The International Summer Academy Bild-Werk Frauenau has developed into a prime center for glass art education over the past three decades. Home to the Glasmuseum Frauenau and to Erwin Eisch, considered the founding father of the Studio Glass movement in Europe and one of the founders of the Academy, Frauenau is located in a leading glass region between the Bavarian Forest in Bavaria, Germany, and the Bohemian Forest in the Czech Republic. The Academy began teaching workshops in 1987 with a primary focus on glass art, but has expanded into teaching in other disciplines such as painting, ceramics, wood, and bronze. Studio rentals for artists are available at Bild-Werk as well, making the studio and the region of Frauenau a great resource for artists living in or visiting this part of Germany.
As is oftentimes the case with art centers, Bild-Werk Frauenau has faced its fair share of budgetary constraints despite their workshop offerings and many volunteer hours from the staff. Fortunately, about 100 internationally renowned artists, many of whom have led workshops at the school, have donated work for the Bild-Werk Frauenau Charity Auction to be held on October 4, 2014. While paintings, prints, and sculptures from other materials will available at the auction, much of the selection of available work will be blown, flameworked, kiln casted, pate de verre, or coldworked glass. Glass artists from academia, the non-profit sector, design companies, and studio collectives, as well as glassworkers with individual studio practices will be represented. A short list of artists who have donated work for the auction include Americans Stephen Dee Edwards, professor at Alfred University in New York; flameworker Shane Fero, former Glass Art Society president; Mexican brothers Einar and Jamex de la Torre; Australian artist B. Jane Cowie, currently the creative director of Art Glass Solutions in Singapore; artists from the studio group Mannerhaut in Germany; British warm glass workers Max Jacquard, Mark Angus, Davina Kirkpatrick; and artists from the Czech Republic's large pool of coldworkers and engravers, including Christian Schmidt and the up-and-coming engraver Pavlina Cambalova. Objects in a myriad of colors and styles will provide something for everyone's taste at this fall's auction.
The auction will be conducted by Dr. Joachim Haas from the Art Society Schweinfurt and held in Tom's Hall, an Academy building named after the late painter and glass expert Thomas S. Buechner, who generously supported and taught at the Academy for twenty years. A full auction catalog will be available in August by request, and it will be possible to submit bids for the auction via phone or writing.
More information about the auction will soon be available on the Bild-Werk Frauenau website.