Deadline Approaching – next online CGS exhibition!!

Due to people being so busy at Christmas, we have extended the submission deadline for our upcoming international online glass selling exhibition!

Don’t pass up the opportunity to participate in this fantastic event – we already have an impressive level of work being sent in, so it is going to be one of the most exciting shows we’ve done!

Find complete information HERE.

Please contact info@cgs.org.uk if you encounter any uploading problems, require assistance, or simply have a question!

Please refrain from emailing admin@cgs. org. uk regarding the exhibition, as this address is designated for our fundraising and membership secretary.

Thank you and good luck!

 

CGS Online Exhibition Schedule 2025!

We are excited to announce that we are giving you a special sneak preview of our online exhibition schedule for 2025! This is a wonderful opportunity for you to start planning and preparing for the exciting events we have lined up for the year.
With a variety of intriguing topics and themes, there’s something for everyone to look forward to. We can’t wait to share these amazing exhibitions with you. Hopefully, you will be excited by the themes and start planning the work that you might submit!

Being a member of CGS has its perks, including free applications to all shows, which makes it even easier for you to showcase your creativity and talent.
This is a fantastic opportunity to share your work with a wider audience, gain exposure, and connect with fellow artists. So, dive in, get those creative juices flowing, and good luck with your submissions!

We can’t wait to see what you create!

CGS Online Exhibitions 2025 PDF

If you need help, please email info@cgs.org.uk

 

CGS is looking for a new Administrator

Administrator

The Contemporary Glass Society is looking for a new Administrator to manage the day-to-day running of our organisation, contribute to the development and to help raise sufficient funds to sustain its future.

This role is primarily a remote working from home position with occasional meetings with travel depending upon event, exhibition, and meeting requirements, expenses will be reimbursed.

Key Responsibilities will be responding to emails, managing membership, the day to day finances and budget, publicity and communication, and to seek sponsorship and lead fundraising activities.

Skills Required

• Highly self-motivated and able to manage time effectively and multitask.
• Experience of Business Planning
• Experience of Managing people and events.
• Good communication skills, both verbal and written.
• Confident to speak in public
• Proficient in Word and Excel, access to the internet and experience of e-marketing and social networks.
• Must be able to work independently as well as part of a team with a great attention to detail.
• An understanding of financial matters such as budgets and management accounts
• Experience of writing funding applications is desirable.
• An understanding of Charity governance.

Overview:
Role Title: Administrator
Number of days work: Flexible working of 20 hrs week
Contract: Offered initially as a 12-month contract for a self-employed individual, with the intention to extend this subject to ongoing funding.
There will be a 3-month probationary period.
Salary/package: £38,584 FTE pa. pro rata – this equates to £22,100 for this role.
Holidays at 25 days pa. pro rata. This equates to 15 days for a 0.6 role.
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The background to this role:
The Contemporary Glass Society CGS is the premiere supporter and promoter of contemporary glass art and glass artists within the UK. Membership is open to glass artists at all stages of their careers, collectors and members of the general public interested in contemporary glass.
CGS was established in 1997 to represent the interests of national and international glassmakers. Its team is passionate about glass and the artists working with this amazing medium. Today it has almost 1,200 members and continues to grow. CGS is a charitable organisation funded entirely through members’ subscriptions and by donations. Glass making has been at the core of the creative life of Great Britain for centuries and CGS members continue this great heritage whilst producing innovative, exciting, environmentally conscious work which incorporates new technologies whilst showing respect for long established techniques.
The current Administrator has been in post for twenty-two years, with her leaving there is an opportunity to review and evaluate the organisation, with a view to develop a new business plan and vision for the next five years.
Central to the CGS’s plan is a model that builds resilience and sustainability, develops partnerships and profiles and helps ensure that the charity continues to thrive in what can be challenging times for small independent charities.

The Board of Trustees are seeking a dynamic and committed individual to help realise the ambitions for this unique organisation.

