Organizers of the Toyama International Glass Exhibition 2018 set to take place from September 15th through November 25th in 2018, will mark the first time this established competition will be open to international artists. This juried exhibit rewards successful applicants with opportunities to win the ¥ 3 million ($26,730 US) “Grand Prize,” while the runner-up will receive a ¥ 1 million ($ 8,910 US) “Gold Prize” and five artists will receive the “Silver Prize,” each winning ¥ 200,000 ($ 1,782 US). The deadline for entries is March 20, 2018, and the winning works will be exhibited at the second floor of this museum in Toyama, Japan.
Applicants can submit a maximum of two works made no earlier than 2016 and professionals and amateurs alike are free to apply. However, the rules stipulate that the works must be composed primarily of glass, have a total combined depth and height no larger than 240 centimeters (94.48 inches), or if an installation, a maximum of 9㎡ (101.4 ft²) of area and 3.3m (10.82 ft) in height, and less than 100 kilograms (220 lb). Works that have been submitted to other competitions will not be accepted, and if there are any special tools needed to install the work, they must be provided by the artist.
Applicants must submit three digital photos in the JPEG format, between 2MB and 10MB in filesize. Images should range between 300 and 350dpi, with the longest side about 20cm(7.87 inches) and at approximately 2000×3000 pixels. A portrait photo of the applying artist is also requested. The jury will consist of professors, artists, administrators, critics, and curators within and outside of Japan. Entries may also be submitted through mail, see full exhibition application information here.
Finalists will be selected on April. 26, 2018 and be invited to send their pieces to Toyama for a second round of judging, which will take place mid-summer 2018. The first round's jury will be comprised of Atsushi Takeda, art critic and professor at Tama Art University; Koji Yukiyama, director of Toyama Prefectural Art and Design; Yoko Imai, curator of the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo; Nobuyuki Fujiwara, chairman of Japan Glass Artcrafts Association; Ruriko Tsuchida, associate chief curator of Suntory Museum of Arts; Atsushi Takeda, art critic and professor at Tama Art University; Ryoji Shibuya, Director of Toyama Glass Art Museum.
The second round jury will be comprised of: Dr. Robert Bell, writer and former curator of National Gallery of Australia for 16 years; Masaki Yanagihara, director of the National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto; Yuji Akimoto, art critic and director of the University Arts Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts and 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Arts in Kanazawa; Milan Hlaveš, curator of Modern and Contemporary Glass, ceramics and porcelain collections at the Museum of Decorative Arts In Prague, Czech Republic; Junji Ito, Honorary director of Toyama Glass Art Museum and professor at Tokyo University of The Arts and Benjamin Cobb, hot shop manager/lead gaffer of Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA.
The international competition is a result of a vision 30 years in the making. The city established the Institute of Glass Art in 1991 to offer students the opportunity to learn the steps of creating art from the hot shop to fine polishing and sandblasting, and advanced classes to foster artist creativity. The Toyama Glass Art Museum was established for the express purpose of being an epicenter of glass art, and to be a beacon for independent artists to establish themselves. The exhibition began as a domestic-only, trilineal competition between 2002 to 2011. In collaboration with the both institutions and the city of Toyama, the idea of spreading glass art was finally realized with the establishment of next year’s international exhibition.
For more information on the exhibition, the contact form can be found here, and works can be submitted via this link.