For Immediate Release September 27, 2010 Media Contacts: Susan Newsom, Communications Manager, 253.284.4732, snewsom@museumofglass.org <mailto:jpisto@museumofglass.org> Julie Pisto, Director of Marketing & Communications, 253.284.2129, jpisto@museumofglass.org New Museum of Glass Exhibition Features Recent Works Created in the Hot Shop Fertile Ground: Recent Masterworks from the Visiting Artist Residency Program Organized by Museum of Glass October 9, 2010 - October 16, 2011 Tacoma, Wash. (September 27, 2010)- The Museum of Glass introduces a new exhibition featuring an eclectic body of innovative work created by Visiting Artists in the Museum's Hot Shop. Fertile Ground: Recent Masterworks from the Visiting Artist Residency Program showcases 33 works made in the Hot Shop by artists from around the world with the expert assistance of the Museum's Hot Shop Team. It opens on October 9, 2010 and will remain on view through October 16, 2011. The Museum of Glass Hot Shop serves an incubator for ideas for a multi-generational community of glassblowers. Located in the epicenter of contemporary studio glass, the Museum is evolving as a vital force and steward of the history of the Studio Glass movement. Since 2002, 180 artists from thirteen countries have come to Tacoma to work in the Museum's Hot Shop. This exhibition documents the artistry and craftsmanship, determination and physical stamina, camaraderie and shared commitment of a selection of these artists as they created their masterful works. Artists who participate in the Visiting Artist Residency Program range from emerging to world-renowned, from artists who have never before worked with glass to masters of the medium. "Artists come for five-day residencies with a slate of innovative ideas, such as reinterpreting a current or previous body of work in glass, trying a new process or to developing a new design concept," comments Curator Melissa G. Post. "The spirit of experimentation and shared understanding that develops between the artists and the Museum's resident team manifests in some extraordinary masterworks." Fertile Ground is organized around four major themes: imagination, perception, navigation and inspiration. Post selected the objects that comprise these groupings in an effort to present traditional themes in a new light. "I am hopeful that our visitors will experience new ways of looking at and thinking about glass," states Post. "The objects and imagery contained in the exhibition convey how truly extraordinary our Hot Shop program is." Imagination includes works that depict enchanted worlds, from Richard Meitner's Sorcerer's Apprentice I (2010) which pays homage to the popular children's story of the same name, to the whimsical character Burracio (2010), a member of the fictional Mochichi tribe envisioned by artists Kéké Cribbs and Ross Richmond of ROSSKIKI. Perception demands visual scrutiny by viewers and delves into subthemes of meditation and illumination. Benjamin Cobb's abstract Visceral Stomach (2010) begs the question of how internal organs can inspired something so refined, while John Kiley's Push (2010) elegantly illustrates how glass serves as a lens that can magnify the viewer's vision. Pavel Mrkus's Hotshop Resampled (2010) presents the Hot Shop experience in sound and video. In Navigation, Post poses the question of how we navigate in contemporary society. Some of the works represented in this theme include Silver Loaf (2010), Alex Stisser's sculpture of a vintage Airstream trailer; Patrick Martin's Untitled (2010), a pair of politically-charged glass flip-flops imprinted with imagery of former President George Bush; and Marvin Lipofsky's Tacoma Series 2001-9 #1 (Berkeley to Tacoma I-5) (2007-09). Inspiration looks at both neo-nostalgic subjects, including Gabe Feenan's imaginative red and white striped goblet, Ode to the Colonel (2010), and themes that have endured through the ages, such as Lynda Benglis' Benglis' Tribal Chief (2010) and Marcus Amerman's and Preston Singletary's Goes to War (2010), glass masks that celebrate the human visage. All of the works included in Fertile Ground are relatively new, created between 2007 and 2010, and most of the 33 objects will be displayed to the public for the first time in this exhibition. Accompanying the glass sculptures are 21 large-scale photo murals of the artists at work in the Hot Shop as well as video interviews with many of the featured artists. The Museum of Glass provides a dynamic learning environment to appreciate the medium of glass through creative experiences, collections and exhibitions. In addition to the Hot Shop Amphitheater where visitors can watch artists work, the facilities include galleries, outdoor exhibition areas, a theater, hands-on art studio, grand hall, café and store. The Museum of Glass is sponsored in part by ArtsFund, the Boeing Company, the City of Tacoma Arts Commission, Dimmer Family Foundation, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, the Sequoia Foundation, the Forest Foundation, the Ben B. Cheney Foundation and Puget Sound Energy Hours and Admission Open Wednesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Third Thursdays 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sunday 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Store is also open Tuesdays 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Summer hours (Memorial Day through Labor Day): also open Monday and Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Closed September 11, 2010, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free for members, $12 general, $10 seniors, military and students (13+ with ID), $10 groups of 10 or more, $5 children (6-12) years old. Children under 6 are admitted free. Admission is free every third Thursday of the month from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Info Line 253-284-4750/ 1-866-4MUSEUM Museum of Glass, 1801 Dock Street Tacoma, WA 98402 www.museumofglass.org <http://www.museumofglass.org/> For more information about the Museum of Glass: Susan Newsom, Communications Manager, 253.284.4732, snewsom@museumofglass.org <mailto:jpisto@museumofglass.org> Julie Pisto, Director of Marketing & Communications, 253.284.2129, jpisto@museumofglass.org ###