Kids Design Glass
Museum of Glass has been creating works of art designed by children since 2004.
Museum of Glass has been creating works of art designed by children as part of Kids Design Glass™ program since 2004.
It's easy to participate! Kids 12 and under from anywhere in the world can work with an adult to fill out the application form, create their unique design, and submit a photo or scan of both to the email address below. Then just wait and see if your submission is selected and tune in to see the winning design created by the Museum's Hot Shop Team. The Museum will update the Event Calendar with the date and time each drawing is brought to life in the Hot Shop.
When you are ready to submit your design, email the completed form and your drawing to: kidsdesign@museumofglass.org.
Program Overview
Since 2004, the Kids Design Glass™ program at Museum of Glass has encouraged children ages 12 and under to look at life through a creative lens. The program seeks to put each child’s imagination on display. Since its inception, Kids Design Glass has resulted in over 170 glass sculptures that uniquely represent the artistic visions of children in the state of Washington and across the world.
The Kids Design Glass program was inspired by an exhibition the Museum hosted celebrating the relationship between designers and master glassblowers. This designer-maker relationship begged the question: Can children be designers of fine art, too?
Every year, kids submit designs for the Museum’s Hot Shop Team to review. Periodically, one design is chosen to be created in glass, to the child-designer’s exact specifications.
The child-designer is an integral part of the creation of the piece, interacting with the Museum’s resident glassblowers in real-time to ensure every elements of the design is made correctly. When a drawing is chosen, the young artist is invited to watch in the Hot Shop and direct the glassblowers as they transform the drawing into glass. The team creates two pieces: one for the Museum’s Kids Design Glass Collection and one for the young artist to take home.
The collaboration between Museum of Glass’s glassblowers and the young designers captures in glass the intersection of each child’s dreams and their life experiences. The whimsical designs are often extraordinarily difficult to create with glass, and MOG’s Hot Shop Team relishes the challenge of being pushed into uncharted territories.
The program’s positive impact has been felt worldwide, inspiring tours of the pieces across the United States, and internationally through partnerships with Shanghai Museum of Glass, as well as in Tacoma’s Sister City, Biot, France. Pieces from MOG’s Kids Design Glass Collection are currently on display at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Children’s Museum of Tacoma, and Silver Cloud Hotel at Point Ruston Waterfront in Ruston, WA.
Families of the participants have spoken of the confidence and excitement that the program provided their children. The creation of a sculpture based on the child’s ideas gives physicality to their art, brings their visions to life, and encourages them to continue to explore new ways to be creative.
Pig in a blanket, 2010. Designed by Forrest Brennan (age 10), made by Museum of glass Hot Shop Team. Blown and hot-sculpted glass with applied bits; 8 1/4 x 15 x 6 in. Collection of Museum of Glass, Tacoma, Washington. Photos by Ken Emly, courtesy of Museum of Glass.
The Hot Shop Team with Kids Design Glass designer Soleil (age 7).
