History

International Glass Symposium (IGS) and the town of Nový Bor have been connected together inseparably for thirty-three years. For the first time, in 1982, company Crystalex a.s. Nový Bor invited artists and designers from all over the world to its workshops to meet and give shape to their designs and artistic ideas with the help of local glassmakers. The International Glass Symposium has been held every three years since, and over the last thirty-three years more than 500 artists have come to participate. This triennale tradition continues in 2015. The XIIth symposium will take place at the beginning of October. Crystalex and Nový Bor organized eight years of the symposium from 1982 to 2006. In 1994 the symposium was held under the name "Glass Ambitions 94" and was organized by companies Egermann ltd. and Ajeto Czech Glass Craft ltd. The grim fate of Crystalex, which went bankrupt, prevented the company from organizing yet another symposium, the anniversary tenth year, in 2009. However, the town management at that time saw the importance and benefit of the IGS for the town itself. After many meetings with the Crystalex trustee in bankruptcy, the town was granted consent to organize the Xth symposium.pec The town then invited local glass companies to cooperate on its organization. These companies provided technical, organizational and personnel support to hold a symposium at its standard form. The partners were companies Ajeto Czech Glass Graft ltd., Egermann ltd., Glassworks SLAVIA ltd. Nový Bor, TGK – technology, glass and art ltd. Skalice u České Lípy and the Glass School in Nový Bor. We cannot leave out the Glass Museum Nový Bor which had become an organization subject as well. The preparation of the anniversary Xth symposium year did not begin earlier than January 2009 so the time from the decision made to organize the Xth IGS and its realization was really short. The IGS which took place already in June 2009 was not unusual only because it had changed an organizer, but also because of the short time it was prepared in. Certainly not all the IGS traditions carried out by Crystalex were kept; however, it is also the reason why the IGS 2009 had become an unforgettable original in the IGS history. Over the last thirty-three years the symposium has literally become a world unique, a symbol of meeting, creative work and new possibilities. At one place and in one time, top glass artists from all over the world come to meet every three years to materialize together with the local glassmakers their artistic ideas in local glassworks and workshops in front of the eyes of the public. Nový Bor has already welcomed hundreds of important people whose names are connected with glass in the last eleven years of the symposium, and the invitation to participate in the IGS has become a prestigious opportunity in the glass world.

The phenomenon of the IGS lives on and in 2015 it will add yet another chapter to its history.

It is great news for both Czech glass and Nový Bor that Crystalex CZ acts again in this chapter as one of the organizers of the symposium.