A Stirling city centre venue is making a welcome return by giving art students the chance to finally showcase their work.
The Art of Glass Exhibition will feature at the Made in Stirling store at 44 King Street from Monday, June 7, until July 4 from 10am-5pm daily, with admission free.
The exhibition is a curated collection from recent graduates of The City of Glasgow College, featuring a range of thought-provoking glass.
It will be the Made In Stirling store’s first exhibition since reopening working with the graduates and staff of the college’s HNC Art & Design / Art Glass course of 2019-2020, the only course of its kind in Scotland.
The exhibition features traditional techniques mixed with experimental craftmanship. Stained glass, kiln-formed glass, casting and painted glass have also been used.
The exhibitors hope to inspire others to consider glass, in its many forms, as a new medium of artist expression and increase awareness of the course nationwide.
There will be an online tour of the exhibition along with IGTV specials throughout its run instore available @madeinstirlingstore.
Made in Stirling Store is a show and sell concept shop, an award-winning charity arts project produced by its umbrella charity Creative Stirling. The store itself covers the ground floor of Stirling’s independent creative hub at 44 King St which was previously a large department store. It offers a curated range of creations from a collective of more than 100 local artists and makers.
Paul Jenkins, lead creative and curator of Made In Stirling, said: “We’re so happy we can finally provide the recent graduates with a dedicated designed space within our store to showcase their artworks. It has been brilliant to see the exhibitors and our team in store become energised once again, inspiring each other, while selecting the special pieces that best show their personal journeys through their craftmanship and then the show pieces capturing their passion for glass.
“It has been a pleasure to work alongside the students to create their vision, selecting the pieces together, and mixing in a little of the Made in Stirling magic.
“It will be an extremely exciting show with a diverse range of media used.”
Creative Stirling founder Joe Hall added: “Having the Made in Stirling Community gallery located at the heart of our creative hub space in the city centre provides us with plenty of opportunity to foster really interesting collaborations like the one we are doing with City of Glasgow College. We work best in partnership with agencies and academic institutions on projects that introduce students to the world of employability in the sector.”
Exhibitor Shona Escombe, whose work is featured in a poster for the exhibition, said: “With such an abrupt end to our course and when it all finished without celebration the way it did for obvious reasons, we did not realise how much this show meant to us until we started working with the team at Made in Stirling store.
“Now it feels like we are having the end of year show we should have had.
“We are all excited about seeing each other again and giving us that final push onto our individual artistic paths.
“We’ve all waited so long for this, and we look forward to celebrating our work in such an amazing space surrounded by so many other creative makers.
“Personally, Made In Stirling have stocked my work for a few years now, so I know how they all work, and it will be a beautiful show. We are all so excited to see the public’s reaction.”
