New three-year funding for Festival of Glass

The City of Greater Geelong (CoGG) will be a major sponsor of the Festival of Glass for the three years 2015 – 2017.

CoGG’s sponsorship will come through its Arts and Culture portfolio, which has invested in each of the four Festivals of Glass since 2011. CoGG's support has assisted the Festival committee to attract more financial investment – principally, three-year sponsorship by the Bendigo Bank, plus several smaller donations from glass companies.

Sponsorship by the CoGG and the Bendigo Bank raises the Festival's status and profile, showing that it is publicly accountable through the council's accounting procedures. This encourages local organisations such as Rotary, Lions and SES to become involved in building an innovative and attractive event that is community-based and community-building.

The Festival committee is grateful for the council's and the Bank’s support, as well as for the public support from local councillors Rod Macdonald and Lindsay Ellis and from local MP Lisa Neville. Let's raise a glass (what else?!) to them all.

Our first Artist in Residence!

The Festival of Glass is delighted to introduce its first Artist in Residence - glass artist Mark Eliott. Mark will run two sculptural glass workshops at the 2015 Festival of Glass:

·      One-day workshop: Monday 16^th February

A short introduction to flame-work. We will use rods of clear and coloured borosilicate glass to make abstract forms, pendants and an animal; and we will also blow a bubble with a glass tube. The class is suitable for beginners, but experienced students will be given more advanced projects.

·      Three-day workshop: Tuesday 17^th to Thursday 19^th February.

An introduction to glass sculpting. We will use rods of clear and coloured borosilicate glass and blowing with hollow tubing to make glass ornaments such as figurines, animals, vessels, pendants and abstract sculptures. The class is suitable for beginners, but experienced students will be given more advanced projects.

Bookings are essential: markeliottglass@gmail.com

Introducing Mark Eliott

Mark Eliott was born in New Zealand but grew up in Sydney, where he now lives. His primary medium is flame-worked borosilicate glass (pyrex), which is stronger and less likely to crack when the temperature changes; and his work is inspired by – among other things - plants, animals, marine organisms and people.

As a teenager, Mark delighted in digging up old bottles and this led to an informal apprenticeship at the Minson scientific glass company. Subsequently, he had various jobs, played saxophone in numerous bands and studied Jazz at Sydney’s conservatorium. He returned to the world of glass but continues to play music and incorporates other media into his work.

In 2010, Mark collaborated with animator Jack MacGrath to produce Dr Mermaid and the Above Marine - a 6-minute animated video about a marine biologist who communicates with fish.

(http://vimeo.com/15011787)

In April 2012, Mark and Jack collaborated again in a workshop at Waverley Woollahra Arts School, Bondi, in which participants made improvised forms from flame-worked glass. (“Glass Flame-ation Bondi – the workshop.” [Jack McGrath] http://vimeo.com/49953912)

Mark’s continuing “Music in Glass” project brings together two of the main creative streams of his life. The project draws on his experience of synaesthesia in which sound is simultaneously perceived as colours, forms and textures. Mark has described the experience as follows:

“One piece of music may appear as a monotone wash of grey or brown while another might appear as a broad landscape full of strange forms such as fuzzy red-brown blobs for base notes and banks of stratified patterns for piano accompaniment with shifting tonal colours according to the chordal movement. A saxophone solo may appear as a jagged streak of yellow-blue lightening or a curvaceous meandering form in deep gold, red and purple.”

More information: http://cargocollective.com/markeliottglass