In its first phase, the project opened up new possibilities and generated dialogue about the conception, production and distribution of glass pieces.
A publication and a touring exhibition (France, Italy and Belgium) were organized to ensure a high visibility and promotion of the project and the outcomes of the three workshops, which took place between September 2011 and July 2012 in glass centers Iittala Glass Village in Nuutajärvi, Verreum in Nový Bor and CIAV in Meisenthal.
 
In its second phase, which began 1 June 2013, GLASS IS TOMORROW – GIT II focuses on further collaboration with high-end glass centers and postgraduate education departments specialized in glass design, in order to increase the quality of glass production in Europe and the awareness of European glass culture, traditions and innovations. The project has evolved to enhance both the pedagogy and the professions of glass design and glassmaking.
Three professional production residencies at the partner’s glass factories at The Glass Factory in Boda (SE), the CIAV in Meisenthal (FR) and ?i?ecam glass factory in Denizli (TR) have been organized in parallel with a series of three postgraduate workshops involving specialized design schools and glass research centers (École Supérieure d’Art et Design de Saint-Étienne, Konstfack, Royal College of Arts in London, and Domaine de Boisbuchet with the Glass Lab™ of the Corning Glass Museum).
 
After these five workshops, this second phase also includes a publication and a travelling exhibition - during Istanbul Design Biennal, at Musée de la Mine during Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Étienne, France, Milan during Salone del Mobile with Nude, Nationalmuseum at Kulturhuset, Stockholm, Sweden and the Royal College of Art - Dyson Building London,United Kingdom during London Design Festival.
 
DESIGNERS AND GLASSBLOWERS WHO PARTICIPATED TO THE WORKSHOPS:
Designers
Gwladys Alonzo (FR), Flavie Audi (UK), Autoban: Seyhan Özdemir and Sefer Caglar (TR), Dina Baïtassova (FR), Claire Baldeck (FR), Mark Braun (DE), Aude Briet (FR), Nigel Coates (UK), Nathalie Dewez (BE), Christian Ghion (FR), Jeanne Gautier (FR), Christophe Genard (BE), GGSV: Gaëlle Gabillet & Stéphane Villard (FR), Pawel Grobelny (PL), Stéphane Halmaï-Voisard (CH), Kaspar Hamacher (BE), David Hanauer (DE), Iveta Heinackan (LV), Benjamin Hubert studio - Luca Corvatta (UK), Matilda Kastel (SE), Norayr Khachatryan (BE), Matti Klenell (SE), Tomas Kral (CH), Pierre Lhoas (BE), Studio Monsieur: Manon Leblanc & Romain
Diroux (FR), Tamer Naksç (TR), Nude designers: Sinem Hall? & Sevgi Kes (TR), Michel Philippon (FR), Amaury Poudray (FR), Camille Roger (FR), Adrien Rovero (CH), Studio Rygalik: Tomek Rygalik & Gosia Rygalik (PL), Lucile Soufflet (BE), Sema Topaloglu (TR) and Pia Wüstenberg (UK)
 
Glass Blowers / Artists
Cyril Astier (FR), Marie Anne Baccichet (FR), Simon Ballagh (FR), Vincent Breed (FR), Sylvie Burgun (FR), Jacky Fauster (FR), Alexandre Fillon (FR), Steve Gibbs (US), Hervé Grimal (FR), Simon Kashmir Holm (SE), George Kennard (US), Marika Kinnunen (FI), Amy Kruger (SE), Romuald Lambeaux (FR), Gérald Leger (FR), Clément Le Mener (FR), Richad Loesel (FR), Eino Mäkelä (FI), Ali Master Team (TR), Ramazan Master Team (TR), Sevki Master Team, Sébastien Maurer (FR), Adrien Morin (FR), Fredrik Nielsen (SE), Laurent Odin (FR), Patrick Pansier (FR), Vanessa Royant (FR), Jean Marc Schilt (FR), Carl Sigling (US), Louis Thompson (UK), Terese William Waenerlund (SE) and Jeremy Wintrebert (FR)
 
PRO MATERIA (BE)
Pro Materia is a Creative Design Consultancy Agency launched in 1999 as a non-profit organization. For years, it has been recognised as a platform and incubator of existing and emerging talents in design and contemporary crafts in Belgium and abroad. With her 15 years of experience in the field of promoting creative industries, Pro Materia is driven by Lise Coirier – founder and editor-in-chief of TL Magazine, a design quarterly since 2009 – who also acts as an international curator and author in the field of contemporary design. Pro Materia is leading Glass is Tomorrow, the European project supported by the EU Culture Programme (2007-2013).
 
