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CGS Glass Network print magazine launches

The Contemporary Glass Society’s Glass Network print magazine issue 83 (November 2023) is on its way to members, so look out for it arriving through your door.

Alongside the magazine, you’ll find a copy of the New Graduate Review, showcasing the best of the emerging talent coming out of British and Irish universities and colleges.

Fittingly, Glass Network #83 has an educational theme, too. Glass artists like Adam Aaronson share the development of their careers and discuss the mentors who inspired and supported them, as well as how they have passed on their knowledge to up-and-coming artists in their turn.

We also highlight the stained glass work of Jonathan Cooke, plus his involvement with the new apprenticeship programme launching at University of Wales Trinity St David (UWTSD) with Swansea College of Art as the approved training provider.

Another avenue for learning glass techniques is via adult education. Many people take their first steps in glass this way and some go on to make successful careers as a result. The Just Glass artists’ collective was launched by students and tutors from the Richmond Art College course who wanted to hold exhibitions and seminars. Chair Jane Vincent explains the benefits of adult education courses and how Just Glass has evolved.

Glass artist Bob Peckitt describes how he chose to work creatively after discovering that his great-great-great grandfather was William Peckitt, who painted the stained glass windows at York Minster. Read more about William’s life and work in Bob’s article.

Of course, sometimes lack of funding for courses and training can inhibit a career in glass. This is where the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) can provide grants to help. QEST’s communications manager Laura McKee highlights how the organisation has assisted glass artists to expand their knowledge and take part in prestigious exhibitions.

Hungarian glass designer Zsuzanna Deak outlines her journey with glass, which has led her to experiment with using architectural glass waste and sludge to make recycled glass.

Meanwhile, glass collector Mark Halford reviews the facilities at the recently refurbished The World of Glass in St Helen’s, including the Holford Collection, representing a third of his pieces, that he has presented on permanent loan.

Once you have read all these features, remember to check your envelope for the CGS fundraising raffle tickets, with the chance to win one of 13 glass artworks.

Glass Network is sent to members of CGS twice a year. If you would like to receive a copy, why not become a member?

Image: Front cover of Glass Network #83.

Glass Art Society Berlin conference update

After reviewing more than 200 proposals for presentations, the Glass Art Society (GAS) team has put together a programme of thought-provoking lectures, cutting-edge demonstrations and lecmos, plus exciting special events for its Berlin, Germany, event (15-18 May 2024). Registration opens on 13 November 2023.

“We are excited to host the GAS Conference in Berlin,” said GAS Executive Director Brandi P Clark. “This year’s theme is Where Art and Design Meet, and no city exemplifies that quite like Berlin. As GAS continues to expand its international engagement, we felt it was really important to host the 2024 conference in Europe.”

“To give our community more opportunities to connect organically while enjoying the conference, we are including interactive programming daily during a new midday pause in the schedule,” said Jennifer Hand, GAS conference manager. “Each day will have its own theme, including education and glass institutions, self-care and mental health, and career and small business development.” Additionally, there will be child-centred programming for attendees who bring their families along.

There are 50+ presentations lined up, including: The Lathe Riders, an international cold working team; Jahday Ford will combine ancient Roman blow mould techniques with contemporary technology like water-jet cutting in the hot shop; Silvia Levenson will deliver this year’s Littleton Lecture, musing on her career as a socially-engaged maker focusing on refugees, women and war, plus Ivan Bestari Minar Pradipta will demonstrate how he creates sculptural forms at the torch using recycled glass, no annealers and minimal equipment.

Important dates:

13 November  Conference registration, call for exhibitions, scholarship applications and GAS Market booth registration open

1 December Last guaranteed day to book your room at the official conference hotel

12 January Early bird registration closes

4 February Call for exhibitions closes

11 February Scholarship applications close, work exchange registration closes

1 April GAS Market booth registration closes

1 May Online registration closes (but you can still register on-site in Berlin).

Find out more here.

A Two-Way Mirror exhibition features work by black artists

A new exhibition at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, US, features the work of contemporary Black artists who have used glass to deconstruct and interrogate social, cultural, gender and racial identity constructs.

