The International Glass Arts Centre

The Meisenthal Glassware was founded in 1704, in the Northern Vosges, in the East of France. It will produce tens of millions of pieces of utility glass, cheap cup. Between 1867 and 1894 the glassware was used as a laboratory by Emile Gallé, leader of the Ecole de Nancy, who carried out unprecedented technical and artistic research there, conferring on Meisenthal the status of "cradle of Art Nouveau glass". The production unit did not make the choice of modernizing the production tool, but failed at the dawn of the 1970s.

The CIAV, a public institution, aims to preserve the technical memory of its territory, to ensure its continuity and to reintroduce traditional glass production in its time. It thus crosses the traditionally compartmentalized worlds of artisanal production and industry, contemporary creation and traditional know-how, with the aim of initiating new cultural, economic and tourist dynamics around the craft of glass.

The CIAV develops contexts allowing their dissemination in collaboration with partner structures in France or internationally (publishers, galleries, museums, etc.) or within its own organization. The CIAV has launched its own editorial line of objects, imagined, manufactured and sold almost exclusively on the spot, remobilizing clientele that had turned away from the craft sectors. In addition to this creative research, the CIAV offers numerous meetings allowing the greatest number to understand the glass professions, its regional history, but also the work of contemporary creators: demonstrations commented, educational sequences for the young audience, meetings with creators, conferences, monographic or collective exhibitions, in Meisenthal in France or abroad, publishing and co-publishing of books, etc.

Centre International des Arts Verriers, place Robert Schuman - 57960 Meisenthal.Tel. :03 87 96 87 16.