Summary:
The role of Administrator is key in the organisational and strategic development of the organisation, working with the Board to take CGS into a new phase.
This role will be a great opportunity for a skilled, experienced, and motivated individual who enjoys working in a small, dynamic team and can embrace the ethos, practices, and ambitions of CGS.
The successful candidate for this role will be ambitious for the Society, resourceful, and self-motivated. Whilst the individual who fills this role could come from any sector, they would need to possess a genuine understanding of the arts, and value the role and impact of creativity and making opportunities in our lives.
They will have the flexibility, interest, and ability to juggle business and operational activity as well as functions, alongside being able to develop and deliver with the Project Manager, Chair and Board members an inspiring creative programme and range of activity.
CGS Administrator Job Description 2024

To apply please send a covering letter of no more than two pages stating your suitability for the role plus your CV , to admin@cgs.org.uk, using Job Application in Subject title.
Deadline for applications: Monday 6th January 2025
Interviews: mid/ end January

 

CGS Call for Glass Artists!! Take part in ‘Light and Dark’- Online gallery exhibition

“Light and Dark” is our next online exhibition launching on 6th January, 2025.

Deadline for submissions is:   20th December 2024

“Day and night, black and white, bold contrasts made by shadows in stark sunlight – all are examples of light and dark. Darkness, is the direct opposite of lightness, is defined as a lack of illumination, an absence of visible light, or a surface that absorbs light, such as black. It is estimated that 99% of our universe is hidden in the dark – and as light travels at a finite speed, the further you look into the universe the further one looks back in time. Show us your contrasts, your extremes, even your explorations into space – boldly go where no one has gone before! ”

Now is your chance to enter our next exciting online CGS glass gallery exhibition! As with all our shows, it is available to glass artists from around the world.

The only criteria is that you must be a CGS Member. It’s super quick and easy to sign up!  JOIN TODAY membership means you can apply to all our online annual shows!!

1. Prepare 1 image only. Please make sure you have not submitted this image to another CGS online show!2. Head over to your MYCGS page
3. Upload all your details & information
4. Make sure all your contact details are added!
5. Add your price or a Not For Sale.

 

PLEASE NOTE: Please make sure you have excellent quality photography. Guidelines can be found in our RESOURCES area. Or you can email below to ask before submission.

If you need assistance, please email info@cgs.org.uk

 

 

AN EXCITING CALL FOR ARTISTS! To take part in CGS at London Glassblowing Gallery 5th – 30th June, 2025

#Opportunity to be in our “Mirage” Exhibition : An exhibition of CGS members’ work.
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Submissions will be made via CuratorSpace. 
The deadline for applications is 31st March, 2025.  

Theme: An exhibition celebrating glass’s 4th dimension

The Contemporary Glass Society is delighted to have the opportunity once again to collaborate with London Glassblowing in 2025.  Peter Layton of London Glassblowing was one of the founding members of CGS and is still a guiding light and one of the foremost promoters of contemporary glass throughout the UK.  CGS really appreciate his continuing support as we launch our next exhibition at London Glassblowing.

We invite glass artists from across the UK to submit your most captivating and innovative pieces that push the boundaries of the visual illusions that can be achieved through the incredible medium of glass. We want to showcase the magic and mystery that glass can embody with craft pieces that manipulate form, colour and light to challenge the viewer’s perceptions. Overseas artists are also invited to apply for inclusion in the Gallery’s online catalogue of the exhibition.

The exhibition is open to all UK based CGS members and their work will be displayed in the gallery and will be included in the gallery’s online catalogue.  International CGS members can apply at a reduced application fee but will only be included in the gallery’s online Mirage exhibition catalogue. Their work will NOT be included in the physical exhibition but will be for sale and seen as part of the overall Mirage exhibition.

Work should have been made since January, 2023 or can be made especially as a response to the exhibition’s theme. Up to two pieces of work can be submitted, or a group of small pieces. Work must comprise of at least 50% glass.  Maximum size of an individual piece of work or group of related pieces is:

  • Freestanding – 40 x 40 x 40cms
  • Wall hung – 60 x 60cms
 

The selection will take place in early April, 2025 by a panel including Peter Layton, Sarah Brown from CGS and an independent artist tbc. We aim to show a cross section of glass making techniques.

