Glass festival promises to dazzle

Thousands of visitors will be flocking to the prestigious event, which will see glass-themed demonstrations, lectures, exhibitions and performances taking place at venues in and around the town’s famous Glass Quarter.

Kicking off on Friday August 22 and running until Bank Holiday Monday August 25 - the event promises to dazzle glass enthusiasts of all ages.

Festival director Janine Christley said: “The third International Festival of Glass will be the highlight of every glass enthusiast’s calendar, which will shatter all preconceptions by presenting a multi-media, visually exciting and dynamic interpretation. We hope visitors will come along and be bewitched over the August Bank Holiday weekend.”

For the first time, the festival will also spread out into Stourbridge town centre - which is being shut down to traffic on Saturday August 23.

Glass makers from across the country will be exhibiting and selling their handiwork at mammoth new glass market - which is being held in the High Street and Market Street from 9am to 5pm, alongside LSD’s regular farmers and craft markets.

There will also be a mobile glass furnace at the entrance to the Ryemarket - giving shoppers chance to see glass artist Anthony Wassell in action between 11am and 4pm. Lampworkers David Keenan and Neil Harris will also be demonstrating.

There will also be live music throughout the day. Fret and Fiddle will be performing by the town clock from 11am to 1pm - and there will be roving musicians wandering the streets, along with fire-eaters and stilt-walkers.

Festival spokeswoman Jo Evans said: “The atmosphere will be vibrant with demonstrations along with more live street entertainments than you can shake a stick at. This will be a unique event not to be missed.”

Students graduating from the University of Wolverhampton’s glass art and design course will also be exhibiting their work in the Live and Let Live display area in the Crown Centre.

Called Melting Point, the exhibition will run throughout the festival.

Meanwhile at Wordsley’s Red House Glass Cone in Camp Hill - a series of exhibitions will be taking place throughout the festival and beyond.

A Crystal Canvas - featuring contemporary engraved glass by members of The Guild of Glass Engravers and renowned glass artists Katherine Coleman, James Denison-Pender and Alison Kinnaird MBE - runs until October 10.

Love Glass featuring contemporary glass by the cone’s resident glass artists runs until September 30.

And Next Big Thing featuring glass designs by graduates from Dudley College’s International Glass Centre runs until September 7.

All exhibitions are open everyday from 10am to 4pm.

At Broadfield House Glass Museum in Kingswinford, The Studio Pioneer exhibition will showcase the work of the late Michael Harris, who studied glass design at Stourbridge College before becoming a leading figure in the international studio glass movement.

Renowned for founding Mdina Glass in Malta and Isle of Wight Studio Glass, Harris’ work will be on display at the Compton Drive museum throughout the festival - until January next year.

Timothy Harris will give free demonstrations of his father’s techniques in the museum’s hot glass studio as part of a celebratory event on Saturday August 23.

And author and glass expert Mark Hill will also give a lecture entitled ‘Michael Harris: A Journey in Glass’.

Tickets for the talk, followed by wine and canapés, cost £10 and pre-booking is recommended - call 01384 812745 or visit www.glassmuseum.org.uk Councillor Karen Shakespeare, cabinet member of environment and culture, said: “The Studio Pioneer exhibition features some stunning glass, including some unique pieces on loan from his family. I’m sure visitors will be queuing up to see the work for themselves.”

The museum will be open from 10am to 4pm during the festival. Admission is free.

At Amblecote’s Ruskin Glass Centre, the main hub of the festival, the Glass Emporium opens its doors Friday August 22.

Open 10am to 5pm every day during the festival - selected artists, suppliers, tool manufacturers and publishers will be offering something for every glass enthusiast.

Exhibitors include Warm Glass, Chrome Yellow Books, Jonathan Harris Studio Glass, Louise Ashton Design, Bristol Blue Glass, PVS (UK) Ltd, Contemporary Glass Society and Kiln Care.

The annual bead fair also returns to the festival.

Being held at Stourbridge’s Bonded Warehouse, it will see some of the most renowned bead artists from across the UK, Europe, USA and Australia exhibiting and selling their products.

There will also be beadmaking demonstrations and rows of beautiful and unusual beads from the best beadmakers in the world.

Visitors will also be able to buy everything required to make their own beads - including tools, glass, books, kits and commercial beads.

Another first at this year’s festival is the brand new Stourbridge Glass Fair, taking place on Sunday August 24 at Stourbridge’s Crystal Leisure Centre from 10.30am until 4pm.

Being staged by Oxbridge Fairs, organisers of other specialist glass fairs, it will give visitors chance to view and buy all types of glass including Georgian, Art Nouveau and Art Deco, Continental, pressed, paperweights, Whitefriars and other 20th century British and European design.

The highlight of the festival is sure to be the British Glass Biennale 08; the UK’s biggest exhibition of contemporary glass.

Featuring 82 of the country’s leading glass artists, it will see include elegantly worked chandeliers, innovative glass installations and social statements with a strong dash of humour.

Open every day from 10am to 5pm throughout the festival and running until September 28, the exhibition awards £14,000 in prize money to the best of the best glass artists - with this year’s competition featuring a new student section for up and coming talent.

Check out www.biennale.org.uk for more details on exhibiting artists.

And new for this year will be the Hortus Insolitus International Sculpture Garden.

Inspired by the theme of Shakespeare’s atmospheric play, The Tempest; it is being created in an old cone courtyard at Amblecote’s Ruskin Glass Centre by garden designers Spaceoutside and civil engineers Greenford Ltd, and it will be decked with work by 12 international glass artists.

Festival director Janine Christley said: “This exhibition will help showcase the vitality of the continental glass scene and create opportunities for British artists to collaborate.”

It will be officially opened at noon on Friday August 22.

For a full programme of festival events go to www.ifg.org.uk or call 01384 399410.