About Festival
 
A fantastic initiative. A cosmic atmosphere and close encounter of the third kind with art that brings the whole family together. BRAVO... Viewing this exhibition you can forget about the problems all around us. It is splendid... Pleasing to the eye and soothing to the soul. A beautiful exhibition...
 
Will Animal Planet, the main exhibition of the 3rd edition of the Play with Glass European Glass Festival, stoke the same enthusiasm that UFO Unique Form Object did last year at Wroclaw’s Main Station.
 
Surprise and delight at the fact that glass is such an unusual material, that it creates so many opportunities for artistic expression, are the finest rewards for the enormous amount of work and effort we put into preparing the festival events.
 
The Play with Glass European Glass Festival is not only the main exhibition, featuring eighteen artists from fourteen European countries (last year it was sixteen participants from twelve countries), hosted once more by the 19th-century Wroclaw Central Train Station. It is also exhibitions featuring Polish and European artists who create one-of-a-kind objects made of or using glass, an international seminar devoted to the European art of glass at the E. Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wroc?aw, meetings with artists…

The festival will also include the Glass Display Case project, an Open House at the Academy of Art and Design in Wroclaw, a Studio Open House for glass artists from Wroclaw and Lower Silesia,
Wroclaw - A Microcosmos of Events – art workshops for “difficult young people” and families with children, a walk through Wroc?aw on the “glass architecture route,” and a Glass Bus.
 
The Glass Display Case project was set in motion by students from the Faculty of Ceramics and Glass at the Academy of Art and Design in Wroclaw as a joint project. Entering the “living” space of the city with their projects, they could see the direct impact of their work on the viewer. The store or cafe display windows on busy streets provide significantly greater opportunities for public exposure than a gallery or museum.
 
Glass in Wroclaw’s Urban Space is a totally new project, for there had never before been literature available on Wroclaw’s glass architecture. We have described 54 of Wrocaw’s glass architectural works. Fourteen of these are on Wroclaw’s first “glass route.” We decided to bring them to light and make an inventory of the glass artwork in the city’s public buildings and churches, in its squares and streets... We had to do some meticulous detective work to track down the creators of these glass works of art and check all the information they passed down. We hope that the “Wroclaw Old Town Glass Route” will be one of the most important attractions in Wroclaw, the “city of glass.”

Programme:
 
6.10.2014 – Monday, 2 pm – 5 pm – "Microcosmos – Animal Planet" – glass workshops – Young Offenders' Home of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Poland in Sadowice, ul. Szkolna 10, run by Anna Galuszka and Jolanta Kasinska, 6 pm – opening of the Beata Stankiewicz-Szczerbik exhibition Several Emotional Self-Portraits – curator: Barbara Banas  – National Museum in Wroclaw, ul. Powstaców Warszawy 5, Exhibition open: 8.10.2014 – 31.10.2014

07.10.2014 – Tuesday, 10 am – 12.30 pm – glass workshops in the kindergarten in Naratow, Niechlów municipality, Góra district, run by Anna Galuszka, 08.10.2014 – Wednesday, 6 pm – opening of the Jerzy Chodurski exhibition, Glassware – Socato/Galeria na Solnym Gallery, Plac Solny 11, exhibition open: 9.10.2014 – 18.10.2014

09.10.2014 – Tuesday, 6 pm – opening of the Jens Gussek exhibition Casual Reminder – BWA Wroclaw Ceramic and Glass Gallery, Plac gen. T. Kosciuszki 9/10, exhibition open: 9.10.2014 – 29.10.2014

10.10.2014 – Friday, 9 am – 12 noon – glass workshops in the City Public Library, ul. Wieczysta, for handicapped students of the Secondary School and Vocational School from the Special Education Centre no 11, ul. Kamienna 99, run by Anna Galuszka, 2 pm – 4.30 – glass workshops – Hobbit Foundation, ul. Polbina 1, Wroclaw, run by Anna Galuszka, 4 pm – 6.30 pm – glass workshops – community centre in Walim, Walbrzych district, run by Katarzyna Karbownik

