OPENING: The touring “European Glass Experience” exhibit moves to Venice

On Saturday, April 18th, The Murano Glass Museum in Murano, Italy, will present the final international exhibition of the European Glass Experience project curated by director Chiara Squarcina. After two years of showcasing the artworks and sketches in Finland, Spain, and Portugal, the upcoming show is considered as the most important one due to larger number of artworks and the historic venue. Almost 80 international artists will present their works to the public. On a special note are the sketches, designed by the artists, which were selected by the scientific committee to be produced by Consorzio Promovetro’s Murano glass masters.The exhibition will run through June 7, 2015, with an opening reception on Saturday, April 17th, starting at 6.30 PM with special conference with remarks by Milan Hlaveš, curator at the Museum of decorative arts in Prague, and Gabriella Belli, director of the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia and it will continues to the official opening at 7.30 PM. (Disclosure: The author Justyna Turek is one of the artists whose work will be exhibted.)

The main goal of the European Glass Experience project is to support glass art and it's illustrious heritage and create  a contemporary platform for visual artists and designers. Promoting intercultural dialogue, fostering the transnational mobility of young artists, and giving them the opportunity to show their works in known museums became the mission for the organizators. The project has brought together the City of Venice in collaboration with Consorzio Promovetro Murano and the Museo del Vetro ( Murano Glass Museum), to launch European Glass Experience projects as a competition in 2013. Coordinated by Cornelia Lauf , 80 projects and sketches were selected by the panel of museum directors, curators, and glass experts to promote young glass artists.

The exhibitions began over a year ago with the show at the The Finnish Glass Museum, Riihimaki, Finland from March, 28th to June, 8th 2014. It then was continued to the Fundacion Centro Nacional del Vitro, in Segovia, Spain, from July 29th to November 16th, 2014. The third exhibition ( which hadn't been in the plans but came about as a request of its organizers) took place at the Museu do Vidro da Marinha Grande in Portugal from December, 13th to February, 22nd 2015. During the shows artists submitted their unreleased artworks and the sketches for future artworks, both responded to a specific call for artist “The European Glass Experience: Undiscovered potential”. 

The final exhibition in Venice is special and unique, due to two important factors. The venue of the event is in the internationally known historical center of glass art and design. It is precisely here the master craftsmen from Murano, associated with Promovetro, realized specially designer for this projects sketches using the traditional Murano glass techniques. The project gave the opportunity to the promising glass artists to collaborate with recognized Murano's glass masters to create remarkable art objects.  

However, the final exhibition in Italy isn’t the last one. Now we know already that European Glass Experience will continue its tour through Europe in The Muzeum Witrazu ( Stained Glass Museum) in Krakow, Poland, The International Festival of Glass in Stourbridge, England and the Glass Factory in Boda Glasbruk, Sweden. The European Glass Experience project was made possible by two-year grant from the Culture Program of the European Union.

European Glass Experience finalists:

Ulrike Acker-Thomsen, Iiro A. Ahokas, José Angelino, Agnieszka Bar, Stine Bidstrup, Stefano Bullo, Ester Marano, Giorgio Andreotta Calò, Gaia Carboni, Jorge Nicolás Cuevas, Antonella Perrone, Sabine Delafon, Marion Delarue, Karen Donnellan, Aaron Inker, Simone Fezer, Katya Izabel Filmus, Damien François, Birnur Derya Geylani, Valentina Girbino, Manuel Gorkiewicz, Arabella Guidotto, Sandrine Isambert, Mari Isopahkala, Lukáš Jabůrek, Barbara Jagadics, Martin Jakobsen, Renáta Jakowleff, Luke Jerram, Jessamy Kelly, Toni Kokkila, Martijn Koomen, Susanne Koskimäki, Joonas Laakso, Kaappo Lähdesmäki, Armand Lecouturier, Giulia Maculan, David Magán Moreno, Rostislav Materka, Elena Mazzi, Michal Motyčka, Kamila Mróz, Lisa L. Naas, Imre Nagy, Federica Nonnato, Katriina Nuutinen, Tets Ohnari, Martin Opl, Anne Petters, Julija Pociute, Kimmo Reinikka, Helmi Remes, Torsten Rötzsch, Verena Schatz, Josja Caecilia Schepman, Michal Šilhán, Jitka Kamencova Skuhravá, Davide Spillari, Iveta Táborová, Kirsti Taiviola, Galla Theodosis Capsambelis, Soňa Třeštíková, Elena Trevisan, Justyna Turek, Ales Vacek, Pavel Vajsejtl, Ella Varvio, Valerio Veneruso, Heikki Viinikainen, Petra Viňanská, Terese William Waenerlund, Stijn Wuyts, İlker Yaman, Pawel Żelichowski, and Anna Magdalena Zima.