European Jewellery Exhibition Comes To Glasgow
17 January 2008
'Open Circle' - a prestigious touring European jewellery exhibition showcasing work from 15 talented Scottish students launched this week in the Atrium Gallery in Glasgow School of Art.
The exhibition is part of the EU Comenius Education Project - a final celebratory show of work and the culminating event of a three year project bringing together the students and staff of four jewellery schools from Scotland, Germany, Finland and Italy.
Open Circle, which will run until 9 February, will feature no less than 70 pieces of jewellery work from the four educational institutions, including Cardonald College in Scotland; Gerwerbliche Schule in Germany; Koulutuskeskus Salpaus in Finland and Istituto Pietro Selvatico in Italy.
All institutions are respected for their jewellery and silver-smithing skills and honing the jewellery talent of the future.
Fifteen students from each country entered pieces of work into the exhibition. These were complemented by individual pieces entered by the students' master jeweller lecturers to complete the suite of jewellery required for the showcase.
Many students involved in the project also got to visit partner institutions to share ideas and learn from the different countries' techniques.
The exhibition has already pre-viewed in Finland and Germany and received a warm reception among experts in the industry and members of the public appreciative of the fine jewellery on display.
The launch of the Scottish leg of the tour at Glasgow School of Art will see speakers including Minister for Schools and Skills, Maureen Watt; Rosemary Watt, senior curator for the Museum of Transport and Eleanor Harris, Acting Principal from Cardonald College praising the students' enthusiasm and work.
Inspiration for the exhibition pieces came from a brief entitled 'Open Circle' which encouraged open interpretation from the students within the context of each partner institution's cultural background.
Anne Clare Graham, Programme Co-ordinator for the HND Jewellery course at Cardonald College and recognised jeweller, who has had many TV and film commissions for her work, and colleague David Hempstead, also a senior lecturer at Cardonald College who has also had exhibitions in prestigious UK galleries, led the Scottish ensemble in the creative challenge which involved 15 students.
Anne said: "The EU Comenius Project - culminating in the Open Circle exhibition has been three years in the making. The idea behind it was threefold, to encourage links between jewellery institutions in Europe to share best practices and techniques; to promote Cardonald College as a respected school for learning jewellery skills; and to promote our jewellery students and the jewellery industry in Scotland.
"Cardonald College was grateful to have been funded by the British Council to participate in this prestigious project. Some institutions which were initially involved in the project had to pull out simply because funding wasn't available. That's why the project took so long to set up as we had to find other partner institutions to collaborate with.
"However, the end results have been well worth the wait. Students from the four countries interpreted the Open Circle brief in a way that reflects their own country's cultural traditions. This took into account everything from weather patterns to landscape, food music and political expression and indeed each country's very individual jewellery techniques. The students also had to give a personal statement explaining the meaning of their piece of jewellery. These explanations reflect each student's very own cultural and personal take on the brief - apparent in the brochure that will accompany the exhibition and will be given to visitors to the event."
Katherine Agnew, 20, of East Kilbride is just one of the Cardonald College student team whose work will be exhibited in the Atrium Gallery. Katherine articulated into the second year of the jewellery and silversmith degree at Glasgow School of Art, following completion of the HND in Jewellery at Cardonald College last summer.
Katherine says her work is a contemporary take on the traditional plaid brooch. She said: "The Open Circle brief was open to individual interpretation. My work was inspired by Celtic knots. It included a series of three individual brooches in different sizes incorporating glass and cubic zircona held in place by gold and silver wire. The brooches have circles within circles which are interchangeable and can move about. The circles inside each brooch represent the different countries coming together for this exhibition."
In addition to funding from the British Council to participate in the project, Cardonald College also received funding from the Scottish Goldsmiths Trust, Lloyds TSB and HF Walsh and Sons which went a long way to support the production of the brochure.
Judith Mitchell, relationship manager, Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets, said: "As key financial players in the further education sector in Scotland, we are extremely pleased to deepen our relationship with Cardonald College by partnering this international project. It is tremendous to see Cardonald playing on a European stage."
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