The Glass Lab is a school of glass alchemy hosted within The Glass Foundry.

It exists to enable the Glass Arts to SURVIVE, DIVERSIFY & develop INNOVATION through COLLABORATION. It does this through fundraising and offering residencies, scholarships, exhibitions and outreach workshops.

SURVIVAL. Glass Art, though an ancient craft, is an increasingly expensive one which is why glass courses at universities have significantly declined. Graduates from the remaining courses are struggling to find placements in professional studios to develop their practice & establish themselves. There are also many artists whose practice has lapsed because of the difficulty of maintaining a studio & a majority of these, our research shows, are women.

DIVERSITY. Creative Director of The Glass Foundry, Fiaz Elson, had to overcome biases related to her ethnicity & gender to achieve her position in the field. The Glass Lab will prioritise diversity, equity & inclusion in its outreach, selection & hosting of residencies and scholarships.

INNOVATION. Bringing something new to the methods of making & showing glass art. To thrive & not just survive we need to foster originality & invention, not just in processes of creation but in ways audiences’ access & purchase the work.

COLLABORATION. Glass Art, perhaps because of the complexity & precarity of its production, is an isolating endeavour. While artists meet on the exhibition circuit they don’t regularly correspond or collaborate in the making process. We want to change that and make glass art a welcoming community of practice and collaboration.