Americans from Seattle at the Secondary School of Glassmaking in Kamenický Šenov.

A group of eight students from the USA has been staying at the Glass School Kamenický Šenov from Monday, July 20 to Friday, July 31, 2009, accompanied by two instructors. The working workshop of these students has been organized by the Glass School together with the Pratt Fine Arts Center from Seattle. The working training program is oriented onto the glass melting mould making technology and basic skills in glass cutting. Besides, every day the students from Seattle learn figural painting according to a live model for two hours. The workshops are headed by experienced Czech artists and pedagogues from the school. In addition to the working program at the school, the American students participate in numerous visits and lectures. Among others, they visited also the Jílek glassworks and the Preciosa company in Kamenický Šenov as well as the studio of the artists Stanislava Grebeníčková and Milan Handl. A famous Czech artist, living in Kamenický Šenov, Mr. René Roubíček showed the students his work at glass melting mould making, gave a lecture for them and invited them to his studio in Kamenický Šenov. The students would also visit the famous Czech artist Mrs. Jaroslava Brychtová in Železný Brod and see an exhibition of acad. sculptor Pavel Ježek. Further they would visit the glass museums in Kamenický Šenov and Nový Bor as well as the companies Ajeto, TGK and other glass oriented ones. The busy schedule awakes enthusiasm in the American students, who are also very satisfied with the scope and standard of professional knowledge, they are acquiring in the workshop itself. It is a pilot event, which should be regularly repeated in the future, as the interest of foreigners in studies at the Glass School in Kamenický Šenov is permanently growing.