My mind has been blown! The overwhelming support that we have received in the last few days has been amazing. When we met with the the photographer, and Katy, we found out that the petition was nearly at 20,000 signatures. Today we are at over 25,000.
I think it safe to say that there is a lot of support for the national glass centre to continue on in it’s current format. The loss of glass blowing would be untenable by all the signatories. We have been inundated with testimonies about how important the centre has been to people. Reasons ranging from fantastic career opportunities the NGC and NGCA have offered artists, to the importance of its role in mental health and wellbeing. The National Glass Centre is a source of great pride.
In other news, we have set a public meeting for June 2023 at St Peter’s Church. I need to approach some key speakers, and to organise the format. So, more details will soon follow.
St Peter’s church by Jo Howell
Keep sharing the petition, and if you haven’t written to our MP yet, neither have I! So we had better get on with writing emails, letters, and organising the public meeting.
I will also hand print cyanotype versions of the below design in a made to order format.
All proceeds will go towards campaign costs like signage and mail outs. The campaign is run by volunteers made up of concerned locals, and people whose businesses are likely to be affected. We encourage you to sign up for our mailing list, and to follow our blog for updates.
Save the National Glass Centre original made to order prints
The petition is nearing 20,000 signatures. We have cross party support. Now we are going to take this to the Sunderland MPs. There is definitely a need and a want to save this important asset.
Save the National Glass Centre photo by Jo Howell 2023
We are so close to 5000 signatures! I’d love to hit 5,000 for when I eventually sort out meeting wor Julie (Elliot). I also need you all to put pen to paper and write to or email wor Julie stressing how wrong she is about the will of the people.
Let her know that we love our heritage and all of the wonderful opportunities that the National Glass Centre brings with it! Julie Elliott
Send your post, emails, tweets and calls to wor Julie. Information below:
Telephone 0191 5655327
Email julie.elliott.mp@parliament.uk
Post
Julie Elliott Member of Parliament for Sunderland Central Suite 204 The Place Athenaeum Street Sunderland SR1 1QX
Screenshot from Instagram April 2023 showing George Clark’s support
Shy bairns get nowt!
The wonderful George Clark is an architect, a TV personality, and he was raised a mackem in Sunderland. Lots of people in the area look up to George as a beacon of success, and he still talks very fondly of Sunderland. Bearing all of this in mind, I thought I’d try to reach out to him, and a couple of other local heroes via Instagram and twitter.
So far, George is the only one to have picked up our campaign. Thank you 🙏 that doesn’t mean that the other celebs won’t jump on board, they may just need a little more courtship.
Directly because of George’s post on Instagram we gained over 100 new signatures on our petition! And, lots of people learned of the #SaveTheNGC campaign via the comments underneath.
We need champions of all kinds to help us turn the tide to save the national glass centre and the national gallery of contemporary art (situated inside NGC). We need to show that value and cost are two entirely separate things. And, the value of what we currently have far outweighs short term commercial gain.
Artwork by Regeneration North East SALT art group 2023
Once it’s gone there will be no resurrecting it. The 25 years of kudos and excellence will go with loss of the artists and the skilled staff and the building.
Sign our petition. Write to your MP. Share far and wide. Ask your celeb mates to get in touch. Send me NGC art, stories, articles, films and whatever you have. Let’s prove the value.
Artwork by Regeneration North East SALT art group 2023Artwork by Regeneration North East SALT art group 2023Artwork by Regeneration North East SALT art group 2023Artwork by Regeneration North East SALT art group 2023Artwork by Regeneration North East SALT art group 2023
As the campaign reaches further and further afield, people from all over the world have offered their support.
Photo by Michael Janis 2012
The national glass centre in Sunderland has a global reach. The world of glass artists and artisans is fairly small and well connected. Many have reached out to tell us of their dismay at the peril the National Glass centre’s news of closure and relocation.
There is a lot of unrest and concern surrounding the loss of heritage craft. International researchers who the NGC and the university draw into the city, will no longer have any reason to come here.
Why is this important?
Back in 2011 Creative Cohesion headed a glass exchange program with Washington DC Glass, our sister City. The link between Washington DC and Washington in the North East goes back to the president, George Washington, for whom both were named. In conjunction with creative cohesion and the National Glass Centre lots of local artists benefited from the exchange, and we have kept lasting friendships with our Washington DC colleagues.
Without those organisations, and the magnetic draw of the national glass centre for research, we wouldn’t have had any of the opportunities that we have enjoyed since that program. International trade, introduction to the American market, skills shares, exhibitions, conferences and so much more.
