I am an experienced writer on art, design and craft, with a special interest in contemporary glass and ceramics. I am available to write books, catalogue essays, press releases and other material for galleries and museums; and to give talks or participate in panel discussions. Contact me here.
Contributing editor, Glass Quarterly • Associate member, Contemporary Glass Society
Languages: English and Italian
News, photos and more: @emmaparkglass
2025
Forthcoming – essays on glassy themes for New Humanist and The Idler; two catalogue essays for art exhibitions (Venice and London)
Glass ceiling – on the future of glassmaking in the UK, Spectator, 18 October 2025 (published online as ‘Britain’s glassmaking tradition is fracturing’)
‘Marcantonio Brandolini d’Adda’ – artist profile, Glass Quarterly 180, Fall 2025
‘Divergence’ – feature on Anna Mlasowsky, Glass Quarterly 179, Summer 2025
‘Murano Glass and the Venice Biennale, Part II: 1932-1942’ – review of exhibition at the Stanze del Vetro in Venice, Glass Quarterly 179, Summer 2025
Coherence by Karin Mørch – catalogue essay for Vessel Gallery exhibition, March 2025
The crafted home: furniture that celebrates the quirks of ‘maverick trees’ – on furniture-maker Matthew Burt, Financial Times, 16 February 2025
The crafted home: ceramic and blown-glass lights inspired by seeds, buds and sealife – on designer-makers Vezzini & Chen, Financial Times, 7 February 2025
‘Figurative Philosophy’ – profile of ceramic artist Cristina Córdova, Ceramic Review 331, January/February 2025
2024
House museums #96: Princessehof, the Netherlands, Financial Times, 24 December 2024
House museums #95: Le Palais Idéal du Facteur Cheval, Financial Times, 9 December 2024
‘Handover’ – cover feature on the British Glass Biennale and International Festival of Glass 2024, Glass Quarterly 177, Winter 2024-25
‘Place in the World’ – feature on the evolving status of glass art in Murano, 1912-2024, Glass Quarterly 177, Winter 2024-25
‘Reflection’ – essay on the state of glass art in Britain and Murano, Glass Quarterly 177, Winter 2024-25
‘Remnants’ by Nicholas Arroyave-Portela at Vessel Gallery – catalogue essay, 22 November 2024
Ceramics in the Spotlight at Frieze and PAD London 2024, Ceramics Now, online, 23 October 2024, and in print magazine, Issue 5, November 2024
Akansa by Donald Baugh – catalogue essay for exhibition at Vessel Gallery, London, 1-30 October 2024
Girl in a Corporate World – Barbie®: The Exhibition, Part II. Barbie’s seamless transition into the 21st century, Art-Frame, 20 September 2024
Girl in a Corporate World – Barbie®: The Exhibition, Part I. Corporate propaganda, public museums, and a sex doll, Art-Frame, 6 September 2024
House museums #82: Villa San Michele, Capri, Financial Times, 31 August/1 September 2024
‘Man in a Hurry: Peter Layton, London Glassblowing, and the story of British studio glass’, Glass Quarterly, no. 176, Fall 2024
‘Group Exhibition: The Maze (Labyrinten), Glas: Museum of Glass Art, Ebeltoft, Denmark’ – review, Glass Quarterly, no. 176, Fall 2024
The battle to save the National Glass Centre, Glass Quarterly, no. 175, Summer 2024
The shape of time: study of Antoine Leperlier, Glass Quarterly, no. 175, Summer 2024
Clerkenwell Design Week: A review of the UK’s leading design festival, Art-Frame, 24 May 2024
From Functional Objects to Decorative Vases and Figurative Works: Highlights from Ceramic Art London, Ceramics Now, 21 May 2024
Enzo Mari at the Design Museum, London, Art-Frame, 10 May 2024
The Nomad St Moritz design fair, where high aesthetics meets high altitude, FT Weekend, 2/3 March 2024
Reflection – on European glass and a conference at the Romont Glass Centre (summary here), Glass Quarterly, no. 174, Spring 2024
Review of Danny Lane, Open Studio, Glass Quarterly, no. 174, Spring 2024
Review of The Glass Heart: Art, Industry and Collaboration, Glass Quarterly, no. 174, Spring 2024
Entering the AI cave: Refik Anadol at Serpentine North, Art-Frame, 1 March 2024
Artisans bring AI tools to the workbench – FT Weekend, 13/14 January 2024
2023
Mirage at Apple Park, cover story, Glass Quarterly, no. 173, Winter 2023-24
