Event: Women in Glassmaking History - March 7, 2025

On Friday March 7th the Sandwich Glass Museum hosted a "Women's History Month" event we called "Women In Glassmaking History". Yukimi Matsumoto, glass artist extraordinaire, was the special guest speaker and artist , and Olivia Padula, the Museum's Curator of Collections, gave the keynote address, offering a fascinating insight into the evolution over the past 200 years of women's roles in glassmaking. 

The evening started with nibbles and Prosecco in the galleries, with time to browse the Museum Gift Shop, which of course featured works by the McDermott Glass Studio run by Yukimi and her husband David.

Our beloved Executive Director Mary Childs then took the podium to introduce the event and the first guest speaker.

Olivia's lecture on the role of women in the Boston & Sandwich Glass Company was full of insight, humor and charm.  Then Yukimi shared her story, which has also been recorded by Sandwich Community Television in their production "Glass Works: Yukimi Matsumoto – A Journey in Glassblowing".

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The event was well attended with only a handful of seats remaining unfilled.

Olivia has put together a display case featuring some of Yukimi’s work and items painted by women decorators at the glass factory. Included in this display is a wonderful painting on loan to the museum by Mr. Irving Freeman. Mr. Freeman’s grandmother was Annie M. Nye Freeman, a talent decorator that worked at the factory from 1880 until 1885. This painting was given to Annie by the head of the decorating department, Mr. Edward Swann, and has been in the family’s collection since 1884. 

Then it was time for the live demo of glass blowing. Yukimi did a wonderful job of explaining the process...

...and was clearly enjoying herself, which is always delightful to watch.

Every time the heat shield was pulled away the audience could feel the heat of the furnace on their faces!

The piece Yukimi was making was so complex it required an assistant, Peter, the Museum's weekday demo artist.

 

Who knew glassmaking was this much fun?!

And then it was time for questions.

Thank you, Yukimi and Olivia, and thank you to our loyal supporters who came to enjoy this very educational and engaging evening.

Watch the video!