The Place and The Work

 

2014 International Conference and Master Classes.

The Place and The Work Conference will be held on Saturday 6, Sunday 7 September. Class sessions run 27 August – 4 September and 9 – 16 September. Making art works in relation to place is the focus of the North Lands Creative Glass Conference and Master Classes 2014; acknowledging how artists and their work connect to their surroundings, landscape, architecture, history and social context. We see more interactive public art, more artists responding to and working with communities. Artists are making works that respond to weather, nature or urban environments, to political discourse and social situations. It seems that some artists and public demand less autonomous disconnected sculpture favouring instead a more connected vision. We ask questions about what it means to experience remoteness, how this and being in a place away from home affect an artist’s work. What influences the particularities of a landscape can have and what it means to collaborate with artists in close proximity, to work intensively with no distractions and to embrace or reject the surroundings. What can happen when we go beyond our familiar studio environment and step outside into a bigger picture? What does it mean to be a glass specialist in this place, at this time? More details for the Classes and Conference programme will be announced shortly.

Photo credit: James Ross

Conference 2013. ‘The Real Thing: Beyond Stereotyping’

This year’s Conference will be held on Saturday 7, Sunday 8 September. It explores cultural identities and features Master Class leaders along with notable international speakers from the world of arts and culture.

What delegates from the 2012 Conference said:

‘Esoteric, informative, thought provoking…your whole program inspires creative thinking’ – Susan Stinsmuehlen-Amend

‘Thoroughly enjoyed, highly informative and diverse lectures’ – Amanda Simmons

‘There was brilliant combination of speakers with diverse points of view’ – Jacqueline Poncelet

‘Each time I welcome the mix of speakers and particularly enjoyed the theme this year…the conference is very worthwhile and I find that the themes are relevant to me and that I gain a greater insight not only into what is happening in glass but in the wider art scene’ – Rose Watban

‘It is intellectually and artistically stimulating. Plus a great chance to network with other professionals and catch up with friends’ – Victoria Scholes

You can book your place through our website

Here is the full programme:

SATURDAY
9.15 Welcome, Opening Remarks
9.30 ‘Jewellery in the Age of Queen Victoria: A Mirror to the World’ – Keynote Presentation.
Judy Rudoe FSA has worked at the British Museum since 1974, specialising in jewellery, together with 19th and 20th century decorative arts. This lecture, drawn from her latest book Jewellery in the Age of Queen Victoria: A Mirror to the World, is the result of 30 years research, together with Charlotte Gere. Web resources produced a vast amount of totally unexpected information on jewellery with fish scales or live glow-worms or electrical batteries that enabled a death’s head to gnash its teeth and roll its eyes and why there was a craze for Colorado beetles in 1877. Queen Victoria’s own choice of jewellery was enormously influential, so what might seem a narrow subject acts as a key to our understanding of the Victorian age – its mourning rituals, its politics, its nationalism – all are embodied in its jewellery. Judy will focus on what jewellery meant to the people who wore it, in both public and private spheres, on the layers of meaning that jewellery could convey and on its function as a symbol of national identity, in particular the recreation of tradition in Scotland.
10.30 Morning Coffee
11.15 ‘Change and the Solitude of Detail’. Deborah Cocks (Master Class Leader) says: ‘As participants know, when a workshop begins there is a flurry of learning new techniques, acquiring new ideas and new friends. Then sometime, usually on day three, a quiet descends on the room as each of us works within our own space and thoughts; solitude within a group. It is a wonderful meditation where the new is added to the old. I think life is like this. We embrace or reject change, reflect on what has passed and retreat into the detail to make sense of it all. I hope what I make reflects this intricacy. I think this is where my talk will start.’
12.15 ‘Standing in the Maze’. Judy Tuwaletstiwa is a writer and a mixed media painter. Her paintings have been exhibited internationally and are part of numerous private, corporate and public collections. She says: ‘I grew up with immigrant Jewish grandparents in multi-cultural East Los Angeles. I lived many years in the woods of Northern California and on The Hopi Indian Reservation in Arizona. I now live in New Mexico. In the elemental landscape of the vast southwestern desert, a thin membrane separates the daily world from the world of the unconscious. I shall talk about that world and how I use what we all share…personal memory, cultural memory, biological memory, ethnic memory, mythic memory…to create the vocabulary that forms my art. I shall also discuss how glass has become an essential part of that vocabulary during the past year as Exchange Artist with Bullseye Glass.’
13.15 Lunch
14.30 ‘A Future for Mali’s Past’. The typical mud brick architecture of the city of Djenné is highly important for the cultural identity of the local Malian people and also recognised as of worldwide importance by UNESCO. It is listed as a World Heritage Site. Thus Djenné is not only awarded the international status it deserves, but the preservation of its monumental architecture becomes a common responsibility. In order to preserve this vulnerable architecture, constant maintenance and restoration work is essential. In addition, it is important that local knowledge of mud brick construction is not lost, and that the local people are made aware of the significance of their unique heritage. The Museum of Ethnology and the Malian Ministry of Culture have been working together since 1996 on the restoration of the architectural heritage in Djenné. Through restoring this historical architecture and providing work for local masons, the future of this remarkable cultural heritage is ensured for both Malian and foreign visitors to Djenné. Dr. Annette Schmidt studied Prehistory at the University of Leiden. She led an international excavation in Dia (Mali) and since 2002 she has been Curator of Africa at the Museum of Ethnology, Leiden.
15.30 ‘Weaving glass’. Anne-Lise Riond Sibony (Master Class Leader) says: ’Deep down, my work is not about glass, it is about weaving. My threads are material and immaterial. They are, for instance, emotions, memories, paintings, colours, volumes and many techniques… I weave together these threads that are of fundamentally different natures. As my work proceeds, some get the upper hand and others fade out, but all contribute to the fabric of glass and of meaning from which my pieces are made.’
16.30 Tea at Waterlines Visitor Centre, Lybster Harbour
18.00 Exhibition Preview: ‘Made In Lybster’. An exhibition of new works from the North Lands Creative Glass Collection of Contemporary Glass.
20.00 Dinner and Conference Party

