Adult winner Duncan Smith with Philip Stokes creating his design in glass at the 2018 celebration. Photo / Bevan Conley
Adult winner Duncan Smith with Philip Stokes creating his design in glass at the 2018 celebration. Photo / Bevan Conley
Artists and doodlers are encouraged to submit their designs for entry in the New Zealand Glassworks' anniversary competition.
The Glassworks is celebrating five years of operations at its Rutland St premises and the competition has been a feature of the annual anniversary celebrations where two winners get to watch artists turn their drawings into three-dimensional glass art.
"We've received some great entries already," manager Scott Redding said.
"A number of them are Covid-related and one entry is a drawing of a kiwi fighting off the virus.
"Another is of a chicken head with a fish body and the submitter said it represented the lowering of Covid levels when they could look forward to enjoying their favourite takeaways."
Redding said it was disappointing to have to cancel the competition last year so NZ Glassworks was prepared to run it as a closed event this year if necessary.
"We will be live streaming it anyway as there have been a number of entries from outside Whanganui this year."
The NZ Glassworks Gallery has reopened to the public under level 2 with mandatory sign-in and mask requirements as well as distancing guidelines in place and karaihe (glass) artists have returned to the hot shop where they can be observed working their magic with molten glass.
Five years ago Whanganui District Council's charitable trust purchased the glass facility from artists Katie Brown and Lyndsay Patterson, who previously ran it as private enterprise Chronicle Glass.
The intention was to maintain Whanganui's reputation as a national centre for glass art, as well as compensate for the closure of the Wanganui Glass School in 2015.
Redding said the past five years had seen growth in visitor numbers as well as artists and UCOL students working at the facility. An artist-in-residence programme had been established and the CoLab Australasian Glass Conference was hosted in February 2019.
"The glass workshops have been an incredibly popular feature of our work but unfortunately we've had to cancel those that were scheduled for August and September and they won't resume until level 1," Redding said.
Glass artist Philip Stokes' 2018 rendering of young winner Izaak Trewavas's stegosaurus entry.
Photo / Bevan Conley
To enter the competition, send your glass design drawing to New Zealand Glassworks by 4pm on Friday, September 24. On Saturday, September 25, the winners' names will be announced and their entries will be made in the workshop.
Category one (12 and under) will be chosen and made from 10am to 12pm and category two will be chosen and made between 1pm and 3pm. Entries can be dropped off at NZ Glassworks, 2 Rutland St or emailed to info@nzglassworks.com.
Winners get to keep the glassworks of their designs as prizes.
