Summary:
Every year, young people who deal with ceramics in any manner, historian/art historians, designers, or artists, are called to participate in a competition. At the beginning of each year, people are invoked on a specific topic, which is pre-selected by the jury, to compete with new ideas as Future Light. From the ideas 18 will be selected. These will be invited to one of the big ceramic Congresses in summer to present their ideas. Afterwards, the best six have the opportunity to implement their ideas as part of a summer school at Staffordshire University or to better themselves for a month in one of the partner museums. Further, they complement the exhibition of Shaping the Future and lastly, they will be presented at the Brithish Ceramics Biennial (BCB) in 2017. Moreover, during the year, each Future Light in Ceramics should make the topic ceramics more present, especially for a younger/contemporary target group.
Responsible:
Porzellanikon – Staatliches Museum für Porzellan in Hohenberg a. d. Eger / Selb
British Ceramics Biennial (BCB) team, Stoke-on-Trent
Design & Crafts Council of Ireland, Kilkenny
Staffordshire University, Stoke-on-Trent
Duration:
1st December 2015 – 30th November 2018
Future Lights – Showcasing the future of ceramics in Europe 2017/ 2018
The Future Lights competition is designed to build new bridges and provide a platform for recent graduates to further their careers.
Future Lights is an annual competition for people in the early stages of a career in ceramics. The aims of the competition are to
- Encourage cross-disciplinary learning and approaches by bringing together the ceramic designers, art historians, researchers, makers and artists of the future
- Support people in the early stages of a career in ceramics by exhibiting their work at high profile ceramics exhibitions across Europe
- Promote ceramics to a younger audience, though identifying potential ambassadors.
How to build a new future for ceramics in arts, craftsmanship and industry? Besides the offerings of the European education systems, it is even as essential to support the next and upcoming generation well-directed. This is the reason why “Future Lights in Ceramics” Award has been granted such a significant and important objective of the Ceramics and its Dimensions project. Its objectives are to raise awareness of young people taking into account the new generation of artists, designers, stakeholders, architects dealing with ceramics.
According to these main intentions the Future Lights Award is an annual competition for people in the early stages of a career in ceramics. The aims of the competition are to encourage cross-disciplinary learning and approaches by bringing together the ceramic designers, art historians, researchers, makers and artists of the future. And in the same direction to support people in the early stages of a career in ceramics by exhibiting their work at high profile ceramics exhibitions across Europe. And very important to the role ceramics plays in the European society is to promote ceramics to a younger audience, though identifying potential ambassadors.
There is a wide impact on the knowledge of the Future Lights in Ceramics awardees. The module offers additionally profound experience on ceramics through contact and discussion with experts. Together with the European Ceramic Society (ECerS), federation of European national ceramic societies, an exchange of artistic and creative skills and knowledge about technology and material science is provided through workshops at different destinations from manufactories to industry.
The group of young people, the Future Lights in Ceramics, coming from the world of research, design, architecture, industry, exchanged their qualifications and exposed their ideas to extend and improve innovation of technical ceramics. The aim of the Young Ambassador Programme was also to establish an international network with all young actors dealing with ceramics to exchange their ideas about the material and its perspective considering new consumer tendencies and new challenges such as integration and sustainable development.
For each call for proposal a different theme was set by the jury members. These topics, to which Future Light candidates could send in their applications were:
2016: International Cultural Influence in Ceramics. Building on the history of cultural exchange in ceramics
2017: Incorporating the qualities of handcrafted work into industrially produced ceramics
2018 Diversity – of materials, people, methods, approaches and cultures
2019 Go green – Ceramics and the Environment
Between 2015 and 2018 26 young ceramists were selected by an international panel:
Future Lights in Ceramics 2016:
Beth Lewis-Williams (United Kingdom)
Kristina Rutar (Slovenia)
Francesca Romei (Italy)
Zora Žbontar (Slovenia)
Kate Haywood (United Kingdom)
Atis Šnēvelis (Latvia)
Emily Stapleton Jeffries (United Kingdom)
Yuka Kikumoto (United Kingdom)
Future Lights in Ceramics 2017:
Maria Joanna Juchnowska (Norway/Poland)
Sabrina Vasulka (United Kingdom/Argentina)
Wendy Ward (United Kingdom)
Karolina Bednorz (Poland)
Monika Müller (United Kingdom/Austria)
Rhiannon Ewing-James (Denmark/Northern Ireland)
Future Lights in Ceramics 2018:
Chloë Dowds (Ireland)
Ahryn Lee (Germany/South Korea)
Maria Gasparian (United Kingdom/Armenia)
Weronika Lucińska (Poland)
Sophia Southgate (United Kingdom)
Julia Schuster (United Kingdom/Austria)
Future Lights in Ceramics 2019:
Maria Braun (Geramny/Russia)
Manos Kalamenios (United Kingdom/Greece)
Amy Mackle (Northern Ireland)
Supawan Sihapoompichit Morris (Sweden/Thailand)
Maria Punkkinen (Finland)
Irina Razumowskaya (United Kingdom/Russia)
Alice Walton (United Kingdom)
Who are the judges?
The jury is chaired by Wilhelm Siemen from Porzellanikon and comprises representatives from partners in the Ceramics and its Dimensions project.
- Iain Cartwright, British Ceramics Biennial
- Franz Chen, Franz Porcelain, Taiwan
- Dr. Jaume Coll Conesa, Museo Nacional de Cerámica y Artes Suntuarias “González Martí”
- Dr. Biljana Djordjević, National Museum Belgrade
- Assistant Professor Dr. Mateja Kos, Narodni muzej Slovenije
- Nathalie Lautenbacher, Aalto University
- Kai Lobjakas, Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design, Tallinn
- Gus Mableson, Design & Crafts Council of Ireland
- Professor Barbara Schmidt, Kunsthochschule Berlin
- John Tynan, Design and Crafts Council of Ireland
- Professor David Sanderson, Staffordshire University
- Rachel Dickson, Ulster University
The Future Lights in Ceramics
Team Meissen
Fotos: Maik Krause, © Meissen GmbH
Link to the The Future Lights in Ceramics 2016 to 2018
The Future Lights in Ceramics 2016 to 2018
The Future Lights in Ceramics 2016 to 2019 at British Ceramics Biennial 2019
FUTURE LIGHTS_BCB_web