How has Chihuly’s work influenced contemporary art and the studio glass movement?

How has Chihuly’s work influenced contemporary art and the studio glass movement?

As a result of its use in everyday objects, glass has long been associated with crafts. However, Chihuly’s long career of experimentation with the material, ambitious scale of installation artwork, and work in the collections of institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Corning Museum of Glass—as well as exhibitions at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston—have taken glass outside the realm of the functional and broken ground for a rich array of explorations in fine art.

Chihuly’s work as an artist and as an educator at influential institutions like Rhode Island School of Design and the Pilchuck Glass School he co-founded, have paved the way for numerous important contemporary artists to explore not only glass, but grand-scale and environmental installations, unrestrained use of color, and experimental forms.