Things at National Glass Centre are a little different as we continue to address the storm damage to the riverside front of the building. Find out more in our Visitor Information

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A white walled corridor with a glass balcony wall on the right. On the wall to the left is a collection of glass figures of people wearing bright colours. The figures are positioned in crosses with long nails. A person walks down the corridor with a glass of red wine looking at the artwork.
A white walled corridor with a glass balcony wall on the right. On the wall to the left is a collection of glass figures of people wearing bright colours. The figures are positioned in crosses with long nails. A person walks down the corridor with a glass of red wine looking at the artwork.

Collection

National Glass Centre is a centre of excellence for artistic practice in glass. Our collection includes international Studio Glass from the post-war period to date, supports new approaches to production, and enhances artistic engagement with glassmaking. Our collection is guided by three core aims as set out below.

 

Presenting the best of international glassmaking to British audiences

Artworks held in the collection are by artists from, or based in, 28 countries. From Sweden to New Zealand and USA to Japan. Our collection includes four pieces by Erwin Eisch – a founder of the international Studio Glass movement from Bavaria, Germany. We also have pieces by Silvia Levenson (Argentina/Italy), The De La Torre Brothers (Mexico / USA), Petr Stanicky (Czech Republic), Richard Meitner (The Netherlands / USA), Xiaowei Zhuang (China) and Oiva Toikka (Finland).

 

Supporting new practice by artists working in glass

National Glass Centre’s collection reflects Sunderland’s ongoing contribution to international Studio Glass. We collect some of the finest examples of work by people based in the building. This includes staff teaching on the University of Sunderland’s Glass and Ceramic courses, graduates of the BA (Hons), MA and PhD programmes, residents and visiting artists. We have acquired work by Jeffrey Sarmiento, Erin Dickson, Sacha Delabre, Helen Pailing and Anthony Amoako Attah, Andrew Livingstone, Bouke de Vries and Andrea Walsh.

 

Broaden access and appreciation for glassmaking in visual arts

A number of contemporary artists including Bruce McLean, Conrad Atkinson and Cerith Wyn Evans have worked with the team at National Glass Centre and have donated examples of their work for acquisition to the collection. In 2022, National Glass Centre delivered the ‘Glass Exchange’ project.  This project resulted in new pieces added to our collection by Ryan Gander OBE RA, Katie Paterson, Pascale Marthine Tayou and Monster Chetwynd.

We began formally developing our collection in 2016, building on earlier work undertaken by the Institute for International Research in Glass (IIRG). In 2022, Bernard Lloyd donated his collection of international Studio Glass to National Glass Centre. This generous gift added key artists to our fast growing collection that now includes around 500 objects.

Glass figurines of people arranged into three crosses and held into place on a white wall with long metal nails.
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A multicoloured glass vessel, shaped like a long conch shell.
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A square glass block with a long rectangle block emerging from it at an angle. Inside the rectangle block are layers of colour, brown, orange, and pink, surrounded by a thick transparent layer.
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A golden coloured glass vessel. The base is a long oval that is wider at the top than at the base. It has a very long neck topped by small sphere. Inside the vessel is multiple different sized bubbles, bunched up netting and dark orange floating droplets.
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A pink glass figure with two legs, four arms, black hands and brown strips down its middle. Its head has multiple brown horns, two much longer than the others and one with a dolls head stuck on the top. It has fly-like eyes, a long brown nose that curls back on itself and transparent glass butterfly wings. The figure stands on a circular blue plinth with a slab of red and slab of green.
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A glass sculpture that vaguely resembles a rotary dial telephone with black body and gold handle. On the front of it, in silver letters is text that reads ‘Tele-Komm-Komm’ and numbers ‘027418’.
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