William Gudenrath discusses the history of The Corning Museum of Glass and his role as the Head and Resident Advisor of the Studio. Oral history interview with William (Bill) Gudenrath, March 22, 2018, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 02:02.

William Gudenrath: Well, The Corning Museum of Glass opened in 1951, and it was started back then called Corning Glass Works, now it’s called Corning Incorporated, a Fortune 500 company. It was open to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the company. And it was a gift to the nation, it was a collection both of glass and of books. It was from the very beginning a library as well as the museum, and so that opened in ‘51. I first visited there in 1965; I was 14, I lived in Houston and I had fallen madly in love with glass at 11, age 11. 1962 happens to be the birth of the studio glass movement here, and I made a pilgrimage to Corning to see the museum and above all to look in the library for a book that I wanted. Anyway, so my connection with the museum goes way back to 1965. And skipping way ahead, I’ve become a studio glass artist. I get immersed in that world and I also fall madly in love with glass history and so become a bit of a glass historian. And I did some research and publishing with the then-director of The Corning Museum of Glass, guy named David Whitehouse. And in about ‘94 he asked my wife and me to do a feasibility study to consider building a school in connection with the museum. We did that, and got the go-ahead from the board of directors with the proviso that Amy and I build the thing and run it, program it and run it. So we moved there in the fall of ‘95 and we’ve been there ever since. So the museum—the studio of The Corning Museum of Glass—it’s a department just like the library or the conservation or the collections, whatever. Anyway, the studio of The Corning Museum of Glass opened in May of ‘96. So we just finished our 21st summer of activity.