SUNDAY

9.15 ‘From Mantelpiece to White Cube, Progression or Circumstance?’ Richard Slee (Master Class Leader) says: ‘This presentation will trace the ambitions and circumstances during my now long creative career. During this time I have travelled from producing a mural in Macedonia to initiating an ornament amnesty art event at an art fair in Middlesbrough. Have I shaped my practice or has my practice shaped me? In an art world where diversity is celebrated is the specialist maker still special?’
10.15 Morning Coffee
10.45 ‘The Art of Modern Tapestry’. Since it was founded in 1912, with weavers from William Morris’s workshops, Edinburgh’s Dovecot Studios have produced tapestries and rugs ranging from traditional wall hangings to experimental textile art. Often these have been made in partnership with famous painters. The success of this collaboration between artist and weaver has varied throughout the century. An artist might expect a design or painting to be ‘simply’ translated into textile, by matching colours and echoing brushwork. At best, however, weaver and artist can together evolve a new work in which the spirit of the initial design enters a quite new and sometimes unanticipated, even magical, dimension. Curator and historian, Elizabeth Cumming, explores the nature of modern tapestry and that crucial artist-weaver relationship via a range of tapestries designed with British and American artists from Graham Sutherland to Louise Nevelson, Eduardo Paolozzi to Frank Stella.
11.45 Demonstrations in the Alastair Pilkington Studio
13.15 Lunch
14.30 ‘Recorded Influences’. Eeva Käsper (Master Class Leader) says: ‘The theme of influences has accompanied me for several years. By mapping the influences which guide and affect us, we can better recognize their impact to our creative work. For me glass is the material of endless possibilities. My works are based on personal experience and are influenced by intermediate states of consciousness that are as abstract as the form I have chosen to express them. Fascinated to discover and record the states of mind that have originated in an emotional memory, my works of glass often describe a fragile contemplative environment of perception.’
15.30 Summing-up by Tina Oldknow, Curator of Modern Glass, Corning Museum of Glass.
16.00 Concluding remarks

The 2013 Conference is sponsored by Corning Incorporated, USA & Bullseye Glass Co

2013 Master Class and Conference Programme

See full details of our programme in this year’s brochure

Master Classes

28 Aug – 5 Sept: ‘Working the Surface – Texture, Detail, Stories and Patterns’
Deborah Cocks is regarded as one of Australia’s foremost exponents of reverse glass painting.This class will build a repertoire of glass painting techniques by experimenting with vitreous paints and silver stain in conjunction with cold techniques.