Venice Glass Week 2023 – review, Glass Quarterly, no. 173, Winter 2023-24
The 12 chandeliers of Christmas: A collaborative work by glassmakers and artists lights up St Mark’s Square in Venice, FT Weekend, 18/19 November 2023
Is email dead? Review of Email is Dead at the Design Museum, London, for Art-Frame, 13 October 2023
‘Reflection’: essay on glass and myth, Glass Quarterly, no. 172, Fall 2023
‘Clarity of Purpose’: feature on Václav Cigler and Slovak glass, Glass Quarterly, no. 172, Fall 2023
Review of the Ireland Glass Biennale 2023, Glass Quarterly, no. 172, Fall 2023
From making to middle fingers – review of Ai Weiwei: Making Sense at the Design Museum, London, Art-Frame, 23 June 2023
‘Glass is jazz’: finding artistic freedom behind the Iron Curtain, review of Bohemian Glass exhibition at the Stanze del Vetro, FT Weekend, 20-21 May 2023
‘Look at the Glass, See My Culture’ – cover story on Anthony Amoako Attah, Glass Quarterly, no. 171, Summer 2023
Hourglass – on Collect 2023, Glass Quarterly, no. 171, Summer 2023
The loss of the National Glass Centre would be a shattering blow, Apollo online, 28 March 2023
‘Collaborating couples’, cover story, Glass Quarterly, No. 170, Spring 2023
Hourglass: UK glass education scene reeling from potential closure or relocations, Glass Quarterly, No. 170, Spring 2023
Review of the British Glass Biennale at the International Festival of Glass 2022, Glass Quarterly, No. 170, Spring 2023
Review of the Jerwood Art Fund Makers Open exhibition, Aberdeen Art Gallery, Glass Quarterly, No. 170, Spring 2023
Shattering Beauty by Simon Berger, Museo del Vetro, Murano, Art-Frame, 16 February 2023
‘Galleries working with Museum Curators’, ‘Glass art in Britain, 2023’, and ‘Baldwin and Guggisberg’ – commissioned essays for The Value In Things, exhibition by Ting Ying and Vessel Gallery, Cromwell Place, 1-11 March 2023
2022
Some of my 2022 articles featured in the Glass Quarterly video clip, The Year in Glass 2022, 1 January 2023
Lino Tagliapietra. Does Muranese glass have a future? – Art-Frame, 1 December 2022
‘Stories to Tell: Petr Novotný and the regeneration of Czech glass’, Glass Quarterly, No. 169, Winter 2022
‘Whispers Down the Lane’ – profile of Erin Dickson, Glass Quarterly, No. 169, Winter 2022
‘Reflection’ – essay on women glassmakers in Murano, Glass Quarterly, No. 169, Winter 2022
Review of First Impression, autumn exhibition at the Charles Burnand Gallery, Glass Quarterly, No. 169, Winter 2022
The Venice Glass Week 2022: Creativity, collaboration, resilience, Art-Frame, 28 November 2022
Murano in crisis – ‘Deep Dive’ article for The Design Edit, 24 October 2022
Hotshop Hits – review of Stourbridge Glass Museum and the Musée du Verre de Conches, Crafts magazine, Autumn-Winter 2022, pp. 60-61
The glass ceiling: has the UN’s International Year of Glass 2022 cut through? – Crafts online, 19 September 2022
Venice Glass Week 2022 – moderator, online ‘Conversation’ on Glass: Between Craft, Design and Art, 19 September 2022
The Mythologist, feature on Lene Bødker, Glass Quarterly, No. 168, Fall 2022
Philip Baldwin and Monica Guggisberg at the Musée du Verre de Conches (review), Glass Quarterly, No. 168, Fall 2022
Steffen Dam at the Glasmuseet Ebeltoft (review), Glass Quarterly, No. 168, Fall 2022
Under nature’s spell – Colin Reid, Neues Glas-New Glass, No. 3/2022
Louis Thompson, Ebb and Flow, catalogue essay for Vessel Gallery, July 2022
Musée du Verre de Conches – review of the newly reopened glass museum and the inaugural exhibition by Baldwin and Guggisberg, The Design Edit, 12 July 2022
15 glass artists you should know, Crafts Council Stories, 6 July 2022
Fredrik Nielsen, profile for The Design Edit, 5 July 2022
Walking the Line(s) – essay on whether art in glass can reach the status of a fine art, Glass Quarterly, No. 167, Summer 2022
Glass as Art, Glass as Lifestyle: Sweden’s Kosta Boda Finds Its Way – essay for Glass Quarterly, No. 167, Summer 2022
Lena 25+: A solo exhibition by Lena Bergström – catalogue essay for Vessel Gallery
