Background
In 2010 Næstved Museum in Sealand south of Copenhagen recieved a large donation (c. 35.000 glass items) from the largest Danish glas factory Holmegaard Glasværk that had recently turned in their production.
A substantial part of the donation consisted of utility glasses sush as medicine bottles, marmelade jars, ber and mineral bottles etc. Since then the focus of Næstved Museum has shifted from being a collection of artifacts from the local area to a grand vision of being a centre point of reseach in glass from Denmark as such. A new museum will open in the former Holmegaard Glasswork in 2020. For more information about the project click here.
We find that research on the utility glass production has been overshadowed by research into studio glass and finer glass works. With this and future conferences we would like to open up the discussion on utility glass and contribute to form an extended network of glass reseachers in the Nordic countries.
2016
The first Nordic Utility Glass Conference took place on 10-11 March 2016 at Museum Southeast Denmark, Næstved Museum.
The conference aimed at sharing knowledge of the history, manufacture practices and design developments in utility glass in the Nordic countries. Following the conference Museum Southeast Denmark a collaboration has been initiated with the Swedish and the Finnish glass museums. Conference papers from the 2016 conference are being published as a two-volume publication in collaboration with Journal of Glass Studies.
2017
In 2017 the Nordic Utility Glass Conference took place in Växjö, Sweden at the Swedish Glass Museum.
2018
The Nordic Utility Glass Conference 2018 will be held at the Finnish Glass Museum in Riihimäki, Finland 16-18 August 2018.
For more information please contact:
Mette Bielefeldt Bruun: mbr@museerne.dk
Susanne Outzen: sou@museerne.dk