University of Sunderland

Glass and Ceramics

Glass and Ceramics has become a world class HE research resource. The team is larger and stronger, built for sustainability with two RCUK Academic Fellows. The department works comfortably across a span of fine art & crafts - design practice to material technology research. Seven academic staff have been awarded major Research Fellowships in the last three years. All academic staff are submitted.

The Institute of International Research in Glass (IIRG), 1998, is co-ordinated by Professor Sylva Petrova, a specialist in Czech glass. IIRG brings together research activities and presents an international collaborative programme. IIRG facilitates: fellowships, symposia, events and research projects. It assists research development and encourages debate about contemporary glass - critically informing, evaluating, sustaining and advancing the research culture. IIRG has the knowledge and expertise of an international body of staff, ranging across theory, material technology and a variety of approaches to practice and curating.

Jack Dawson, an art and design historian and curator and an authority on Scandinavian glass, has recently completed a monograph on Oiva Toikka in 2007. Rennie came to international attention through the last Jerwood Prize exhibition and has since exhibited his waterjet cut sculpture in the Design4Science exhibition (see below) and solo shows with associated publications in Paris and Sars Potteries, France.

Dr Kevin Petrie working on new practices and approaches to surface application was awarded a c£30k Research Development Fellowship, 2004/6, associated with the RCA, to research print on glass. He undertook a lecture tour of Australian Universities and gave a paper at the GAS Conference, Adelaide, 2005. Sylvie Vandenhoucke (Belgium), pâte de verre specialist, in 2007 lectured at the GAS Conference, Pittsburg and had solo exhibitions at Bullseye Glass Connections, Portland and in NGC.