New Glassworks: Sunderland venture secures £5m grant

Sunderland Culture has been awarded a £5m grant by the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) to develop Glassworks: Sunderland, described as an ambitious, new world-class facility for glassmaking.

It will be built in the Sunniside area of Sunderland city centre, where the city council is leading regeneration plans to boost the creative economy.

The news brings hope to the UK’s creative glass sector, which has been fighting to save the existing iconic National Glass Centre building in Sunderland, that is slated for closure by 2026 because of the huge projected costs of repairing and maintaining it.

Sunderland Culture will collaborate with partners including the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), Sunderland City Council and the University of Sunderland on the development of the project.

The £5m grant from the DCMS Cultural Development Fund, which is administered by Arts Council England, will go a significant way towards the £7.5m cost of Glassworks: Sunderland. Lewis Atkinson MP for Sunderland Central, who collaborated on the bid, said, “Our glass is now two thirds full – Working together as a city, I’m confident we can secure the remaining £2.5m to deliver Glassworks: Sunderland and further boost Sunderland’s bright creative future.” Sunderland Culture will be leading fundraising plans to secure match funding to realise the project.

Nick Malyan, chief executive of Sunderland Culture, explained: “Glassworks: Sunderland will build on the city’s position as a leading international centre of excellence for glassmaking, while unlocking economic growth for the city, contributing to the regeneration of Sunniside, and securing important heritage skills for the future.

“We are immensely grateful to DCMS for awarding this grant, which is a significant step towards our ambition of safeguarding the future of glassmaking in Sunderland.

“Glassworks: Sunderland will be a nationally-significant centre of excellence for glassmaking, connecting Sunderland’s 1,350 years of glassmaking heritage and the city’s creative future.

“If we can achieve our ambition, Sunderland will remain one of the few places in the UK with specialist glassmaking facilities to create, make and produce in glass.

“We are extremely grateful to our partners’ commitment to developing the proposal and supporting the ambition for Glassworks: Sunderland.”

He noted that it is vital that the glassmaking community has opportunities to make, display and sell work produced in the city and added that the initiative will attract national and international expert glass artists to work alongside Sunderland’s well-established community of world-class glassmakers, to safeguard skills and innovate creative practice.

“Our new facility will enable creative careers to be developed and sustained via access to specialist glassmaking facilities, studio spaces, and opportunities for Sunderland-based makers to promote and sell their work. It will create opportunities for the city’s highly skilled glassmaking community, whilst also allowing people to watch, take part and enjoy glassmaking.”

Councillor Beth Jones, Cabinet Member for Communities, Culture and Tourism, at Sunderland City Council, commented, “We will be working closely with colleagues at Sunderland Culture and supporting glass making businesses in the city and wider region to come together as partners to continue to develop these proposals, grow their practices, and create a self-sustaining business model with glass making and glass artists at its heart.”

Sir David Bell, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of the University of Sunderland, said: “Glassworks: Sunderland represents a brand new opportunity to create an exciting model for the future of glassmaking in Sunderland. It will link the city’s heritage with its creative future, driving growth and productivity, and supporting cultural regeneration.”

Contemporary Glass Society chair, Sarah Brown, commented, “We are so delighted to hear the positive news, and look forward to hearing more about the plans for the project in the coming months.”

Jo Howell, one of the organisers of the long-running campaign to save the National Glass Centre, expressed concern that the new facilities would not match up to the old ones. She said that, while it was “great” to get the £5m award, “It’s like a sticking plaster over an open wound.”

Sunderland was one of 11 projects shortlisted nationally from 130 expressions of interest submitted to DCMS’s £16.2m Cultural Development Fund, and one of only four projects to be awarded funding.

Sunderland Culture is the umbrella organisation overseeing the cultural programmes of Sunderland City Council, University of Sunderland and Sunderland Music, Arts and Culture Trust. It delivers the National Glass Centre programme.

Image: Sunderland Culture CEO Nick Malyan (left) and Rachel Smith, Director, National Glass Centre.