Special Exhibitions
May 30 – October 31, 2026
Glass Roots: A Cape Cod Connection
Glass Roots: A Cape Cod Connection brings together contemporary artists whose work reflects beauty, memory, mentorship, and creative energy on the Cape.
The exhibition features Yukimi Matsumoto, David McDermott, Michael Magyar, Don Parkinson, Fritz Lauenstein, Hoyt Hottel, Isabel Green, Will Mayer, Kim Savoie, Jenny Rainey, Peter Waechter, Cole Alexander, and Dale Austin: all members of Cape Cod’s vibrant glass community.
From luminous forms inspired by the natural world to works rooted in personal memory and technical experimentation, Glass Roots celebrates the ongoing story of glassmaking on Cape Cod.
Image: Bog Watchers, Isabel Green, 2026.
November 13, 2026 - May 2, 2027
This is what it looks like: Robert Harmon, Jr. and Experimental Images on Glass
This is what it looks like: Robert Harmon, Jr. and Experimental Images on Glass is the first retrospective of Harmon’s work on glass, offering a closer look at this inventive Cape Cod artist and a distinctive aspect of his creative practice.
Cape Cod native Robert Harmon, Jr. (1961–2014) brought an inventive, adventurous approach to materials throughout a career spanning sculpture, public art, glass, and filmmaking. A graduate of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, he exhibited in Boston galleries and created illuminated works for First Night celebrations. At his Sagamore Art Works Studio, machinery, metal, glass, and works in progress surrounded an artist whose creations combined technical ingenuity with humor and a fascination with nature, spirituality, and mystery.
Among his most distinctive works were experiments with Corning photosensitive glass. Combining photographic imagery and text, Harmon created layered compositions in which figures, landscapes, and words emerge and overlap--the glass becoming an active part of the image, its transparency inviting viewers to look through the work as well as at its surface. These highly personal, often enigmatic pieces reward close looking and leave room for visitors to make their own connections.
Image: Robert Harmon, Jr., Photographic imagery and text on glass and artist-made frame
November 13-December 31, 2026
Moby-Dick at 175: The World of the Whale
When Herman Melville published Moby-Dick in 1851, whales were more than the subject of an extraordinary novel. Whaling was a major New England industry, and whale products illuminated homes, lubricated machinery, shaped clothing, scented perfumes, and were transformed by sailors into intricately decorated keepsakes.
Marking the 175th anniversary of Moby-Dick, this special display draws on the Sandwich Glass Museum and Historical Society collections to explore the material world behind Melville’s story. A nineteenth-century whaling log, scrimshaw, whalebone objects, and a harpoon evoke life at sea, while whale-oil lamps made by the
Boston & Sandwich Glass Company show how the products of the hunt became part of everyday life at home. Less familiar objects, including ambergris used in perfumery, reveal the surprising range of products derived from whales.
Together, these objects offer a glimpse into a world in which the whale was at once a living animal, a source of livelihood, a raw material, and a powerful presence in the American imagination.
Image: Whale oil lantern and lamps, bottle of Sperm Whale oil, whalebone-handled fabric cutter, decorated whalebone stay.
