Marta Klonowska, The Tailor, Glass and metal, inkjet print (not shown), 2012. Gift from the Collection of Carl and Stephanie Beling.
THIS WINTER, while you might not be able to enjoy ice sculptures indoors (at least not without them melting), you can experience the next best thing: brilliant works in glass. Fort Wayne Museum of Art has a new Glass Wing added in 2022 that covers history and trends in American glass. The collection is the result of 10 years spent amassing what might be the largest collection of glass sculptures, art, and figurines in the Midwest, if not the country.
Glass is a rare art form for museums to collect. “For one, it can be difficult to display, and two, it can be quite expensive,” says museum president and CEO Charles Shepard. Glass sculptures can also take up lots of coveted museum space. Case in point, Repose in Amber by glass artist Martin Blank, one of the largest hot-sculpted landscapes in the world, takes up the entire hallway leading to the museum’s permanent glass exhibit. The piece cost a whopping $1.4 million, but luckily it was donated to the museum by an avid collector.
FWMOA is one of the first museums to heavily invest in its glass collection. This is in no small part due to the hard work and enthusiasm of Shepard, who saw this type of art as a remarkable opportunity for the museum. “Glass art is typically dismissed by other museums because it is considered craft,” says Shepard. In other words, it is thought to be decorative—something more akin to home decor—than real art.
The embrace of glass is also a strategic one. When Shepard came to the museum nearly 20 years ago, he wanted to set a path for the museum’s future, building its collection into a renowned one.
Because FWMOA is a smaller museum, Shepard realized it could grow a collection in an area that’s been ignored while staking a claim in an art form that would set it apart from other institutions. Other art museums, from The Art Institute of Chicago to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, have a few glass art pieces here and there but nothing like this.
FWMOA’s Glass Wing covers an expansive 3,000 square feet. Three rooms focus on the past, present, and future directions of glass making in America. The collection contains over 100 pieces by international artists, from the studio glass movement to the artists shaping the art form today, and including everything from paperweights to jaw-dropping, massive displays.
Those visiting the museum will want to take special note of the collection’s substantially sized sculptures. Aside from Repose in Amber, the larger-than-life pieces include work by famed glass artist Dale Chihuly, along with a brilliant, colored-glass kimono by team Eric Markow and Thom Norris, who spent many years creating their own unique process by which they could “weave” glass.
The Glass Wing truly shimmers with sparkling displays in all different shapes, sizes, and colors. “We wanted to showcase a range of different pieces,” says Shepard. “We wanted to show guests how beautiful glass sculpture can really be.”