THE GLASS FACTORY (SE)
The Glass Factory is an experience-based, interactive glass museum with a quality-assured operation located in the heart of the Kingdom of Crystal. The museum serves as a knowledge centre and creative meeting place for artists, designers and visitors.
The Glass Factory has Sweden’s most comprehensive collection of art glass, which consists of about 30,000 objects from various glassworks by more than 40 artists who have worked with glass. As a result, The Glass Factory is Sweden’s only re-oriented glass museum that can create a distinctive, all-inclusive identity for itself with its continuous and quality-assured glass activities. These includes temporary exhibitions,
hot spots, core collection exhibitions, presentation of exhibitions for children and young people as well as an expanded programme of activities, with lectures, happenings, glass shows, theatre performances
and workshops. The Glass Factory will offer an extensive variety of shows with different perspectives both for adults and for children and young people as well as
a quality-assured programme of educational activities.
The museum should be a participant in the public dialogue. The experience and the visitor are the focal points. The Glass Factory is actively engaged in bringing together various participants from different disciplines, such as handicrafts, theatre and cinema. External collaborators are invited to actively participate in producing exhibitions and to work with the collections.
A pivotal part of the museum’s activities is the blowing room, which is operated in conjunction with Design House Stockholm. The blowing room has a core production of high artistic quality as a basis for operations. In addition glass shows, happenings, demonstrations and other events take place there. Contemporary national and international artists and designers are invited to experiment with glass as a material and to discover new means of expression. Visitors have an opportunity to give it a try and to find out how it feels to work with glass and develop their creative abilities.
Through activities in the blowing room, through presentation of exhibitions, programmes and interdisciplinary experimental collaboration and through national and international exchanges,The Glass Factory is actively engaged in enhancing, developing and strengthening glass as an art form in Sweden.
Through its role as a creative meeting place for national and international participants within the realm of glass, The Glass Factory serves as a revitalising force for the Kingdom of Crystal’s future and its glass production. The Glass Factory acts as a catalyst for development throughout the region and has a quality-assured creative operation with an international identity that can advance everyone’s opportunities for
cultural experiences. Design House Stockholm – an international design firm that is making a big commitment to Boda. The museum cooperates with Design House Stockholm, which plays a major role in Boda, and expand and raise the profile of its operations on site.
 
ABOUT THE CO-ORGANIZERS:
VESSEL GALLERY (UK)
Vessel is a store-cum-gallery based in Notting Hill, London. We aim to be a modern Mecca for all those who appreciate good design & beauty in their life, both to look at and to use. The best contemporary glass and ceramic pieces available have been sourced globally. Here you can view a taster selection of our ranges which cover iconic Scandinavian functional design, (Hackman, Stelton, Iittala, Orrefors, Arabia), flamboyant, collectible Italian art glass (Venini, Salviati, Arcade), plus the best of home grown talent.
www.theglassfactory.se
www.promateria.be
www.vesselgallery.com
 
CIRECA
Centre International de Recherche et d’Education Culturelle et Agricole CIRECA (Centre International de Recherche et d’Education Culturelle et Agricole) with The Corning Museum of Glass and the GlassLab™
Le Domaine de Boisbuchet was first mentioned in documents dating from the 16th century, it was long the largest country estate in the area, last in the possession of the Counts of Le Camus. In 1986, the furniture collector and culture manager Alexander von Vegesack purchased the estate, to bring it to new life for agricultural and cultural purposes. Together with friends and Eastern European universities, the buildings were renovated and agricultural operations were reactivated. In 1996, the organisation CIRECA (Centre International de Recherche et d’Education Culturelle et Agricole) was founded, which has since put on a series of international workshops in the summer months on architecture and design themes.
Up until the French Revolution, a Medieval castle stood on the site of the current manor house. According to legend, it was connected by underground passageway to the Absac property on the other side of the Vienne River. Remnants of the tunnel are still evident today.
www.boisbuchet.org
 
