At the Symposium last week our keynote speaker was Marie McKee, President of Steuben Glass and CMoG, as well as a Senior Vice President of Corning, Inc. Marie arranged for us to enjoy the facilities of The Knoll for Friday’s dinner and Corning, Inc. headquarters for Saturday’s closing banquet and auction. These events and the auditorium facilities of CMoG provided the icing on the cake for a magical Symposium that will long
be remembered. One of our members and attendees asked for a copy of Marie’s speech on the
extraordinary things Steuben is currently doing. Marie was kind enough to make this available to us. However, in this world of computers it is never easy. First, we find out that to include the images makes the file too large to send over the internet. So, she is sending the file by snail mail to our webmaster and hopefully in about a week we’ll post this with pictures on our website. The speech without images follows.
Then I found for some technical reason it doesn’t quite fit on this e-mail. So, while it follows I’ve also included it as a Word image that you can open if you can’t read it here. For those not in attendance I think you’ll enjoy her talk as we at the Symposium did.

MARIE MCKEE, SPEECH FOR CARDER COLLECTORS, SEPTEMBER 2006
Hello
My name is Marie McKee and I am President and CEO of Steuben Glass, an
appointment I was privileged to receive in 1998 after having been at Corning
Incorporated for 20 years.
It is a pleasure for me to be here this afternoon. I’ve been looking forward to our
time together.
This afternoon I am going to tell you about – and show you with images – some of
the extraordinary things that we are doing and making now at Steuben, as we
proceed with our effort to bring the company’s traditional glamour, artistry, and,
innovation together with contemporary approaches to the business of making
design.
When I came to Steuben Glass, I quickly understood that there are three constants
in our very specialized company and the work we do there. These three constants
are our principles. I’ll sum them up for you:
First, we work solely in an ancient medium of glass. Glass that is elevated to the
level of perfection through science and continuous innovation.
.
Second, the techniques we use to make glass objects at Steuben are centuries
old. Yes, we have added 20th and even 21st century improvements to our factory
here in Corning.
But we believe the most cherished objects will always be made in this way – one
at a time, with sincerity and love, by a pair of hands.
And third, the question of whose hands make the pieces is an essential part of our
equation. One of the great constants of Steuben is that for over 100 years,
beginning with Frederick Carder, the company has benefitted from alliances
between some of the world’s finest artists and designers, and their counterparts in
glassmaking. So occupying the pinnacle of artistic talent is one of our principles,
too.
While executing it every day and every week of each year presents us with
significant challenges, this three-part formula is elegantly clear and compelling:
Beauty wrought from this wonderful material. Ancient tradition, and the combined
talents of artist and artisans. This is Steuben today, still. It is our formula.
A few moments ago I used the word principles very deliberately. No company can
thrive without embracing a set of core values – its principles. And at Steuben, our
principles are surprisingly unchanged from those of 100 years ago and the
founding of the company. Those principles are our standards, and we are now
applying them to every single aspect of Steuben Glass.
By the end of the 1990s, Steuben’s image was, frankly, not totally crystal clear. It
was obvious we needed to re-evaluate our position, affirm our principles, and
propel ourselves forward. Many of those who are now my colleagues were already
beginning to think about the upcoming 100th Anniversary of Steuben Glass in
2003. They identified it as an opportunity to address this problem, a critical
moment for self-reflection and affirming principles. And they turned out to be
right.
The Steuben Glass 100th anniversary was a transforming moment for the
company. I am proud to report that the programs we conceived to celebrate the
milestone did set us on a path of expanded creativity and began a kind of Steuben
renaissance. I’m going to show you some evidence of that evolution today.
Now for the fun part. Pictures! Thanks to the Carder group. All of the Carder
images can be viewed at the Carder/Steuben Club website.
First and foremost, the 100th Anniversary was marked by a major museum
exhibition. With great flair, it explored a previous juncture in the company’s
history: the moment in the early 1930s when Carder gave way to CLEAR. [1]
Gazelle bowl
Now, for some, this has always been seen as a controversial moment in Steuben’s
history. The organizer of the exhibition was Donald Albrecht, who is an acclaimed
curator and author credited with some of the most significant landmark museum
exhibitions on American design and architecture ever mounted. Through his eyes
we came to see the CLEAR era of Steuben not as a radical break [24] Carder Fruit
but as a dramatic and exciting extension of the company’s direction. [2] Apple
We learned that in spite of the exclusive embrace of the then-radical new material
of colorless optical crystal (Corning’s famous 10M), Steuben actually carried
forward into its CLEAR era [4] Cane Twist Finial Jar the existing core values that
Carder had established for the company.
