Tough Stuff: Women in The American Glass Studio
Highlighting works from the 1960s through today, this survey at the Corning Museum of Glass celebrates the legacies of women artists who helped shape the Studio Glass Movement in the US.
The Corning Museum of Glass (CMoG) opened its new exhibition Tough Stuff: Women in the American Glass Studio on May 16, 2026, as a major initiative of the Museum’s year-long celebration of its 75th anniversary. Tough Stuff is the first survey exhibition of work by women artists working in glass during the breakthrough decades of the American Studio Glass Movement, the 1960s and 1970s. Featured in the exhibition are more than 200 objects by artists such as Claire Falkenstein, Audrey Handler, Margie Jervis, Susie Krasnican, Kathleen Mulcahy, Ginny Ruffner, Ruth Tamura, Toots Zynsky, and many others.
“Tough Stuff emerged out of a desire to open a new door into the multifaceted histories of glass in the United States,” said Tami Landis, Curator of Postwar and Contemporary Glass at CMoG. “The exhibition is grounded in conversations with artists about their experiences and challenges in developing their own studios and signature styles.”
Left: Kathleen Mulcahy installing Drops on a Landscape at Alfred University, Alfred, New York (1973) (courtesy Kathleen Mulcahy); Right: Ruth Tamura glassblowing at the California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, California (1967) (photo from the Marvin Lipofsky Papers, Rakow Research Library, Corning Museum of Glass)
American art of the 1960s was characterized by both material and conceptual innovation. This period of transformation redefined glass as a serious artistic medium and laid the groundwork for what became known as the Studio Glass Movement. While scholarship has often framed this movement around a narrow lineage of male artists, the reality was far broader. Women played a central yet often overlooked role individually and collectively, which Tough Stuff brings into sharper focus. By highlighting works from the 1960s through today, the exhibition explores the history of studio glass through these women artists’ stories, acknowledging their persistence, ingenuity, and influence while expanding the historical narrative to reflect a richer, more inclusive vision.
Visitors will explore never-before-displayed works from CMoG’s permanent collection and the Rakow Research Library, along with notable loans from many of the featured artists. These featured works will showcase both a wide breadth of techniques and illuminate the broader social, cultural, artistic, and gender politics of the time that impacted female artists.
Left: Joan Reep, “Silver Glass Bowl” (1973–74) (courtesy the Corning Museum of Glass, gift of the artist); Right: Audrey Handler, “Small Double Bubble Sculpture” (1969) (courtesy the Corning Museum of Glass, gift of the artist)
Complementing and continuing the work of Tough Stuff into the future, the Museum’s Rakow Research Library’s robust Oral History initiative will make the first-person accounts of many of the still-living artists from this period available to the public. The living archive will feature oral histories, photography, archival ephemera, and more, holding a record of these artists’ voices transmitting their own histories to future generations of glassmakers and glass enthusiasts.
Tough Stuff and its related programming are supported by a generous gift from Rochester-based philanthropist Mary Spurrier.
To learn more, visit whatson.cmog.org.
