Venice, 9 – 16 September 2018
The international festival dedicated to the art of glass returns with more than 180 different events including exhibitions, guided tours, conferences, workshops, performances and educational activities.
Comune di Venezia, Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, Fondazione Cini/LE STANZE DEL VETRO, Istituto Veneto and Consorzio Promovetro Murano present the second edition of the festival that from 9th to 16th September will involve all the main institutions in the city, with several new additions.
From 9 to 16 September 2018, more than 150 participants, with a total of over 180 events across Venice, Mestre and Murano, will take part in the second edition of The Venice Glass Week, the major international festival dedicated to the art of glass, conceived to celebrate the artistic and economic resource for which Venice is famous around the world.
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 and Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti – along with the most important trade association, the Consorzio Promovetro Murano, which also manages the Vetro Artistico® Murano trademark of the Veneto Region. This year’s edition has again attracted a large number of participants, with a 20% increase over the first year’s festival.
Hundreds of applications were originally submitted for review and selection by the curatorial committee that was introduced this year, chaired by the Venetian glass historian Rosa Barovier Mentasti, and including critics and curators Chiara Bertola and Jean Blanchaert, journalist and editor of the German magazine Neues Glas Uta Klotz, and chemist, university teacher and expert in the composition of glass materials Marco Verità. The high volume of applications, from foundations, art galleries, museums – among which we note the participation for the first time of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Palazzo Fortuny and Museo di Storia Naturale -, cultural institutions, 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 rich and expansive programme for The Venice Glass Week festival will involve varied and widespread events across the district, which this year also extends to the mainland, with Mestre now one of its main centres, along with Venice and Murano. The events, most with free entrance, will all have artistic glass as their main theme and be aimed at audiences of all ages: exhibitions, guided tours, conferences, seminars, prize-giving ceremonies, film screenings, educational activities, parties, drinks receptions, open studios and a non-competitive night-time race around the candle-lit streets, canals and glass-furnaces of Murano.
MUSEO CORRER’S PROGRAMME
Conference: The Corning Museum
Museo Correr
11th September 2018, 11am
The Director of the Corning Museum, Karol Wight, has been invited by the Director of Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, Gabriella Belli, to present an important organisation, which is active overseas in the documentation and preservation of the ancient art of glassmaking by hosting renowned Murano Glass Masters, who create artworks using the traditional techniques in a dedicated area.
The event aims in particular to illustrate the several decades of experience of this United States Museum and the effectiveness of its communication approach, aimed at telling the story of glass from its origins until today. Karol Wight will illustrate in detail the activities and the exhibition programme of the Corning Museum, with the aim of stressing the important role of this glass museum in the preservation and diffusion of such an ancient and precious form of art.
The conference will explore alternative possibilities for exhibiting glass, which are different compared with those implemented by the Museo del Vetro di Murano but likewise are based on a correct dissemination of an art which keeps a tight connection with the present and with contemporary creativity, without forgetting the past.
Discover Musei Civici di Venezia’s complete programme >
For information and for discover general programme: