WHAT? The Glass Heart: Art, Industry & Collaboration

WHERE? Two Temple Place, London, WC2R 3BD 

WHEN? Now until 21st April.  Free to visit 

WHY GO? To reflect on the glory of glass.  There’s something special about an exhibition staged in a stately home as opposed to a sterile gallery and there can be no home more appropriate for showing off the glory of glass than Two Temple Place, with its own stained glass windows that will make your eyes water with their magnificence.  

This exhibition reflects upon the beauty of glass in all its forms and honours the artistic skills required to achieve such creativity.

Inevitably it showcases stained glass from the past by artists like William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones but moves swiftly to the present, to names like Brian Clarke and the dynamic Pinkie Maclure, who personalised her stained glass saints with a humorous vibe.  

Illuminated, blown, etched and engraved, the mind boggles at what designers have crafted in glass spanning some 170 years.  There are over 100 artworks on show throughout the house with exhibits displayed in every nook and cranny, even winding up the magnificent staircase.   

Be prepared to be blown away by how versatile glass is in the hands of the experts.

There’s even a glass chair, the work of Elliot Walker, who has sculpted glass into a yellow chair befitting any Disney Princess. 

This gem of a neo-Gothic mansion was originally built for the Astor family and is now charitably always free to visit.

IN THE KNOW Labouring the point that glass art is a highly skilled craft, credit is accorded to historic glassmaking regions with videos recording work in progress from the industry’s heartlands of Sunderland, Ely and Stourbridge, where there is a special museum dedicated to the craft.