September 30 – October 3 2021

XIV IGS International Glass Symposium

Nový Bor, Czech Republic
Motto: Glass without boundaries
www.igsymposium.cz

For the third time, glass artist Barbara Nanning has been invited to participate in the IGS International Glass Symposium in Novy-Bor 2021. In 2012 as a guest at the Slavia glassworks and in 2018 and now in 2021 as a guest at the AZ-Design from the master glasscutter Aleš Zvěřina.

The International Glass Symposium (hereinafter referred to as IGS) is one of the world’s most important meetings in the field of studio glass. It is also an event with a long and famous history. The founding of IGS dates to 1982. That year, glass icons from what was then Czechoslovakia, and from abroad, met at Crystalex glassworks in Nový Bor for the first time. It was still at a time when state borders were closed to visitors from the West. Despite the difficult conditions, the fought-out meeting took place in great euphoria and brought about extensive cooperation that no political restrictions at the time could prevent. The symposium has since been repeated at regular three-year intervals. During its existence, it has hosted several hundred artists from all continents. From the very beginning, a much wider community than just the glassmakers themselves has contributed to the great results of the symposium and its atmosphere: representation and citizens of Nový Bor, glass experts, observers, gallerists, collectors, curators and publicists from all over the world. Nový Bor, a town in northern Bohemia, and its surroundings are historically one of the most important European centers of glass production. At present, over one hundred and twenty glass companies and workshops operate here, offering a whole range of traditional and modern technologies of hot and cold glass production – from mechanical production, manual work in glassworks to a wide range of refining techniques. In 2021, from September 30 to October 3, the glass world will meet for the fourteenth time at the IGS in Nový Bor. The invitation is valid for fifty Czech and foreign glass artists, or artists from other fields, including several product designers who have recently created significant works, come up with new forms of expression or achieved extraordinary mastery in the field of arts and crafts. Invited participants are at different stages of their careers, and belong to different generations, however they always profile themselves as “trend-setters”, i.e. as those who enrich current authorial work with new forms of work and even inspire new trends. At the symposium, they can present or develop their ideas and professional skills and to enrich the experiences of others in feedback. The development of authorial work and cooperation are thus the main goal of IGS in 2021.