Art Group Creative Fellowship

Canberra Glassworks is delighted to be partnering once again with Art Group to host The Art Group Creative Fellowship. The Art Group Creative Fellowship supports the career of an outstanding, established artist to undertake a 3 – 6 month residency at the Canberra Glasswork where they can develop new work, undertake research, share their skills and explore collaborations.

The Art Group Fellow will lead a skill development program, which include mentoring, teaching and encouragement of emerging artists. Through actively participating with artists, the public and the facility they will contribute to the overall aspirations of the organisation and the glass community in Canberra.

The Art Group Creative Fellow is provided with a dedicated studio space for an extended period of between 3 – 6 months, a cash stipend of AUD$10,000 and free access to the state-of the-art facilities and equipment (with very few limitations) for the term of the Fellowship.

Other benefits may also be negotiated (dependent on the selected candidate) including access to shared accommodation, travel costs, visa sponsorship and a materials allowance.

This opportunity is open now to Australian and International artists.

All enquiries are to be addressed by email to the Artistic Director, Aimee Frodsham
aimee.frodsham@canberraglassworks.com

Previous

Mel Douglas (Australian)

Creative Fellow 2021, 1 February to 31 March 2022

Mel Douglas has worked as an independent studio artist since graduating from the Canberra School of Art, Australian National University in 2000. In 2020 Douglas was awarded a PhD for her practice-lead research investigating how studio glass can be understood through the aesthetics of drawing. In addition to winning the 2020 and 2014 Tom Malone Prize, a prestigious award through which a work is acquired each year into the collection of the National Gallery of Western Australia, Douglas has received several major awards including the Ranamok Glass Prize in 2002, the International Young Glass Award in 2007 from Ebeltolft.

In 2019 her work was the inaugural acquisition for the NGA’s Robert and Eugenie Bell Decorative Arts and Design Fund. Douglas’ work is held in the private collections and public institutions internationally, including the Corning Museum of Glass, New York, the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA; the Ebeltoft Museum of Glass, Denmark, and National Gallery of Australia, Australia.

Brenden Scott-French (Australia)

Creative Fellow 2020, 1 July to 31 December

Brenden has trained extensively in glass practice, completing a Bachelor of Visual Arts at the Sydney College of the Arts in 1997, the Associate of Design program at the Jam Factory Contemporary Craft and Design in 1999 and a Bachelor of Art with Honours at the Canberra School of Art, Australian National University in 2003. During the past fifteen years he has exhibited extensively both in Australia and overseas at venues such as Saatchi Gallery, London, UK, William Traver Gallery, Seattle, USA and SOFA Chicago with Kirra Galleries AUS.

Brenden was an exhibitor in the 2016 survey exhibition Links – Australian Glass and the Pacific Northwest and was a finalist in Australasia’s richest prize for glass artists, the inaugural Fuse Glass Prize 2016 and 2018, a new biennial prize for Australian and New Zealand artists. He was the recipient of the Stephen Procter Fellowship in 2007 and most recently was a finalist in the inaugural Klaus Moje Glass Award 2019.

Lisa Cahill

July 2018 to June 2019

Lisa Cahill is a glass artist working across a variety of scale and technique. Developing a distinctive style since completing a BA/Ceramic Design at Monash University with First Class Honours in 2000, Lisa’s work ranges from kiln-formed and wheel-carved wall panels to her series of jewellery and plates. Lisa has exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally and has been awarded numerous grants and prizes including Australia Council for the Arts New Work grants in 2002, 2007 and 2010 and the Bullseye By Design Award in 2001. In 2011 Lisa relocated to Canberra and joined a studio in Pialligo from where she now practices.

Steven Ciezki

January 2018 to June 2018

Steven Ciezki’s artistic journey is represented by twenty years of drawing and nine years of glassblowing, painting, and photography. He received his BFA in glass at Illinois State University in 2012.

Glass has taken Steven to all corners of the country as a student, teacher, and professional glass artist. Teaching opportunities in Arizona inspired him to write and illustrate a glassblowing technique book called Life on the Rails. The title describes both his nomadic lifestyle as well as the rails at the bench where hot glass is shaped by hand.

Harriet Schwarzrock

June 2017 to January 2018

Harriet Schwarzrock graduated from Sydney College of the Arts in 1999 with Honours in Visual Arts, majoring in glass. Prior to graduating, Schwarzrock travelled through North America visiting renowned workshops and studios, assisting artists including Laura Donefer and Steven Rolfe Powell. On her return to Australia, Schwarzrock began assisting at Denizen Studio, Sydney, working with many of Australia’s best glassblowers, developing her skill and technique and finding inspiration and influence for her own work.

Schwarzrock’s practice is currently based in her backyard, where she and her partner and glass artist, Matthew Curtis, run a hot glass studio together, tinting custom coloured glass.

Schwarzrock has exhibited extensively throughout Australia and abroad. Her work is widely collected, and her piece, breathe, won the sculpture prize in the Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize in 2014.

Kirstie Rea

2016

Having established her studio in 1987, following her graduation from the Glass program at the Canberra School of Art, Kirstie has over the past 29 years continued to develop her practice to become internationally recognised and respected for her works in glass.

She has exhibited widely internationally and her work has been included in numerous Australian Glass survey shows. Kirstie has had solo exhibitions in Australia, the USA, New Zealand and Hong Kong and her work is now included in international collections such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the National Gallery of Australia and the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung Foundation in Munich Germany.

Kirstie was a staff member of the Glass Workshop, Australian National University from 1987 -2003, and was the inaugural Creative Director at the Canberra Glassworks, Australia from November 2006 to February 2008. She has taught in her field of kiln formed glass and cold working techniques across the world since 1987. In 2009 Kirstie received the Ausglass Honorary Life Membership Award for her contribution to the education of glass in Australia, in 2014 was awarded the 2015 CAPO Fellow Award (Canberra Arts Patrons’ Organisation) and in 2016 received the Canberra Glassworks Fellowship.

Matthew Curtis

2015

Matthew Curtis began his career in glass blowing under the expert teaching of glass artist Robert Wynne in the early 1990s. In between building a hot glass studio for Robert and assisting with the glassblowing there, Matthew worked on his own projects. Ibn 1996, Matthew was selected as a finalist for the prestigious RFC Glass Prize as well as being awarded the People’s Choice Prize. In 2002, Matthew was recognized for his significant contribution to contemporary craft by being included in the exhibition “Material Culture” curated by Robert Bell for the National Gallery of Australia. Additionally, he was the only glass artist selected as one of twenty-one artists for the National Sculpture Prize and Exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia in 2003.

Matthew Curtis’ work explores a dialogue between texture, shape and colour. His glass forms are blown as a three colour overlay and when cooled, the opaque skin of the object is mapped out, marked, and then incised. In his most recent work, Matthew explains that he is “exploring the line itself as a mark.” In some pieces the lines and varied and in others they are expressed respectively with meditative precision, in an effort to explore the ephemeral nature of human endeavor. In some cases line echoes form, while in other works, the lines abstractly reference natural landscapes. The physical act of marking and cutting opens the interior of the vessel, allowing the inner transparency to be experienced through shifting light, at times quiet and still, at other times, bursting with vibrancy and energy.

The Art Group Creative Fellowship is made possible by generous support from Art Group.