Stewarding the International Festival of Glass (IFoG) offers GAS a unique opportunity to expand our mission. Since our founding, we have been centered on connecting, inspiring, and empowering the global glass community, and IFoG lets us expand that mission from an established community of makers to the general public. The International Festival of Glass, held every other year in the UK over the August Bank Holiday, is an opportunity for the uninitiated to learn more about glass and, hopefully, become as inspired by this incredible material as we are. In existence for over 20 years, the Festival programme has included masterclasses, demonstrations, lectures, and exhibitions, all designed to showcase the best our community has to offer to the public.
When we began planning for the 2026 Festival, we wanted to remain true to what the Festival is about, all while adding a GAS twist to the festivities. Enter Carrie Strope. Based in Lincoln, Nebraska, Carrie is a longtime GAS Member, artist, and educator who is known for her community mosaic projects, including an installation at the Michigan Glass Project. Carrie will be leading a community mosaic project that will be installed at The World of Glass in St. Helens, UK as part of the 2026 Festival. GAS Operations Specialist Amanda Sterling recently caught up with Carrie to ask her more about this incredible community project.
Amanda Sterling (AS): What steps are involved in planning a large-scale community mosaic like this?
Carrie Strope (CS): It starts with outreach — connecting with people in the mosaic community to find collaborators who are interested in helping facilitate the project. I’m a member of several organizations with mosaic makers based internationally, and I already have people on board who are excited to be involved. From there, the next step is working with the venue to develop ideas around the design. And I’m genuinely thrilled to be able to share this more widely now, because I’d love to put out a call to glass artists around the world to contribute handmade pieces to the mosaic.
AS: I love that it will involve people pre-making pieces to send to you and people making a design in person in St. Helens! That ties in so well to GAS’s international and collaborative approach.
CS: Building community on a micro and macro scale is really at the heart of the project. The community mosaic I led at the Michigan Glass Project was part of a three-day festival where local community members could contribute pieces directly. When the mosaic was installed, there was this beautiful sense of ownership — people could point to what they had made and see how their contribution shaped something larger. That’s what I’m hoping to recreate and expand on in St. Helens.
AS: In St. Helens, what parts of the process will the public get to participate in?
CS: Participants will primarily be working with mosaic nippers — cutting glass down into random shapes. For many people, it may be their first time intentionally breaking glass, which is always a memorable moment! We’ll establish the design lines in advance, essentially creating a large coloring book page, and the public will get to fill it in with their cut pieces. It’s wonderfully accessible, and you’d be amazed at how quickly people fall in love with the process.
AS: Last question, what does it mean to have your work as a community mosaic maker highlighted by GAS?
CS: It means everything. Everything I want to do going forward, I want to be collaborative — because collaboration is just so much more powerful than working alone. You can accomplish so much more, fill in gaps in expertise, and bounce ideas off each other in ways that make the work grow beyond what any one person could imagine. To have GAS provide this kind of platform for that way of working is incredible. When I presented at the GAS conference in Berlin, I ran over my time because I genuinely could not stop talking about how much I love this organization and what it stands for!