Photo by Michael Janis 2012
Please read Michael Janis’ blog from the time. It has recently passed 11 years since their visit, and it still resonates with everyone who was privileged enough to be involved.
Besides working with the University students and faculty, we also were able to create informal workshops on how technology and social media is changing the art world. These talks were extremely popular – with the standing room only audiences that came from the student body of the University as well as working artists from Sunderland, Newcastle, and as far away as Edinburgh, Scotland. The audience stayed long after the talk, and topics from the discussions continued to come up during our entire Fulbright program stay (and indeed, afterwards via the internet) showing the strong relevance of the concepts.
Since our mission, we were invited to show as artists at galleries in London and at the Sunderland Museum, and we had the Sunderland artists featured in an international exhibit held in Washington, DC the following year.
While our mission as Fulbright Scholars was to impart information, we left having learned many lessons.
Michael Janis, Fulbright Scholarship
Photo by Michael Janis 2012
These artist exchange programs and research fellowships are the life blood of creativity in Sunderland. They are one of the few things that has global reach and appeal. Without this amazing national institution and it’s powerful ethos of exchange and support, how can somewhere like Sunderland truly level up?
We don’t pick and choose our heritage or our culture. It grows as a natural response to our history and how we view our future. Up until last year the National Glass Centre was still being billed as the gem in Sunderland’s crown. There have been many recent project’s highlighting our glass heritage People’s Pyrex, art deco Joblings glass, Love Pyrex. To name just a few.
Michael Janis 2012
Glass is still very much at the heart of Sunderland. We need to work together to make it known that the National glass centre, and all it embodies, is cherished and respected the world over.
To deny public consultation on such important local issues is culturally insensitive at best, and woefully ignorant of the community’s they serve at worse.
Do you have a story about the National Glass centre? We are actively looking for articles to publish on the blog to keep up the momentum we have built so far.
Thank you for reading! Sign our petition. Share far and wide!
A brief history of the National Glass Centre Building
by David Vickery, retired senior planning inspector
The National Glass Centre (NGC) celebrates its 25th anniversary this coming October under threat of closure and likely demolition. It was opened by HRH Prince (now King) Charles in October 1998.
This amazing building lies on the north bank of the River Wear on the former site of the J.L. Thompson and Sons shipyard, facing the mouth of the River Wear and Sunderland’s port. It is close to the site of St. Peter’s Church, built in 674, where Abbott Benedict Biscop instructed French craftsman to glaze its windows, starting Sunderland’s long connection with glass making.
Instax haiku about St Peter’s Church, photo by Jo Howell 2019
In 1994 the Tyne and Wear Development Corporation held an open competition for the design of the NGC, with the objectives of celebrating the heritage of glass making in Sunderland and to support the development of new glass production for the 21st century. This competition, with over 80 entrants, was won by the London architectural practice GolliferAssociates Architects (now Gollifer Langston Architects). Their proposal aimed to make the activities and production going on inside the building visible to visitors.
Front cover of Pyrex magazine, courtesy of Tyne and Wear archive, scanned by Jo Howell
The NGC was the recipient of the first major Arts Lottery Award in the North East. It was also funded by the Arts Council, the University of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear Development Corporation, the European Regional Development Fund and Sunderland City Council.
The building was one of the first in Sunderland to mark the beginning of the city’s regeneration, breathing new life into the depressed docklands area.
The complex design incorporates all the various uses into a glass envelope, supported by an exposed steel shell. The industrial finish looked striking and unusual when it opened in 1998, and it still does so today.
The NGC almost looks as if it is leaning towards the water, like a ship being launched. This is because the architects wanted the building to resemble a sea-bound vessel.
The building is built into the slope as the land runs down towards the river, with the public areas located to the south looking onto the riverside. The “back of house” areas are located to the north of the building, built into the slope.
Along the riverside the building has a long length of tall steel and glass walls, with an overhanging glass roof, exposed steelwork and external stairs.This modern, bold design means the NGC is instantly recognisable from the riverside public footpath and from the opposite river bank.
Inside, the high glazed walls and roof, mezzanine, open stairs, exposed steel work and ducts, and a concrete lift shaft give the visiting public a uniquely open, futuristic, brightly lit experience with views through the glazing to the river beyond.
The building looks fantastic when it is lit up at night, with light streaming out through the huge glass walls and roof.
