Bellarine College of Glass a step closer

The Festival’s dream of a Bellarine College of Glass has come a step closer with the launch of a glass art Mentorship programme at the 2018 Festival of Glass.

The programme will focus on young aspiring glass artists and each year, the Festival of Glass committee will collaborate with local secondary schools to select three recipients of a Mentorship. Each recipient will receive 5 two-hour sessions of personal tuition by their Mentor over six months. Mentors will be established, professional glass artists, who will receive $500 each for their participation.

Mercedes Drummond is the Festival committee member running the programme. “The Mentorship programme will help the Festival to promote a sense of community and cultural identity on the Bellarine Peninsula.” she said. “It will encourage local aspiring glass artists to embed their work in their community and encourage the community to celebrate its young people’s talents.”

Building careers

Mentors will assist recipients to build careers as glass artists by introducing them to a range of glass working techniques, assisting them to sell their work and to compete for Awards – starting with the Glass Art Awards at the 2018 Festival of Glass. Mentors will help recipients to build a professional resume by participating in the 2018 Festival of Glass and they will encourage recipients to build a network of shared interests and mutual respect with other artists and students in the Mentorship programme.

“The establishment of the glass art Mentorship programme means that young people can receive personal tuition and guidance to explore whether they’d like to become a glass artist”, said Mercedes Drummond. “The programme may seem a long way from a Bellarine College of Glass, but as someone said once, ‘From little things, big things grow!’”

Venetian glass master at the 2018 Festival of Glass

The Festival of Glass committee is delighted to announce that Venetian glass master Mauro Vianello will be our Visiting Artist at the 2018 Festival.

Mauro Vianello

Mauro is a world renowned glass master who creates highly naturalistic representations in glass of animals and plants, many of them associated with the sea. His visit offers intermediate and experienced bead-makers & sculptors across Australia a unique opportunity to learn traditional and contemporary Venetian glass processes and techniques and to use them to enhance their beaded & sculptured creations. Places in his classes at the 2018 Festival are open ... and are filling up!

Glenda MacNaughton is the Festival committee member running the Visiting Artist programme. “Bringing Mauro to the Bellarine Peninsula is quite a coup for the Festival!”, she said. “This will be his first visit to Australia, but his enormous skill as an artist and a teacher brings him invitations from around the world to teach and to create blown glass, glass beads and glass sculptures.”

In June this year, Mauro was in Pittsburgh, USA and in August he will be a featured artist at the 2017 “Flame Off France” in Remiremont. In 2016, Murano’s Museo Vetro (Museum of Glass) held an exhibition highlighting the continuity between Mauro's work and that of father and son Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka - two nineteenth century glass artists from Dresden, Germany who achieved international fame for their highly detailed, accurate glass models of plants and sea creatures.

Generosity and patience from a glass master

Mauro has been a glass worker for twenty three years. He creates anything in glass - from traditional Venetian beads to small and large sculptures, often combining lampworking and glass fusing with cold-worked glass. As a teacher, Mauro’s aim is for each student to leave his classes happy, having increased their skill and knowledge. His students praise his generosity and patience as a teacher and his ability to tailor his teaching to suit their differing interests and skill levels. They also delight in his sense of humour!