After the success of the first edition of European Glass Experience, at the Finnish Glass Museum (Riihimaki, Finland), EGE arrives in Segovia, Spain.
From 28 July to 16 November the Fundación Centro Nacional del Vidrio hosts an exhibition, a meeting, and a workshop for European Glass Experience.
This international project dedicated to contemporary art and glass was conceived to valorize artisanal glass art as a cultural patrimony to save and promote. It was born from a collaboration between the City of Venice and Promovetro Murano, as well as the Murano Glass Museum – Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, with the scientific coordination of Cornelia Lauf.
The exhibition follows an international competition in 2013, co-financed by the Culture Program of the European Union, and directed toward young artists between 18 and 40 years of age – who were able to present a work realized in the last two years in any technique or glass medium, or a sketch for same (study or drawing).
Exhibition: From 29 July until 16 November 2014, the Museo Tecnologico del Vidrio will host European Glass Experience, in the second stage of the traveling international show, with the winners of the exhibition, chosen by an international jury composed of museum directors, curators, and experts in glass.
As in Finland, in Segovia, the sketches and twenty winning works were selected by the national curator, Paloma Pastor, director of the museum.
The works represented include artists from the following nations: Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, France, England, Germany, Ireland, Italian, Lithuania, Holland, Poland, Sweden, Hungary, but also works of Argentine, Israeli and Turkish citizens of the EU.
Workshop: It is also planned a workshop, featuring three artists coming from Finland, Lithuania, and Italy. They will work alongside artists, master glassblowers and Spanish students of the Higher Education Institution of Glass of the Fundación Centro Nacional del Vidrio.
The project is a great opportunity for young artists, designers and lovers of glass to discuss and share experiences and techniques, as well as exhibit their own works in the museum.
European Glass Experience will proceed on its tour throughout Europe – with stops planned in Poland, England, and Sweden – after its next venue, in 2015, at the Glass Museum of Murano, where all the selected works from both Finland and Spain will be showcased.
The Fundacion Centro Nacional del Vidrio is situated near the Royal Glass Factory of La Granja (Segovia, Spain), one of the industrial edifices of greatest significance in Europe during the 18th century, and a symbol of the identity of the province of Segovia. The goal of the Foundation are the promotion, development and diffusion of the story and manufacture of glass, which finds its fruition in the teaching that the Foundation imparts at various levels. The project includes the Museo Technologico del Vidrio where the history of glass technique and production are featured; the Higher Education Institution of Glass, a school equipped at a higher level to deliver diplomas and master’s degrees, and a center of artisanal production, outfitted with a furnace where various types of production and decoration (etching, enamel, gilding, engraving), are taught. In this way, the tradition of glassmaking, which La Granja was famous for in the past, is amplified and brought back to life, to give an ever more interested public an insight into the rich heritage of this town.