Events


19th Congress of the Association Internationale pour l’Histoire du Verre

17-21 SEPTEMBER 2012 – PIRAN – SLOVENIA

The Congress opened with a Reception on Sunday, Sept. 16 at the Trevisini Palace in the center of Piran. There was also an exhibition by two Slovenian glass artists, Marko Jezernik and Zvonka Pozun, whose work stayed on view during the Congress. On Monday morning, the Congress officially opened with a session at the Bernardin Congress Center, then the first paper session took place at the Trevisini Palace. Over the course of the next 4 days, papers were presented every morning at the Trevisini and Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons as well. There were a total of 65 papers and 73 posters presented over the course of the week.

Participants were able to take part in a walking tour of the city Monday evening, and on Tuesday afternoon were driven to Ljubljana to visit the glass at the National Museum of Slovenia, and the Slovene Ethnological Museum. On Thursday afternoon the group was taken to the Italian city of Aquileia which is a very large Roman site.

On Friday afternoon, the General Assembly met in the Bernardin Congress Center from 1:15 until 2:30 and a new president, Sylvia Fünfschilling and a new General Secretary, Anastassios Antonaras were elected along with Karol Wight and Maria Grazia Diani as new Board members. The outgoing president, Mari-Dominique Nenna was also elected to the Board. Later that evening, a closing reception and dinner took place on the terrace of the Hotel Histrion. The Post-Congress Tour took place on Saturday and Sunday, the 22 and 23rd of September, and about 45 people were able to participate. The bus left Piran at 7 am for Crotia, and visited first the Museum of Lower Carniola in Novo Mesto, Crotia, then drove on to Zagreb, where three museums have glass. These are the Archaeological Museum, the Mimara Museum and the Museum of Applied Arts and Crafts. The Mimara Museum was originally a private collection and included a variety of decorative arts. In the late afternoon, the group went to Biograd where they were able to visit the Biograd Museum which has the Venetian glass from the Gnalic shipwreck which probably date from the 1580s.

On Sunday, the group travelled from Biograd to Split, where they visited the Archaeological Museum which had the exhibition “Aristeas and Ennion in Dalmatia”. Some of the group also explored the remains of the Palace of Diocletian which was only a short distance away, and the church tower of the church where Diocletian is buried. The next place was the Museum of Ancient Glass in Zadar, a very handsome collection with excellent explanatory labels in both English and Croatian. The museum had a reception for the group. Although the tour was only two days, the participants were fortunate to see a great variety of glass in the Croatian museums.


18th Congress of the Association Internationale pour l’Histoire du Verre

The 18th Congress of the International Association for the History of Glass (AIHV) was held September 20-25, 2009 in Thessaloniki, Greece. The opening reception/dinner on Sunday took place at the Archaeological Museum which also installed an excellent exhibition of ancient glass called “COSMOS.” A guided bus tour of the most important sites was available for participants so that they could become familiar with the layout of the city. The Monday-Friday paper sessions took place at the Museum of Byzantine Culture. There were a total of 157 attendees, from 35 countries (25 European ones; 6 Asian ones; 2 in Africa, as well as Australia and the United States).

The aim of the triennial congresses of AIHV is to bring together archaeologists, art-historians, glass collectors and technologists as well as museum curators to discuss all aspects of glass history through the ages as well as the technology of glass-making, glass working and glass decorative art. Despina Ignatiadou from the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki and Anastasios Antonaras from the Museum of Byzantine Culture were the overall organizers. The General Assembly of AIHV was held on Friday, and presided over by Dr. Marie-Dominique Nenna, the president of AIHV.

There were 32 sessions in 16 time slots, spread over five days with a total of 77 papers presented. The sessions were chronological, with one set focusing on classical and earlier glass and the other sessions on Byzantine and later glass. There were also 50 posters, presented in sessions on Tuesday and Thursday. On Wednesday afternoon, walking tours of the city were offered, concentrating on classical sites, Byzantine sites and Ottoman and Jewish sites. A boat trip around the Thermaikos Gulf was offered to participants on Tuesday evening and a Winery visit on Thursday evening. The final dinner/reception was held Friday evening at a park belonging to the local government.

Following the close of the Congress, three 1 day trips, to different parts of Macedonia were organized: to Verginia, Dion and Pikrolimni; to Philippi and Amphipolis, and a cruise to Mt. Athos.

Official Website of AIHV 18.


17th Congress of the Association Internationale pour l’Histoire du Verre

The 17th Congress of the International Association for the History of Glass (AIHV) was held September 4-8, 2006 in Antwerp, Belgium, at the invitation of Verre-Glas, the Belgian National Committee of AIHV. There were 196 members registered. The Congress opened on Monday with a talk by the President, Marie-Dominique Nenna, “Fifty Years of AIHV”. Dr. Nenna also introduced Madame Joseph Philippe, the widow of the founder of AIHV, who was in attendance.

The aim of the triennial congresses of AIHV is to bring together archaeologists, art-historians, glass collectors and glass technologists, and museum curators to discuss the socio-economic and socio-cultural aspects of glass use throughout history, as well as the development of the technology of glass-making, glass working and glass decorative art throughout history. The Conference was held in the “Elzenveld” conference center, in the center of Antwerp and was also sponsored by the universities of Antwerp, Leuven and Brussels and the department of excavations of the City of Antwerp. Professor Koen Janssens, of the University of Antwerp was Chairman of the Organizing Committee.

There were 14 sessions on different aspects of glass history, each with a keynote speech and several papers, a total of 84 talks. Forty poster contributions were on display throughout the Congress. An elegant opening reception was held at the Antwerp Town Hall on Monday evening, and after the General Meeting on Tuesday afternoon, participants were invited to an organ concert at the Cathedral of Our Lady in the center of Antwerp. The Cathedral has beautiful stained glass windows. On Wednesday afternoon, there were several themed tours for attendees (one focusing on the painter, Peter Paul Rubens, another called the Golden Age of Antwerp and one to the diamond workshops, for example) followed by the Congress Dinner in the Marble Hall of the Antwerp Zoological Gardens, and on Thursday, Congress participants were invited to a preview of an exhibit of Contemporary Belgian Glass at the Kolveniershof. The meeting closed at noon on Friday, September 8 and was followed by a Post-Congress tour, September 9-13, to museums and private collections in Belgium and Luxembourg.