International Festival of Glass 2024 prize winners
Various prizes were awarded to exhibits at the final International Festival of Glass, held in Stourbridge, West Midlands, UK in summer 2024.
CGS postcards exhibition
Once again, CGS held its popular ‘postcards’ exhibition, with the 2024 theme being ‘Thanks for the Memory’. This theme was inspired by the fact that this year’s IFOG was the last to be held in Stourbridge. After 20 years, the increasingly popular event has now been taken over by the US-based Glass Art Society, which plans to take the Festival around the country in the coming years. In 2026, The World of Glass in St Helens, Merseyside, will host the event. So CGS wanted to mark this change.
Over 100 members took part in the fundraising show, with some choosing Festival-inspired themes and others marking personal memories in their designs. Many glass techniques were employed in creating the mini masterpieces, which were for sale at £50, £75 or £100 each.
The Best in Show prize of £300 was awarded to Nancy Sutcliffe for ‘An Elephant Never Forgets’ (main image above). This award was sponsored by Alan J Poole.
The two runners-up prizes, sponsored by Mark Holford, were won by Susan Purser Hope’s ‘Splash’ and Opal Seabrook’s ‘Snap Shot’.
Highly commended were Karen Lilley’s ‘Thank you for the venues and to the people who staffed them 2024’, Alison Jardine’s ‘Star Gazing with Grandad’, Helen Slater Stokes’ ‘Thank you Ruskin’, Kate Jones’ ‘Green and Pleasant Land’ and Zara Johnson’s ‘Blooming Brilliant’.
British Glass Biennale awards
The Glass Society chose two pieces in the British Glass Biennale to receive its awards of £2,500 and £1,000, respectively. These were ‘Particle’ by Anthony Scala and ‘Equilibrium II’ by student Beth Colledge. The works were judged on technical skill and artistic appeal.
Janine Christley recognised
Retiring Festival Director Janine Christley was recognised for her hard work nurturing and developing IFOG over the years with a Special Award for Service to Glass from the Glass Society. Her award was a specially commissioned glass artwork called ‘Blossom’, made by Allister Malcolm, the resident glass artist at Stourbridge Glass Museum. Janine is joining the board of the Glass Art Society, which takes over the running of the IFOG from October 2024, to ensure a smooth transition. The location of the 2026 event will be The World of Glass in St Helens, Merseyside, UK.
Main image: The winning piece from the ‘Thanks for the memory’ exhibition, created by Nancy Sutcliffe.