Festival celebrates 10 years of classy glass art

In 2020, the annual Festival of Glass will be 10 years old and it’s holding a three-month birthday party to celebrate.

Special birthday party guests will be the Festival’s 2020 Artists in Residence – Mauro Bonaventura and Davide Salvadore from Murano, Italy. Each is acclaimed internationally for their highly distinctive and innovative glass art. Mauro uses a gas-fired torch to create sculptures of intricately woven strands of glass; Davide creates extraordinary glass vessels and instruments in a gas-fired furnace. Neither artist has been to Australia before and no-one here creates anything like their glass art, so we are proud and excited to introduce them.

The party starts on January 6 with a High Tea at Drysdale’s Café Zoo to launch the Festival’s annual Treasure Hunt, which attracts dozens of North Bellarine businesses and hordes of treasure hunters. Each business commissions a unique piece of glass art and a glass ‘Tiny Treasure’ related to their business from a local artist and displays them until the Treasure Hunt ends on 16th February. When a treasure hunter spots a ‘Tiny Treasure’, the business stamps their entry form; and each entry form stamped by at least ten participating businesses enters a draw for $4,000-worth of glass art. Each Treasure Hunt business will display a poster in its window; a map showing all of them is on the Festival web site.

The Festival’s birthday party continues on February 7, when local glass artist Glenda MacNaughton shows beginners how to create glass art with a hot torch. Next is Mauro Bonaventura’s five-day workshop (February 8-13), offering local artists a unique opportunity to develop their skills and spark their imaginations. People can buy tickets to one or more days. On February 15 at The Range, Curlewis, Mauro will star in “Twilight Flames” – an evening of wonder when he will weave molten glass into fantastic creations as his audience enjoys local finger food and drinks.

The party fun keeps coming at the Festival “Expo” at Drysdale’s Christian College on February 16. Visitors can browse and buy work by more than 40 artists, try their hand at creating jewellery, mosaics and lead lighting, watch demonstrations by Mauro Bonaventura and Davide Salvadore and see the Glass Art Awards ceremony and Treasure Hunt draw. Local glass artists will run workshops for beginning and experienced artists in the following days.

The spotlight turns next to Davide Salvadore’s four day furnace workshop (February 18-21), offering local furnace artists a unique chance to acquire new skills and creative ideas. Students must have two years’ experience of furnace work and can book one or more days at the workshop; places are filling already. Davide will star in the finale of the Festival’s birthday party – “Feast and Furnace” at Flying Brick, Wallington on February 22. In this evening of spectacle and magic, Davide will create amazing sculptures from molten glass in a furnace, as his audience enjoys local finger food and drinks.

Tickets to the “High Tea”, “Twilight Flames” and “Feast and Furnace” would make excellent Christmas gifts – especially for the person who has everything; and any glass artist would love to receive a gift of a ticket to a Festival workshop!

The 2020 Festival of Glass runs from January to March 2019. For information about events, venues and artists, please visit our website festivalofglass.net.au or find us on Facebook.

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