Noticeboards Category: Exhibitions

SUNDERLAND, UK — The National Glass Centre, a cornerstone of British studio glass and contemporary craft for nearly thirty years, has announced its final exhibition ahead of its permanent closure this month.

Conclusion, presented by the final cohort of MA Glass and Ceramics students from the University of Sunderland, will be the historic last exhibition to take place in the renowned venue. The showcase represents a major passing of the torch, celebrating the future of contemporary making even as the physical chapter of this vital national institution draws to a close.

Staged alongside The Graduates in the main gallery, Conclusion brings together a diverse, highly ambitious body of work from emerging international artists. Through the challenging mediums of glass and ceramics, the exhibition tackles complex themes of identity, memory, displacement, and cutting-edge material innovation.

The exhibition represents the final public event before the building officially and permanently closes at 3:00 PM on Friday 31 July 2026.

Since opening in 1998, the National Glass Centre has played a defining role in securing Britain’s place on the global studio glass stage. By providing world-class facilities and fostering academic excellence through the University of Sunderland, it has been a vital incubator for contemporary craft. Conclusion offers a final, vital look at the calibre of artists the institution has championed.

A spokesperson for the MA cohort commented:

“Exhibiting during the National Glass Centre’s final week is a profoundly bittersweet privilege. Our work represents the culmination of intense research and physical mastery, developed within a space that has inspired some of the world’s greatest glass artists. While we mourn the loss of this remarkable building, our exhibition is a testament to the enduring strength and future of the medium.”

Exhibition: Conclusion – MA Glass & Ceramics Exhibition (Running concurrently with The Graduates)

Venue: National Glass Centre, Liberty Way, Sunderland, SR6 0GL

Key Dates: Running until 31 July 2026.

Admission: Free

Final Opening Hours: The Centre will operate on reduced hours of 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM on Thursday 30 July and Friday 31 July 2026 before closing permanently to the public at 3:00 PM on Friday 31 July. (NB:The Graduates Exhibition will close at 3pm on Thursday 30th July to allow artists to uninstall work prior to closure)

Preview Event and Press: Friday 24th July 2026 1800-2000

A solo exhibition of kiln-formed glass landscapes exploring what it means to find home through place.

Although best known for wearable art and landscape pendants, this exhibition marks a move towards larger kiln-formed glass artworks, creating space for wider horizons, changing weather and a deeper sense of atmosphere.

Living in Devon has felt like finding home. Inspired by Dartmoor and the Devon coastline, these landscapes capture fleeting moments of light, weather and place. Each piece is built from four layers of glass, carefully composed and kiln fused. As the layers merge, colours soften and blend, creating depth, movement and a moment held in glass.

That sense of belonging is especially significant. Raised in a military family, I moved frequently throughout childhood, making it difficult to put down roots. Even when we stayed somewhere for several years, there was always the feeling that another move might come. As an adult, relocating for work continued that pattern. Devon has been the first place where movement has gradually given way to belonging.

“We came for the sea, but fell for the moor.”

This is my debut solo exhibition, over a year in the making, accompanied by a fortnightly blog documenting the journey.

10% of all sales will be donated to Dartmoor Search & Rescue Team Ashburton in support of their vital work across Dartmoor.

Date: 28 – 31 August 2026
Time: 11 – 5pm
Place: No 10 Gallery, 10 High Street, Chagford, TQ13 8AJ

Website: www.jacqueline-seviour.co.uk
Instagram: @jacquelineseviour

A solo exhibition of kiln-formed glass landscapes exploring what it means to find home through place.

Although best known for wearable art and landscape pendants, this exhibition marks a move towards larger kiln-formed glass artworks, creating space for wider horizons, changing weather and a deeper sense of atmosphere.

Living in Devon has felt like finding home. Inspired by Dartmoor and the Devon coastline, these landscapes capture fleeting moments of light, weather and place. Each piece is built from four layers of glass, carefully composed and kiln fused. As the layers merge, colours soften and blend, creating depth, movement and a moment held in glass.

That sense of belonging is especially significant. Raised in a military family, I moved frequently throughout childhood, making it difficult to put down roots. Even when we stayed somewhere for several years, there was always the feeling that another move might come. As an adult, relocating for work continued that pattern. Devon has been the first place where movement has gradually given way to belonging.

“We came for the sea, but fell for the moor.”

This is my debut solo exhibition, over a year in the making, accompanied by a fortnightly blog documenting the journey.