The building was awarded Millennium Product status by the Design Council in recognition of its creativity and innovative environmental approach. It was one of the first buildings in the UK to use an earth tube to bring pre-cooled air into the public areas while the excess heat from the factory was recovered to heat public areas in the winter months.
Detail of Phil Vickery blown glass made in the National Glass Centre hot shop, photo by Jo Howell
It cost £7.2m to build in 1998, and was “revamped” by the University in 2013 at a cost of £2.25m with a new gallery, restaurant, remodelled glass studio and shop.
It is open to the public, and around 230,000 people visit it each year, making it a major cultural venue and visitor attraction in the north-east. So go and see it while you can…
I make ceramics, I’m not awell-knownartist, I don’t sell anything, I don’t make money from it and my careerwasin computing as an I.T. Manager.
Sadly,my ceramics journey started with someone’s death. It wasn’t just anyone’sdeathbut mymother’smy “Mam” as we call them in the North.
In 2001 my Mam suddenly passed away. The shock and loss of a parent is always hard to cope with and I wasn’t doing it very well at allandIwas at a loss at how to stop feeling so sad allofthe time.
My life at that time was basicallygo toworkandsolvecomputerproblems,then come home and just think about missing my Mam. There seemed to be no way out of the sadness I felt. This couldn’t go onandafter a few weeks of this misery I decided something had to be done and I needed to break the cycle.
I thought perhaps an evening class would give me something to occupy my mind. I sawa Ceramics class advertised.Not only had I never done pottery before,but even better the course was free.I went along withsometrepidation, thinking“what have I signed up for?”After all,Iconsidered myselfto be a “techie”rather thanan“artist”.
In the class I was seated with 4 fantastic ladies who were around the same age as my Mam and they laughed and jokedthe whole time. They reminded me so much of my Mam, but in amuchhappier time.
They brought laughter back into my lifeand the sudden realisation that I enjoyed ceramics helped me to cope with grieving for her,byremembering the good times rather than her death. Suddenly life seemed awholelot better.
More importantly,every time I startedmakinga ceramic piece it always remindedme of my Mam.21 years later it still doesand Ihave a hugesmile thinking of her.
After a while I signed up for even more eveningcoursesbut this time at the National Glass Centre. Wow I was so overawed at their facilities and couldn’t believe I was making things there, me a mere hobby potter.
How proud I was that I was not only going to a centre of excellence but even more than that myDadhad been a “Plater” at the very shipyard which was situated on the site of the National Glass Centre. Even he was proud of me, a tough no-nonsense northern shipyard worker was impressed with his son’s creations,
what a surprise in my life.
I evenmanaged toappearin the University’s learning booklet.
The professionalism ofthestaffteaching me,thechance to meet other students at the Glass Centre and being able to see what I could achieve eventually led me to purchase my ownkiln.ContactsImade on the coursesalso led to the purchase of myfirstpottery wheel.
Every time I either make a ceramic piece or look at the many pieces either in my house or the homes of people whohave myart,I think of my Mam. Not with sadness but with ahugesmile andI saythankyou toher.
So,this story isn’t really about me it’s about my Mam, who sadly never got to see any of myceramics or my journey fromanevening classin alittleschool through to thecountry’samazingNational Glass Centre.
The National Glass Centre was key to changing large parts of my life, all linked with someone sadly passing away and enabling others to smile when they receive a piece of my amateurish pottery, who would have thought it!!
My career was in computing, did I like it, well yes but my soul is in ceramics, do I like it, just ask my Mam she knows.
This iswhy all of myceramics are dedicated to her.
#SaveTheNGC #SaveTheNGCA
Do you have a story about the National Glass Centre?
After the stinging news that the National Glass Centre (NGC) is under threat of closure, many people have come forward to share their memories and concerns for the future of glass in the City of Sunderland. Here are my thoughts.
In 2012, I arrived at the NGC to do a Foundation Degree in Art and Design. I made friends and lots of good memories. I went on to do a B.A. (Hons) Illustration and Design, then an M.A. Design (Illustration) on the University of Sunderland’s City Campus. In fact, I returned to the NGC to work with the technicians on some glass sculptures for my final exhibition. In January 2018, I founded Regeneration NE Community Interest Company with my long-term friend, who himself studied Ceramics at the NGC.
In 2019, The Art Studio, a mental health charity in Hendon, closed down due to lack of funding. Having volunteered and worked as a tutor there, regular service-users, who were living with serious mental illness looked to me and Regeneration NE for help. It was the NGC where we would meet up, have a coffee and perhaps do some sketches overlooking the river.
