Twenty-first century glass renaissance: the Venice Glass Week

The Venice Glass Week takes place in glass’ well-known hometown: Venice. This year more than 190 events are scheduled between the 7th and 15th of September 2019, not only involving world-renowned Muranese glass masters, such as Massimo Micheluzzi and Simone Cenedese, but also giving space to emerging glass artists from all over the planet to present their artworks.

Uprising talents will have the chance to show their concepts and projects in notable and exclusive Venetian galleries and palaces.  

The Venice Glass Week mixes tradition with innovation, history and present times, function and aesthetics. Above all, the Festival aims at getting people’s attention to the wide and unexplored world of glass art.

Besides exhibitions and workshops, this special nine-days week will see lots of guided tours inside real Muranese furnaces: visitors will have the unique chance to get a first-hand experience with glass blowing, discovering all the stages involved in the creation of glass artworks.

They will soon understand that behind a simple vase found in a design shop there is a long story, made of strong efforts and supreme mastery necessary to handle this fragile and unpredictable material.  

Participants will present their works in commercial galleries, shops, hotels, and museums all around Venice, Murano and Mestre. The central spot will be The Venice Glass Week Hub, consisting of two historic palaces – Palazzo Loredan and Palazzo Franchetti, at Campo Santo Stefano, Venice – headquarters of the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, part of the Organising Committee. 

From the four corners of the earth, glass artists and masters will gather thanks to The Venice Glass Week: this year the Organising Committee arranged a design award for the best concept to be delivered on 11th September 2019 at Palazzo Franchetti, consisting of a cash prize of €1,000.00, the “Bonhams Prize for The Venice Glass Week”.

This prize is sponsored by the Modern Decorative Art and Design Department (New York) of Bonhams: the international auction house is one of the largest and most important worldwide, founded in 1793 and specialising in fine art, ancient art, cars and jewellery.

The Festival won’t let glass and its charm drown in rich and luxurious chandelier commissions – masterpieces designed and handcrafted in Murano – soon packed and delivered to the other side of the world.

As a result, unique glassworks get unnoticed by most people, who take a quick view at low-quality glass sculpture of souvenirs shops and walk ahead. Thus, promoting and giving a new life to this ancient material could be a challenging task. Mainly due to its unique setting and urban context, Venice and its lagoon are a tough ground for large scale events.

Logistics and setups must be organised across the countless canals, bridges and tiny streets of the city, exposing glass art pieces to high risks of danger resulting in large costs of transportation and insurance policies.

Moreover, it could be surprising, but the surface area of Venice is only 7.6 squared-km, meaning that if you could drive throughout the city it will take you 5 minutes only!

Organising a festival in such location is even harder due to high competition with multiple art institutions such as the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Le Stanze del Vetro, Prada Foundation, Palazzo Grassi, Punta Della Dogana and many more Venetian cornerstones, squeezed in so little space. 

Now you can also help to spread the voice about The Venice Glass Week 2019, ready to begin in a few days to show all its power and strength in this complicated, but intriguing and curious art microcosm.