IRISH GLASS 'ELEMENTS' REPRESENTED AT SHANGHAI ART FAIR

Professor Zhuang Xiaowei, Professor of Glass in the Glass Studio of the Fine Arts College in Shanghai University and Director of the Glass Museum of Shanghai, visited Cork late last year and subsequently invited Irish artists to exhibit their work in Shanghai in the New International Glass Exhibition that is to be part of the Shanghai Art Fair.

The Fair will take place 10th - 14th May as part of Art Shanghai with the exhibition 'Elements' curated by Mary Mackey.

Irish glass is represented at the fair by Sean Campbell, Aoife Soden, Mary Mackey, Alison Lowry, Andrea Spencer, Róisín De Buitléar, Debbie Dawson and Michael Ray.

ART Shanghai 2012 will be held in Hongqiao New Town Central Park based on its location in Hongqiao Development Zone and its ecological natural environment.

W: http://www.craftinireland.com/events/details/art-shanghai-with-elements-curated-by-mary-mackey/

CONTINUING EDUCATION IN ART AND DESIGN 2012 SUMMER COURSES SCHEDULES ANNOUNCED, NATIONAL COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN

The National College of Art and Design provides an extensive range of part-time courses including non-credit and award bearing courses offering progression. Short(3 and 5 day) summer courses being offered for 2012 include:  Painting Practice, Drawing / Painting / Looking, Colour Theory Workshop, Drawing and Research in Notebooks, Introduction to Watercolour, Etching and Dry Point Technique, Photography, Printed Textiles, Artist Books, Jewellery and Stone Setting, Jewellery Casting and Ceramics. This year we are also offering several Masterclasses including Kiln Formed Glass with Karl Harron and Letterpress Printing with Mary Plunkett.

For further information and a complete listing please visit the CEAD link on NCAD's website www.ncad.ie where you can download a brochure and application form.

Dates: 25^th June – 20^th July 2012

Contact: Seliena Coyle

E: cead@ncad.ie 

T: 01 636 4214

ANDREA SPENCER AT THE BRITISH GLASS BIENNALE

The UK's major exhibition of contemporary glass has announced its exhibitors for 2012. This year 71 artists will exhibit at the fifth British Glass Biennale, including Andrea Spencer. She will be the only representative from Northern Ireland. The exhibition will take place from 24th August until 15th September 2012 at Stourbridge, West Midlands.

W: www.biennale.org.uk

KAREN DONNELLAN RECEIVES LANGLEY KENZIE AWARD

Karen Donnellan is the 2012 recipient of the Langley Kenzie Award. Karen creates work that is about process and material. Working primarily in glass, her creative method results in an object that is both true to a physical material origin but also suggests a potential for something naturally generated. Donnellan is a native of Ireland and MFA candidate at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Her work was on view in Art in Craft Media 2011.

W: http://www.burchfieldpenney.org/exhibitions/exhibition:08-10-2012-01-27-2013-essentia-karen-donnellan/

ENGAGING WITH GLASS, TRAVER GALLERY, TACOMA

The Traver Gallery in Tacoma is proud to serve as the only United States venue for Engaging with Glass; the first comprehensive survey of Irish glass art in over a decade. The exhibition brings together a broad spectrum of work in glass, ranging from beautifully executed decorative objects to conceptual installation pieces incorporating video elements.

Originally presented at the Solstice Arts Center in Meath, Ireland, Engaging with Glass was organized by Solstice director Belinda Quirke, along with artists Caroline Madden and Deirdre Rogers. Irish artists working at home or abroad, as well as foreign artists living and working in Ireland, are included in the exhibition, which was juried by Dr. Audrey Whitty, Curator of Ceramics, Glass and Asian Collections at the National Museum of Ireland and Tina Oldknow, Curator of Modern Glass at the Corning Museum of Glass.

In essays included in the full-color catalog produced alongside the exhibition, juror Audrey Whitty notes that the show reflects an international trend to marry concept with an exceptional level of technical skill, while Tina Oldknow highlights two major themes seen in the show: narrative work addressing memory and time and objects exploring various perspectives on abstraction.

Seattle artist Paula Stokes, whose work is included in the show, was instrumental in bringing Engaging with Glass to the United States. After traveling to Ireland to attend the exhibition opening in Meath, Stokes was convinced that the work deserved to be seen by a wider audience and approached the Travers about mounting the show in their Tacoma location. Working with Solstice Art Center director Belinda Quirke, Stokes secured funding from Culture Ireland and the Crafts Council of Ireland to bring the exhibition to Tacoma.