Above: The glass sculpture, Regeneration 2017, created by Gary Nicholson at the NGC.
Among the meeting rooms in the NGC, I attended Artworks-U Networking and Support meetings which gathered local artists to discuss projects, problems, new ideas and potential collaborations. It was a safe place for new graduates like me to watch and learn from more experienced creatives who travelled from across the region to be there. Kids and families often head over to the building to see the exhibitions and amazing glass-blowing demonstrations as an educational and cheap day out. Local artists can also hire the facilities to create and run their businesses. You can even buy affordable and unique glass pieces created by the artists on site.
The NGC is a landmark and a place of education, history, heritage, community and culture. It links modern Creative Industries with the City’s proud industrial past. It has impacted the local economy by attracting students who want to study Glass and Ceramics. In the past 10 years, other universities have dropped Art, Glass and Ceramics courses from their prospectus, (e.g. Falmouth, Kent, Roehampton, Wolverhampton), which makes the dedicated centre for the tuition of Glass and Ceramics all-the-more precious at a national level.
It’s true, sentimentality won’t pay the NGC bills. However, the same Sunderland people had the self-belief, business and creative expertise to be shortlisted for City of Culture 2021. Regeneration NE urges them to now work on saving the NGC. It will be a logistical and safety nightmare to squeeze everything into shared spaces in the City Centre. It would be just plain wrong to let it slip away without a fight.
We need your memories! Would you like to know how to help our campaign? Well, we would love to publish your articles on our blog! Let us know how the National Glass Centre has helped or influenced you.
If you want to remain anonymous, that’s ok as well. The campaign is about saving these much loved national organisations, so keep it clean, concise, and cheerful.
Phil Vickery Glass in 2012 working with Roger Tye in the National Glass Centre, Sunderland
The University of Sunderland is running a slick public relations campaign to rid itself of the prestigious National Glass Centre (NGC) at little cost. It may even make a good profit. It no longer wishes to have a large public exhibition space, café, shop, expensive glass furnaces and multi-purpose teaching facilities which attract hundreds of thousands of visitors a year. The University considers that the NGC no longerforms part of its key academic objectives.
The University’s strategic aims, as set out in its Annual Report and £250m Investment Plan(January & February 2023), is to concentrate on technology and health. It’s the white hot heat of technology and not the heat of outdated glass furnaces that it desires. And the University wants to ramp up its politically sexy Canary Wharf London campus, close to Government and the country’s financial centres. Perhaps it should now be called the University of London and Sunderland?
To justify its closure proposal, the University commissioned in early 2022 architectural, structural and cost reports (published in March 2023) which artificially inflated the cost of bringing the NGC up to modern standards. Instead of the report’s lower £14m estimate, the University has chosen to go with a much higher £45m estimate, partly by including the replacement cost of 25 year old mechanical and electrical plant which has already been written off over 5 years of depreciation.
Studio glass detail shot from NGC 2021
Having inflated the cost, and before publicly announcing the imminent closure of the NGC in early January 2023, the University convinced Sunderland’s local MP, Julie Elliott, Sunderland Culture, and Sunderland City Council that the NGC’s retention was not economically feasible. And, no doubt, that keeping it could prejudice future University investment in its St Peter’s campus and elsewhere in the city. All have, in consequence, accepted the NGC’s closure in principle.
The University have made a small gesture by saying it might be possible to retain some glass “academic work” and exhibition display space elsewhere in central Sunderland (no glass furnaces). But at the same time it hedged the retention possibility by saying this would only happen “as far as it is practically possible and viable”. No-one knows where a reduced NGC could go. The proposed Culture House has been mentioned as a possibility, but it is relatively small and already has much of its recently reduced floor area pre-allocated for a library, café, local history collection and other cultural uses. It is unlikely glass teaching and exhibition space, let alone furnaces, could be fitted into the building on a sufficient scale to justify calling it a“National” glass centre.
Dotting the NGC’s present functions around the city would destroy its attractiveness as an institution and visitor attraction. The joy and unique selling point now of the NGC is that you can visit everything in one place – see an exhibition, watch glass being blown, have a meal or drink, and take a course.
What no-one has so far mentioned is what the University will do with the vacated NGC site, which is in a much sought after riverside position, just right for luxury residential development. And the University has not said whether any of the funds from the disposal or redevelopment of the NGC site will be returned to Sunderland people.
Detail shot of studio glass made in NGC 2021
A number of important questions remain to be answered:
– Why has the University artificially inflated the cost of retaining the existing iconic and nationally regarded NGC building?