10% of all sales will be donated to Dartmoor Search & Rescue Team Ashburton in support of their vital work across Dartmoor.

Date: 28 – 31 August 2026
Time: 11 – 5pm
Place: No 10 Gallery, 10 High Street, Chagford, TQ13 8AJ

Website: www.jacqueline-seviour.co.uk
Instagram: @jacquelineseviour

I’m sharing Pokesdown Gallery’s inugural exhibition with printmaker Sarah Humby. It’s during the Dorset Art Weeks (weekends only, or by arrangement). The opening is on Thursday evening, 21st May 6-8pm, CGS members welcome.

pokesdowngallery.co.uk
841 Christchurch Road, Bournemouth BH7 6AR

I’m sharing Pokesdown Gallery’s inugural exhibition with printmaker Sarah Humby. It’s during the Dorset Art Weeks (weekends only, or by arrangement). The opening is on Thursday evening, 21st May 6-8pm, CGS members welcome.

Ruthin Craft Centre, the award-winning Centre for the Applied Arts, is proud to announce the opening of the exhibition, titled:

‘Moss for a Bed’ – A Solo Exhibition by Verity Pulford, runs from 4th July – 20th Sept 2026.

The exhibition brings together her signature ethereal glasswork with new porcelain works, shaped by Verity’s enduring fascination with nature.

“My work is inspired by the complexity of life, particularly the intricate structures and growth patterns found in nature. I am drawn to cryptogamic plants such as lichen, moss, and algae, as well as fungi, and the textures and forms of marine creatures, invertebrates, and coral. I am influenced by how being in nature—and observing it closely—makes me feel. How in both this experience and through the experience of making I find a place of quiet, safety and solace. I often explore ideas of magical realism, creating hybrid forms inspired by, or combining, different plants and organisms”

Verity Pulford is based in Eryrys, North Wales. She recently won the Gold Medal for Craft and Design at The National Eisteddfod of Wales, 2025. Her work is sold in leading galleries, exhibited internationally and collected by private and public institutions. She is a QEST Scholar, part of the Homo Faber Guide and member of the Guild of Makers of Wales. Verity has exhibited at Collect – the leading art fair for collectable contemporary craft and the British Glass Biennale on several occasions.

Verity has been awarded Arts Council of Wales grants for three major projects and WAI funding for a residency at the renowned Chihuly’s Pilchuck Art School in Seattle. She has also completed a funded residency at North Lands Creative Glass Studio in Caithness. Verity has undertaken several projects in healthcare including Walton Centre Liverpool and Betsi Cadwaladr sites.

Please contact Ruthin Craft Centre for more information on the talks and educational programme linked to the show.
Ruthin Craft Centre The Centre for the Applied Arts, Park Road, Ruthin, Denbighshire LL15 1BB. Contact: +44 (0)1824 774801 Email: ruthincraftcentre@dll.co.uk

Free Admission – Free On-Site Parking
Opening Hours: Tuesday – Sunday, 10am – 5.30pm

On April 1st, 2026, the international exhibition Glass Stress – The Evolution of Modern Art in Venice was inaugurated at the Tsinghua University Art Museum. This exhibition was organized by the School of Art of Tsinghua University, the Tsinghua University Art Museum, and the Berengo Studio in Italy, curated by associate professor Li Jing from the School of Art of Tsinghua University.

It brought together over 60 works by 56 artists from 20 different countries (including 6 British artists). The artists, within the specific glass culture context of Venice, responded to the proposition of the transformation of traditional craftsmanship in the contemporary context, exploring new artistic expressions and possibilities of glass in the context of globalization and multiculturalism.

Glass has been closely related to the development of human civilization throughout the long history. Due to the ‘stress’ generated during its preparation and shaping, it exhibits unique technical properties and thus becomes an artistic medium capable of expressing aesthetics, symbols, and concepts. ‘Glasstress’ as a physical concept refers to the situation where the amorphous structure of glass is ‘frozen’ during its transition from the molten state to the solid state, thereby retaining the stress state within the material. On one hand, it has given rise to the unique production techniques of glass; on the other hand, it also constitutes the material basis for the fragility, tension, and potential danger of glass. In artistic works, this ‘critical state’ between stability and fragmentation is often transformed into resources with aesthetic tension and spiritual metaphor.

