The Venice Glass Week 2nd Edition
Venice is eagerly awaiting the second edition of the international festival dedicated to glass, which from 9 to 16 September will enliven the city with more than 180 different events including exhibitions, guided tours, conferences, workshops, film screenings, educational activities and more.
The festival, which this year also extends to Mestre, is being organised by the Comune di Venezia, the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, the Fondazione Cini/LE STANZE DEL VETRO, the Istituto Veneto and the Consorzio Promovetro Murano. Among the new additions for 2018 is ‘The Venice Glass Week HUB’ at Palazzo Querini and an informationkiosk in Campo Santo Stefano.
The second edition of The Venice Glass Week, the major international festival dedicated to the art of glass, will be inaugurated on Saturday 8 September at 5 pm at the Glass Museum, Murano, in conjunction with the opening of the Mario Bellini in Murano exhibition, curated by Gabriella Belli and Chiara Squarcina. It will involve the public in more than 180 events in Venice, Murano and, for the first time, also Mestre, until 16 September 2018.
The event is promoted by the Town Council of Venice and conceived by three of Venice’s principal cultural institutions with considerable experience and expertise in the field of glass – Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, Fondazione Giorgio Cini/LE STANZE DEL VETRO and Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere e d Arti along with the most important trade association, the Consorzio Promovetro Murano, which also manages the Vetro Artistico® Murano trademark of the Veneto Region. The festival aims to celebrate the art of glass an artistic and productive resource for which the city is renowned world wide and the organisers are getting ready to set the ball rolling again with many new events and initiatives.
Firstly, for the first time the event is being extended to the Venetian mainland, where, in anticipation of the official opening of the festival, the public opening of the Glass. The current relevance of an Art exhibition, organised by the Comune di Venezia and curated by Chiara Squarcina, will take place on Friday 7 September at 5 pm at Villa Erizzo, which houses the VEZ Civic Library. The exhibition is intended to present the best of contemporary glass production, both of blown glass and lamp worked glass with works by a selection of Murano artists: Mauro Bonaventura, Lucio Bubacco, Michele Burato, SimoneCrestani, Massimo Micheluzzi and Massimo Nordio, and the Salviati and Seguso Vetri d’Arte companies.
THE PROGRAMME
The multi-venue festival, The Venice Glass Week, will then get under way officially on Sunday 9 September with the opening of The M.V.M. Cappellin Glassworks and the Young Carlo Scarpa 1925 – 1931 exhibition, curated by Marino Barovier at LE STANZE DEL VETRO on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, and will consist of a wide range of events spread throughout the district: more than 180, with a 20% increase in participation over last year. The events most of them with free entrance exhibitions, guided tours, conferences, seminars, prize-giving ceremonies, film screenings, educational activities, special openings, races between glass furnaces, parties, aperitifs and open glassworks all have the main theme of artistic glass and are intended for audiences ofall ages.
All participants were approved this year by a curatorial committee chaired by the glass historian Rosa Barovier Mentasti, and include foundations, art galleries, museums(among which we note a number of new entries including: Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Palazzo Fortuny and Museo di Storia Naturale and Louis Vuitton), cultural organisations, universities and advanced education institutes, as well as glass furnaces, companies, artists and private Italian and foreign collectors, confirms the dynamism and vitality of Venice’s cultural scene, and provides a strong indication of the local and international interest in the field of glass.
The events promoted or organised by the promotional committee of The Venice Glass Week include the seventh presentation of the Venetian glass study days, one of the most important annual appointments for glass scholars, hosted by the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, this year focusing on mould blown glass, moulded glass and hot applications over the centuries. On Wednesday 12 September the Istituto Veneto will also be hosting the prize-giving ceremonies for the Glass in Venice and Riedel prizes, and exhibiting the winning entries. The Fondazione Giorgio Cini will host the first major exhibition on European craft artistry, organised by the Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship: Homo Faber: Crafting a More Human Future, a cultural event of international importance, which puts the best of rare, contemporary and traditio- nal arts professions under the spotlight, along with their links to the world of design, with a selection of works in glass curated by Jean Blachaert.
However, the events organised by the Promotional Committee are only part of what will bring The Venice Glass Week to life. Along with the initiatives more directly linked to glass, there will also be poetry, music and cinema events. Finally, there will be children’s activities organised by Artsystem; drinks receptions and themed dinners; guided tours and also The Mouth of Fire2018, a night time race organised by ASD Venezia Runners Atletica Murano in which participants will run along the calli and across the bridges of Murano on Saturday 15th September on a course lit by candles, passing through six fully operating glassworks
The Venice Glass Week – Program:
All events in The Venice Glass Week programme will be distinguished by a unique logo conceived in 2016 by Anna Scaini, a second year student in the graphic design course at IED Venice. The logo has been creatively enhanced for the 2018 edition by Cristina Morandin, who has adapted it to evoke the filigree working of Murano glass and digital modelling.
