MAGE 2014 OFFICIAL OPENING & ANNOUNCEMENT OF WINNERS

Friday 24th October, 2014 at 4pm at Martin’s Garage Showrooms

52-54 Chenery Street, Mansfield, VIC 37°03’29″S 146°05’30″E then join in all the fun of our 10-day Mansfield High Country & Spring Arts Festival program

MAGE 2014 EXHIBITIONS – OPEN 10 DAYS

Saturday 25th October until Monday 3rd November from 10am – 4pm daily,

Martin’s Garage Showrooms, 52 Chenery Street, Mansfield VIC

(Your GPS will find us at 37°03’29″S 146°05’30″E)

See 50 finalist architectural and studio glass works by the best established, emerging and new glass artists from across Australia and New Zealand & Mansfield Coffee Merchant, 23 Highett Street, Mansfield VIC (the MAGE’s contemporary glass jewellery prize winners).

And, yes, the coffee is great and so is the Mansfield Spring Arts program.

Now approaching its fourth year, the Mansfield Art Glass Exposition (MAGE) conducted by the Arts Council of Mansfield in Victoria, is one of the largest most exciting contemporary art glass events in Australia – and, with the inclusion of glass artists from New Zealand this year, we might also claim to have acquired an international perspective as well!! These are significant achievements for a voluntary group and a regional town – albeit with ongoing support, advice and encouragement from glass artists, glass artists’ representative bodies and our valued partners – Axess Glass Products, the Mansfield Shire and Martins Garage.

The MAGE is a unique, multi-faceted year-round program but, for now, the majority of its events are held during Mansfield’s High Country & Spring Arts Festival in October-November each year. In pursuit of its artistic, educational and philanthropic objectives, the MAGE 2014 will offer 25 events, activities and services:

• 6 juried art glass competitions – including ‘contemporary glass jewellery’
• 7 significant prizes and awards – total prize pool valued at $8,500;
• 3 simultaneous ten-day exhibitions of the best contemporary art glass works;
• 2 seminars (‘Design in Creative Practice’ and ‘Mansfield’s History in Stained Glass’);
• 2 workshops (tba);
• 2 exclusive exhibition previews for prospective buyers;
• an official opening & announcement of winners – 4 pm on 24th October, 2014;
• free shipping from Melbourne to Mansfield and free return shipping of unsold pieces;
• a scholarship to assist an Australian or New Zealand glass artist to travel for study.

The MAGE program supports glass artists. The MAGE was the first art glass program to offer free return shipping of unsold finalist works (an important saving for artists) and it has continued to keep fees and commissions low. The MAGE is the only art glass program in Australasia to award a prize of a ‘featured artist’ exhibition in a prestigious art glass gallery or to introduce a travel scholarship.

The MAGE program also supports its home region. Each year the MAGE brings to the Mansfield Shire 60 brilliant examples of the best contemporary art glass created by artists working in various styles and at different stages in their professional careers from across Australia and New Zealand. Impressively, every year to date, the ‘best’ has also included the work of local glass artists. This says a lot about the artistic standards maintained here in Mansfield.

In addition, the MAGE program brings to the Mansfield Shire glass artists, curators and gallery owners as well as glass collectors and art lovers from the north eastern region and other parts of country Victoria, Melbourne, Sydney and southern NSW. The numbers of visitors will grow significantly in the future because, in conjunction with the Mansfield Secondary College and the Mansfield Adult & Community Education (MACE) Centre, the MAGE Management Group has plans to bring the world’s top glass artists and designers to deliver summer school courses here – much as did the regional town of Stanwood in Washington State in the USA 40 years ago. Theirs is now home to a campus of one of the world’s most respected art glass schools – the Pilchuck Glass School whose mission is to ‘inspire creativity, transform individuals and build community’. There is no good reason why, over time, Mansfield in regional Victoria cannot achieve the same in the southern hemisphere.

The MAGE program is unique in the contemporary art glass world in that it is equally representative of both major art glass styles: studio glass and architectural glass. In addition to studio glass works, the MAGE offers a specific prize for 2-dimensional architectural glass works such as windows, panels or screens as well as a sponsored award for major architectural glass projects already installed in a building or outdoor setting anywhere in the world. The existence of these opportunities to showcase the architectural potential of contemporary art glass has been described by leaders in the sector as ‘extraordinary’ and ‘highly valued’.

The MAGE program is progressive in that it responds to developments in the art glass world. It encourages exploration of the combination of materials with glass as well as collaboration between glass artists working together and between glass artists and practitioners in other creative spheres. The MAGE Management Group has also sought to minimise the impact of the program on the environment by, amongst other things, focusing on the use of natural light, negotiating the temporary repurposing of buildings and consolidating shipping.

The MAGE program is also diverse in that it seeks to include and acknowledge the work of glass artists during all the important stages in their development – from when they are students and ‘new’ to professional practice, ‘emerging’ or coming to notice and ‘established’ – as well as cater to the interests of curators and gallery owners and art glass collectors and appreciators.

The Arts Council of Mansfield Inc. and its MAGE Management Group seek your engagement in helping to realise the amazing further potential of this program.

Gilli M Bruce
Convenor, MAGE 2014
https://artsmansfield.com.au
[email protected]
(03) 5775 1128 or 0429 195 283