For a long time, glass art has been mostly regarded as merely a ‘decorative medium’, and the inherent properties of the material have often been overshadowed by artistic concepts. The core breakthrough of this ‘Glasstress’ exhibition lies in establishing the ‘active nature’ of glass materials – the transparency, brittleness, and stress marks of glass are no longer mere by-products in the production process, but rather ‘material grammar’ that participates in the generation of artistic meaning, deeply influencing the conceptual construction and emotional expression of the artists.

Exhibiting Artists:

Tony Cragg (UK)，Josepha Gasch-Muche (Germany)，Sean Scully (USA)，Gu Liming (China)，Ted Noten (Netherlands)，Marta Klonowska (Poland)，Dustin Yellin (USA)，Thomas Schütte (Germany)，Mimmo Paladino (Italy)，Zhang Lei (China)，Bai Ming (China)，Maria Grazia Rosin (Italy)，César Baldaccini (France)，Fiona Banner (UK)，Michael Joo (USA)，Jaime Hayon
(Spain)，Cornelia Parker (UK)，Javier Pérez (Spain)，Polly Apfelbaum
(USA)，Mirosław Bałka (Poland)，Loris Cecchini (Italy)，Penny Byrne
(Australia)，Charles Avery (UK)，Laure Prouvost (France)，Emilio Isgrò
(Italy)，Erwin Wurm (Austria)，Fariba Ferdosi (Iran)，Koen Vanmechelen
(Belgium)，Halim Al-Karim (Iraq), Judy Chicago (USA), Marya Kazoun
(Lebanon), Jimmie Durham (USA), María Magdalena Campos-Pons (USA),
Osaru Obaseki (Nigeria), Jaume Plensa (Spain), Marie-Louise Ekman
(Sweden), Arne Quinze (Belgium), Chila Kumari Singh Burman (UK),
Massimo Lunardon (Italy), Tony Oursler (USA), Anna Jermolaewa (Russia),
Qiu Zhijie (China), Wu Jian’an (China), Wael Shawky (Egypt), Ilya & Emilia Kabakov (Ukraine), Fred Wilson (USA), Karen LaMonte (USA), Monica Bonvicini (Italy), Mat Collishaw (UK), Joana Vasconcelos (Portugal), Hans Op de Beeck (Belgium), Vik Muniz (Brazil), Antonio Riello (Italy), Robert Wilson (USA), Pedro Friedeberg (Mexico ), Li Jing (China).

Click link below for PDF information

Glass Stress – The Evolution of Modern Art in Venice-Jianyong Guo & Dian Shi

Websites

Tsinghua University Art Museum

fondazioneberengo.org

(The text was compiled by Dr Jianyong Guo and Dr Dian Shi based on the exhibition’s promotional materials. All the figures in the text were provided by the organizing committee of this exhibition.)

The World of Glass, St. Helens,
Chalon Way East
St. Helens
WA10 1BX

Exhibition Dates: 14 March – 11 April 2026

Private View – Saturday 14 March, 12 noon – 2pm

The Contemporary Glass Society (CGS) is delighted to present ‘It’s All in the Technique’, an exhibition celebrating excellence and innovation in contemporary glassmaking.

Held at The World of Glass in St. Helens from 14 March to 11 April 2026, the exhibition will showcase outstanding work by UK-based CGS members whose practice demonstrates exciting and accomplished techniques across a wide range of glass processes.

Exhibiting artists include: Petri Anderson, Sarah Brown, Karen Browning, Madeline Bunyan, Ian Chadwick, Kerry Collison, Maria Donnai, Cheryl Gould, Jianyong Guo, Annie James, Kira Phoenix K’inan, Manuela Kagerbauer, Laura Kriefman, Julie Light, Graham Miller, Pratibha Mistry, Tracy Nicholls, Linda Norris, Stacey Poultney, Laxmi Priya, Verity Pulford, Georgia Redpath, Morag Reekie, Nicholas Rutherford, Sally Scott, Cathryn Shilling, Elizabeth Sinkova, Amelia Skachill Burke, Helen Slater Stokes, Deborah Timperley, Frans Wesselman, Yujie Yang, Zixuan Zhang and Maria Zulueta.

From kiln-formed and blown glass to casting, cold-working, engraving, and mixed processes, ‘It’s All in the Technique’ highlights the technical mastery, creativity, and material understanding that define the very best in contemporary glass art.

Private View – Saturday 14 March, 12 noon – 2pm
We look forward to seeing you there!