Vases edged in filigree, windows like Japanese shoji screens, vibrant sculpture pods… one wouldn’t expect an exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry to feature galleries flaunting Tiffany lamps, Frank Lloyd Wright windows and a Chihuly Macchia sculpture garden, but “The Glass Experience” does just that. The exhibit celebrates the collaboration between glassblowing and science, a relationship in which the artisans of Venice and Murano jumpstart technological leaps forward in LCD and fiber optics. The scientific specifics are only touched on in favor of a more all-inclusive look at the glass world. The exhibit opens with a dark “Industry & Invention” bunker, which offers a hodgepodge of glass facts: radioactive dishware, microscopes, windshields and witchglobes linked by one common thread—the material from which they’re made. The “Invention” room offers tidbits and the various galleries present pretty things to look at, but what really makes “The Glass Experience” an event worth the trip comes near its end. Pathways gradually wind into larger spaces that culminate in two immense workshops peopled by real, live glass workers. Visitors can watch stained-glass artisans from the Botti Studio restore the Chicago Cultural Center’s fragile, 120-year-old Tiffany Dome. Meanwhile, in-house master gaffers spinout glassblowing demonstrations during the Corning Hot Glass Show. The glassblowing show perfectly encapsulates the aim of “The Glass Experience”—a hypnotic merging of art and science. (Laura Hawbaker)
“The Glass Experience” runs at the Museum of Science and Industry, 57th and Lake Shore Drive, (773)684-1414, through September 1.
On Vacation: One Night in the Voodoo Museum The driving rain banged off the tin shelter. Putting my head back I realized I was alone with a group of strangers, inside the Voodoo Museum.
