Claire Falkenstein, Blue in Extension, 1971. Glass and copper, 110 1/2 × 197 1/4 × 2 in. (280.7 × 501.0 × 5.1 cm). University at Buffalo Art Galleries. Gift of the David K. Anderson Family, 2000

Tough Stuff: Women in the American Glass Studio is the first survey exhibition of work by exceptional women artists working in glass in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s—the breakthrough decades of the American Studio Glass Movement.

American art in the 1960s was fueled by a climate of material and conceptual experimentation. During this decade, glass became a focus point for many artists in America, commonly ceramicists, who wanted to learn the limits and possibilities of glass within their own studios, rather than the limitations of glass being designed and fabricated in a factory setting. This shift in conception and practice fundamentally changed the American perception of glass as an artistic medium, giving rise to what we now recognize as the Studio Glass Movement.

Tough Stuff champions the lives and critical early work of female artists, bringing into view their formal and material breakthroughs, historical impact, and profound conceptual frameworks in glass as an artistic medium. Visitors will discover how work from this period by female artists illuminates the broader social, cultural, and gender politics of the time.

Tough Stuff: Women in the American Glass Studio is organized by the Corning Museum of Glass and curated by Tami Landis, Curator of Postwar and Contemporary Glass, and Rïse Peacock, Curatorial Fellow of Postwar and Contemporary Glass.

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