SLIDE Glass and Glamour: Steuben’s Modern Moment, 1930
to 1960 was the title of the exhibition. It was presented at the
Museum of the City of New York, where literally thousands of
people from the City and around the country came to view it.
It presented our past in a fresh way that captivated the imaginations of various
people. Not only did our longtime fans enjoy the exhibition, but also designers and
artists flocked to it. In fact, we learned from the Museum that the Tiffany design
team in Manhattan made a private appointment to come en masse to see the
exhibition on a day when the place was closed to the public. As you can imagine,
this tickled us.
Glass and Glamour was the first exhibition ever organized to
explore a remarkable chapter in the history of Steuben Glass
and, perhaps more importantly, to reveal that chapter as one
of great potency in the history of the Modern movement in the
United States.
Glass and Glamour presented about 200 objects, including
more than 170 rare crystal pieces from major American and
European museums and private collections. The chief curator
from the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris – part of the
Louvre – came to New York personally to bring a piece for the
exhibition [17] Matisse Vase created by Henri Matisse for
Steuben in 1940.
CBS Television filmed his visit for inclusion in a segment aired on their program
CBS Sunday Morning about Steuben, its history, the exhibition, and the current
design practices.
[3]Girl w/Apple There were photo’s, drawings, books, and
catalogs from the time of the Great Depression and World War
II, in the exhibition, as well as from the late 1940s, 1950s, and
1960s.
Glass and Glamour showed how Steuben was the first to
embrace and promote Modernist design, dazzling the
American public with it. The company had a futuristic pavilion
at the 1939 World’s Fair – our Museum exhibition included
both photos of that pavilion and works in glass introduced
there, [13]olive dish
like the famous Olive Dish that continues to be a best-selling design today.
Steuben conducted business in two important [10] 1934 Steuben Shop NYC
modernist buildings commissioned by its parent company Corning for Fifth
Avenue, including Wallace Harrison’s sleek 1959 Corning Glass Building, [11]1959
Corning Glass Bldg-NYC
which was then Manhattan’s tallest glass-clad skyscraper.
And the exhibition proved the hypothesis that Steuben created art from new
technology by opening with perfect expressions. [5]1932 Carder Bowl
Shown here is a neo-traditional centerpiece crafted by Carder in an early formula of
the new optic glass. [18]1932 Lens Bowls And a set of now-legendary Lens
Bowls conceived by renowned industrial designer Walter Dorwin Teague,
using that same material but cast in molds for large optic lenses. Science – the art
of innovation [20]1954 Jacob Epstein’s Orchids – became decorative arts.
[21] 1954-British Artists in Crystal Over the three decades
covered by Glass and Glamour, Steuben mounted sensationcausing
exhibitions of works in crystal by leading
contemporary artists of the day [15]Salvador Dali
painters and sculptors whose names were somewhat obscure at the time but are
now as familiar as our own: Henri Matisse, Salvador Dali, [16]1940-John Gates &
Georgia O’Keefe
Georgia O’Keeffe, Grant Wood. Matisse himself proposed the 1940 series “Twentyseven
Artists in Crystal” [14] The Cat which included this plate designed by Isamu
Noguchi
[8]1942 Cocktai Shaker One of the great revelations of Glass
and Glamour was its deliberate emphasis on the more
commonplace but no less glamorous functional objects that
the curatorial team assembled. [19]1955-Martini Pitcher
Pitchers, vases and urns, punchbowls, candlesticks, drinking glasses, smoking
accessories, martini sets, centerpieces, cruets and jam jars, serving dishes and
other signifiers of good living were conceived by Steuben’s design staff between
the years of 1930 and 1960. [7]Cigarette Box
These beautiful artifacts illustrated how Steuben designers ultimately created a
signature style characterized by weight and volume. They adhered to the same
architectural principles of balance, proportion, profile, and scale that characterized
Manhattan’s Modern buildings of the era. Consistent with the Modernist ethos of
“truth to materials,” many clear Steuben Glass objects took on the naturally
curvaceous shapes formed by hot, molten glass.
[6]1947-Bowl on Pedestal Base
They were organic. They curved and moved as the molten material itself did. And
today, that organic quality remains a key element in the Steuben aesthetic.
So, how did this important museum show influence Steuben and the company’s
current direction?
Well, first of all, the centenary exhibition helped us to reignite our own passion for
the company, its mission, and its principles. Glass and Glamour threw into high
relief the twin pillars of innovation and artistry, and reminded (12)Cascade Wall us
that these are alive and well, and there for us to further exploit in a contemporary
way.
