Docent Blog "Bits of Frit" | Museum of Glass

Discussion: Responding to Lino

By , April 18, 2008 | Docents & Volunteers

The Lino Tagliapietra in Retrospect: A Modern Renaissance in Glass exhibition has been open for nearly two months now and this is the perfect time to pause, reflect and discuss the docent experience with the exhibition. As one docent noted in regards to the Lino exhibition “it’s like trying to write a masters thesis!” So, on April 2nd a group of docents gathered at the museum to discuss tour strategies, how to properly filter the large array of content and have a Q&A session. However, not everyone has able to attend and as the blog is a forum for discussion, let’s have an ongoing open conversation. Some possible topics of discussion could be:

• Questions & Answers about processes/techniques
• Visitor experience ~ feedback/comments
• Tours strategies
• Lino the artist
• Narrative and/or timeline of exhibition

The forum is now open for discussion and everyone is welcomed and encouraged to post a comment.

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Lino Tagliapietra (Italian, born 1934)
Endeavor installation, date varies
27 hand blown glass sculptures
54 x 144 x 90 inches
Courtesy of Lino Tagliapietra, Inc.
Photo by Russell Johnson

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Annette 4.19.2008 | 12.18pm

I don’t think I have any enlightened thoughts on this, but a couple observations keep popping up in my head. Most adults walking into the Lino exhibit for the first time react much the way I did (and to some degree, still do). The total effect is one of awe bordering on reverence. Even if you know something about his pieces, it is so much to take in. The visual impact is very powerful. My tactic at this point is to give them some appreciation of who the artist is and how this exhibit reflects his importance and impact on the glassblowing world. I urge them to watch the film, even part of it, and direct them to look at the pieces in the Grand Hall and Art Alley and read comments by the artists. How do you describe a genius?

I have not had the opportunity to do many adult tours, but have mingled with gallery visitors and enjoyed the conversations. With kids under High School age, I use the passport as an outline and let the conversation flow from that. I hope to get it more together for adults soon, though on Wednesdays there are usually lots of kids. It’s a work in progress!
Mary T. 4.22.2008 | 6.33pm

For those who missed the study session, we talked about gallery tours and how each one is different. Each tour is like an enigma due in large part to the audience. Whereas some tours follow a cadence, we seemed to agree that walking people through Lino’s exhibit is never the same. It draws you in and generates so many ways to adventure through the gallery. It’s like the adventure echo’s his work. For me, the charisma of this exhibit is like no other. It’s such is a privilege to honor the work far after its left Lino’s hands.

In my experience, the story is what provides a structure or strategy if you will. The first month of tours, I used to keep a mantra – “Tell the story.” But I find that each turn through out the gallery easily distracts audiences. They quickly become fascinated and react to many things at once. For example, the process: “How did he get the lines on Orfeo? Did he paint those on the vessel?” Or in Occhi, audiences examine it, “It’s like looking into a skyscraper. How did he do that?” Or when the crowd reaches the Batman case, they solemnly take in the surfaces visually tracing the inciso or battuto. Explaining the Pilchuck ’96 technique or axis reversals gets a lot of reverent headshaking. But I try not letting the audience steer too much of the tour into explaining process. It seems to break up a group very quickly. So the saying goes, “Careful not to give away the magician’s tricks…..” Referencing factoids seems to pull everyone back together. By the time the crowd reaches Stromboli, they are “wowed”. In this part of the exhibit, you read their faces and you can hear their amazement in Lino’s use of color layers, textures, the complexity of his work, the size of the objects or that they are no longer looking at vessels. Endeavor really IS the pinnacle of this journey, and yet the title says it all.

The first month of tours, I used to keep a mantra – “Tell the story.” Two months after this exhibit’s debut, that mantra no longer applies. I take an adventure every time. No tour is the same. There is an epiphany with every tour. Either your fellow docent teaches you something, or the crowd shows you something with a new set of eyes. That’s the mark of a true maestro…ever progressing – ever teaching. Is this the same experience for docents who lead tours during the week? Or with SOA?
Kathy H. 4.25.2008 | 9.05pm

Have been doing some really young groups the past two Fridays ranging from first through fourth grades. I really have two focuses: Process is covered by introducting dinosaur, saturn and gondola pictures out in grand hall to focus their attention on really looking at and for these pieces as well as talking/showing/telling about color and cane work using visual aids. We look for and point out cane work. I tell them about Lino making his own colors and that they will see a red that will knock their socks off (in goblet case).

My second focus is to help them get to know what an extraordinary glass blower and person Lino is. I bring them to the case with the industrial work and I ask them to think about the subject or activity they love most in school. Now imagine begging their teacher to come in before school to work on it…again at lunch (you weren’t hungry anyway, right) and when the other children take the bus home, what if they asked to stay and work again…of course they would beg their teachers to work Saturday and Sunday. How much did Lino want to learn? Then we talk about perserverance when I tell the story of Lino’s plane ride to Pilchuck and again as he goes to Steuben glass and encounters the leaded glass.

The segue from Lino to Dante is the question; if you know something very well, what is the best thing you could do? Invariably the children say, teach it to someone. At this point the teachers are nodding and weeping (just kidding).

Thanks to Gayle H. I end up in contrasts showing studio glass/ and factory glass and I ask the question. We know what the American glass blowers got out of Lino coming to America, but what did Lino get? Even second graders get the freedom/creativity part of this equation…although there are also a few saintly kids who say “nothing” he just loved to share.

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Discussion: Responding to Lino

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