Harris Goes Home

I've just got back from Broadfield House Glass Museum in Stourbridge, West Midlands, where I have been setting up the first ever retrospective exhibition of the work of Michael Harris at Mdina Glass and Isle of Wight Studio Glass. Exhausting, but enormous fun!

The exhibition contains hundreds of pieces of glass designed, and in some instances made, by Michael. The pieces have been sourced from my own collection, with gaps filled from the Harris family private collection, and the collection of a notable collector. For those of you who haven't heard about the Michael Harris phenomenon, and how he revolutionised the production of studio art glass during the late 1960s, I suggest you read my book on the great man, published back in 2006. But I guess I would say that, wouldn't I?!

For those of you who are attending the third International Festival of Glass in Stourbridge from 22nd to the 25th August, you'll be amongst the first to be able to visit this ground-breaking exhibition. Mdina and Isle of Wight Studio Glass has risen dramatically in terms of demand and value over the past three years, and it's about time that Michael's work was displayed in a museum - even more so one in the home town where it all started.

Just one final thing. I owe an enormous debt of thanks to Elizabeth Harris, Michael's widow. She showed herself as being nothing less than a superstar at displaying the wide variety of diverse objects on show in the cabinets. But I guess that's what an innate skill and talent for it, twinned with 40 years of experience, gives you!

If you're coming along to the IFG, please come and say hello - or come along to my lecture at the museum on Saturday morning at 11am. What's more is that Michael's son Timothy will be blowing glass afterwards. If you can't make it for the weekend, visit Broadfield House Glass Museum until January next year to say hello to something far more appealing - the best and largest exhibition spanning 40 years of Michael's work that has ever been seen!