National Glass Centre is still open. We want to keep it that way.
Tag Archives: glass quarterly
After a remarkable council meeting I thought I’d share some highlights. Cross party support for the motion requesting a more robust look at the presented documents from Sunderland University regarding the National Glass Centre and a call for compulsory purchase.
Labour representatives were reading from carefully considered scripts to spin the narrative towards Glassworks Sunderland whilst patronising us by suggesting we are ‘romanticising heritage’.
This is OUR CULTURE. This is our future. That’s why the fight will continue until common sense prevails. As proud working class people we cannot allow this top down dictatorship. We deserve our NATIONAL Glass centre. Not empty promises.
Save the National Glass Centre photograph by Jo Howell
You are invited to…
Sunderland City Council Meeting
At 4.00pm in City Hall, Sunderland on 25th June 2025
To witness the debate deciding if the Council will pass the Motion below and start the process of investigating the actions of the University of Sunderland regarding the decision to close the NGC, thereby ending 1350 years of glassmaking in Sunderland.
The Council Meeting is open for the public to attend, please come and show your support for the Campaign to Save the National Glass Centre.
Or follow the live stream of the Meeting at…
Notice of Motion – Protecting our heritage
This Council regrets the decision taken by the University of Sunderland to close the National Glass Centre in 2026.
Preserving Sunderland’s glassmaking heritage is vital to the city’s cultural offer as well as the Council’s economic growth ambitions.
The University has taken this decision due to what it claims are unaffordable repair costs and sustained operating losses. Council expresses concern regarding the accuracy of the cost estimates so far presented.
Council therefore resolves that the Chief Executive will write to the University’s Vice Chancellor with the following questions:
1. What is the scale of the Centre’s operating loss in the current financial year and the preceding 5 years?
2. Do those losses reflect the cost incurred when structural changes were made to the Centre’s main façade in 3. 4. 2022?
3. How does the University account for the Centre’s income and expenditure?
4. Will the University release all documents relating to its ownership of the Centre and confirm whether that ownership is subject to any restrictions?
The proposal to establish an alternative glassmaking provision in Sunniside in 2027-28, known as Glassworks: Sunderland, fails to address the loss of expertise caused by the Centre’s closure, ignores the economic implications for the surrounding area, and is itself only partially costed.
Council further resolves that the Chief Executive will prepare a detailed report, to be made public within 6 weeks, with the following terms of reference:
Fully explain the proposed ownership structure of Glassworks: Sunderland.
Consider whether the National Glass Centre and Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art will continue to exist in any form following the closure of the Centre Building.
Outline the capital and revenue cost of making Glassworks: Sunderland fully operational (i.e. the cost of relocating equipment, refurbishment, fitting out, employing staff) and how this will be funded.
Save the National Glass Centre photograph by Gill Helps
Make some signage or some fashion and pop down to City Hall with us on the 21st May 2025 at 5pm.
Show the love, save the national glass centre promoted by Sunderland Conservatives
What’s the crack?
We want you to come and show support for the National Glass Centre.
Make some signage or some fashion and pop down to City Hall with us on the 21st May 2025 at 5pm.
We want to save the building et al because it was purpose built for our glassmaking heritage as a regeneration project for the City.
We believe demolition is needlessly destructive and will have adverse effects on our delicate marine and coastal environment.
The most sustainable building is the one that already exists.
Add to this that National Glass Centre is situated in St Peter’s because glassmaking was known to have been brought to Sunderland and taught to others in 674ad.
That’s 1351 years of glass!
We want to save the National Glass Centre because it has inspired working class people to enjoy art and heritage. It brings 230,000 people a year and we believe it could command even more.
The National glass centre building is an iconic emblem on the riverside. A cathedral of glass. Its cultural wealth and impact upon the surrounding area should not be underestimated.
The prestige of the highly skilled glassmakers has made our city known across the world. It symbolises our rich creative past and could be a flagship of new science or technologies of the future.
This National Glass Centre of ours is uniquely Sunderland. Anywhere can make music. Obviously we’re glad that we make music too but we are about to concede to the destruction of our only internationally facing unique selling point.
Katy Wheeler has put it excellently in the Sunderland Echo read it here:
Meet us at 5pm on May 21st at City Hall in Sunderland. Bring signs!
We need you beautiful people with some hand painted signs to have a visible outpouring of public love for the National Glass Centre.
It won’t be long until the shutdown of the National glass centre begins in earnest. We are running out of time to press this issue with MPs, councillors and everyone who has sway in this City.
The National Glass Centre has over £30 million of taxpayers money invested in it over the years. This is our investment. Our National centre with global appeal.
If you can’t come in person then take your opinions and crowbar them in on every comments section of every post of the Uni and the council. Point out hypocrisies publicly.
And of course share all of our posts!
See you at 5pm on May 21st at City Hall! Bring posters, signs and righteous indignation.
