Corning Museum of Glass, New York, United States

5Stephen N 5:00 PM Sep 5, 2020

Small town, big time museum
The Corning Museum of Glass was the first museum we've visited since Coronavirus started and it was a good one. We bought our CMOG/Rockwell Museum combo ticket online with optional glass product making. The tickets are timed so we got there 15 minutes prior and got our tickets at the desk. Everyone is thermal scanned for temperature before going in so you can feel safe. The museum is large and devotes itself to all things glass. You see artwork made of glass. You see the history of glassmaking from ancient times to now. You see the usage and inventions in glass that make modern day technology possible. There are also numerous glassmaking workshops where you can watch experts make glass products. We also bought the glassmaking class - my girlfriend had a great time making her own little glass tray. I made a nightlight. You don't really make a glass product, more like you design it by gluing glass together. They will bake it and put everything in place and you pick it up the next day. We still haven't picked our pieces up so can't quite comment on how it came out. It would be a great activity for those with kids though. The museum gift shop was well stocked too. Yes, there were plenty of items made in China but many local things, as well. We picked up glass coasters with etchings of Mr. Rogers, Elton John, Dr. MLK Jr., David Bowie and Frida Kahlo. All in all, we spent about 5 hours here and it was a great museum. Would definitely recommend a daytrip to corning jus th for this.

5David R 5:00 PM Jan 1, 2022

A two-day tour
My spouse and I toured the museum, for the first time in at least 20 years. Advanced tickets are required, but they offer a variety of discounts for seniors, AAA members, etc. The tickets also allow for visits on two consecutive days. This proved to be very valuable, as we couldn't tour the place in one day. They say to allow 3-4 hours, but our concentration started to fade after a couple hours, so we came back the next morning to finish the tour. They have a number of temporary exhibits, including a display of items from the reality show "Blown Away" and a historical display of 35 centuries of glass. There's one section where they show a more modern and US-based history of glass, and I remember that exhibit from my previous visit 20 years or so before. They also offer demonstrations of glassblowing several times a day. And they have an ample gift shop. It took an afternoon plus the following morning to see everything, and it was well worth the investment of time.