Sand, Ash, Heat: Glass at the New Orleans Museum of Art explores how this material has inspired innovation in the arts and science from ancient civilizations to today. Featuring an expansive range of work drawn from NOMA’s exceptional glass collection, the exhibition will connect artworks throughout the museum and Besthoff Sculpture Garden, showcasing the many forms and artistry of glass from Egyptian objects to contemporary sculpture, including a new major acquisition by Fred Wilson and a commission from Sharif Bey. Sand, Ash, Heat highlights the beauty of glass, but also the medium’s potential to capture human interconnection. The exhibition presents a variety of perspectives on how glass embodies a rich historical exchange between technology and the arts, including perspectives of a working glass artist, a laboratory scientist, a member of New Orleans’ tradition of Black Masking Indians, a foodways historian, and a sculpture conservator, in addition to museum curators.

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue published with Scala Arts Publishers, Inc. Glass: Sand, Ash, Heat was edited by NOMA’s RosaMary Curator of Decorative Arts & Design Mel Buchanan, with contributions by Dow M. Edwards, Amanda M. Maples, Christopher Maxwell, Laura Ochoa Rincon, Zella Palmer, Brian Piper, Alex Sanchez, Ingrid Seyb, and an interview with Gene Koss.