František Janák´s foreign journey to the USA on 2011 holidays.
Acad. Painter František Janák, the actual SUPŠS Kamenický Šenov deputy headmaster had been invited to the USA again to teach in glass centres during July and August. The František Janák´s first steps led to the Pittsburg Glass Centre, celebrating the 10th anniversary of its establishment just in this year. František Janák was one of the first lecturers invited to the centre after starting its activities and the this year’s glass cutting workshop was already his sixth one. During its establishing František Janák participated as a professional adviser in the equipment of the cutting workshop of the centre. PGC and its glass cutting workshop belong among the best equipped and best organized glass centres in the USA. In the PGC gallery there is actually held the 10x10x10 exhibition showing intimate works of more than two hundred instructors who were active in the PGC during the last decade. In this exhibition, František Janák presented his works too. During his working stay in the PGC, František Janák gave a public lecture both on his work and the glass school Kamenický Šenov.
At the beginning of August, František Janák left Pittsburghu for Minneapolis, being invited by the glass centre FOCI to perform a 4-days long workshop oriented on the manufacture of glass melting moulds and glass cutting. Also there František Janák successfully introduced both his work and the glass school Kamenický Šenov in his lecture. František Janák spent also several days in River Falls, Wisconsin, where to he was invited by Steve Pflipsen and Kateřina Olivová, graduates of the SUPŠS Kamenický Šenov. The couple in marriage and art has been very successful in designing and implementing original jewels. They helped František Janák in visiting interesting events and important museums and galleries in Hudson, Saint Paulo and in Minneapolis. Among them, there were e.g. the Art Festival and Art Institute and Museum in Minneapolis, with its suprising major exhibit of the modern design department - a Tatra T 87 car and a giant glass egg by Ivan Mareš, a graduate of the glass school Kamenický Šenov. Steve Pflipsen took an important part in preparing the workshop at FOCI and he also worked there as a František Janák´s assistent.
In the visited places, the working stay helped in diffusing knowledge of Czech glass skills, the history and tradition of Czech glass manufacture as well as of Czech glass professional education, matchless all over the world. Several participants of František Janák´s workshops expressed their interest in studies at the SUPŠS Kamenický Šenov.
