Contemporary Glass at the FIA  

Opens 4.21.18  

Contemporary Craft Wing

Contemporary glass in the FIA’s collection has marked important moments in our 90-year history. In 1958, Edmund Lewandowski was hired to create two glass mosaic murals for the new DeWaters Art Center on Kearsley Street in the Flint Cultural Center. In 2009, shortly after the renovation and expansion of the museum in 2006, the Flint Institute of Arts Persian Chandelier by renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly was commissioned by Claire and William S. White, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, and the Isabel Foundation, for the new Lobby. Over the years, additional purchases and gifts also enhanced the collection. The Isabel Foundation’s loan of 142 works of contemporary glass, however, marks a significant milestone in contemporary glass at the FIA, and we celebrate the opening of an entire wing to showcase highlights of this collection.

The new wing features 127 works from the Sherwin and Shirley Glass Glass Collection, which includes masterworks by 88 artists, representing 16 countries around the world, from the late 20th through the early 21st century. Amassed during a 10-year period by Atlanta-based collectors Sherwin and Shirley Glass, this contemporary glass collection represents the greatest achievements by a large and diverse group of significant national and international artists, including Lino Tagliapietra, Howard Ben Tré, Stanislav Libensky and Jaroslava Brychtova, William Morris, and Karen LaMonte. Additionally, works by artists Dale Chihuly, Dante Marioni, and Kari Russell-Pool, from the FIA’s permanent collection, will also be on view.

Don’t miss the unveiling of Bertil Vallien’s epic glass installation Passage. Created in 2016, this glass is a tour de force, the most expensive and mysterious sculpture ever created at the centuries-old Swedish glass manufactory Kosta Boda. Passage will be on view in the Fleckenstein Gallery.

The Glass Glass Collection is on long-term loan to the FIA from the Isabel Foundation.