Frederick Carder was born on September 18, 1863 in Staffordshire, England. He devoted the majority of his 100 years of life to designing original glass creations.  In 1990, 27 years after Mr. Carder’s death, Thomas Dimitroff (President) and Dwight Lanmon (Trustee) of the Friends of Carder, conceived of the idea of holding an annual birthday party to celebrate Carder and all of his accomplishments in Corning. For many years Tom and Peetie Dimitroff continued the dinners at the Corning Country Club.

This year the annual CSGA Symposium coincides with Carder’s birthday, and we are celebrating the tradition by hosting a dinner at the Corning Country Club. The dinner will be on September 18^th, of course, and will feature a talk by Rob Cassetti, a former Steuben glass designer and retired Corning Museum of Glass Director. We will be raising a glass to toast Carder at this dinner on his birthday.

Since the “Friends of Carder” organization became the “Carder Steuben Club” and now the “Carder Steuben Glass Association”, we have toasted Carder at the Symposium Saturday night dinner.  Because we have the opportunity to celebrate on Mr. Carder’s birthday, we’re going to plan something different for the last evening of Symposium.  This year we will be having a “Night in Italy“ dinner banquet on Saturday evening, with several Italian specialties offered in a buffet.  The traditional auction will follow.  Our CMoG hosts are really going over the top to make this a special evening!  I hope you will plan to join us celebrating Frederick Carder at both his birthday dinner and the CSGA Symposium.

Amy Hughes, Assistant Curator at CMoG, will be leading a tour of the Brilliant Color exhibit. We should find this exhibit especially interesting as it features many Frederick Carder pieces.

Between 1880 and 1935 glass designers and manufacturers created brilliant colors inspired by nature, historic designs, and the hues of synthetic dyes. These practitioners revolutionized the possibilities of colored glass through experimentation and endless creativity. Brilliant Color explores the popularization of colored glass, the new techniques and colors produced from experiments, and how consumers incorporated these wares into their homes.

Amy J. Hughes, PhD, is Assistant Curator at the Corning Glass Museum, with a specialization in 19th and 20th -century and contemporary Central European glass, sculpture, photography and visual culture. She was curator of the 2023 CMOG exhibition, Local Color: Secrets of Steuben Glass Works.  Prior to her move to Corning in Fall 2022, Hughes was based in Prague, Czech Republic for seven years while conducting archival research, in situ analysis and artist interviews for her dissertation. Amy has held positions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection and has also taught and lectured extensively on art and glass history classes in the United States, France and the Czech Republic.

The 2025 Carder Steuben Glass Association Symposium and the Frederick Carder Birthday Dinner are now open for registration!

The annual Carder Steuben Glass Association Symposium will take place September 19-20, 2025 at the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York. Plus, the CSGA is hosting The Carder Birthday Dinner, an event which hasn’t been held in several years. This dinner will be held on Thursday, September 18, 2025, at the Corning Country Club. You can register for both of these events on the CSGA website here.

We are still soliciting pieces for this year’s Symposium auction.  Auction items are welcome either as donations, or pieces to be sold on consignment.  Proceeds of the auction support the Carder Steuben Glass Association website and our Steuben glass mission.  The CSGA is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, and you will receive a tax receipt for your donation.

Some ideas that would work well as auction items include Carder Steuben glass, post-Carder Steuben glass, glass of the same era, or glass with relevance to Corning.  Other items like books, New York state wine, or Frederick Carder items also make great auction entries. Please send item descriptions to President@steubenglass.org. If you are attending the Symposium you may bring the items with you, or they may be shipped in advance to Scott Coots.  Thank you so much for your support!