On behalf of our campaign group, “Save the National Glass Centre”, we extend our warmest congratulations on your recent appointment as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. We were heartened to hear your speech at the Royal Television Society recognising the importance of the creative industries outside of London and noting that Jonathan Reynolds, no stranger to Sunderland, is putting the creative industries at the centre of your industrial strategy. As you said, “Talent is everywhere but jobs are not”. It was kind of you to mention the beauty of Sunderland in relation to the filmmaking industry, and the same can certainly be said of Sunderland’s longstanding glass making industry.
As publicly speaking out is “critical to a healthy, functioning democracy” we, the people, are appealing to you directly in an open letter…
Save the National Glass Centre
Stop the University from breaking the glass heart of Sunderland
Immediate action is required to prevent the loss of Sunderland’s much loved “world-class cultural asset”.
Our calls for action are,
An immediate stop is put to the University of Sunderland’s closure, demolition and relocation plans for the National Glass Centre (NGC).
An independent review into the situation is commissioned to establish the facts and consider alternatives other than demolition and the destruction of our internationally renowned, unique cultural asset.
That the people who care for, use, value, cherish and, let’s face it, have collectively paid for the NGC are central to the decision-making process.
That our campaign group are given the opportunity to present our evidence-based solutions which can ensure a sustainable future for our NGC, for our glassmaking cultural heritage and, most importantly, for our future generations.
Although the NGC is currently under the ownership of the university it was conceived as a public asset central to the regeneration of that area of Sunderland. It was paid for and supported by several organisations but principally British and European taxpayers. The university assumed full ownership through the collaboration of Arts Council England (ACE) and Sunderland Council.
The university has shown “violent indifference” to our exceptional cultural and educational venue and has decided to demolish the NGC thereby ending 1350 years of glassmaking in Sunderland. The decision was taken using biased, partial evidence. There was no public consultation, no reference to the fate of the complex cultural ecosystem surrounding the NGC and no consideration of the economic damage caused by the loss of the approximately 230000 visitors the NGC used to host annually (source: Sunderland Culture). Since the shock announcement 18 months ago, there is still no coherent plan to save and relocate the many and varied creative activities housed within the building, including the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art. Millions of pounds of embodied public funds will disappear if the university is successful in its development plans.
Save the National Glass Centre
We are a group of local and nationally based people with a wide variety of experiences and professional qualifications. Collectively, we believe that the NGC can survive and thrive if the community, politicians, other interested organisations and the university work together in a spirit of positive engagement to create an ambitious, sustainable future. We are determined to challenge the averted gaze and lack of curiosity that has characterised the response of the public office holders accountable and answerable for this matter. As of this date, our elected representatives, Councillors and Members of Parliament, have been unsuccessful in holding the university to account so we are appealing to you directly as a group with the backing of over 35700 petitioners from 72 countries.
As a campaign group we have assembled a comprehensive evidence base containing many deeply troubling facts and unanswered questions, and we would welcome the opportunity to discuss this situation with you.
Your predecessors at the DCMS have been made aware of this matter, following enquiries from HRH King Charles and local politicians. In October 2023 Lord Parkinson wrote,
“…this is very much a live issue so we do not believe launching an inquiry would be productive at this stage.”
Do we have to wait until after the destruction of the National Glass Centre before this scandal is examined?
We await your response with anticipation,
Yours sincerely,
Signed on behalf of the Campaign to Save the National Glass Centre.
It has now officially been a year since the public meeting in June 2023 when we managed to pull together an A team of people to fight to save the National Glass Centre and all it embodies. I just want to take a moment to thank every single one of you for your ongoing hard work, hope and solidarity. I definitely would not have gotten this far without you all!
Tonight at the meeting we will look at the business plan, talk about Summer Streets, and update everyone about the letter writing campaign.
Next in-person meeting: Tuesday 2nd July 2024 6.30pm to 8pm
At our new venue:
Redby Community Centre, Fulwell Rd, Roker, Sunderland SR6 9QU
10am set up 7.30pm take down we will need some hands to help man the tent and raise awareness for the cause including getting lots of petitions signed!
Dive into the history of glass ships in bottles – the changing identity of a post-industrial northern city as told through the eyes of Japanese glass artist Ayako Tani, who is preserving the endangered art of sculpting the hand-crafted glass ships which once put Sunderland on the map.
_____________________________________________________________________ Grow our YouTube by liking the videos and subscribing to the channel
We need you – Save the National Glass Centre
We have put a call out for more people to get involved with the campaign. If you really want to save the National Glass Centre we are going to need more commitment, and people to help. Please share with those who you think can help!
Glass Quarterly have made the article about the National Glass Centre public! It’s so important that they have put it up for free. Glass Quarterly is a subscription magazine. Please read and share!
Save the National Glass Centre 