Between fabricator and fine artist – review of ‘A State of Matter: Modern and Contemporary Glass Sculpture’ exhibition at the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, for Crafts, issue 294, May/June 2022
Clarity and Passion – essay on ‘Tapio Wirkkala and Toni Zuccheri at Venini’ exhibition at the Stanze del Vetro, Glass Quarterly, No. 166, Spring 2022
Bruno Romanelli – Glass Quarterly, No. 166, Spring 2022
Distant Electric Vision – catalogue essay on Jon Lewis for Vessel Gallery, 10 January 2022
2021
To Split the Night – feature on Fred Tschida, Richard William Wheater, and the CIRCLESPHERE exhibition at the Art House, Wakefield, Glass Quarterly, No. 165 (Winter 2021-22)
Capturing History: Glass Ships in Bottles – review of exhibition curated by Ayako Tani at the Scottish Maritime Museum, Glass Network digital (22 November 2021)
Just Glass Seminar 2021 – brief profiles of artists Kate Jones, Rachel Phillips, Georgia Redpath, Ruth Shelley and Helen Slater-Stokes and for the newsletter, November 2021
Juli Bolaños-Durman: The Serendipity of Fragments – Neues Glas-New Glass No. 4/2021
The First European Glass Prize at the National Glass Centre in Sunderland – Neues Glas-New Glass No. 4/2021
Animal attraction – essay on ‘Glass Ark: Animals in the Pierre Rosenberg Collection’ at the Stanze del Vetro, Glass Quarterly, Issue 164, Fall 2021
Elliot Walker – On Glass, Green Fingers and Puppetry – Neues Glas-New Glass No. 3/2021
Looking glass – essay on Chris Day’s exhibition at Harewood House, Crafts, issue 290, September-October 2021
London Glassblowing at 45 – review, Glass Network digital, 29 September 2021
Formed From Instinct. A solo exhibition by Nina Casson McGarva – exhibition essay for Vessel Gallery, London, July 2021, reprinted in Ceramics Now, 22 July 2021
A Sculptor with Consummate Skill – feature on British glass artist Elliot Walker, Glass Quarterly, no. 163, Summer 2021
On the Grand Canal, this crumbling Venetian palazzo has been given a new lease of life – the Palazzo Vendramin Grimani & the Fondazione dell’Albero d’Oro, Apollo online, 27 May 2021
Conversation with Elliot Walker – excerpts from an interview, Hot Sheet (the Glass Quarterly blog), 7 April 2021
Search for Self – feature on British glass artist Chris Day, Glass Quarterly, no. 162, Spring 2021
2020
On the Shoulders of Giants – review of ‘Venice and American Studio Glass’ exhibition at the Stanze del Vetro, Glass Quarterly, no. 161, Winter 2020
Naked positions – Mary Beard’s Shock of the Nude, reviewed – Apollo, 5 February 2020
2019
Shock value – feature on American glass artist John Moran, Glass Quarterly, no. 157, Winter 2019
It’s not art, it’s bananas – on Maurizio Cattelan’s ‘Comedian’, ArtDependence, 7 December 2019
No Strings at the Glasmuseet Ebeltoft – glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly (“Glass Quarterly“), no. 157, Winter 2019
Glass act – inside the Danish museum devoted to studio glass – Apollo online, 17 October 2019
Does glassmaking make good television? Blown Away reviewed – Apollo online, 16 August 2019
Hedonism in Herculaneum – a guide to good living in a luxurious Roman villa – feature article in Apollo Magazine, 27 July 2019
Concepts into Clay: William Cobbing, Haptic Loop, Cooke Latham Gallery – ArtDependence Magazine, 22 May 2019
Zhou Li, Original State of Mind, at White Cube Bermondsey, London – ArtDependence Magazine, 30 April 2019
Edvard Munch: Love and Angst, British Museum – ArtDependence Magazine, 16 April 2019
The Renaissance Nude – ArtDependence Magazine, 21 March 2019
Jeff Koons at the Ashmolean – Apollo online, 12 February 2019
‘Vetro chic’ – review of exhibition, The M.V.M. Cappellin Glassworks and the Young Carlo Scarpa 1925-1931, at the Stanze del Vetro, Apollo Magazine, January 2019. Text (no images) here.
2018
How Mario Bellini is breathing new life into Venetian glass – Apollo online, 16 November 2018
The Design Museum Zürich gets a stylish makeover – Apollo online, 12 September 2018
2017 and earlier
Ashes to Ashmolean – on the reopened Ashmolean Museum, with photography by Akshat Rathi, The Oxonian Review, 9 November 2009
Emma Park 