The Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery (CCGG), which opened its doors in June 1993 celebrated their 30th anniversary this year.
CCGG is the only Canadian gallery dedicated to the collection, conservation and exhibition of ceramic, glass, enamel and stained glass works.
“For us, what’s important is to engage with the community—locally, across the country and internationally—and to disperse knowledge about those mediums,” Denis Longchamps, Executive Director & Chief Curator at CCGG, said.
CCGG has been holding events to celebrate their 30 years in Waterloo region. On the Sept. 9, they held Crafternoon where members of the community could participate in both free and paid activities such as stained glass or building a kaleidoscope. One of the free activities was decorating a tile of a mosaic that will be featured on the trail beside the gallery.
That night the gallery held a Gala where guests could enjoy food, drinks and birthday cake as well as participate in a silent auction to fundraise for the gallery.
The gallery has multiple ways of creating exhibitions. Sometimes they will consider proposals sent by artists and collaborate with them to make their vision a reality. At other times, the gallery will have their own idea for an exhibition and will put out a national call for artists as was the case with their recent exhibit Voices.
“…We invited 40 artists from across Canada to exhibit their ideas around diversity, equity and inclusion in Canada, and the 40 were selected from over 100 applications that we have received,” Longchamps said.
The gallery also focuses on engaging the community and making sure the space is accessible and invites community engagement and participation. They did a project where 27 personalities were invited to collaborate on a plate with their visions of diversity, equity and inclusion. The plate was then displayed in a gallery, where visitors could also add to the piece.
“We had over 300 participants from the community to that project, so that was quite exciting to see,” Longchamps said.
From Sept. 16 to Jan.14, the CCGG is displaying their Monumental exhibition, displaying pieces from the gallery’s permanent collection.