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Isle of Wight Glass Museum opening March 2016

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chilternhills:
Isle of Wight Glass Museum is proud to announce its establishment at Arreton Barns, the Island’s largest arts and crafts centre in the heart of the Isle of Wight. The location is ideal since there are two working glass studios in the village, one of which, the world famous Isle of Wight Studio Glass (IOWSG) founded by the Harris family, is directly next door. The other studio, Diamond Isle Sculptured Glass founded by Paul Critchley, has built a worthy reputation in the last decade. By adding a museum, we have created a centre of excellence for contemporary art glass at Arreton.

An announcement about the official opening of the museum was made at a Collectors Studio Day hosted by IOWSG on Sunday, 25th October. The museum will open its doors to the public on Saturday, 19th March 2016 with a special ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The museum celebrates the design and craftsmanship of glass makers on the Isle of Wight both past and present. It will surprise many that there are seven currently active glass studios on the island and several others have worked there in the past. The museum aims to exhibit work by all these studios, with more than 1000 exhibits on show at opening.

Present at the announcement were: Sam Herman, one of the founders of the studio glass movement in Britain in the 1960s; Mark Hill, well known as an expert and author on contemporary glass and 20th century collectables on BBC’s Antiques Roadshow and Collectaholics show; Ron Wheeler, the foremost expert on Isle of Wight Studio Glass, having been a glass dealer and secondary market specialist for the studio for 35 years; and William Walker, a renowned British glass artist who worked with Michael Harris in the 1970s to create Azurene, one of IOWSG’s most iconic designs.

Contact details:
Anton Doroszenko, Museum Director
Fiona Clegg, Educational Programme Director
Isle of Wight Glass Museum
Arreton Barns
Main Road, Arreton
Isle of Wight
PO30 3AA

Museum email: info [{{at}}] isleofwightglassmuseum.org.uk
Educational programme email: edu [{{at}}] iowgm.uk

The museum does not yet have a web site (coming in 2016).

The press have reported on the news:

Isle of Wight County Press: http://www.iwcp.co.uk/news/news/new-museum-to-showcase-isle-of-wight-glass-92927.aspx

Island Echo: http://www.islandecho.co.uk/news/glass-museum-to-open-at-arreton-barns-next-year

chilternhills:
Here is a view of the museum downstairs. The museum space is to the right and the new retail space for Isle of Wight Studio Glass is to the left beyond the central pillar. The museum has a the same area upstairs directly above the photo shown for more exhibits, and the same space again which will initially be used for storage and office space. This extra storage space will be an obvious place to expand into should the museum need to.

More pictures to come. We are still in the process of converting the building. Furniture, cabinets, etc will be installed in December. Structural work will finish, we hope, by the end of November.

Anton

chilternhills:
I have just added a blog post outlining what will be in the museum.

http://isleofwightglassmuseum.wikidot.com/blog:4

What you will see is pretty amazing, even if I say so myself  ;D

Cabinets are being delivered on Thursday, 10th December. I had them especially commissioned and they look great. Not your commonly seen silver but a lovely gloss white, with loads of LED lights built in. We ordered 31 of them, with room for 50 to 70 items per cabinet. The cabinets are big, nearly all 1200 mm wide and 1950 mm tall, which makes for a good display.

Anton

chopin-liszt:
A tremendous and worthwhile effort, Anton. :)

chilternhills:
Thanks Sue. A ton of work but satisfying.  :)

The museum will be exhibiting at the next Knebworth fair in February. For anyone attending, please come along and have a chat. Also, look out for the advert in the next issue of The Glass Cone (due out in January).

Anton

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