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CORNING’S CONNECTION TO GLASS IS CRYSTAL CLEAR

Why hold a festival celebrating glass in a small, rural upstate New York city with fewer than 11,000 residents?

Because the city of Corning has for the past 142 years produced startling innovations in the use of glass and glass-ceramic materials for both artistic and industrial purposes.

A partial list of Corning’s glass milestones includes:

• Arrival in 1868 of the Brooklyn Flint Glass Works, later Corning Glass Works and now Corning Incorporated.
• Corning Glass Works’ production in 1879 of the first glass bulb for Thomas Edison’s incandescent electric light.
• Opening in 1903 of Steuben Glass Works, where Englishman Frederick Carder designed and produced exquisite colored art glass that rivaled that of Tiffany and is still coveted by collectors around the world.
• Opening in 1951 of The Corning Museum of Glass.
• Development of some of the best-known brands of consumer glassware in the world, including Pyrex, Corning Ware and Corelle dinnerware.
• Corning Incorporated’s design and production of windows for all U.S. manned space projects and the International Space Station.
• Development in 1970 of blazing-fast optical fiber, which revolutionized global    communications networks and helped build the Internet.
• Creation in the 1970s of cellular-ceramic devices,  used in catalytic converters of cars and trucks worldwide has cut air pollution dramatically.
• Production of flat-panel glass that is used in more than half the flat-screen televisions in the world.
• Design and production of mirror blanks for some of the world’s largest telescopes, including the Hubble Space Telescope.

Wherever you turn in Corning’s Gaffer District, you will find glass --- from $5 suncatchers to a $5,000 sculptures and nearly priceless antique Carder Steuben to cutting edge glass innovations.

Today, Corning Incorporated is a global corporation with more than $5 billion in annual revenues and 24,000 employees and Steuben Glass produces an elegant line of clear crystal art glass and tableware. The city boasts two hot-glass studios where visitors can try their hand at glassmaking, as well as two commercial studios that turn out contemporary art glass.  The world’s most comprehensive collection of glass, covering 3,500 years, is on display daily at The Corning Museum of Glass. Corning’s major glass retailers are in the Gaffer District, which is named for the title given to a master glassblower. There are also antique shops with glass in their product mix.

Why hold a GlassFest in Corning? It’s crystal clear that the history and the heritage of Corning make it a perfect fit for the event.

article by Larry Wilson