Sunderland's National Glass Centre reopens after ￡2.3m refurbishment

Sunderland's National Glass Centre reopened for business this week after a £2.3m refurbishment. The centre originally opened in 1998, and was the first of the major new art buildings funded by the National Lottery.

The refurbishment doubles the size of the centre's exhibition areas and learning studios. The glass, concrete and steel structure stands above the Wear a few hundred yards from the North Sea to one side, and the site of Monkwearmouth monastery to the other.

As well as being a visitor attraction, it is still very much a centre for glass-making – glass made here was used in the restoration of Windsor Castle and the Albert Memorial – and also an education and training centre, all under one (mostly glass) roof.

Sunderland, once the world's largest centre for shipbuilding, also has a long history as a centre for glass production. The earliest known examples of stained glass in England were found in the remains of Monkwearmouth monastery – where the Venerable Bede took his vows to become a monk. The glass is thought to date from 674AD - a few years before the Lindisfarne Gospels were created - when abbot St Benedict Biscop sent to Europe for craftsmen to make glass windows for the new monastery.

Glass production has been carried out in the area virtually ever since, and in the 19th century it was, after coal mining and shipbuilding, the area's largest provider of employment.

Bede writes that, when the work at Monkwearmouth was nearing completion, Biscop

The glass industry really took off on Wearside in 1615, when James I banned the use of wood as a fuel for glass production. The plentiful coal and sand in the region made Sunderland an ideal place to relocate.

The temporary exhibitions include the first UK exhibition of works by the veteran German studio glass pioneer Erwin Eisch. Clouds Have Been My Foothold All Along shows his glass portrait heads of Picasso and Helmut Kohl, vitreographs from his Night of the Crystal Death – My Love to Anne Frank, a version of his monumental installation Narcissus and the Fountain of Youth, his "anti-functional" free-blown works, and paintings and drawings.

As well as housing Sunderland University's glass and ceramics studios and courses, some 30 research students are now based there, forming the centre's Institute for International Research in Glass as well as the Ceramic Art Research centre.

 'Solar Flare', Luke Jerram's 6m glass chandelier. One of the opening exhibitions demonstrates the centre's ambition to work with artists who do not normally work in glass, but are keen to exploit its potential. The exhibition includes work by Bruce McLean, Katharine Dowson, Richard Slee and Gijs Bakker, and the centre is also working to produce new work with Turner Prize-winning artist Richard Wright, and with Baltic Professor Christine Borland.

The National Glass Centre has a total of 3,250 metres of glass in it, and the glass panels on its roof are 6cm thick. It employs 70 staff, and the "heat exchange system" means that the heat from the glass furnaces is recycled to heat the building. It hopes to attract over 200,000 visitors a year.

The restoration of the centre has been funded by Sunderland University with help from a variety of charitable trusts, the Art Council and the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). The writer and former Sunderland MP Chris Mullin chairs the North East committee of the HLF. He said:

The Heritage Lottery Fund is delighted to be able to support this ambitious redevelopment programme … which will celebrate the City's rich glass-making heritage, provide educational opportunities and play a significant part in the City's flourishing cultural landscape

The National Glass Centre, Sunderland, is open daily from 10am to 5pm, and admission is free.