Bonds...Glass Bonds

February 2–May 13, 2023 

The Binghamton University Art Museum will present the exhibition Bonds…Glass Bonds as the main gallery exhibition for Spring Semester 2023. This exhibition, curated by Dr. Marvin Bolt (Curator Emeritus at the Corning Museum of Glass and Research Fellow at Technische Universität Berlin), Dr. Gökhan Ersan (Associate Professor, Art and Design), and Dr. Pamela Smart (Associate Professor, Art History and Anthropology), emerges from their collaborations in Dr. Ersan’s advanced graphic design course and from the  collaborative interdisciplinary Materials Matter initiative. Bonds…Glass Bonds will present an array of objects manifesting the atomic bonds that constitute glass and the social bonds that glass enables. Throughout the exhibition space, assemblages of objects will explore the art and science of glass, exemplifying the chemical bonds out of which glass is formed, and the social bonds within which it is enmeshed. 

The exhibition will feature approximately 70 objects, a video component, and text and graphic panels for each group of objects. Visitors will encounter the composition, structure, and properties of natural and artificial glasses, view some glass production techniques, and actively engage with the diverse ways in which glass objects can be used to create social bonds. Throughout the exhibition, visitors will be encouraged to reflect on the role of glass in culture, past and present.

The exhibition is free and open to the public.

Generous support provided by IBM Endicott; a Humanities Connections grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities; and invaluable assistance from the staff at the Corning Museum of Glass. Additional support from the Material and Visual Worlds Transdisciplinary Area of Excellence and contributors to the Binghamton Fund for the Museum.

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^{David Wiseman (American, born 1981) with Artel, Prague, Czech Republic, "Glacier" vase, designed in 2006; made in 2012, glass. Collection of the Corning Museum of Glass (2012.3.20)}