The exhibition featured archival material and objects from Glass 1959 and New Glass: A Worldwide Survey, 1979, two exhibitions spearheaded by The Corning Museum of Glass that fundamentally changed the landscape of international glass. By bringing together the work of glass artists and designers for the first time, Glass 1959 catalyzed the field and laid the groundwork for the Studio Glass Movement, which would begin in earnest only a few years later. By 1979, artists around the world were using glass, but few people knew about it and fewer were collecting it. New Glass: A Worldwide Survey changed all that. The exhibition also talked about New Glass Review, the annual exhibition-in-print that has ensured the free flow of glassy thoughts the world over since 1980.

New Glass Now: Context also talked about the particular way all new glass projects are put together. Using a highly democratic and transparent method first developed by the Museum’s visionary founding director Thomas Buechner, all New Glass projects start with an open call for submissions and end with a selection of objects that appear alongside the initials of the individual(s) who chose them. This exhibition profiled the selectors from the 1959 and 1979 shows, demonstrating the types of works they were most likely to choose, showing the way they made their decisions, and hopefully, in so doing, demystified (a bit!) of the curatorial process.