North Lands Creative:
Shining a light on Glass, Meet the Future Festival
When we think of glass, we often think of windows, lenses, ways of seeing.
So, when we think of Glass, Meet the Future Film Festival, we are lucky enough to be provided with a window into the art form, a series of lenses on the artists, and a way of seeing the future of glass and the community that unites around a love of the medium.
Glass, Meet the Future Film Festival (GMTF) shows a selection of films covering documentaries, narrative, experimental, and performance, all centring around glass - how it’s made, who makes it, and the near infinite possibilities to which it lends itself.
The festival’s programming focuses on films curated and directed by female and non-binary identifying filmmakers using glass as the predominant feature.
Image: “Fabric of my skin - sculptural glass sound” Griet Beyaert
This is especially important to North Lands Creative, who pride themselves on reducing barriers and elevating access to an art form which is known for being expensive, and traditionally male-dominated.
GMTF is a microcosm to explore the human relationship with glass and film, exploring dynamics with the physical and environmental context, together with the human and social context.
Image: Woven Light,
Madeline Rile Smith
Glass, meet the Future Film Festival came to life in 2020, with a swift and successful pivot to online delivery methods for North Lands Creative.
The festival is part of the UK in Japan 2019-20 bilateral campaign, a partnership between British Council Scotland and Creative Scotland, supported by project partners Toyama Institute of Glass Art, Toyama Glass Art Museum and Museum of Arts and Design, New York.
Though all had been arranged, with content for the festival already completed, when Covid struck they were faced with a challenge - delivering the festival entirely online.
Moving fast was imperative for the team behind the film festival, who knew they had an incredibly important role to play in showing support for the glass community at a time of difficulty for all in the arts and creative industries.
This year, they were able to deliver a hybrid version of the festival, taking place both online and at their home in Lybster, Caithness, a welcome return to in-person programming following a period of closure.
Their support for their community extends further digitally, with the North Lands Creative Glass Network.
With the mission of #buildingastrongerglasscommunity, the network is a free online resource where artists can connect & showcase their work, a truly valuable space for artists to connect.
Image: Pool, Flora deBechi
Image: “AVA” Stella Brajterman
Learn more about North Lands Creative
Watch this video to discover more about the organisation behind GMTF.
This year, North Lands Creative awarded six commissions to artists from around the world, to create new festival-responsive work and associated programming.
The results were a stunning demonstration of the range of work originating in the glass community today.
They are:
Juli Bolaños-Durman, Costa Rica / Scotland, with I USED TO BE
Madeline Rile Smith, USA, with Woven Light
Griet Beyaert, UK, with What do you hear when you think about the future?
Alison Lowry & Jayne Cherry, UK, with Lost to me
Simone Fezer, Germany, with Assimilate!
Flora Debechi, UK, with The Pool
Watch them below.
Image: Assimilate!
Simone Fezer, credit Ele Runge
84%
84% of visitors to the North Lands website during the festival were new
232%
North Lands Creative saw an increase of 232% in the use of their website over the first seven days of the Festival in 2020, compared to usual activity
4,424k
The 2020 Festival received 4,424 k views for the films
The light that Glass, Meet the Future shines on the glass community is an incredible demonstration of the important role it, and activities like it, have.
Individually, there are not always the opportunities or resources to get work in front of new audiences, and yet when supported in this way, and showcased collectively, a truly powerful new awareness of the art form has been achieved.
So too can North Lands Creative be proud of another aspect to this - bringing the magic of glass to those who may have never experienced it before, through a collection of beautiful and insightful films, programmed and created by talented female and non-binary filmmakers.
GMTF will be included in upcoming UK-China Contemporary Culture Festival, British Council September 2021.