TOLEDO, Ohio-
Leonard Marty pulled a glowing glass bulb out of the fiery furnace and spun it around on a pole.
Within seconds, the glob began taking the shape of a red Christmas tree ornament. Soon, an assortment of green and red ornaments were neatly stacked in a box.
For Marty, a glass making instructor at the Toledo Museum of Art, and his students, inspiration is only steps away. The museum’s new Glass Pavilion houses an impressive assortment of ancient and contemporary glass art along with the glassblowing studio that brings a deeper appreciation of the collection.
“It’s much more understandable if you see people make it,” said Jutta-Annette Page, the museum’s glass curator. “Glass making has always been a spectator sport.”
While the studio and its flaming furnaces are at the heart of the building, the $30 million pavilion manages not to overwhelm the collection. It enhances and invites.
From the outside, the single-story Glass Pavilion is sleek and uninspiring. Inside, curved glass walls flow together, gently guiding visitors from one gallery to another. Nearly all the exterior and interior walls are glass, allowing unfiltered views of the artwork even when there are several layers of walls.
“You have the feeling you’re looking through air,” Page said.
Natural light flows through the building, changing the appearance of the structure and its artwork throughout the day and the seasons. Artist Dale Chihuly’s 9-foot chandelier hanging near the main entrance takes on the feeling of melting ice when snow covers the ground. Unobtrusive curtains protect the artwork from direct sunlight.
Nestled in a park, the pavilion’s glass walls draw in the outside elements and a row of grand Victorian houses, including one built by Edward Drummond Libbey.
It was Libbey who brought his glass company to Toledo in 1888 and launched an industry that eventually earned the town its title of “The Glass City” as it was home to several mass producers of glass bottles and windows.
Most of those glass factories now are gone, although the city remains home to Libbey Inc., which makes drinking glasses, and Owens-Illinois, North America’s biggest maker of glass containers.
Edward Drummond Libbey founded the art museum in 1901 and bought many of its early glass pieces, including collections of Islamic and German glass. His company’s iconic Libbey Punch Bowl remains a museum favorite. Created for the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, the glittering piece is said to be the world’s largest example of cut glass.
Other highlights are an Egyptian glass lamp and a silver and glass medallion portrait of King Louis XIV of France. An extensive collection of contemporary pieces–including whimsical vases and a glass dollhouse–fills one of five galleries.
The pavilion pulls together the collection, and its display cases allow visitors to view the works from all angles, highlighting the scale and detail of the glass.
About 10,000 people visited the museum in its first week after opening in August.
Inside the glassblowing studio, visitors are able to see the skill involved in creating the artwork.
“They can hear the tools clinking and the glass breaking–sometimes,” Marty said.
On weekends, chairs inside the studio fill up fast whenever there’s a demonstration or an artist is just practicing the craft.
Visitors of all ages sit still in their seats while an artist dips a pole into hot glass and spins it into shape. They ‘ooh and ahh’ as they watch blue stripes added to the round bulb. And finally, applause fills the room as the artist spins the pole, flattening the glass into a plate.
It’s not unusual to see students who are making bowls and vases strolling through the gallery for inspiration, said Dave Eichenburg, who manages the studio. Some try to duplicate their favorite works only to come away frustrated.
It’s expected that the studio will attract visiting artists and breed a new generation of glassmakers, further enhancing the museum’s collection and the city’s glass heritage.
Putting a hot shop and its 2,400-degree ovens inside a building that houses fragile pieces of glass required elements found in few buildings.
A system of coils in the studio floor pulls in the heat from the furnaces and recycles it for use elsewhere in the pavilion. Three separate air handling systems for the gallery, studio, and hallways regulate the temperature inside the building designed by Japanese architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa.
The cooling system works so well that the heat is hardly noticeable to visitors watching the artists at work.
Marty said making glass in front of an audience and within sight of the museum’s collection has become a thrill. “The inspiration is there all the time.”
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