28 Aug – 5 Sept: ‘The Gravity of the Objects’
Anne-lise Riond Sibony is one of France’s most innovative artists working with glass. This class will concentrate on small-scale installations and compositions made from an assemblage of non-identical elements. The main technique will be blowing – from free-blown shapes to painted mould-blown artefacts.

10 Sept – 18 Sept: ‘On the Edge of Knowing’
Tiina Sarapu is one of Estonia’s leading artists working in glass. The focus of this class will be on personal expression and vision. From first working with paper as the simulation material for glass, Tiina will explore different slumping techniques with sheet glass.

10 Sept – 18 Sept: ‘Unknowns’
Ceramic artist Richard Slee is one of british craft’s most compelling figures. He will lead this class in an exploration of free-formed blown glass, in partnership with the participants and with the expert help of artist and glassblower Richard Price.

International Conference – ‘The Real Thing: Beyond Stereotyping’
7 and 8 September

The Conference will explore cultural identities. Speakers will include the Master Class leaders; Keynote speaker Judy Rudoe FSA, author and curator at the British Museum, specialising in jewellery together with 19^th and 20^th century decorative arts; Judy Tuwaletstiwa, writer,mixed media painter from the US and during the past year Exchange Artist with Bullseye Glass; curator, writer and historian Elizabeth Cumming and Annette Schmidt, leader of an international excavation in Djenne Mali and Curator Africa at the Museum of Ethnology Leiden since 2002.

The Conference is sponsored by the Corning Incorporated, USA and is supported by Bullseye Glass Co.

Apply for Master Classes and book Conference places online

Print a booking form

Contact Grace MacBeath for any further information:
grace.macbeath@northlandsglass.com
Tel: 01593721229

And into Autumn….

The 2012 Master Class and Conference programme feels both a distant memory and just like yesterday, things haven’t stopped since then and we currently have Amanda Simmons here for a 3-day Skills Class in Kiln Formed Glass Vessels, but that’s another post…

This year saw a great Master Class programme:
26 August – 6 September
‘From the Outside In’ with Angela Jarman
‘Give and Take’ with Jacqueline Poncelet

11 – 19 September
‘What’s the Big Idea…Sand Casting’ with Paul Marioni
‘Painting in the Space of Glass’ with Susan Sinsmuehlen-Amend

The Conference was exceptional, the theme was ‘Give and Take’ and featured a diverse range of speakers – the full programme is listed here.

It was a  wonderfully collaborative event this year as we worked with Scottish Glass Society and Contemporary Glass Society as part of the UK-wide event Glass Games 2012, celebrating the spirit of the London 2012 Olympics. We were also pleased to host the Scottish Glass Society Annual Exhibiton, this year on the theme of Cultural Exchange, and to be the final destination on the journey of the Glass Games Glass Baton

You can see more pictures in our Flickr set

2012 International Conference: Give and Take

There’s still time to join us for the North Lands Creative Glass 2012 International Conference. Taking place on Saturday 8, Sunday 9 September, the programme explores conceptual and stylistic exchanges over time, between different cultures and media.

You can still book a place through our website or email info@northlandsglass.com or call 01593 721229

We hope to see you there!

The full programme:

SATURDAY
9.15 Welcome, opening remarks
9.30 ‘Postmodernism’ – Keynote Presentation. Jane Pavitt is Head of the History of Design Programme and Dean of the School of Humanities at the Royal College of Art. Former Research Fellow at the V&A, she was responsible for many exhibitions. Her presentation will outline the thinking behind the V&A’s 2011 exhibition Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970-1990 in relation to ‘Give and Take’, the conference theme. Postmodernism was the first exhibition to explore the international impact of the style on art, design, architecture, film, video and performance.
Spanning a broad range of subject areas including fashion, craft, graphics, furniture and product design, the exhibition research aimed to uncover the histories behind the conception, making, dissemination and reception of postmodern artefacts and images. It explored the complex and often controversial debates within these design disciplines in the 1970s and 1980s. She will explain the research processes behind the exhibition, exploring postmodernism’s potential to foster interdisciplinarity, and the continuing legacy of postmodernism for design today.
10.30 Morning coffee
11.15 ‘Interventions in Nature’. Angela Jarman says: ‘ My work has always been influenced by the natural world, and the biological aspects within it. I’m trying to create pieces which have a sense of beauty, but which also have a quality about them which makes them slightly strange and disturbing, a lurking sense of unease, something uncomfortable, sinister.’ In her lecture Angela will offer an insight into her work, her sources of inspiration and her thoughts about glass as a material.
12.15 In a change to the advertised programme, Rupert Faulkner who is Senior Curator, Japan, in the Asian Department of the V&A will speak about the current V&A display ‘Kitty and the Bulldog: Lolita fashion and the influence of Britain’. The display explores the way in which British fashion – notably Victoriana, Punk and Gothic – has influenced the development of Japan’s ‘Lolita’ style, a cult fashion movement whose defining feature has been its preoccupation with cuteness, or ‘kawaii’. Rupert’s publications include Japanese Studio
Crafts: Tradition and the Avant-Garde (1995), with an exhibition of the same title. He is often a jury member at domestic and international ceramics competitions.
13.15 Lunch
14.30 ‘African Aesthetics: Beauty and Ugliness from Sub-Saharan Perspectives’. Ever since the early 20th century, when the European avant-garde started to show interest, African art has been increasingly appreciated in the West for its aesthetic qualities. But how do Africans themselves evaluate their artistic expressions? What counts as aesthetic quality in the eyes of the original producers and users of the masks and figures that have so fascinated the West? In this lecture we will be considering African conceptions of beauty and the ways these are realised in works of art.
Attention will be given to the relationship between aesthetics and ethics as well as to the religious function of beauty in African cultures. The discussion will also focus on the reverse of beauty, addressing the contexts in which intentionally ugly art forms function in traditional Sub-Saharan African societies. Wilfried van Damme teaches World Art Studies at Leiden Univerisity and African Art at Ghent Univeristy. He is an Extraordinary Professor at Tilburg University.
15.30 ‘Give and Take’. Jacqueline Poncelet will talk about the need to Give and Take in the context of public art commissions. She will give examples from the different projects she has undertaken over the last 14 years. No two projects have been the same. They have varied in every possible way from the size of the project, the materials, the context, the relationship to the commissioning parties and the time taken to complete each one. The only constant has been the need to Give and Take.
16.30 Tea and Lybster Harbour – for demonstrations of traditional skills and ‘Glass Games’ events
18.00 Opening of the Scottish Glass Society Exhibition.
20.00 Dinner and Conference Party

