St Kilda, Melbourne

classes: Glassblowing and Mosaic

5.0 (20)

Maureen Williams Glass is a glass blowing studio in St Kilda, creating glass for the home and artworks. Maureen is an established Australian glass artist with 40 years of experience. She has created works for galleries and commissioned custom design works.

Maureen completed her Bachelor of Arts in 1986 majoring in hot glass. When the Meat Market Craft Centre opened with an access studio for glass blowing she worked there for a period of time before deciding that her practice had grown and she needed her own studio. In particular she had been invited to participate in an Australia wide travelling exhibition Symmetry: Crafts Meets Kindred Trades and Professions, and needed space to construct a large sculpture for this.

In 1993 she purchased a building in St Kilda and set up her workshop.

In 1996 she was awarded an Australia Council Grant for New Work to facilitate the building of some new equipment and make large hand painted vessels for a solo exhibition in Munich, Germany, in 1997. This consolidated her career as a glass artist.

In the same year she had her first solo exhibition in Australia at the George Gallery in St Kilda. One of these works were purchased for the National Gallery of Victoria.

Making these large works allowed her to bring together a team of five glassblowers on several occasions. This is the heart of making glass – collaborating and working with your peers.

Over the ensuing years she exhibited widely in group and solo exhibitions in Australia and overseas and her work was collected for both public and private collections in these arenas.

She has undertaken Artist in Residence programs at the ANU, Canberra Glassworks and in New Zealand, studied and assisted in workshops in the USA, sat on the board of Craft Victoria for five years and was president of Ausglass (the association of Australian glass artists) for three years.

She has had a full and rewarding career for which she is very grateful and has formed countless connections and friendships with passionate makers like herself - the art of glass is truly a team effort.

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