Museum of Glass Annouces Thanksgiving Weekend Events

Media Contact:
Susan Newsom, Communications Manager
253-284-4732
snewsom@museumofglass.org

TACOMA, Wash.-The Museum of Glass: International Center for Contemporary Art will be open November 25, the Friday after Thanksgiving, to launch a weekend of entertaining and educational festivities for the whole family. Visitors can watch guest artist Scott Benefield blow glass in the Hot Shop and see flame-working demonstrations by James Minson in the Grand Hall. The poetry of Walt Whitman will be read in the West Gallery, which houses Paul Stankard: A Floating World, Forty Years of an American Master in Glass.

Visitors can also watch Physical Music, a contemporary dance performance by world-renowned dance troupe, Lelavision. Alice’s Looking Glass, an original play inspired by the upcoming exhibition Karen LaMonte: Absence Adorned and Lewis Carroll’s classic stories Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, will be performed in the Theater. The holiday weekend also marks the final opportunity for visitors to view Creativity: The Flowering Tornado, Art by Ginny Ruffner.

All events are included with Museum admission unless otherwise noted.

Hot Shop
Hot Shop Guest Artist Scott Benefield
November 25, 26, 27, Museum hours

Glass blowing demonstrations in the Hot Shop
Hot Lunch
Friday, November 25, 11:30 – 1 pm

Enjoy a delicious boxed lunch from the Museum Café with friends and family while watching Scott Benefield create artwork from molten glass in the Hot Shop Amphitheater. Cost per person: $8 for members, $18 for non-members, and $16 with a pre-arranged group of 10 or more. Prices include Museum admission.

Theater
Alice’s Looking Glass
Friday, November 25, 7 pm
Saturday, November 26, 1, 3, 7 pm
Sunday, November 27, 1 & 3 pm

Alice’s Looking Glass is an original one-act play inspired by the vanitas hand mirrors in the upcoming exhibition, Karen LaMonte: Absence Adorned and Lewis Carroll’s classic novels, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. This modern-day play picks up where Carroll’s stories left off. Alice, now a mother of three and the wife of a not-so-successful inventor, has long forgotten the curiosities of her childhood. But on Christmas Eve, she peers into the looking glass once again and rediscovers her old friend, the elusive White Rabbit, the unruly Queen of Hearts and the comical twins, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.

Included in Museum admission. Admission for after hours performances (Friday and Saturday) is $5 per person; Museum of Glass members and children under age 6 are free.

Galleries
Creativity: The Flowering Tornado, Art by Ginny Ruffner
Through November 27, 2005
Organized by the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts
Sponsored by the Gottfried and Mary Fuchs Foundation and the Pierce County Arts and Cultural Services Division

A visual symphony in praise of creativity that incorporates Ruffner’s favorite symbols- flowers, bear traps, hearts, arrows and spirals. A large tornado with wings serves as the exhibitions centerpiece.

William Morris: Myth, Object and the Animal-A Mid-Career Survey Through December 31, 2005
Organized by the Museum of Glass and William Morris Studio
Sponsored by Russell Investment Group
Animals, bones, tusks, masks, vessels, gourds and shards, created from blown glass, whisper the secrets of myth and archaeology.

Paul Stankard: A Floating World, Forty Years of an American Master in Glass
Through January 15, 2006
Organized by the Museum of Arts & Design, New York NY
Sponsored by the Ben B. Cheney Foundation

Entire delicate worlds are enclosed in crystal spheres, most no bigger than a baseball. With awe-inspiring technical skill, the artist creates flowers and insects that rival the perfection and diversity of nature, using fine colored glass rods in a process called lampworking.

Debora Moore: Natural Reflections
Through January 15, 2006
Organized by the Museum of Glass

Exotic studies of orchids, bamboo, moss, leaves and trees formed from hot glass, these botanical sculptures meld a sense of nature with expressive interpretation.

Walt Whitman Poetry Readings in the West Gallery
Friday, November 25, 1-4 pm

Actor Damian Gennette will read a selection of Walt Whitman’s poems which provided inspiration to artist Paul Stankard in the exhibition, Paul Stankard: A Floating World, Forty Years of an American Master in Glass.

Grand Hall
Flame-Working Demonstrations with James Minson
November 26 and 27, 1 - 4 pm

Let these hot demos warm your fall day! Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Paul Stankard: A Floating World, Forty Years of an American Master in Glass.

Lelavision Dance Performance: Physical Music
Friday, November 25, 1 – 4 pm

Physical Music is an original production that integrates physical movement, music and sculpture as agile dancers move in time to live instrumental performances. Lelavision takes performance art to a new level, exploring themes based on myth, nature and spirit. Founded in 1996 by artist and musician, Ela Lamblin, and dancer Leah Mann, Lelavision is a unique human experience that has toured in the United States and Europe.

The Museum of Glass is a fine arts museum dedicated to the presentation of the medium of glass within the context of contemporary art in all media. The Museum presents the richness and diversity of the art of our time and explores how glass draws from and contributes to the many facets of contemporary art. In addition to the Hot Shop Amphitheater where visitors can watch artists work, the facilities include galleries, outdoor exhibition areas, a theater, studio, grand hall, store and café.

The Museum of Glass is sponsored in part by the City of Tacoma Arts Commission, the Washington State Arts Commission and ArtsFund.

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