Reminder: All sales are first-come, first-served; pumpkins will become unavailable when a payment transaction for that pumpkin has been completed.

Welcome to the online MIT Great Glass Pumpkin Patch!

  • Welcome to the Online MIT Great Glass Pumpkin Patch

Welcome to the Online MIT Great Glass Pumpkin Patch

When you buy a glass pumpkin from the MIT Glass Lab, you are helping to support a unique program at MIT that is very much a part of the “mind and hand” tradition central to MIT’s ethos. 

Nearly 100% of the annual operating budget for the Glass Lab comes from revenue from the MIT Great Glass Pumpkin Patch.

Our community of around 20 instructors consists of a diverse group of current students, alumni, and professional glass artists ranging in experience from 3 months to 30 years. When making pumpkins, we work in ever-changing teams of 2-6 people. A result of this great diversity is that every pumpkin we make is different – no two are exactly alike!

Thanks for your support of this special resource.

This year’s fundraising event will take place both in-person and online.

In-person event details

Kresge Oval, MIT Campus
Opening Preview: Friday, September 22, 5 - 8 PM (no sales).
Sale: Saturday, September 23, 10 AM - 3 PM.

Online sale

Pumpkins will be available for purchase Saturday, September 23, 10:00 AM - 11:59 PM (ET).

When will pumpkins be available online?

Saturday, September 23rd: 10 AM - 3 PM

At 10 AM several hundred pumpkins will appear in the catalog on the top of this page.  Prior to that we will be posting select images of this year’s pumpkins at:

https://www.instagram.com/mitglasslab/

In the meantime please familiarize yourself with this site and enjoy pictures from previous Great Glass Pumpkin Patches.

How this will work?

All pumpkins will have a listed sale price as they do at the in-person sale on Kresge Oval. This is not an auction.  All of the pumpkins are one-of-a-kind, so there is only one of each item. The size of each pumpkin can be approximated by comparison with a ruler that appears in each photograph next to each pumpkin. All of the pumpkins will be released for sale at the same time, at the start of the sale. All sales are first-come, first-served; pumpkins will become unavailable when a payment transaction for that pumpkin has been completed.

Shipping: All pumpkins will be shipped via FedEx Ground from MIT. The cost of shipping will be added to the sale price of the pumpkin(s) you buy. Due to the complexity and expense of overseas shipping, we regret that we must limit shipping to the Continental United States.

Please keep in mind that we do not have a separate fulfillment team--the people getting your orders out the door are the same folks who make the glass and teach classes, sometimes in addition to other jobs. We will do our best to ship things as quickly as possible, but we ask that you please be patient.

Return policy: Consistent with our live sale policy, there are no returns on pumpkins except in the case of a serious structural defect such as a crack or very sharp surface. Please shop thoughtfully and carefully. In the unfortunate event that your pumpkin should arrive defective or broken, we will replace it free of charge with one as similar in size, color, and shape as possible.

Question: How has the pandemic changed the process of blowing glass at the MIT Glass Lab?

Answer: Team based, hands-on activities at MIT have been seriously challenged by the COVID pandemic. This was certainly true for the MIT Glass Lab where students work in close proximity learning the ancient craft.  Many practices long considered normal, such as sharing blowpipes, were suddenly off-limits.  Upon return to the Glass Lab we immediately developed a new blowing system that allows a fully masked glass blower to use compressed air controlled by a pneumatic foot pedal to stop and start inflation. 

We are a self-funding program. 100% of our annual operating revenue each year comes from the sale of glass pumpkins and from gifts, large and small, made by generous donors.

The MIT Glass Lab is dedicated to offering memorable hands-on experiences for MIT students, faculty and staff, as well as public lectures and events like the MIT Great Glass Pumpkin Patch, that are open to the MIT community and the general public.

Please consider making a donation to help us continue to provide these opportunities. Gifts to the Glass Lab can be made via the MIT Alumni Association at this link:

https://giving.mit.edu/give/to?fundId=3876110

Thank you!