– How much money is the University prepared to “gift” towards the alternative NGC provision that is currently being sought?
– Why have the City’s representatives so quickly accepted the NGC’s closure withoutclosely examining the University’s cost figures and without having any confirmed alternative provision?
– What happens to the NGC site?
And, lastly, the most important question:
– Will Sunderland’s representatives agree to the plan by a financially driven University, keen on increasing its liquidity level and being net cash positive, to close down and divest itself of a cultural, artistic and architectural jewel which provides work, education and pleasure for many thousands of people, both locally and nationally?
At best, at the end of all this, what will be left will be just a small and inconsequential glass exhibition and teaching space, possibly scattered throughout the city. It would be a forlorn shadow of its present greatness.
At worst, an alternative site(s) for the NGC will not be found.
Whatever the result, the University will congratulate itself on having successfully removed an unwanted liability from its books whilst at the same time making a financial killingto add to its existing £51.5m cash reserves.
This is not the way for a renowned and rich“anchor” institution to treat Sunderland’s people, or its artistic community, or its proud history and heritage.
As the uk government pulls apart our right to protest, this merry band of believers begins in earnest to try to save our riverside arts venues: the National Glass Centre, and the National Gallery of Contemporary Art.
Sunderland has a great history of successful protest. Apparently, we were the home of the first strike. We also have a great history of art. The university building in back house park is the oldest purpose built art school. We are a city of innovators, engineers, artists, and grafters.
We are often misrepresented in the press with negative views like it’s grim up north. We are a city targeted by right wing propagandists, and the military always comes here to recruit.
Photo by Hester Dowling 05/03/23
We are a City that is trying to change its fortunes. There has been a lot of investment driven to the riverside with our new City Hall, and a big film studio about to to be developed. There are good things happening here that make us hopeful for a richer future full of opportunity. Unfortunately, it seems we can’t find the motivation to invest in the cultural successes we already have.
We see the National Glass Centre and the National Gallery of Contemporary Art as two of our most important cultural assets. We have other great things going on but I think if we let them go that they will be replaced with a subpar offering.
Should the next 3 years see the end of our longer than 1300 year love affair with glass blowing and making? If cared for and invested in, these organisations would surely compliment the new investments?
Glass art is often used in filmmaking. If there’s a period drama or fantasy (think Game of Thrones) they need glasses to drink from. An artisan blower is who they go to. Or, what about science fiction? There is always some unusual glass art in sci fi. Our film studios would have the additional bonus of having high end prop makers right next to them!
It’s a lot of money and responsibility entailed in saving, and future proofing, this building. But, it can be done. If we commit wholeheartedly, and do it right, a massive investment now could save it for another 25 year’s minimum. Bare minimum.
Linishing glass, by Jo Howell 2022
The steel structure need’s stripping and re-galvanised to stop it rusting further. Can the port help? They may have specialist knowledge about saving steel from the corrosive effects of sea water.
The building is thermally inefficient, and will not be able to contend with the energy crisis unless another round of investment includes some very clever green technologies. Photovoltaic panels, wind power, heat exchange, battery storage, and any other innovations that take us towards real efficiency.
We’re aware that we are asking a lot, but shy bairns get nowt.
A community campaign to gain access to the current plans for the continuation or closure of the National Glass Centre building
What do we want from this campaign?
Ideally, we want to find a way to save the building as it is. To do that we need to know what it needs. That way, we can try to formulate a plan of action for both organisations to be saved, and for the building to be improved. This could be an opportunity to radically address the problems, including the extreme energy consumption, to make both of our national organisations leaders in the cultural sector.
Information about long terms plans, time lines, and the recent consultation report about the building, has not been released.
< Edit this has been released but we want more clarity. See the consultation on our links page.
Naturally, this has left local businesses and creatives wondering about the future of these two National organisations.
We seek to gain information, and an audience with the custodians of the building, Sunderland University; with an intention of saving the skill of glass blowing in St Peter’s ward.
Email, logo and hashtag
How can you help?
You can join our mailing list, and give us a testimonial that we can use to demonstrate public love for the NGC and NGCA.
We are going to need active participation in lots of different ways. We are going to need organisers, event coordinators, social media content and management, councillors, MPs, governors, and cultural organisations to support us.
#SaveTheNGC
Link to article below:
The closing of Sunderland’s National Glass Centre
We need all the help that any of you can offer. #SaveTheNationalGlassCentre #SaveTheNGC
Save the National Glass Centre 