CORNING, N.Y., Sept. 26, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Expanding the international reach of its signature design program, The Corning Museum of Glass is bringing its GlassLab design program to Paris. The Corning Museum will partner with the musée des Arts décoratifs to offer free, public GlassLab design "performances" with top French designers in the Tuileries Garden in Paris, October 22-27, from 11:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. each day.
Designers who will work with GlassLab at the musée des Arts décoratifs are a mix of fashion, graphic design and product designers include Antoine et Manuel, François Bauchet, Wendell Castle, Matali Crassat, Sylvain Dubuisson, Benjamin Graindorge, Constance Guisset, Arik Levy, Vanessa Mitrani and Didier Tisseyre. On October 22, Marco Mencacci from the Ecole Camondo of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs will work with Corning Museum glassmakers in a day-long preview session.
GlassLab, a program developed by The Corning Museum of Glass in 2007, helps designers better understand the possibilities of glass as a design material, encouraging them to design more innovatively for the material. The designers will bring their sketchbooks and concepts and work side-by-side with glassmakers in a unique mobile hotshop developed by The Corning Museum of Glass. The teams will prototype their design ideas in live glassblowing sessions, allowing audiences to watch the evolution of the designs as they are created.
"GlassLab has successfully provided designers from a variety of backgrounds with rare access to the glassmaking process, inviting them to explore firsthand the full potential of glass as a material for design," said Dr. Karol Wight, executive director of The Corning Museum of Glass. "We're pleased to partner with the musée des Arts décoratifs, which has one of the finest glass collections in France, to offer this program for the first time in Paris. Our work with these contemporary designers builds on the very rich history of glass design in France."
"We have a rich tradition of partnering with The Corning Museum of Glass on glass research and exhibitions. After learning about this unique educational project which the Museum held at the Domaine de Boisbuchet and other venues, we were very pleased to host the first Paris sessions of Glasslab with a select group of French designers and creators. It's ideal to be held in the garden of the Tuileries and during the famous art fair, the FIAC," sait Jean-Luc Olivié, chief Curator of the glass collection at the musée des Arts décoratifs.
GlassLab programs have taken place at major art and design fairs, workshops, and museums in Europe and the United States such as Design Miami/Art Basel, Vitra Design Museum and Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, New York (at the museum and on Governors Island).
More than 60 international designers have worked with GlassLab including Harry Allen, Yves Béhar, Constantin and Laurene Boym, Peter Buchanan-Smith, Stephen Burks, the Campana Brothers, Nacho Carbonell, Matali Crasset, Sigga Heimis, Max Lamb, Chris + Dominic Leong, Abbott Miller, Ted Muehling, Leon Ransmeier, Massimo Vignelli and David Wiseman.
To learn more about GlassLab and see past design sessions, visit cmog.org/glasslab.
Schedule of Design Performances
Tuesday, October 22
11–12:30 Marco Mencacci/Ecole Camondo
14–15:30 Marco Mencacci/Ecole Camondo
16–17:30 Marco Mencacci/Ecole Camondo
Wednesday, October 23
11–12:30 Arik Levy
14–15:30 Sylvain Dubuisson
16–17:30 Matali Crassat
Thursday, October 24
11–12:30 Matali Crassat
14–15:30 Wendell Castle
16–17:30 François Bauchet
Friday, October 25
11–12:30 Sylvain Dubuisson
14–15:30 Matali Crassat
16–17:30 Constance Guisset
Saturday, October 26
11–12:30 Benjamin Graindorge
14–15:30 Antoine et Manuel
16–17:30 Didier Tisseyre
Sunday, October 27
11–12:30 Steven and William Ladd
14–15:30 Vanessa Mitrani
16–17:30 Steven and William Ladd
About The Corning Museum of Glass
The Corning Museum of Glass is home to the world's most important collection of glass, including the finest examples of glassmaking spanning 3,500 years. Live glassblowing demonstrations (offered at the Museum, on the road, and at sea on Celebrity Cruises) bring the material to life. Daily Make Your Own Glass experiences at the Museum enable visitors to create work in a state-of-the-art glassmaking studio. The campus in Corning includes a year-round glassmaking school, The Studio, and the Rakow Research Library, the world's preeminent collection of materials on the art and history of glass. Located in the heart of the Finger Lakes Wine Country of New York State, the Museum is open daily, year-round. Kids and teens, 19 and under, receive free admission. www.cmog.org .
The Museum is currently adding a North Wing, designed by Thomas Phifer, which will open in late 2014. The 100,000-square-foot North Wing addition will include a new 26,000-square-foot contemporary art gallery building, as well as one of the world's largest facilities for glassblowing demonstrations and live glass design sessions.
About the musée des Arts décoratifs and the association Les Arts Décoratifs
A unique, independent institution in the heart of Paris
Les Arts Décoratifs was created in Paris over 150 years ago by collectors, industrialists and craftsmen concerned with the quality and design of everyday objects. Housed in the Marsan wing of the Louvre on the rue de Rivoli, between the Tuileries Gardens and the Palais Royal, Les Arts Décoratifs is a national showcase for the genius of artists and craftsmen.
The musée des Arts décoratifs has one of the largest collections of decorative art in the world. It provides a unique panorama of the history of furniture, glass, ceramics, precious metalwork, jewelry, textiles, fashion, graphic design and advertising, from the Middle Ages to the present day. Displays of objects in 'period rooms', one of the museum's features, give visitors an authentic insight into the daily life, fashions and customs of past centuries. One of Les Arts Décoratifs' jewels is the musée Nissim de Camondo, a sumptuous mansion on the edge of the Parc Monceau entirely devoted to 18th-century art.
Les Arts Décoratifs manages a set of museums but also a school, the Ecole Camondo, which trains interior architects and designers, a library with more than 160,000 volumes on the decorative arts, graphic design, architecture, art history, garden design, costume, fashion and textiles, and the Ateliers du Carrousel, which runs artistic workshops and activities for children, adolescents and adults. Les Arts Décoratifs, an independent institution unique in France, yearly organizes around ten major thematic or monographic exhibitions.
The glass collection of the musée des Arts décoratifs is rich of more than 4000 pieces from the middle age to the current international, with world famous Art nouveau and Art déco group. The glass department of the museum was created in 1982. www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr .
To access high-resolution images visit www.cmog.org/press
A report of the GlassLab news will be available on the Decorative Arts Facebook page every day. Facebook.com/lesartsdecoratifs
Program partners
Domaine de Boisbuchet
GDF Suez
Le Saut du Loup
Novotel
Photos accompanying this release are available at:
http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=21222
http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=21223
Yvette Sterbenk / Mandy Kritzeck Corning Museum of Glass 607-438-5273 / 5239 sterbenkym / Alison Buchbinder Resnicow Schroeder Associates 212-671-5165
