The Great Glass Pumpkin Patch @ MIT is an annual installation of over 2,000 handblown glass pumpkins, created by artists from the MIT Glass Lab. Proceeds from this event benefit The MIT Glass Lab, where the MIT community can learn and practice the art of glassblowing.

The Great Glass Pumpkin Patch came to MIT in 2001 after a residency in the Glass Lab by 14 members of the Bay Area Glass Institute (BAGI). The Bay Area Glass Institute (a non-profit corporation located in San Jose, CA), was founded in 1995 by San Jose State graduate Bobby Bowes and MIT alumnus Mike Binnard.

Every week or so, beginning, intermediate, and advanced students work together for a few hours in teams of six or seven to produce pumpkins for the sale. Production for the October event continues steadily throughout the year in order to achieve our goal of 2,000+ pumpkins.

Important information about the two simultaneous sales:

The in-person sale

• Accepted forms of payment are cash, check, and credit card. Pumpkins range in price from approximately $40 to several hundred dollars.
• The preview event on Friday night will take place under a tent on Kresge Oval from 5-8PM, and will be held rain or shine. (There are NO SALES at the preview!)
• Information regarding public parking near campus can be found on the MIT Parking website: http://web.mit.edu/facilities/transportation/parking/visitors/public_parking.html
• Saturday morning line-placeholder ticket distribution begins when the lab director arrives (usually around 6 AM) and ends around 9 AM. A maximum of 2 people can use one ticket to hold a place in line. In other words, you can’t use one ticket to hold a place for all of your friends!

The online sale

• How this will work: All pumpkins will have a listed sale price as they do at the regular 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 the ruler that appears in each photograph next to the 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.

Proceeds from the MIT Great Glass Pumpkin Patch cover 100% of the annual operating expenses of the MIT Glass Lab.