‘A Two-Way Mirror: Double Consciousness in Contemporary Glass by Black Artists’, is on view until Autumn 2024. The artists range in background from African American, to British, to Puerto Rican, each using glass to reflect thoughts and bodies that have historically been exploited. Due to its reflectivity and translucence, glass is an apt medium to interrogate identity constructs, such as the theory of double consciousness presented by W.E.B. Dubois in his work, The Souls of Black Folk.

Exhibition curator Jabari Owens-Bailey commented, “I proposed this exhibition because I wanted to see what artists of colour were already doing in the medium and what they had the potential to say. I found the medium to be so rich for exploring personal identity, and it provides the opportunity to look at oneself. So, I looked for myself in the medium of glass and I found A Two-Way Mirror.”

Glass art has been largely inaccessible for historically marginalised groups. This has been, in large part, due to racial oppression, the cost of production,and the class division between artist and artisan. It is the museum’s hope that ‘A Two-Way Mirror’ will create a space in which to explore this inequity and offer works by artists of African descent, which tell the artists’ own stories.

Many of the pieces in the exhibition are abstract, while others are representational. Each of the exhibiting artists uses glass as a proxy for a body, portrait, mental state, or historical trope. Dubois’ idea of double consciousness is explored as the glass functions as a metaphorical structure for that which is both seen and unseen.

Artists include Anthony Amoako-Attah, Radcliffe Bailey, Layo Bright, Crystal Z Campbell, Chris Day, Cheryl Derricotte, Alejandro Guzman, Mildred Howard, Jason McDonald, Parfums de Vigny, Ebony G Patterson, Pellatt & Green, Related Tactics, Salviati and Company, Joyce J Scott, Shikeith, Therman Statom, Renée Stout, Barbara Earl Thomas, Hank Willis Thomas, Leo Tecosky, Kara Walker and Fred Wilson.

Day, Bailey, Scott, Statom, Stout, Tecosky and Wilson participated in the Museum’s Visiting Artist Residency programme and several works exhibited in this show were created in the hot shop.

Learn more about ‘A Two-Way Mirror’ via this link.

The Museum of Glass is at 1801 Dock Street, Tacoma, WA 98402, US.

Image: ‘Adebisi I’ (left) and ‘Adebisi VII’, by Nigerian Layo Bright. Courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago, Illinois.

Vessel Gallery presents new work by Louis Thompson

A new collection of glass work by Louis Thompson is on display at Vessel Gallery in London. Inspired by bonsai, ‘Enchanted Mori’ echoes this ancient horticultural practice and its artistic intention to create a higher level of aesthetic refinement.

With each posing the question ‘what is your preferred time of day?’, the works symbolise the transient periods that make up each 24-hour time frame. Inviting the viewer to contemplate and reflect, Thompson’s ambition is that, alongside the visual, an emotive response is experienced.

He states, “With the transition of light, day falls into night and we pass into the abyss of a new dawn. The sun, moon and stars form shadows, colouring our perception and creating an interplay between the negative and positive forms of nature, where harmony and balance coexist. This new body of work, Enchanted Mori, is for moments of contemplation, reflection and contentment.”

Louis Thompson has exhibited extensively in the UK, Europe, US and Japan. In 2012 he received two prestigious awards in the UK: British Glass Biennale Winner and the Jerwood Foundation Makers Commission.

He has created installations for museums and international exhibitions and his work is held in permanent museum collections in Belgium, Germany, Japan, Czech Republic, the US and the V&A in London.

He has completed international residencies at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, US, The Glazenhuis Museum in Belgium and most recently at Soneva Art Glass in the Maldives.

The ‘Enchanted Mori’ collection is on display until 17 November 2023

Find out more here.

Vessel Gallery is at 114 Kensington Park Road, London W11 2PW.

Image: A selection of pieces from the Enchanted Mori collection.

Book for symposium on Japanese cut crystal

A one-day symposium exploring the shared culture and heritage that exists between Scotland and Japan through the medium of cut crystal will take place on Friday 8 December 2023.

This ‘Edo-Kiriko’ event is led by Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) in partnership with the Horiguchi-Kiriko glass studio, based in Tokyo, Japan. The studio specialises in Edo-Kiriko, a traditional type of Japanese cut crystal.

