Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass
Neenah, Wisconsin
Evangeline Bergstrom was a child when she first fell in love with glass paperweights in the late 1800s. As an adult, she collected fascinating paperweights from around the world, and arts institutions throughout the Midwest began borrowing her collection for their exhibitions. In 1954, the still-growing collection got the home it deserved: the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass, in her longtime home city, Neenah, Wisconsin.
Exhibition Highlights: Today the museum has more than 3,500 pieces of glass artwork on display, including 652 paperweights from Bergstrom’s collection and a wide variety of other works. Some of the paperweights date back to 1845. The museum’s Mahler Collection of Germanic Glass comprises items from northern and central Europe created in the 1500s, 1600s and 1700s. The museum also has galleries displaying contemporary glass and other art glass
Glass Experiences: The Glass Studio and the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum offer a range of hands-on glass workshops for students and adults. Instructors lead participants through crafting projects using tools such as hand torches, grinding wheels and fusing kilns.
Chihuly Garden and Glass
Seattle
When city leaders were looking to revitalize an area of the Seattle Center next to the famous Space Needle, they reached out to Chihuly and asked him to design an immersive experience on the site that would showcase his artwork. Chihuly took them up on the invitation, and in 2012, the new attraction, Chihuly Garden and Glass, opened to the public.
Exhibition Highlights: The cornerstone of the visitor experience is the Glass House, a 40-foot-tall, 4,500-square-foot building inspired by garden conservatories. The Glass House showcases a 100-foot-long sculpture in red, orange, yellow and amber blown glass, Chihuly’s largest-ever suspended glasswork. Other gallery spaces showcase additional works by Chihuly, and gardens at the site are home to four large-scale glass-sculpture installations surrounded by trees, plants and flowers.
Glass Experiences: There is no glassblowing studio at Chihuly Garden and Glass, but an on-site theater presents short videos showing Chihuly and his team working on large glassblowing projects.
WheatonArts and Cultural Center
Millville, New Jersey
New Jersey has a long history in the glass industry dating back to the 1730s, and the Wheaton glass bottle company began in the town of Millville in 1888. In the 1970s, the first building of what would become the WheatonArts and Cultural Center opened to the public to showcase a collection of Wheaton glass and other glass made in the area. Today, the center encompasses more than 20 buildings on 60 acres.
Exhibition Highlights: The cornerstone of WheatonArts is the 18,000-square-foot Museum of American Glass, which houses over 7,000 historic and contemporary glass objects. The collection focuses on American glass, with special attention paid to glass objects created for everyday work in Millville and other parts of the Northeast.
Glass Experiences: Among the many buildings at WheatonArts is a fully operational glass studio that presents daily interpretive demonstrations, during which glass artists display both traditional and contemporary glassblowing techniques. Groups can also arrange to meet some of the glassmakers and other artisans who work in the studios at the complex.
