Photo caption: Wesley Hunting with Hunting Studio Glass, Riley Seib, the Museum’s Glass Studio and Program Manager, and Taylor Moeller-Roy, the Museum’s Glass Studio Manager. 

By Amy Moorefield, Executive Director, Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass 

Ranked in the top five glass museums in the country, Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass in Neenah provides extraordinary glass experiences to spark fun, kindle creativity, and illuminate learning for all. Established in 1959, it has been an exclusively glass art museum since 2012 and is admission free for all. Each year, the Museum offers over 162 glass classes, provides 1,400 community glass outreach activities, and serves 1,500 community members as part of our in-house enrichment activities. Each of those activities involves firing glass in our kilns. 

Glass pieces in one of the new kilns

This spring, we announced the retirement of our two well-loved kilns and shared an urgent need to replace them. Our classes and outreach – offered across all age ranges and abilities – have been in high demand, often above capacity, with waitlists. 

The purchase of two new kilns through our “Help Us Grow!” campaign was crucial to the Museum’s mission. We’re thrilled to share that the community responded enthusiastically to our invitation! We are so grateful to the Community Vision Fund, Helen Hardt Family Fund, and Raymond and Betty Smith Charitable Fund II within the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region for allowing is to use their support as a match to encourage others to donate to our Help Us Grow campaign. With the Community Foundation’s match as encouragement, Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass raised $53,000 (over a goal of $50,000) through 108 grants and individual donations.  

Thanks to our generous supporters, our Glass Studio now has two newly delivered, custom-made kilns created by renowned Wisconsin glass artists Wes and Wesley Hunting of Hunting Studio Glass in Princeton, Wisconsin, who also generously donated significant time and labor to the project. 

Ribbon Cutting for the new kilns, September 24, 2024

The invitation to support the purchase of two new kilns through our “Help Us Grow” campaign was mission critical. Everyone at the Museum is so grateful to the community-you’ve made it possible! Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass will have a bright future with new kilns to provide extraordinary glass experiences.