Crafts Council support flameworkers
The Crafts Council is supporting two new flameworking residencies at the University of Sunderland as part of its portfolio of professional support for mid-career craft makers in the UK. Angela Jarman and Jerome Harrington will start their three-month residencies today, 19 January 2009.
Flameworking, also known as lampworking, is a method of producing glass that uses a gas-fuelled torch to melt glass that is then blown and shaped by hand and using a variety of tools. It can be developed in low-tech studios (even in a kitchen!) without advanced equipment and so is a more cost-effective, environmentally-friendly and sustainable form of hot-glass working.
The residencies will enable the selected makers to learn this glass-blowing technique which is rarely practised in the UK. Flameworking is currently more advanced and ambitious in other countries and German flameworker Jochen Holz will join the British Fellows for a part of their residency as an International Fellow.
The aim of the residency programme is to challenge the perceptions of flameworking within contemporary craft in the UK and to further the practice of this glass technique. The Glass & Ceramics Department at the University of Sunderland has established itself as a world leader in research into glass and all three Fellows will be based at the University’s workshops. Hot glass is described as a niche or endangered subject area by Higher Education Institutions and this initiative by the Crafts Council and the University of Sunderland goes some way to establish alternative ways of continuing the tradition of blown glass
“We are very excited about this collaboration with the University of Sunderland. The residencies combined with the broader educational programme will further the knowledge of a lesser known technique in the UK. The standard of applications for the residency was exceptionally high and it was felt that the Fellows chosen would take a dynamic and ambitious approach to this unique opportunity.”
Rosy Greenlees, Executive Director, Crafts Council
‘The University of Sunderland is delighted to be working with the Crafts Council on this new flameworking initiative. Portable, adaptable and user friendly, with a low carbon footprint, flameworking is an exciting working area which offers much to the practitioner and contemporary practice. Through the Institute of International Research in Glass we see these Fellowships as a pilot to spearhead the University of Sunderland’s 3 year national programme to re-position and re-locate lampworking’.
Professor Peter Davies, Head of Glass & Ceramics, University of Sunderland
The flameworking residencies form part of the Crafts Council’s current professional development portfolio for mid-career makers which is piloting three approaches: placing makers in Higher Education Institutions through peer learning residencies; within a museum environment through residencies at the V&A in a programme running from 2008 – 2010, and through studio practice and mentorship for a group of artists in the south-west in partnership with the development agency ArtsMatrix.
The University of Sunderland residencies and south-west programme are both funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.
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For more information please contact Jill Read in the Crafts Council Press Office on Tel: +44 (0) 20 7806 2549, Email: media@craftscouncil.org.uk
Notes to Editors
• The Crafts Council is the national agency for contemporary crafts. It aims to position the UK as the best place in the world for making, seeing and collecting contemporary craft.
• For further information about the Crafts Council visit www.craftscouncil.org.uk
• The Crafts Council is supported by Arts Council England. Arts Council England works to get great art to everyone by championing, developing and investing in artistic experiences that enrich people’s lives. As the national development agency for the arts, it supports a range of artistic activities from theatre to music, literature to dance, photography to digital art, and carnival to crafts. Between 2008 and 2011, Arts Council England will invest £1.3 billion of public money from government and a further £0.3 billion from the National Lottery to create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country.
