Feature... Lighting the Fuse
Cobi Cockburn, Murmuration (Light), 2019. Photographer: Greg Piper.
Since it was established in 2016, the Fuse Glass Prize has become the most prestigious platform for celebrating and supporting outstanding glass artists from Australia and New Zealand. In 2021 a new residency program has been added and in 2022 the prize will continue to evolve.
Words by Brian Parkes
Brian is Chief Executive Officer at JamFactory.
Australian and New Zealand artists who work with glass have established a global reputation for technical innovation and daring creativity in the medium. A startling proportion of internationally recognised leaders in the field are based in our region or have studied, trained or worked here.
Glass is a medium that attracts passionate enquiry – from those who dedicate their creative life to using it and from the increasing number of enthusiastic collectors and admirers who are drawn to its unique properties and the formal, technical and conceptual diversity it can display. The biennial FUSE Glass Prize is a testament to the passion of both of these groups and a truly shining example of how collective philanthropic support can create great opportunities for artists and add extraordinary value to the work of arts organisations.
The prize evolved from conversations that began in 2014 between committed glass art collectors Jim and Helen Carreker and JamFactory, following the conclusion of the Ranamok Glass Prize, which shone a light on glass artists from the region for 20 years. The FUSE Glass Prize launched in 2016 and was funded then, as it is now, predominantly through private philanthropy and sponsorship.
The Carrekers’ steadfast support has been ongoing. Along with other donors, they gifted additional funds in 2020 to enable significant evolution of the prize – including the development of a new FUSE Glass Artist Residency award in the alternate years of the prize. Most recently the Carrekers have very generously provided further funds to set up an endowment that will ensure this important new residency component will be well supported over the next ten years. With this latest commitment, the Carrekers’ personal philanthropic support of FUSE has become the most significant private support in JamFactory’s history.
Jessica Loughlin, Receptor of light V, 2018. Photographer: Rachel Harris.
Clare Belfrage, Into the Deep, 2016. Photographer: Pippy Mount.
The FUSE Glass Prize provides a platform to encourage glass artists in Australia or New Zealand to push themselves and their work to new limits. It focuses significant public attention on the importance of glass as a medium for contemporary artistic expression. The major prize is a juried, non-acquisitive, $20,000 cash prize for established artists. An additional prize – the David Henshall Emerging Artist Prize – valued at $5,000 is awarded to an emerging glass artist. The selected works of twelve finalists in the established category and six finalists in the emerging category are presented in a touring exhibition.
The winners of the major prize since it was established have been Clare Belfrage (2016), Jessica Loughlin (2018) and Cobi Cockburn (2020) – all celebrated artists with works featured in major national and international public collections.
The FUSE Glass Artist Residency is awarded biennially in the alternate years of the prize. This new residency award aims to create significant opportunities specifically for mid-career artists working in glass. In early 2021 JamFactory announced South Australian artist Alex Valero as the inaugural recipient.
The Residency, valued at more than $20,000, provides the selected artist with the opportunity to work with skilled assistants, take risks and experiment with the development of new work using hot blown glass. The Residency includes travel costs, accommodation, studio space and living expenses for up to 4 weeks at JamFactory in Adelaide and can be undertaken in a single block of time or over a number of separate engagements. The Residency also includes a solo exhibition in the new, purpose-built exhibition space at Carrick Hill – the iconic South Australian historic house museum and garden in Springfield in the leafy south-east of Adelaide.
The FUSE Glass Artist Residency exhibition will be accompanied by a printed catalogue and a program of free public events along with a special dinner for glass artists and collectors. The close partnership between JamFactory and Carrick Hill has been additionally supported by generous donors Pamela Wall OAM and Ian Wall AM.
As a local artist, Alex Valero chose to undertake his residency over three intense blocks in March, August and September 2021. Valero has spent the last 10 years working with glass. He graduated from the University of South Australia in 2012, completed the Associate Program at JamFactory in 2014, and was the inaugural winner of the emerging artist category of the FUSE Glass Prize in 2016. He currently works from an independent studio in the Adelaide CBD.
Valero was chosen from a competitive field of applicants by a panel of three judges – the venerated South Australian glass artist Nick Mount, the current Head of JamFactory’s Glass Studio Kristel Britcher, and the Director of Carrick Hill Tony Kanellos. The judges were impressed with Valero’s innovative and experimental approach to working with hot glass and his exploration of ideas drawn from philosophy, science and science fiction. As an early mid-career artist, the judges believed he was ideally placed to benefit substantially from the opportunities afforded by this important new residency. His exhibition will be on show at Carrick Hill from 29 October 2021 to 30 January 2022.
Entries for the 2022 FUSE Glass Prize can be submitted between 21 January 2022 and the closing date of 21 March 2022. The Judges for 2022 are Aimee Frodsham, Artistic Director, Canberra Glassworks, Rebecca Evans, Curator of Decorative Arts and Design, Art Gallery of South Australia, Justine Olsen, Curator of Decorative Art and Design, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Cobi Cockburn, artist and 2020 FUSE prize winner, and Brian Parkes, Chief Executive Officer, JamFactory.
The 2022 FUSE Glass Prize exhibition will open at JamFactory in Adelaide (13 May – 3 July 2022) before touring to the Canberra Glassworks (24 August – 25 September 2022) and the Australian Design Centre in Sydney (7 October – 16 November 2022).
The FUSE Glass Prize is made possible thanks to the following donors and supporters; Jim and Helen Carreker, the Hon Diana Laidlaw AM, David McKee AM and Pam McKee, the David & Dulcie Henshall Foundation, Pamela Wall OAM and Ian Wall AM, Susan Armitage, Sonia Laidlaw, Trina Ross and Maia Ambegaokar and Joshua Bishop along with The Louise luxury accommodation in the Barossa, Pitcher Partners and Seppeltsfield Wines.
Right: Alex Valero in the Glass Studio. Photographer: JamFactory.