European Glass Experience is an international celebration of contemporary glass art and its makers. Coordinated by the City of Venice in collaboration with Consorzio Promovetro Murano and the Museo del Vetro (Murano Glass Museum), EGE was launched as a competition in 2013 under a prestigious two-year grant from the Culture Program of the European Union. The project was created in partnership with premiere museums, glass study and production centers in Finland, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

European Glass Experience aims to link practices in this medium to contemporary art and to foster the role of glass artisanry as an intangible cultural heritage to be safeguarded and promoted.

The exhibition begins at The Finnish Glass Museum, Riihimaki, Finland, in March 2014, curated by Uta Laurén, and then proceeds to Fundación Centro Nacional del Vidrio, under the directorship of Paloma Pastor, with its next stage at the Museo del Vetro, Murano, directed by Chiara Squarcina, part of the Musei Civici Veneziani, as directed by Gabriella Belli. Additional venues will follow, including the Muzeum Witrazu (Stained Glass Museum) in Krakow, Poland; the International Festival of Glass in Stourbridge, England; and the Glass Factory in Boda Glasbruk, Sweden. Possibilities in North America and Asia are currently under discussion.

Nearly eighty projects and sketches selected by the panel of museum directors, curators, and glass experts reveal a rising generation of young glass artists at the forefront of their field, representing wide-ranging schools of thought and cultural ancestries. Master craftsmen from Murano, associated with Promovetro, will realize a selection of the finest sketches in glass. The selected works are both a resource for current European artistic practice and a reconnaissance of the ancient and complex world of glass.

EGE Scientific Director is Cornelia Lauf, with communications built by DNA Italia, Mestre; curatorial support by GoldenRuler, Rome, and design consultancy by Julia, London.

Press office: Maria Bonmassar, Rome.