The exhibition also allowed us to reconsider something we had put aside for a
long time: functional everyday objects. Glass and Glamour celebrated the artistry
and innovation of tableware, barware, and pieces of a type that Steuben had really
allowed to drift away as a priority since the late 1970s, even though the company’s
first 70 years reveled in such objects.
[29]Stemware & Barware Also as part of our 100th
Anniversary, we launched an extensive selection of new
stemware, barware and drinking accessories.
We used this project to more actively involve prominent outside artists and
designers – a tradition that obviously belongs to Steuben and that the Glass and
Glamour show emphasized.
The designers (25)Dante Marioni (headshot) included the
internationally celebrated glass artist Dante Marioni, who is
based in Seattle, Washington.
(26)Martini/Champagne Marioni’s work is avidly collected
nationally and internationally (27)Counterpoint Stemware For
Steuben, Dante brought the wit and unusual proportions of
his work to pieces that are now among our most popular.
(28)Dante Marioni @ Factory
We were also fortunate to work on the tableware project with
a senior statesman [30]Gerald Gulotta of the industrial designas-
art realm, a man named Gerald Gulotta who is a member of
the faculty at Pratt Institute .
[31]Teardrop Decanter This tableware collection has been so
successful that it continues to expand with new items every
season.
We are very proud of the things Steuben achieved in its centenary year, and now
see how the celebration galvanized us in our dedication to the mission of art and
innovation in our second century.
(Innerland, 17” engraved square) The next step for Steuben
was to make a further, deeper commitment to innovative
design that could both test AND reinforce our guiding
principles and our technology, expand our product
categories, and exploit the remarkable material that separates
Steuben from all other glass companies in the world.
We have begun working with some outstanding, high profile designers and artists
who have reveled in our traditions, our techniques and our values. I want to show
you some of the works that we have created with these artists in the last couple
years, and tell you a bit about them and about others who figure in our future.
In 2004, we debuted an extraordinary, extensive collection of designs in crystal by
Ted Muehling.
[43]Ted Muehling Ted is an award winning and muchhonored
jeweler, sculptor and industrial designer.
Ted has worked over the years in precious metals, stone, porcelain and wood.
Steuben is his first experience with crystal.
He applied intuition and sensitivity to the attributes and the
challenges of glass. [42]Tablecloth/fruit And his interest in
natural forms, abstracted to their essence in new objects,
made him a perfect match. What we especially love in Ted’s
work for Steuben is the way that he brings nature into the
imagery so strongly. We have found that our customers and
collectors really respond to the nature forms.
The core of Ted Muehling’s first Steuben collection is a group
of pieces inspired by [33]Tortoise Shells the tortoise shell, a
form that has fascinated him for many years.
Ted was interested in the techniques that Steuben excels in, both our master glass
blowing and our unrivaled cold work — cutting, finishing. So this group of designs
was a true marriage of his vision and our singular talents.
TIME Magazine ran a full-page image of the Giant Tortoise
Bowl [34]Giant Tortoise Shell in its early 2005 annual Best of
Design issue, proclaiming the piece a new icon of 21st
century design.
[35]Tortoise Barware I am happy to report that the Tortoise
barware is a terrific success for Steuben in both artistic and
commercial terms.
Ted also created for us several other suites of designs
[38]Bamboo vases that relate directly to forms of things
found in nature. He has done monumental vases that take
their shape from stalks of bamboo.
[39]Wave Collection And because the rolling movement of
waves inspired him, Ted designed a group of blown crystal
bowls and vessels for us called the Wave Series. As you can
see, these are pieces that feel completely contemporary but
undeniably consistent with the long-time aesthetic of Steuben
In 2005, we started working with an artist of tremendous
reputation who, coincidentally, is a good friend and colleague
of Ted Muehling’s. [45]Michele Oka Doner Her name is
Michele Oka Doner and some of you might be familiar with
her work.
Michele is interested in and acclaimed for work that derives very directly from
nature. Natural imagery. Natural forms cast in bronze and gold. Huge public
works that are site specific and monumental sculpture.
[48]Radiant Disc Server/dome For Steuben, she created
objects – extraordinarily beautiful objects – that were larger
and perhaps more baroque than what we are generally
comfortable with.
But we in turn brought our unique skill set and our magic to
her vision. And we all convened on the subject of nature.
Michele’s collection was created entirely around the theme of
the ocean – the ocean reef. (46)Salt Crystal Vases
Her collection launched last fall and it is called Reef
Collection. [49]Ocean Reef Bowl Michele’s Ocean Reef Bowl
is a gorgeous limited edition piece that hits the jackpot when
it comes to her formal language and ours. You see her forms,
her scale, and her natural poetry. But you equally see our
unparalleled craftsmanship in the execution,