11.10.2014 – Saturday, 11 am – 1.30 pm – glass workshops – community centre in Niedzwiedzica, Walim municipality, Walbrzych district – run by Katarzyna Karbownik
13.10.2014 – Monday, 10 am – 1 pm – the "Wroclaw Old Town Glass Trail" walking tour and viewing of the "glass windows" and a visit to the Jens Gussek solo exhibition – BWA Glass and Ceramics Gallery, Kosciuszki Square 9/10 – festival participants only, 1 pm – 3 pm – Open House at the Glass Department of the Ceramics and Glass Faculty of the E. Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wroclaw. Visit to the studios of instructors at the Glass Department of the Ceramics and Glass Faculty – festival participants only, 5 pm – opening of the main festival exhibition – Animal Planet – curator: Anita Bialic – Wroclaw Glówny Station, the Session Room, 7 pm – opening of the Festival Debut exhibition – stíl(e)laif – Masami Hirohata – Japan – curator: Kama Wróbel – R46 Gallery, ul. Ruska 46c/6, Exhibition open: 14.10.2014 – 28.10.2014?8 pm – dinner for festival participants

14.10.2014 – Tuesday, 10 am – 3 pm – Seminar featuring the participation of artists taking part in the Animal Planet Exhibition – E. Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wroclaw, ul. Traugutta 19/21, 12 noon – 12.30 pm – coffee break, 4.30 pm – 5.30 pm – lunch served by the rector of the Academy of Art and Design in Wroclaw, 5 pm – opening of the Beata Damian Speruda exhibition, Needlework for Personal Use – the main hall of the Centre for Applied Art. Centre for Innovation at the Academy of Art and Design in Wroclaw, ul. Traugutta 19/21?Exhibition open: 14.10.2014 – 24.10.2014, 6 pm – opening of the Magdalena Pejga exhibition, Design by Pejga – Galeria M Odwach, ul. Swidnicka 38 A, Exhibition open: 14.10.2014 – 19.10.2014, 7 pm – opening of the Igor Wójcik exhibition Alea iacta est –actual art gallery, ul. Jatki 12 – 13, Exhibition open: 15.10.2014 – 31.10.2014?8 pm – After Party – open meeting with festival participants – Cafe Mañana, ul. Sw. Mikolaja 11

15.10.2014 – Wednesday, 11 am – 5 pm – a trip to the Borowski Studio – for participants in the Animal Planet exhibition and invited guests, 11 am – 1 pm – Open House at the Glass Department of the Ceramics and Glass Faculty of the E. Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wroclaw, Visit to the studios of instructors at the Glass Department of the Ceramics and Glass Faculty Collection point: the main hall of the Centre for Applied Art. Centre for Innovation at the Academy of Art and Design in Wroclaw, ul. Traugutta 19/21, 6 pm – opening of the Mikrocosmos – Animal Planet exhibiton presenting works of glass workshops in the Young Offenders' Home of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Poland in Sadowice – curator: Jolanta Kasi?ska – Tkacka na Jatkach Gallery – Jatki 19 - 22, Exhibition open: 16.10.2014 – 19.10.2014, 7 pm – opening of the Renata Pawlik- Kiebdój exhibition, Bestiarium, combined with a mini recital by Piotr Ziolo – Galeria Versus, ul. Sw. Mikolaja 54/55, Exhibition open: 16.10.2014 – 29.11.2014

16.10.2014 – Thursday, 12 noon – 4 pm – Studio Open Day – glass artists from Lower Silesia welcome visitors to their studios
17.10.2014 – Friday, 12 noon – 3 pm – guided walking tour of exhibitions presenting glass art held in the European Glass Festival program, 4 pm – 6.30 pm – glass workshops – community centre in Walim, the Walbrzych district, run by Katarzyna Karbownik

18.10.2014 – Saturday, 9 am – 6 pm – the Glass Bus Project – a one-day excursion for children, disabled and pensioners to the Karkonosze Muzeum in Jelenia Góra with visits to the studios of artists involved in artistic glasswork and glassworks located in Lower Silesia, 11 am – 1.30 – glass workshops – community centre in Niedzwiedzica, Walim municipality, Walbrzych district – run by Katarzyna Karbownik

19.10.2014 – Sunday, 12 noon – 2 pm – Glass in Urban Space – "Wroclaw Old Town Glass Trail" walking tour, Collection point: "Zdrój" Fountain on the Market Square

Glass Window Contest: for students of the Ceramics and Glass Faculty of the Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw for the design and construction of a shop window while the Festival is in progress. The rector of the E. Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wroclaw, Professor Piotr Kielan, will select what in his opinion are the most interesting and original window displays.

The presentation of the prize, which he funded himself, will take place at the official opening of “Animal Planet”, the festival’s main exhibition, at Wroclaw Glówny Station, 13.10.2013, 5 pm.