Press Release

22nd August 2008

Glass Award Winners for 2008 Announced

Hundreds of guests celebrated with this year’s glass award winners at the opening of the British Glass Biennale exhibition which took place at the Ruskin Glass Centre in Amblecote, Stourbridge, West Midlands on Thursday 21 August.

Tracy Nicholls was blown away when the jurors announced that she was the winner of the British Glass Biennale Award for her triptych – Orphica I, II and III.  Her piece was judged by the Biennale jury to reflect the highest degree of creative achievement in contemporary British glass, and to be the ‘best in show’. 

Will Farmer, Director of Fieldings Auctioneers and chair of the British Glass Biennale jury said “The show is phenomenally strong and the decision, particularly when we narrowed it down to a shortlist of five was really tough.  But all of the jury were unanimous about the winning entry.  There’s something very mysterious about the piece which as a triptych has amazing impact.  It’s strong technically, shows real quality craftsmanship and is beautifully manufactured.  We all loved it”.

The Glass Sellers Award went to Bob Crooks for Vertical Vase and Timothy Boswell received the Glass Sellers Student Award for Fiesta 1. Both winners were selected by the Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers who were looking for originality and talent in the use of glass as a medium of artistic expression.

Professor John Whiteman, chairman of the trustees of the Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers Charity said “We chose Bob Crooks piece from a very strong field because it has a lyrical fluidity which defines a very individual colour palette.  The colours have a very striking purity, translucence and transparency.  The piece also has very fine, opaque swirling and trailing.  In production this master glassmaker has capitalised on the way the piece distorts as a result of temperature changes in the glass making process.  The combination of shape, colour range and translucence are its real strengths.

Timothy Boswell’s piece won the students prize because of the palette of different types of glass, raw materials and techniques it contains such as tubing from neon signs, hollow canes, stringers and rods fused together to produce plaque motifs.

Our runner up prize for the Glass Sellers Award went to James Lethbridge for his piece Serpentine Chandelier, this and Coalescence ii, also in the exhibition, demonstrate his ability over a range of different magnitudes.  Steven Whitehill was our runner up for the Glass Sellers Student Award, his piece “untitled” was chosen because of its simplicity, good use of materials, calmness and elegance – in complete contrast to Timothy Boswell’s”.

The prize money for all three awards totalled £14,000.
British Glass Biennale Award £8,000
Glass Sellers Award £5,000
Glass Sellers Student Award £1,000

The British Glass Biennale is a selling show with over 130 pieces of work ranging from the small scale to large installations and prices from £200 - £35,000 for sale to collectors and buyers.

The exhibition is open daily from 22 August to 28 September at the Ruskin Glass Centre, Stourbridge; the heart of the historic glass industry in the UK.

ENDS

For further information please contact:
  Brendan McKeown on 07966 135536 / Jo Evans on 07732 311821

BRITISH GLASS BIENNALE IMAGE BANK
Images of the artist's work for the 2008 Biennale are available via the IFG website on its image bank: Go to: www.ifg.org.uk/imagebank.html  Then click on BIENNALE IMAGES.

Editor’s notes:

1.  British Glass Biennale, August 22 - September 28
On show at the Ruskin Glass Centre, Wollaston Road, Amblecote, Stourbridge DY8 4HF
Open every day: 10.00am – 5.00pm
ENTRY TO THE EXHIBITION IS FREE

Jury panel members for the 2008 British Glass Biennale are: Director of Fieldings Auctioneers, Will Farmer; Director of Craftspace Touring, Deirdre Figueiredo; Editor of Art & Architecture, Jeremy Hunt; Curator of Applied Art at the Ulster Museum, Kim Mawhinney and Glass Artist, Angela Thwaites.

A highly desirable, full colour hard back catalogue accompanies the British Glass Biennale exhibition. The catalogue features all exhibiting artists work and essays from the jury panel.  The catalogue retails at £28 and is available from the Ruskin Glass Centre, all participating indoor venues throughout the International Festival of Glass and specialist bookshops and galleries.  It is free to the press.

2. People’s Prize
Visitors to the British Glass Biennale exhibition are invited to vote for their favourite piece.  The artist with the most votes will win the People’s Prize which will be announced towards the close of the exhibition. 
 
The winner will receive professional support and promotional materials donated by Craftsman craft&design Magazine and Warm Glass.

SPONSORS/ SUPPORTERS:
Ruskin Mill Educational Trust
Advantage West Midlands
Arts Council England
Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers

Craftsman craft&design Magazine

BRITISH GLASS BIENNALE ARTISTS 2008
* indicates student entry for the Student Glass Sellers Award

Karen Akester Stuart Akroyd Vic Bamforth Grietje Beyaert* Laura Birdsall Timothy George Boswell* Keith Brocklehurst Karen Browning Sean Campbell Sabrina Cant Keeryong Choi Katharine Coleman Bob Crooks Vanessa Cutler Shelley Doolan* Sally Dunnett Matthew Durran Simon Eccles Rachel Mary Elliott Fiaz Elson Sally Fawkes Carrie Fertig Ray Flavell David Flower Stephen Gillies & Kate Jones Karl Harron

Daniel Haut Kate Henderson Clare Henshaw Charlotte Hughes-Martin Catherine Hough Max Jacquard Angela Jarman June Kingsbury Hannah Kippax Peter Layton Sharon Leahy-Clark James Lethbridge Tanwen Llewelyn Charlie Macpherson Allister Malcolm Joanna Manousis* Gayle Matthias Meg McGregor* Jason Morris* Simon Moss Keiko Mukaide Tracy Nicholls Amanda Notarianni Kevin Petrie Anthony Pollock David Reekie Marie Retpen

Stephen Reveley* Bruno Romanelli David Kaplan & Annica Sandström Anthony Scala Lesli Sharples* Robyn Smith Ruth Spaak Andrea Spencer Jude Stoll Abigail Stradling* Sabina Stumberger Nancy Sutcliffe Ayako Tani* Jessica Townsend Margareth Troli Hélène Uffren Andrea Walsh Frans Wesselman Richard William Wheater Steven Whitehill* Angharad Whitfield Kathryn Wightman Marianne Wilde Rachael Woodman Marie Worre Hastrup Holm Jeff Zimmer