Summer 2007
“This kind of focused collecting has characterized Carnegie Museum
of Art’s programs over the past decades, as we have acquired important landmarks from all of the museum’s exhibitions.”
- Richard Armstrong


From its earliest days, Pittsburgh has been an industrial center—at some moments its industrial production was almost without peer. Notably, glassmaking has been one of industrialized Pittsburgh’s most important products for the last two centuries. Thus, it is a logical, even venerable, subject for the citywide Pittsburgh Celebrates Glass! events that began in mid-May.

Carnegie Museum of Art presents a large, ground-breaking exhibition, Viva Vetro! Glass Alive! Venice and America, which juxtaposes modern Venetian and American glass. Fortunately for us, dozens of works on view are part of the museum’s growing collection of glass and so will be here to study and enjoy into the future. This kind of focused collecting has characterized Carnegie Museum of Art’s programs over the past decades, as we have acquired important landmarks from all of the museum’s exhibitions. Our preeminent holdings in aluminum, mostly acquired as part of the exhibition Aluminum by Design in 2000, are now complemented by a discerning collection of glass art. Such permanent benefits are welcome.

Equally as welcome are the more temporal benefits of such collaborations as Pittsburgh Celebrates Glass. The extraordinary ensemble of glass by Dale Chihuly with the plants featured at the nearby Phipps Conservatory will draw hundreds of thousands of visitors to Oakland. Similarly, the Pittsburgh Glass Center’s show of contemporary glass and its hosting of the Glass Art Society’s national conference underscores this ancient material’s vitality.

Look for other glass-related shows and events at www.pittsburghcelebrates.org, and make certain to join in this extended festival. You could begin by seeing Viva Vetro! right here at Carnegie Museum of Art.


Richard Armstrong
The Henry J. Heinz II Director
Carnegie Museum of Art
Also in this issue:

Pittsburgh Glass  ·  Time to Play  ·  A New, More Personal Jesus  ·  Mars Comes to Pittsburgh  ·  Special Supplement: Thanks to Our Donors  ·  NewsWorthy  ·  Now Showing  ·  Face Time: Anthony Rothbauer  ·  About Town: Art Imitating Life  ·  Field Trip: On the Road with Douglas Fogle  ·  Science & Nature: Working the Bones  ·  Artistic License: The Traveling Factory  ·  First Person: A Traveler's Diary  ·  Another Look: Sol LeWitt Drawings
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