers?”

To illustrate the roles of designer and glassmaker, the Museum introduced the “Design Your Own Vessel” contest. The program went spectacularly awry. Kids do not design vessels. They draw creatures—characters and monsters and imaginary beings. Kids do not write artist’s statements. They write fanciful descriptions and wild stories. And kids are not designers. Experienced designers know the limits of the material and understand the traditions of glassmaking. Kids do not know these rules, so they are free to create without constraint. The program was renamed Kids Design Glass.

Each month, MOG’s Hot Shop Team selects one child’s masterpiece to create the work in glass. The young designer, with family and friends, has a front row view, inspecting the work as it is created. After the work is cooled and cold-worked, one sculpture is given to the young designer and its near-twin becomes a part of the Museum’s collection.

Learn more about the Kids Design Glass program here.

Featured Images

Image Credits

Designed by Cameron Day (age 8) and made by Nancy Callan and Deborah Czeresko with Museum of Glass Hot Shop Team. Pip, 2007. Blown and hot-sculpted glass with applied bits; 17 x 14 1⁄2 x 8 1⁄2 in. Collection of Museum of Glass, sponsored by John Sullivan and Paula Stokes.
Cyborg 652, 2009. Designed by Karl Berner (age 9), made by Museum of Glass Hot Shop Team. Blown and hot-sculpted glass with applied bits; 18 1/2 x 9 1/2 x 3 1/4 in. Collection of Museum of Glass. Photo by Duncan Price.