Novel way to get glass into Hirshhorn

A few years ago, when I was trying to convince the Hirshhorn to accept a donation of some of the very early glass sculptures by a DC artist, a curator there (since then long gone) informed me that the "Hirshhorn does not collect glass."

That's a silly statement of course, like saying that the Hirshhorn does not collect granite or bronze or chocolate or mud (all of which are substrates of artwork in the Hirshhorn's collection). In other words, the substrate of the artwork shouldn't matter, right? What she really meant to say was that in her mind, all that she could visualize for glass was vessels and containers and Chihuly-like organic forms: craft

A bomb squad was called in Monday night after a UPS delivery truck crashed into the side of the Hirshhorn Museum, but no explosives were found.

Officials said the truck was heading eastbound on Independence Avenue just before 9 p.m. when it swerved into oncoming traffic. The truck narrowly missed a car, jumped the curb, hit a light pole and a concrete flower pot barricade before slamming into the glass exterior wall of the museum's lobby, located at 7th and Independence SW.

Smithsonian spokeswoman Linda St. Thomas said the truck came about a foot into the circular-shaped building and shattered a large glass window.

Read the whole story here. My dad used to work for UPS; let's all hope the driver is OK if he had a medical issue or something that caused this accident.


Update: Mike Licht has the real scoop here.