Timeline
What happened so far
The third training phase was completed on April 9th with a highlight, the joint participation in the award ceremony for the "Coburg European Glass Prize". Read more
Each training phase ended with an online start-up workshop. Due to Covid and of necessity this took place in a much-reduced form. The management team as well as representatives from the tutors and trainees participated.
It was very interesting to see and experience how the project ideas have developed over the past six months, and with what aplomb the protagonists presented their portfolios to the public.
The North Bohemian glass region in and around Novy Bor is a shining example and model of successful regional development in the field of glass. There is a wide range of synergies in glass crafts, design and art, and a great diversity of business and marketing models, which are primarily based on active regional and international co-operation.
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.
In Frauenau, our goal is to continue assisting young artists to become fit for self-employment. In addition, we want to build a new institutional infrastructure for collaborative work with glass, as well as for networking and marketing of glass makers.
The old glassworks in Bärnbach in Styria is a household name in the glass world thanks to the Styrian state exhibition "Glass & Coal" in 1988. Today, Slovenian glassmakers work there on high-end glass goblets, and Bärnbach masters produce colorful handicraft souvenirs.
In the spring of 2022, our glass-historical exhibition returned to where it was created in 2018 - 2020: to Styria in Austria, which is portrayed as one of five glass landscapes in the exhibition. Styria and glass?
That was the name of a well-attended event at the Munich Chamber of Crafts on January 10, 2022, despite Covid restrictions. The occasion was our touring exhibition “Glass Works. European Glass Lives in Craft, Art and Industry”, which stopped there over the Christmas and New Year period.
The exhibition European Glass Lives in Craft, Art and Industry opened as planned on April 30 in the rooms of Veste Coburg.
The startup-workshop on March 27 put it all in a nutshell: All trainees presented their achievements during the training period, and received external and internal expert critique with view of realising their career ideas and future development.
Our second training phase was able to build on the first and learn from it. Of course, there were differences, because the trainees bring with them very different cultures and backgrounds.
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.
Actually, the exhibition was supposed to wander through different European glass regions, just like the glassmakers portrayed in it. Actually ... because Corona has also messed up our project plans.
Some trainees had already engaged with the world a lot, and had gained experience, others were just at the beginning of their careers. However, they all learned something from the various excursions and activities during the training.
In October 2019 it finally started: the first of three training phases with ten trainees from Germany, Denmark, and the Czech Republic. The first time. There is always something special when theory is matched against practice.
The story of the Meisenthal glassworks in Lorraine is a story of encouragement for the Bavarian Forest and for Glass Works! That is why a small delegation set out in summer 2019 to find out more on the spot.
“Creating Glass Lives” was the headline of our conference and workshop on the future of glass from May 31st to June 1st, 2019.
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.
We got to know how glass miracles are achieved in the Czech Republic at our second plenary meeting in February 2019 in Nový Bor.
We met around a large table in Frauenau in November 2018 for our first partner meeting.
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!
