News

Art and Christian Enquiry Symposium: ‘In Glass Thy Story’: 70 years of Innovation and Iconography in the Glass Art of British and European Churches and Cathedrals

Friday, 8th and Saturday, 9th September 2017

Fig. 1. 'In glass thy story.'

Fig. 1. ‘In glass thy story.’

This two-day symposium, to be held at Robinson College, Cambridge (which houses in its chapel John Piper’s Light of the World window), will explore the shifts in methods, style and iconography found in glass art created for churches and cathedrals over the course of the last 70 years. Referencing both European models and influences, and also British exemplars, it will seek to understand better the challenges and opportunities presented by the exceptional medium of glass, as well as draw out what glass means theologically as an integral part of a place of worship, a vehicle of light, and a boundary between within and without.

Speakers include: Frances Spalding, Jasmine Allen, Caroline Swash, Jonathan Koestle-Cate, Deborah Lewer and Fanny Drugeon. Visit the ACE website for a full programme and booking details.

British Society of Master Glass Painters Summer Lecture: ‘Painting and Stained Glass in the Work of Ardyn Halter’, by Ardyn Halter

Friday, 23rd June 2017, 6.15pm for 6.45pm start.

Fig. 1. A window by Ardyn Halter.

Fig. 1. A window by Ardyn Halter.

Ardyn Halter was born in London in 1956. He is known as a painter, print maker, and designer and maker of stained glass. He has worked on large-scale projects in England, Israel and Rwanda. His lecture will track his work and reflect on a range of questions prompted by it such as: Are painting and stained glass necessarily separate aesthetic activities, do they involve different mind-sets, and what it the correlation between the two techniques? Are there constraints associated with stained glass work that do not apply in painting or printmaking? Ardyn will address how the different disciplines interrelate and nourish each other, and how his stained-glass work has influenced his painting and printmaking; and will examine whether one sees and relates to translucent colour differently to the way one views and uses colour on paper or on canvas. His principle stained-glass windows have been commissioned works, and Ardyn will question to what extent has the very fact of their being commissioned affected their design.

The lecture will take place at The Art Workers Guild, 6 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AT. It is open to members and non-members of the Society, and admission is by ticket only. For more information and to book tickets, see the BSMGP website.

York Evening Decorative and Fine Art Society Lecture: ‘Old Craft, New Art: An Artistic Journey through Stained Glass’

Wednesday, May 10th 2017, 6.00pm for 6.30pm start

Fig.1. Helen Whittaker

Fig.1. Helen Whittaker

The lecture will be given by Helen Whittaker of Barley Studios, York, and will take place at Shepherd Hall, St Peter’s School, Bootham, York, YO30 6AB. Guests may purchase tickets (to a maximum of two lectures) for £7. For further information, please see the YEDFAS website.

The Stained Glass Centre, York Lecture: ‘York Minster’s ‘Sweet Posy’: The Rose Window Past, Present and Future’, by Celeste Flower

Thursday, 18th May, 6.30 pm

The Stained Glass Centre’s Spring Lecture will be given by Celeste Flower, a recent graduate of the MA in Stained Glass Conservation and Heritage Management at the University of York, and will focus on the dramatic recent history of York Minster’s Rose Window, almost completely destroyed by fire before its subsequent restoration by the York Glaziers Trust in the 1980s.

The lecture will take place at the church of St Martin-cum-Gregory, Micklegate, York. Tickets are sold on the door for £6 (£5 concessions) and include refreshments, served from 6.00 pm. Entry is free to Friends of the Stained Glass Museum. For further information, please see the Stained Glass Centre Website  or email events@stainedglasscentre.org.

Reminder: Stained Glass Museum Lecture: Science and Stained Glass, by Dr David Dungworth

Saturday, 20th May 2017, 7.00pm, South Transept, Ely Cathedral.

Stained glass has been prized as a unique and colourful art form since the Middle Ages. This lecture will ask what science, as opposed to the skills of the art historian, can tell us about the making of stained glass windows. It will discuss the ingredients used in glass manufacture, and the techniques of forming, colouring and decorating stained glass.

David Dungworth is a heritage scientist with Historic England. He obtained his PhD from Durham University on the use of bronze and brass during the Iron Age and Roman periods in northern Britain through chemical analysis (XRF). After working for the University of Sheffield, David began work with English Heritage in 1999. He co-directed the excavation of the 17th-century glass production site at Silkstone, South Yorkshire and has carried out the scientific investigation of glass from Silkstone and many other sites in England. David has carried out the scientific examination of hundreds of fragments of historic window glass, including stained glass from Hampshire, Yorkshire and Warwickshire.

This lecture has been organised by The Stained Glass Museum for Ely Cathedral Science Festival, running from 18th May – 18th June 2017.

Tickets cost £7.50 for adults, and £4 for students and children under 16. For further information and tickets, visit the Stained Glass Museum website  or call 01353 660347.

Reminder: British Society of Master Glass Painters Discussion Day: Caroline Swash FMGP and others ‘Splendid yet intimate – stained glass for house and home’

Friday, 26th May 2017, 9.45am – 4pm.

Stained glass once played a significant role in architect designed houses. Stained glass was used in the Victorian and Edwardian periods, for example, both as a way of bringing privacy to the entrance of a home and also to bring tone and coloured light to a house’s interior. Victorian glazing firms took this aspect of their business seriously, producing brochures with suggestions for personalized heraldic work as well as a range of popular subjects such as ‘Flowers in a vase’ or ‘Birds on a branch’. A later burst of enthusiasm occurred in the 1920s for staircase windows to bring individuality to a home set with a complex of buildings of a similar style. Commissions for glazing in the home today are typically far more individualized, combining considerable personal input from engaged and enthusiastic clients. With contributions from Associate members of the Society as well as specialists working in this field, it is hoped that the whole area of ‘Stained Glass for House and Home’ can be approached with renewed enthusiasm.

The lecture will take place at The Glaziers Hall, 9 Montague Close, London SE1 9DD. It is open to members and non-members of the Society, and admission is by ticket only. For more information and to book tickets, see the BSMGP website.