Special Mention at The Venice Glass Week 2026
We are delighted to announce that two projects supported by The Place of Wonders have received the prestigious Special Mention awarded by Fondazione di Venezia on the occasion of The Venice Glass Week: Perle di Luce by Mattia Gaido and Re-Blooming in the Lagoon by Holly Parr, in collaboration with the Committee for the Safeguarding of the Art of Venetian Glass Beads and Marisa Convento.
The recognition holds particular significance within an edition that brought together artists, designers, master glassmakers and institutions from numerous countries, reaffirming the festival’s place among the leading international events dedicated to glass culture.
Perle di Luce, the photographic project by Mattia Gaido, was conceived to portray the people who preserve and carry forward the art of Venetian glass beads. Among them are several young women who took part in the training programme supported by the Foundation.
In Gaido’s photographs, the portraits of the young artisans are presented alongside their creations. Faces and works enter into a dialogue that goes beyond the individual object, capturing the moment when a technique learned from their masters begins to become personal, distinctive and their own. It is precisely in this encounter between the person learning and what takes shape in her hands that the transmission of knowledge from one generation to the next becomes visible.
Alongside this project is Re-Blooming in the Lagoon, conceived by Holly Parr and dedicated to the art of bead threading through a travelling workshop. One of the demonstrations also took place at Londra Palace Venezia, as part of the exhibition Soffi di Meraviglia, giving the public an opportunity to engage directly with this technique.
The week concluded with the talk Perle di Luce racconta, moderated by the Foundation’s President, Michela Canzi Blanc, which brought together several of the project’s protagonists for an open conversation. It became a genuine moment of shared celebration within the community. Particularly meaningful was the presence of scholarship recipients from previous editions, who spoke about their experiences and the paths they have pursued since completing their training. Their testimonies gave tangible form to the work carried out over the past years, showing how learning an artistic craft can develop into a genuine opportunity for professional growth.
For The Place of Wonders, this recognition confirms the value of a commitment that goes beyond preserving artistic crafts, working instead to ensure that they continue to create new possibilities for future generations.
This achievement encourages us to continue along this path, creating further opportunities for these skills and traditions to find new space, develop and continue to evolve.