If you are selected the gallery will contact you and send you their own contract to complete.  You should be notified by 21st April, 2025.

Selected artists will have the opportunity to showcase their work in a curated exhibition at London Glassblowing, alongside established names in the glass art community such as, Peter Layton, Anthony Scala, Layne Rowe, Tim Rawlinson and Sila Yucel to name just a few.

We look forward to seeing how you respond to this call and receiving your innovative and thought-provoking submissions for “MIRAGE”. An exhibition that promises to turn London Glassblowing into an oasis of glass illusion.

Look out for the LINK to the CuratorSpace application form

“It’s In The Word” the latest CGS online gallery exhibition!

Launched on 4th Nov 2024

“Words, words, words! All our lives we use words to express ourselves, to tell stories, to make deals, in love and in anger. We lie, we joke, we make promises and even thump our political soapbox. How do you use words in your work? Do you start with words in a title and take inspiration from them or actually write within your glass? ”

We asked CGS member artists to tell us how they use words within their work.

50 glass artists share their ideas with us HERE.

Meet The Makers Zoom Evening- Wednesday 27th at 7.30pm, contact admin@cgs.org.uk for more information 

The CGS Glass Network Magazine and New Graduate Review!

All members should have received the CGS glass art magazine by now!

There is also a handy digital version.

If you are interested in receiving our magazine or being featured in it, you can become a CGS member today.

 

Sad Death of Iain Gunn

We heard today the sad news of the death of Iain Gunn. Iain was one of the founding members of North Lands Creative Glass and a driving force behind the development and expansion of the wonderful glass school and facility. We send our warmest regards to Iain’s wife Bunty, who is a joy to everyone she meets. I have so many fond memories of them both.

Together they worked hard with Dan Klein, Lord Bob Maclennan, Denis Mann and Alan J Poole to start the amazing project in the far North of Scotland, something we tragically dearly miss.
Pam Reekie.

‘Thanks For The Memory’- Glass Postcard Exhibition – some remaining glass postcards for sale!

2024 sees the last International Festival of Glass to be held at the Ruskin Centre in Stourbridge.  The Contemporary Glass Society has been involved with the Festival since its inception.
As our time at the Ruskin Centre comes to an end and we look forward to the next era of the Festival, to celebrate the amazing journey we have all had, we asked our members to share their own memories. 

Memories are magical moments that we treasure so join us in our last Postcard Show at the Ruskin Centre and visit a small treasure full of memories.

Over 100 CGS members took part in this fantastic and fun fundraising show. Over half the postcards sold in Stourbridge but we still have some amazing ones wanting to find a new home.

All work is for sale at affordable prices £50, £75 or £100. and 50% will go towards CGS events in 2025

Do take a look. https://cgs.org.uk/onlineexhibition/thanks-for-the-memory-postcards/

 


Please email admin@cgs.org.uk for enquiries about pieces.

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If you need any help with the online shows or socials, please email info@cgs.org.uk

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“Thanks for the Memory”- CGS Members Exhibition Prize Winners Announced!

Winners have been announced from our live Exhibition at the International Festival of Glass.

Sponsored by Mark Holford and Alan J Poole

See available work Thanks For The Memory Available Postcards

Prize Winners

People’s Prize – Claire Hall, Remembering Devon

Best in Show – Nancy Sutcliffe, An Elephant never Forgets

Runner Up – Sue Purser Hope, Splash

 

 

 

Runner Up – Opal Seabrook, Snap Shot

Commended – Karen Lilley, Thank you for the venues and to the people who staffed them 2024

Alison Jardine, Star Gazing with Grandad

Helen Slater Stokes, Thank you Ruskin

Kate Jones, Green and Pleasant Land

Zara Johnson, Blooming Brilliant

We sold nearly half the postcards but there are still many wonderful ones left, which we hope to post on the website very soon.

View unsold postcards Thanks For The Memory Available Postcards

To buy any get in touch with admin@cgs.org.uk