The Seattle/Tacoma arts community has shown a great deal of enthusiasm for the exhibition, and several public programs have been developed around it. Dr. Caroline Madden, one of the exhibition's organizers and an artist featured in the exhibition, will teach a Master Artist class at Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle from April 13 - 15. Madden will also be featured as an Artist in Residence at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma from April 18 - 20.

 
T: 00 1 253 383 3685
E: tacoma@travergallery.com
W: www.travergallery.com

CATHERINE KEENAN AND ALISON LOWRY, CRAFT & DESIGN COLLECTIVE, BELFAST
Commemorate is the title of a mixed media exhibition which includes the work of Catherine Keenan and Alison Lowry. The exhibition will run until 28th April 2012 in Space CRAFT, Craft & Design Collective, Belfast.

T: 028 9032 9342.
E: info@craftanddesigncollective.com
W: www.craftanddesigncollective.com

THREE x 3, BELFAST

The Engine Room Gallery in Belfast hosts Three x 3; an exhibition of work by Andrea Spencer, Sean Campbell and Scott Benefield. The exhibition aims to bring contemporary studio glass to a wider audience. Three x 3 was first exhibited at Craft NI Display Space for August Craft Month 2010 before touring widely and is now returning to Belfast. Though the three artists involved work with different techniques and address completely different subject matter, they have come together to address the relative scarcity of artistic glass on exhibition.

This exhibition is supplemented by an educational display that presents the history of glass as an artistic medium, explains the beginnings and significance of the global studio glass movement, and offers information about the particular glassmaking techniques that are on view in the exhibition spaces. There are also videos of the artists at work in their studios as they create some of the pieces included in the show. The exhibition runs from 5th to 28th April 2012.

T: 028 9045 5184
E: info@engineroomgallery.com
W: http://craftni.org/events/three-x-3-contemporary-studio-glass/

PEADAR LAMB WORKSHOP, NATIONAL SCULPTURE FACTORY
 

Exploration of Stained Glass Painting Techniques masterclass will be hosted by Peadar Lamb at the National Sculpture Factory in Cork on 12th and 13th June 2012. Places on this course are limited to 8 participants and the fee is €80 for NSF members and €100 for non-NSF members. This masterclass will focus on experimental mark-making and the consideration of light in this process. Course participants will be able to experiment with brush, line and tone. They will learn about firing schedules, specific painting techniques such as Sgraffito, and manipulating the paint through daylight and lightboxes.

E: elma@nationalsculpturefactory.com
T: 00353 21 4314
W: www.nationalsculpturefactory.com

GLASS CLASSES AT LEITRIM SCULPTURE CENTRE

Glassblowing for Beginners Workshop

Dates:    Mon 23rd & Tue 24th April
Trainer: Graham Reid
Course Fees: €240 (two days) - 10am to 5pm
Participants:   4
Experience: No experience required

In this two-day workshop participants will explore the extraordinary medium of hot glass. They will learn how to gather glass out of the furnace, to control and shape the hot glass, to blow a bubble and make a simple vessel. Working in two small teams, the emphasis of this course is hands-on experience, with demos and support from an experienced glassblower.

Sand Casting with Hot Glass Workshop

Dates:   Sat 28th & Sun 29th April
Trainer: Keith Seybert
Course Fees: €285 (two days) - 10am to 5pm
Participants: 6
Experience: No experience required

This two-day course will introduce participants to the potential of molten glass as a creative material through the process of hot casting into sand moulds. They will have the opportunity to ladle glass straight from the furnace and pour into prepared open-faced sand moulds made with found and sculpted objects. This is the most direct method to create your own solid sculptural forms in glass. No previous glass working experience required and all materials are provided. Please bring your own objects to press in the sand. Appropriate footwear is a must; leather boots are preferred, leather shoes are acceptable. No open-toed shoes or sandals!

E: info@leitrimsculpturecentre.ie
W: www.leitrimsculpturecentre.ie
T: 071 98 55098

INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF GLASS MASTERCLASSES, STOURBRIDGE, UK

A number of influential glass artists will host various masterclasses in the week leading up to the International Festival of Glass at Stourbridge, UK in August 2012. Those teaching will include Ian Hankey (UK), Richard Marquis (USA), Bandhu Scott Dunham (USA), Fritz Dreisbach (USA), John Lewis (USA), Shelley Doolan (UK), Antoine Leperlier (FRA), Diana East and Sean Taylor (UK), Vanessa Cutler (UK), Tanya Veit (USA), Allister Malcolm (UK), and Alison Kinnaird (UK). Full course descriptions and programmes are available on the International Festival of Glass website.

W: http://www.ifg.org.uk/all-classes.html