The symposium, to be held at ECA in Scotland, will host a range of speakers, a live demonstration of glass cutting (with an object handling session) and an object showcase at ECA. This event revolves around the internationally famed Japanese glass master Toru Horiguchi. The symposium hopes to trigger debate and discourse around the lost art of crystal cutting in the UK and act as a catalyst for a new material cultural exchange between Scotland and Japan.

The project is driven by the historical glassmaking connections between these two countries, drawing upon a joint history that dates to the 1870s-1880s, when three glassmakers from Scotland helped the Japanese modernise their glass industry.

The speakers include Toru Horiguchi, glass historians Sally Hadden and Dr Jill Turnbull, social historian Professor Aaron William Moore, glass engraver Alison Kinnaird, glass designer and educator Dr Jessamy Kelly and Chris Blade, CEO of Cumbria Crystal.

The Edo-Kiriko symposium takes place from 9.30am to 5pm, followed by drinks from 5.30-7.30pm. It is free to attend but ticketed.

Location: West Court, Edinburgh College of Art, Lauriston Place, EH3 9DF, Scotland.

Reserve your place here.

Petition supporting the National Glass Centre

National Glass Centre

Following the announcement in January 2023 that the iconic National Glass Centre (NGC) in Sunderland cannot continue in its present venue because it needs expensive remedial structural work, campaigners have been working to get support to keep the NGC in its current riverside location.

The University of Sunderland has owned the NGC since 2010 and wants to find an alternative venue – or venues – for the NGC. The Northern Gallery of Contemporary Art (NGCA) and the University’s glass and ceramics academic programmes are also housed on the site.

Current courses are continuing as usual and the University stated in January that it hoped to transfer to a new location – or locations – within three years.

Campaigner Caroline Basing is an MA graduate of the University, who has a studio space at the NGC. She states, “The NGC offers so many different levels of experiences in glass for so many different people, from exhibitions to public engagement, such as bauble making, to making facilities for international artists. While some efforts are being made by Sunderland Council and Sunderland Culture to split and relocate some parts of the organisation, no guarantees have been made to retain any of the many and varied functions of the NGC. Its loss will collapse the whole creative ecosystem that surrounds it, causing economic, educational, cultural and societal damage, not just to the local area, but also the creative industries based on making in glass.”

A petition to raise awareness and keep the NGC and its facilities in the present building has now reached almost 32,000 signatures. Anyone interested in finding out more and signing the petition can follow this link.

Book for glass artist talks at the World of Glass

As part of the Glass Festival at The World of Glass (TWOG), three glass artists will be speaking about their creative processes and working journeys at the recently upgraded venue in St Helen’s, on Saturday 11 November 2023.

Join Kathryn Webley, Annette Sharkey and James Maskrey for their presentations between 1pm and 4pm. Tickets cost £5.

Kathryn Webley’s talk is entitled ‘Glass from the Cut’. She creates her work on a narrowboat called ‘The Pod’, moored in Worksop, Nottinghamshire on the Chesterfield Canal. When she started living on the canals, she became fascinated by the patterns and reflections in the water and the associated flora of the canal bank. She will talk about the unique challenges of working with glass on a narrowboat.

Annette Sharkey’s presentation is ‘Glass – the Possibilities are Endless’. Her main inspiration is glass itself and its many different facets – reflection, transparency, shadow, opalescence, depth, colour. Having started out with stained glass and glass mosaic, she now focuses on warm glass. Her talk will walk the audience through some of the pieces she has made and the techniques and inspirations behind them.

James Maskrey will speak on the theme ‘Discovery: A journey through a Creative Career’. His glassmaking career spans over 30 years, over 20 of those working for the University of Sunderland at the National Glass Centre (NGC) as a senior technician and academic tutor.

He has facilitated work for many other artists and in 2022 completed a 15-month secondment to the NGC where he was responsible for the hot glass production of Glass Exchange, an ambitious four-artist facilitation project with Ryan Gander, Katie Paterson, Monster Chetwynd and Pascale Marthine Tayoux. He has led masterclasses in different countries and his work is in public and private collections. His talk will follow his creative journey from his first encounter with hot glass through to the present day.

