Incoming! Selections from the Permanent Collection

May 16, 2009 – June 27, 2010
Organized by Museum of Glass

Incoming! Selections from the Permanent Collection is the first in a series of exhibitions devoted to showcasing the Museum’s Permanent Collection of 20th- and 21st-century glass. It includes eleven signature works—superlative in form, execution and concept—by both emerging and established artists while recounting the evolution of the collection.

In 2007, the Museum refined its mission to concentrate solely on the medium of glass. Along with this new mission, the Board of Trustees committed to building a permanent collection of historically significant glass art. The basis of the collection includes international studio glass works of the 20th and 21st centuries with particular attention given to pieces that represent the Studio Glass movement of the Pacific Northwest.

Since January 2008, the Museum has acquired donations of important works—ranging from early American Studio Glass to contemporary European glass jewelry—from private collections nationwide. Incoming!is the first exhibition of these works, including Dale Chihuly’s early Jumping Horse Cylinder (1976), Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová’s The Second Queen (1991-1992), and Finnish jewelry designer Tarja Lehtinen’s Cameo Brooch (1996).

The first piece in the Museum’s Permanent Collection was Lino Tagliapietra’s Manhattan Sunset (1997), acquired prior to the Museum’s opening in 2002. Since then, other site-specific pieces, such as Martin Blank’s 754-piece plaza installation, Fluent Steps (2009), have been accessioned. Preston Singletary’s recently completed triptych, Clan House, is featured in Preston Singletary: Echoes, Fire, and Shadows. The Permanent Collection also includes pieces created in the Museum’s Hot Shop by artists participating in the Visiting Artist residency program.