Časová osa

The Third Training Phase

Each training phase has its own dynamic in its structure, and can develop and build on the experiences of the previous training phases. Each trainees’ group has its own character, which is formed from the dialogue between the selected trainees, with their individual profiles and projects on the one hand, and the changing tutors on the other. Learning from each other at eye level, in the interaction of craftsmanship, art and design is a key point of the training phases.
It was very pleasing that at the start of our third training phase, the number of applications had more than doubled compared to the previous time. When selecting the trainees this time more attention was paid to the technical basics. As a result, there were four trained glassblowers from three countries in the group!
Another novelty was the tutoring. Kit Paulson, a glass artist from the USA, supervised the project on site in Frauenau. Whilst B. Jane Cowie, glass artist and project manager from Singapore, was regularly connected to the group via the web, and was also available to the trainees individually as required. Both tutors were no strangers to Bild-Werk due to their work as summer academy teachers in previous years. In addition to the broad quality of their artistic content, they were also very valuable for the trainees because of their professional market presence in the digital age.
The training was again accompanied by online lectures and discussions with successful players in the international glass scene. The trainees particularly benefited from the wider intercontinental contacts of the two tutors.
As a result, the trainees not only brought new “business skills” back to Frauenau, but also exciting insights into a region that offers studios and companies, especially of artisans, a structural base.

Our Way to Glass Works

The closure and decline of most of the East Bavarian glassworks from 2006 on the one hand, the departure of young, well-trained glass students on the other: We did not want to accept these developments impotently. After all, the history of glass – as staged in the Frauenau Glass Museum – illustrates how innovatively glassmakers in Europe have always reacted to the ups and downs of the economy and culture!

Excursion to Nový Bor

We (the Frauenau and Graz teams, as well as Troels and Susanne Jøker Johnsen from Bornholm) got to know how glass miracles are achieved in the Czech Republic at our second plenary meeting in February 2019 in Nový Bor. Welcomed with hospitality by Petr and Ondřej Novotný, we discussed our criteria and goals between glass interior design, studio glass and design. At Moser in Karlsbad and Ajeto in Lindava we saw fully occupied furnace halls. We were amazed how orders and resources are shared over short distances while still benefiting from the globalized customers of old Czechoslovakia. We learned how five young glass craftsmen create artworks for public spaces in Amsterdam and Dubai as a „collective”. We listened to Zdenek Kunc talk about his glassmaking trips, and we were amazed at Jiří Pačinek, who is planning his second small glassworks. We experienced how at HG Atelier Design furniture is made from cut glass, metal and light … so far we can only dream of all of this. Make miracles!

On the Trail of Border Crossers: Researching the Traveling Exhibition

The glass painter and glazier Conradus Glaser, who was born in the Bohemian Forest, travelled to work at the construction sites of large structures in today‘s Czech Republic, Germany and Poland in the 14th century. Monthermé – Porto Valtravaglia – Intra on Lake Maggiore – Varese – Wingen-sur-Moder – Saint-Louis-lès-Bitche were stops for the Walter-Griener family of glassmakers in the early 19th century. The glass artist Maria Koshenkova (born 1981), who was born in Russia and now lives in Denmark, works in various locations in Europe and overseas.
Glass and border crossing have always been linked. The European glass regions inspired each other. When Lisa started research at the University of Graz for the planned Glass Works touring exhibition in 2019, she was instantly fascinated by the skilled and artistically gifted border crossers who were behind this exchange: They were to become the centerpiece of the exhibition. In archives, museums, books, on trips to France, Eastern Bavaria and Northern Czechia, during cross-border phone calls, in e-mails and in interviews, glass people from the past and the present could be followed. In designing our touring exhibition, we trace their cross-border biographies of movement in pictures, texts, glasses and maps.

The Trainees on Their Way

Whether a designer, artisan or artist, self-employed or employed. The ten trainees all had different plans for the future. After having accompanied them intensively for six months and got to know them personally, it is exciting to see how they use this unique opportunity for them in very different ways.
There is the designer with a fascination for light installations, who now works part-time in a lighting planning office and uses the rest of the time to set up her own business. There is the former set designer who, thanks to the scholarship, has had the courage to go into business for himself as a glass maker, and who is well on the way to being successful with it. Or the glass artist and the architect and designer, between whom more than a professional collaboration arose during the training: Together with their little son, they are currently setting up a showroom in Prague.
As different as the goals of the trainees were, as different are the stations they are currently at. But what they all have in common is that they were given six months of free time in which they could devote themselves exclusively to their professional future with their own strength, but also with comprehensive support.