A celebration of four generations of glassmaking at the International Glass Centre in the UK

This exhibition is the result of a project of the International Glass Centre, Dudley, West Midlands, England, in co-operation with the UK Trade & Investment, Black Country Chamber of Commerce. With this exceptional special exhibition the studio glass artists of Great Britain want to present themselves to the European audience. The decision to come to the Eisch Gallery in Frauenau ist not only a great honour for the gallery, but also for the glass region of the Bavarian Forest.

For this one-week exhibition a catalogue will be published.

The Artists:
Martin Andrews, Lynn Baker, Ian Bamforth, Vic Bamforth, Simon Bruntnell, Ken Cantillon Howell, Jaqueline Cooley, Diana East, Stuart Fletcher, Denise Hunt, George Jackson, Michelle Keeling, Ian MacDonald, Helen Millard, Jo Newman, Sue Parry, Sabina Stumberger, Mark Tayler & David Hill, Dave Ward, Sarah Wiberley, Nikki Williams


Foreword: 1000 Glass Miles
 
Over the centuries the small glass-manufacturing town of Stourbridge has produced many respected and innovative makers of glass. Names such as Frederick Carder who established the firm of Steuben in the United States and John Hill who set up Waterford Glassworks in Ireland are two names amongst a menagerie of ingenious makers, designers and manufacturing entrepreneurs whose technical virtuosity and flashes of inspiration have placed the region’s glass on a world stage.

Today's innovations in ‘Stourbridge Glass' are initiated through a cluster of small glassmaking studios and regional colleges. Here diversity of product is defined by originality, modernism, novelty and change. By seeking out new ideas and by searching creative networks both in this country and overseas, ‘Stourbridge Glass' can look forward to embracing a new culture of innovation based upon creative partnerships and knowledge sharing. 
 
It is with great pleasure we accept this invitation to exhibit at the Eisch Gallery in Germany. "1000 Glass Miles" features the works of 21 regional glassmakers who have benefited through high skills training at the International Glass Centre-Dudley College. Glass produced in the small town of Frauenau is an outstanding example of how product innovation, creativity, visionary leadership and knowledge transfer initiatives such as those offered at Bild Werk Frauenau as an Academy for glass and art and the Glass Museum Frauenau can move glass art into new and previously unreachable markets.
We are here to learn!

Denise Hunt
Project Director

The International Glass Centre

At this time of great change within the British glass industry, the role of the International Glass Centre is more vital than at any other period in its history. The demise of the large glass companies has left the studio glass movement as the only viable and exciting glassmaking in Britain. The technical education required by those artists can be found nowhere better than at the Glass Centre where the intense training provided by dedicated expert tutors is available to everyone from the complete novice to the established glassmaker. The unique activities within its walls have helped to shape the studio glassmaking on the widest possible level. If one took a map of the world and dotted it with pins to represent every previous overseas student at Brierley Hill there would be few countries not covered. The same applies to glass studios around the world set up by ex-students of the Glass Centre. This small building therefore, in Moor Street, Brierley Hill, represents something much larger than just a local college and it richly deserves its reputation and the accolade of 'International'.
 
Charles R. Hajdamach
Glass Author and Historian

Elisabeth Zizlsperger
Galerie am Museum - Eisch Atelier
Grafenauer Str. 8
D-94258 Frauenau
Tel.: +49 (0)9926-180868
email: info@eisch.de