Become a Wizard of Glassmaking this Summer at The Corning Museum of Glass

Corning, NY –Spend a magical day at The Corning Museum of Glass this summer. Running through Labor Day, a unique line-up at the world’s best glass museum invites visitors of all ages to become Wizards of Glassmaking.

Through September 1, 2008, The Corning Museum of Glass offers more glassmaking (and breaking!) shows than ever before, charming Make Your Own Glass projects, new gallery tours, spellbinding family programs, and a groundbreaking alchemy-focused exhibition.

Wizard of Glassmaking activities include:

• More than 50 live glass demonstrations each day. Visitors can see new glassbreaking and flameworking demonstrations, watch live Hot Glass Show glassblowing demonstrations and see glass stretch, bend and change in amazing ways in new Magic of Glass shows.
  
• Guided tours of the Museum’s hands-on Innovations Center, which explores discoveries in glass technology and science. The tour is offered Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 12:00 p.m. and is included in Museum admission. Visitors will meet true Wizards of Glassmaking: scientists who made possible innovations like fiber optics, glass bulbs, Pyrex and even the gigantic 200-inch telescope mirror for the Hale telescope.
  
• Gallery Wizards’ interactive carts. Located throughout the Museum, these staffed, hands-on stations explain the collection, glassmaking techniques and science to all ages.
  
• Special Make Your Own Glass experiences. This summer, projects include glass wizard hat ornaments and crystal magic charms, sandblasted alchemist beakers and gold-ruby flowers. (Fee applies; projects exist for all ages as young as preschool but age restrictions apply to certain objects; advance reservations required.)
  
• Opening June 27, the groundbreaking exhibition “Glass of the Alchemists: Lead Crystal-Gold Ruby, 1650-1750,” which looks at the ways alchemists in the 17th and 18th centuries provided the foundation for modern chemistry and changed the face of glassmaking. 
  
• Enchanted Evenings: The Museum is open until 8:00 p.m. every day, all summer long. A special feature is the Wizard Late Show, which may be our most surprising and magical glassmaking demonstration yet!
  

Families will find a visit to The Corning Museum of Glass affordable, with free admission for all children 17 and under. Adult admission is $12.50 (some discounts apply). Residents who live in the 148, 149 and 169 area codes pay only $5.00 per adult. Admission tickets and Make Your Own Glass experiences may be reserved in advance at https://reservations.cmog.org.

Parking is free and a complimentary shuttle to the Museum, Corning’s Historic Downtown Gaffer District and the nearby Rockwell Museum of Western Art runs all day long.

The Corning Museum of Glass (www.cmog.org) is home to the world’s most comprehensive and celebrated collection of glass, with more than 45,000 objects reflecting 3,500 years of glassmaking history. An independent, non-profit, educational institution, the Museum is dedicated to the art, history, science, research and exhibition of glass. The Museum is open from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. all summer long (9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. the rest of the year). Children 17 and under receive free admission.

###