Soffi di Meraviglia: Passing the Art of Glassmaking to a New Generation
The creations of the scholarship recipients displayed alongside those of their masters. It was from this dialogue that Soffi di Meraviglia: The Future of Murano Glass in the Hands of a New Generation took shape, the exhibition through which The Place of Wonders participated in The Venice Glass Week 2026 at Londra Palace Venezia.
The exhibition presented works by the young women who took part in the training programme dedicated to the art of glass beadmaking, organised and funded by the Foundation. Placing their creations alongside those of their teachers highlighted a shared technical foundation, from which each student has begun to develop her own expressive language. The exhibition thus offered a glimpse into the results of a commitment that continues throughout the year. Now in its third year, the training scholarship enables The Place of Wonders to support young people wishing to approach this artistic craft, giving them the opportunity to learn directly from master artisans through a continuous programme that respects the time and complexity required to pass on a manual skill.
Accompanying the exhibition was Vetro-fonie, the sound installation by Enrico Coniglio. Drawing on sounds recorded in the workshops of Alessia Fuga and Marisa Convento, the artist created a composition that brought traces of their daily work into the exhibition space. In this way, glass could be discovered through an unexpected dimension: sound.
The programme also hosted one of the stages of Rifiorire in barena, a project conceived by British artist Holly Parr and structured around four travelling workshops dedicated to the art of threading conterie, traditional Venetian seed beads. The session at Londra Palace Venezia involved the Foundation’s scholarship recipients, giving them the opportunity to learn a new threading technique and put it into practice by creating new compositions. Open to the public, the demonstration also allowed visitors to observe the creative process up close and discover how such minute beads, through precision of gesture and technical knowledge, can give rise to intricate forms and an ever-expanding range of expressive possibilities.
The flowers created during the four workshops reproduce species characteristic of the Venetian lagoon and will come together in a single collective artwork to be donated to the Murano Glass Museum. Sofia Segalin, Agnese Rizzo, Maria Vittoria Boux, Lena Melis Koneberg and Alessandra Ronconi also contributed to its creation, leaving within the final work a tangible trace of the programme promoted by The Place of Wonders and of the experience gained by its young scholarship recipients.
These moments of learning, exchange and engagement with the public give tangible form to the transmission of knowledge between generations that lies at the heart of the Foundation’s commitment.
