The Award For Excellence and The Ashton Hill Award
These awards offer valuable opportunities for those wishing to develop their skills towards a practical career in stained glass. Recipients will be placed in high quality working studios where they will undertake mentored work experience on actual projects with the supervision, guidance and tuition of experienced professionals. The 10 week Ashton Hill Awards are offered to those wishing to develop their skills in conservation and/or glass painting. The 40 weeks Award for Excellence is an enhanced work experience program which provides individual tuition tailored to the needs and interests of the award winner. It is suitable for those with an interest in contemporary and traditional techniques and in conservation. Applications may be considered from exceptional conservators and painters in other media without prior glass experience who wish to expand their practice to include glass working. For both awards up to £265 per week is provided to assist with subsistence, rent and travel costs for the duration of the award. It can be challenging, even difficult, being away from your home, working what may be long hours, finding yourself less skilled than those around you and needing to do things you have never done before. However the rewards are great and the vast majority of past winners are now working successfully as glass craftsmen. You can read a bit more about these awards, obtain application details and see lists of the past winners names by visiting the Competitions and Awards pages on the Glaziers website: http://www.worshipfulglaziers.com/?page_id=3160htm and http://www.worshipfulglaziers.com/?page_id=3175
 
Continuing Professional Development awards are short duration help with training for professionals; whether by moving towards the attainment of accredited status as conservators, by obtaining tuition to increase their effectiveness and proficiency in practicing their craft or by developing their creative skills. The award could be used to assist someone to attend a masterclass, an advanced glass painting course, to learn about mortars and stonework installation, to seek tuition about glass chemistry, to shadow a fellow professional to learn a skill they do not already have such as edge bonding or glass cleaning or whatever else the awardee can demonstrate that s/he needs to learn to enhance working practices. These awards are particularly aimed at professionals unable to leave their work for long periods, so they typically enable attendance at short courses or short studio placements under expert tuition. Each award will offer up to £550 for tuition costs and £225 subsistence while learning.
You can obtain application details at http://www.worshipfulglaziers.com/?page_id=3192
 
Arthur and Helen Davis Travelling Scholarship
This Scholarship is awarded alternate years by the Company to a student of or an artist in Stained Glass. It is being offered in 2016. It is aimed at those who are still training and those within five years of having completed training may also apply. Its value is up to £1500. The object of the Scholarship is to give the winner the opportunity to travel to widen their experience and to develop their study and knowledge of glass. Find details and application form on http://www.worshipfulglaziers.com/?page_id=3203 Worshipful Company of Glaziers and Painters of Glass Actively supporting the Art and Craft of Stained Glass
 
Comments from previous Glaziers award winners;
Ray Taylor won the Arthur and Helen Davis Travelling Scholarship 2013-2014. He travelled to England, Germany, Netherlands and France to research use of different types of glass in architecture. He said after the award; “I have been experimenting with reflected light since the award. I had already been aware of work in that field by Joost van Santen and was able to visit 2 of his installations during the travel award. It is impossible to fully appreciate the effect decorative glass has on space without actually experiencing it, so the award provided that opportunity and motivation for me. I always make reference to the travel award (and prizes in the Stevens competitions) at exhibitions and when promoting my work. I hope that those achievements might ‘give me an edge’ when in competition for projects.
 
Eleanor Leahy won the Award for Excellence 2012-2013 and subsequently did a short term work placement at one of the studios in which she was placed during her award. Eleanor has an MA in Glass Conservation from York University; “As a previous recipient of the Award for Excellence, I feel that this work experience program has made a hugely positive impact on my career in stained glass. I feel that one of the best things about the award is having the opportunity to work in different studios. By completing the award I feel that I gained a completely unique learning experience which greatly improved my confidence and skills, and also put me in contact with eminent professionals working in the field. Over the course of my placements I spent time in studios that had varying approaches to conservation ethics and implemented different techniques using different materials. This allowed me to gain a unique perspective on contemporary conservation practices. I feel immensely grateful to the Worshipful Company of Glaziers for having awarded me this opportunity.
 
Julia Gonyou won an Ashton Hill Award in 2014. She says: “It is a pleasure reviewing my studio experiences from the Ashton Hill Award and I am very thankful for the opportunities it has opened up for technical skill development. The Glazier’s Company and the BSMGP have presented a welcoming community of artists and craftsmen who contextualized the trade with valuable lectures and conferences. After studying drawing, painting & art history at university I pursued the study of stained glass through various courses, studio positions, apprenticeships and work placements. Taking this alternative route and being awarded the Ashton Hill has enabled me to learn under what I consider to be the best conditions which are working alongside other tradespeople, contributing to manual in studio projects and developing practical theory. It was brilliant to learn directly from Jonathan Cooke, never have I had such an eager, passionate and attentive teacher who held nothing back in relaying information. Holy Well Glass provided me with a new interest in that of conservation and restoration, a side of stained glass that I had little previous experience, an area I now find to be as relevant or more than fabricating new work. I give many thanks to those that have made apprenticeship opportunities like these available to emerging craft/ tradespeople; these experiences are priceless in the development of a specialized artistic glazing career.” Since completing the award Julia has found work at Reyntiens Glass Studio and continues to independently fabricate windows of her own design. Worshipful Company of Glaziers and Painters of Glass Actively supporting the Art and Craft of Stained Glass
EMMA BLOUNT
Awards Coordinator
Worshipful Company of Glaziers and Painters of Glass

WORSHIPFUL COMPANY OF GLAZIERS AND PAINTERS OF GLASS
Glaziers Hall
9 Montague Cl, London SE1 9DD, United Kingdom http://www.worshipfulglaziers.com/