SUNDAY
9.15 ‘Fashion loves Art: A Passionate Affair’. Remember Yves Saint Laurent’s brightly coloured Mondriaan dresses of 1965 and the ‘OpArt’ mini dresses of the 1960s? They are vivid illustrations of the centuries-long love affair between fashion and art. Couturiers are past masters at capturing the contemporary ‘Zeitgeist’ in their designs, while artists have frequently used clothing as a way to give all-round expression to their aesthetic ideas. Madelief Hohé, Curator of the exhibition ‘Fashion loves Art: A Passionate Affair’, will explore some of the major themes in the show. From the 19th century, contemporary art has been strongly influencing fashion. She will discuss the reasons why that development has played so important a part in shaping identities and, specifically, how it is related to the increasing influence and freedom women now enjoy in society. Madelief Hohé is an art historian, author and curator of the Fashion and Costume Department at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag in The Hague. There she has curated a number of exhibitions and has been responsible for the related publications.
10.15 Morning coffee
10.45 ‘Conceptual Mingling in the Space of Glass’. Susan Stinsmuehlen-Amend says: ‘Painting and firing of glass is a very old craft usually associated with stained glass, religious architecture and a narrative tradition. What greater, relatively obscure field of historic convention to transgress! I have always been a painter dealing with the “space of glass” no matter what permutations the work has taken. My conceptual approach to painting on glass is a paradoxical one, a hybridization of unlikely methods, styles, and imagery that reflect on the complexities of life. There is the thought that at a certain point the contradictions portrayed in the work cease to be perceived as conflict and create a logic of their own. This presentation will reveal intention, sources and (probable) meaning in my glass constructions and paintings.’
11.45 ‘Glass Games’ events and demonstrations
13.15 Lunch
14.30 ‘I am in motion’. Paul Marioni says: ‘I have a surrealist’s attitude and work with the medium of glass for its distinct ability to capture and manipulate light to create an illusion. Most of my work has been figurative and about human nature: what we do, why we do it, how we ornament ourselves, our heroes, historical moments, humour, sexuality, exotic and/or lost cultures, and a constant questioning. My work is often and purposefully left open to interpretation. I don’t want to tell the viewer what to think, but rather cause them to think. Science is used to explain, I believe that art is meant to evoke and engage.’
15.30 Summing-up by Tina Oldknow.
15.45 ‘Glenfiddich’. Glenfiddich Distillery is a Speyside single malt whisky distillery owned by William Grant & Sons. Founded in 1886 by William Grant, whose ambition was to create the ‘best dram in the valley’, 120 years later the distillery is still owned and run by the fifth generation of the same family. Glenfiddich malt, in its distinctive triangular bottles, is sold in 180 countries worldwide. Since 1970, the Glenfiddich Food and Drink Awards have honoured distinguished writing and broadcasting on food and drink in the UK and, from 2002, Glenfiddich has funded an international Artist-in-Residence programme with participants from all parts of the world. Bert Macor will discuss the distillery’s history and dedication to craftsmanship, concluding his talk with a tasting. Dutchman Bert Macor is the Senior Guide of the Glenfiddich visitor centre, and a passionate ambassador and connoisseur of malt whisky. He owned a wine and whisky shop in the Netherlands and has lived in Scotland since 2006.
16.30 Concluding remarks
The 2012 Conference is sponsored by Corning Incorporated, USA

Master Class and Conference Brochure

You can now see full details of our 2012 Master Class and Conference programme in our brochure

Master Class and Conference Booking Form

Master Classes for 2012 will be running between 29 August to 19 September.

We offer a total of four Master Classes, with two running concurrently before the Conference and two after. The first two Master Classes will run from 29 August to 6 September with Angela Jarman and Jacqui Poncelet. The second two Classes will run from 11 to 19 September with Paul Marioni and Susan Stinsmuehlen-Amend.

Our International Conference ‘Give-and-Take’ will take place on Saturday 8, Sunday 9 September 2012. The conference will explore conceptual and stylistic exchanges over time, between different cultures and media.

Dates for your diary! 2012 Master Classes and International Conference

Our glass Master Classes for 2012 will be running between 29 August to 19 September, and instructors include Angela Jarman, Jacqui Poncelet, Paul Marioni and Susan Stinsmuehlen-Amend.

Our International Conference ‘Give-and-Take’ will take place on Saturday 8, Sunday 9 September 2012. The conference will explore conceptual and stylistic exchanges over time, between different cultures and media.

Take a look at our blog post from the 2011 Conference and our Master Class Flickr images – every picture tells a story!

International Conference 2011 – Touching the Past

Touching the Past was the theme of this year’s International Conference. The North Lands Conference is unlike most other conferences. Its aim is to bring together the best of glass, art and craft to explore expansive themes in an inspirational environment.

What you get is a multi-layered experience encompassing eloquent speakers covering an eclectic mix of topics, stimulating conversation and discussion with a wonderfully diverse range of delegates. All this set in a truly inspirational environment and landscape, with warm and friendly local people.

The Conference doesn’t focus exclusively on glass although features artists including Master Class leaders talking about their work and inspiration. The other talks are wide ranging in subject matter, this year saw topics of an art historical approach to jewellery, the local history of herring fishing and the women workers and their gansey knitting, African traditions of commemorative printed textiles, and a presentation from keynote speaker Jane Pritchard of the V&A about Diaghilev and the Ballet Russes and the challenges of creating an exhibition which brings theatrical material to life. You can see the full programme here

Added to the mix was traditional entertainment in a Conference party come Scottish ceilidh, and a tour of the impressive Sinclair Girnigoe Castle ruin.

The Conference is a remarkable and once tried, never forgotten experience in a wonderful location.

You can see more photos from the event in our Flickr set

If you were there, we’d love to see some of your photos in our Flickr group pool