ABOUT THE CO-ORGANIZERS:
ESADSE (FR)
École Supérieure d’Art et Design de Saint-Étienne
Founded in 1803 as the School of Drawing, then renamed as the Regional School of Industrial Arts in 1884, as the Regional School of Fine Arts in 1923, and as the Higher School of Art and Design in 2006, ESADSE has since its inception been closely tied to the industrial growth and economic development of a city that was at the forefront of industrial modernity during the 19th century. Its story goes hand in hand with that of the industrial arts, and involves all the associated frictions: between art and economy; aesthetics and functionality; sovereignty and control; fine arts, applied arts and decorative arts. It is this history that has led the school to develop a design department since 1990, and to create in 1998 the International Design Biennial. This dynamic continues today within the public institution for cultural cooperation (EPCC) that connects the school and the Cité du Design.
www.esadse.fr
 
CIAV CENTRE INTERNATIONAL D’ART VERRIER (FR)
Centre International d’Art Verrier The Meisenthal glassworks, established in 1704 in the northern Vosges Mountains of eastern France, was witness from 1867 through 1894 to the fantastic creativity of Émile Gallé, a recognised leading light at the Ecole de Nancy. The glassworks, which counted as many as 650 employees and produced millions of consumer items each year, closed its doors in 1969, leaving behind only memories of a vanished industrial adventure. In 1992, on the disused site that was once the Meisenthal glassworks, and very close to the Museum of Glass, the first furnace was relit. The Centre International d’Art Verrier (CIAV) Meisenthal saw the light of day.
Discussing folk traditions and collecting the tangible and intangible memories of a way of life are essential responsibilities. Beyond that, the challenge is to try to place this heritage within the culture, to re-introduce it into its era. The CIAV, an interface structure, blends tradition, innovation and rooted culture as well as contemporary issues, creativity and industrial applications in research, exhibitions, creation and production. This approach reflects the phenomenal potential the traditional trades carry within themselves, when they are brought face to face with the dream of modernity.
www.ciav-meisenthal.fr
 
SISECAM GROUP (TR)
Sisecam group is an industrial group operating on a global scale in the fields of flat glass, glassware, glass packaging,and chemicals. International sales constitute approximately 50% of the total sales of Sisecam, which carries out production activities in 13 countries and exports to 150 countries.
Targeting to stand among the top three in the world glass league by 2020, the Group is expanding its production capacity, value-added product portfolio, and market share through new investments.
Combining its extensive experience with an ambitious vision, Sisecam is growing as a people-oriented, environment-friendly global brand that shares, creates wealth, and shapes the future with products and services that add value to its stakeholders.
NUDE is the first global brand of Sisecam Group.
NUDE is the one and only contemporary and fresh glass brand born these days. Nude aims at improving our living spaces by experimenting in all senses through form, function and material – to create outstanding solutions for people who want a life less ordinary. Nude stands out with its special design objects created by top designers in Turkey and the world including Ron Arad, Pentagon Design, Rony Plesl, Alejandro Ruiz, Alev Ebuzziya Siesbye, Erdem Akan, Ali Bakova.... and more
www.sisecam.com
 
THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF ART (UK)
The Royal College of Art, based in Central London, is the world’s most influential institution of university status devoted to the study of Art, Design, Humanities and Communication – a totally postgraduate institution offering a two years MA programme and opportunities for research to Doctoral level.
The Ceramics & Glass programme is not simply a fixed set of media but a site for discursive practice where cultural, social, personal, historical and aesthetic concerns intersect. What underpins this is our belief that our activity is rooted in its being an Applied Art. It is this ‘application’ of process, skills, material understanding and the development of ideas through making that defines us. We focus on notions of use in its widest sense – the place that our work occupies in the world – Why it is important? – Who is it for? – Can it be different? We aim to challenge and question pre-? conceptions, suggest and propose alternative scenarios.
www.rca.ac.uk
We would like to acknowledge the generous support of our partners and our sponsors: Robba Editions and Glasitalia.
www.nudeglass.com
 
Future expositions:
April 13 - 19, 2015
Glass is Tomorrow meets Nude
Pacabahce Store
Corso Matteotti 3, Milan, Italy
www.nudeglass.com
September 21 - 28, 2015
Royal College of Art, Battersea - Dyson Building
1 Hester Road, London SW11 4AN, UK
www.rca.ac.uk
 
Glass is Tomorrow Workshop with Royal College of Arts and Vessel Gallery in London: Makers x Makers, 23-27.3.2015
 
More information: www.glassistomorrow.eu
 
See the Agenda on the Exposition at the Nationalmuseum Design- Kulturhuset Stadsteatern 17/6/2015-23/8/2015>