There will be opportunities for questions after each talk.

In addition, the Contemporary Glass Society’s exhibition at TWOG, featuring 54 artists, is on until 17 November 2023.

TWOG is at Chalon Way East, St Helens, Merseyside WA10 1BX.

Find out more and book here.

Image: (left to right) Work by Annette Sharkey, Kathryn Webley and James Maskrey.

Apply for summer scholarships at Bild-Werk Frauenau

For the third year, the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung foundation will award up to 10 scholarships to participate in a workshop at the International Summer Academy at Bild-Werk Frauenau in Germany, in 2024.

The scholarships are €2,200 each and will be awarded to artists who have graduated from an art academy or completed their artistic training at a glass school or technical college within the last five years. There is no age restriction.

The workshops in Frauenau are led by internationally renowned artists and enable the fellows to expand their professional knowledge and develop artistically. The focus is on working with hot and cold glass, complemented by traditional and new design methods.

The scholarship enables the artists to experiment with glass and to develop and realise their own designs within the framework of the course.

Bild-Werk Frauenau is located in the Bavarian Forest and is one of the most important international forums for glass and visual arts.

The 2024 Summer Academy programme will be published on the Bild-Werk Frauenau website on 13 November 2023.

Application deadline is 26 November 2023 and applicants will be informed whether they have been awarded a scholarship by 24 December 2023. Successful applicants must register for a course directly with Bild-Werk Frauenau by 14 February 2024.

The Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung promotes art and science. It was established in 2000 by the entrepreneur Alexander Tutsek and his wife Dr. Eva-Maria Fahrner-Tutsek as a non-profit foundation.

Find out more and apply via this link.

Apply for CGS Sparkle glass exhibition at Frome gallery

Members of the Contemporary Glass Society (CGS) are invited to submit glass work for the first CGS exhibition of 2024 – ‘Sparkle! A Spectrum of Contemporary Glass’ exhibition, taking place at Black Swan Arts in Frome, Somerset.

The exhibition will run from 19 January to 25 February 2024 in the centre’s Long Gallery. It is open to all CGS members at any stage of their career, but with an emphasis on CGS South West and Midlands members.

Celebrate the dazzling delight of glass in all its facets of light, colour and technique. The brief is as wide as you wish to make it and will be a true celebration of the diversity of contemporary glass. All work submitted must be for sale and both wall pieces and plinth-based work are accepted.

Artists can submit up to three pieces of work in one submission.  Although this is an open exhibition, it may be necessary to select only some of an artist’s pieces for inclusion in the final show, subject to the number of applications and the size and quantity of entries.

All work must comprise at least 50% glass and to have been made after January 2022 or made specifically for the exhibition.

A non-refundable administration fee of £25 will be charged per application.

Application deadline: 19 November 2023.

Black Swan Arts is at 2 Bridge Street, Frome, Somerset BA11 1BB.

If you would like to take part in the Sparkle exhibition, but are not yet a member of CGS, why not join now?

Find out more about the exhibition and apply here.

Support kids’ glass fusing project

Berlin Glas in Germany is looking for donations to keep its mobile glass fusing programme running for children aged 8-18. The studio has worked with schools, youth organisations, and refugee homes across Berlin.

The children are taught how to decorate a glass plate with layers of coloured glass that are then fired overnight at 780°C and turned into a colourful artwork.

However, sometimes accessibility has been a problem. In January 2017, a refugee home in Bernau, a suburb of Berlin, asked whether Berlin Glas could bring the materials to their facility. The team found an old suitcase, filled it with what was needed, and went to the refugee home. The workshop was so successful, that they decided to build a cart, lovingly named the Kiez Mobil.

The Kiez Mobil project has been underway since October 2017 and the goal is to offer two workshops a month. This requires a stock of clear and coloured glass, new cutters and tubs for storing glass, the energy costs for the kiln, subway and bus tickets for the instructors, and the instructor’s fee.

Berlin Glas is inviting donations so that children can continue to have this unique opportunity to work with glass.

Anyone interested in finding out more about the campaign and wanting to donate, please visit the Betterplace website.