[Editors note: Today's fact relates to English cameo glass -- a topic that was covered a little over two weeks ago on GlassFacts.Info. I normally would not select this topic since a similar one was covered so recently. I just returned from the MSC Forsyth Center Galleries, though, and I'm too excited by what I saw not to share it with you right away. - Paul]
MSC Forsyth Center Galleries at Texas A&M University is a surprising find...especially when you consider that the College Station university doesn't even have an art program according to the website's department listing. Not where you'd expect to find a collection of English cameo glass second in the world only to the one held by Corning.
The collection was given to the university by Bill & Irma Runyon in 1986. Bill Runyon, a 1935 A&M alumnus, continued to add to the collection.
The exhibit focuses on the work of George Woodall, arguably the greatest cameo glass carver. And while the number of pieces in the collection is impressive, it is the quality of the pieces that is staggering. The Origin of Painting, Floralia, The Favourite -- each individually a staggering work of glass art -- are all there in this unpretentious gallery that shares the first floor of the student center with a college book store and a breakfast burrito serving cafeteria.
There's artwork -- both glass and other media - by other artists, including Paul Stankard, paintings by Frederick Remington and more. But the heart of the collection are the breath-taking Woodall cameos.
