New private museum on Venice’s Murano island
Spazio Berengo will be dedicated to contemporary glass art

   VENICE. Dealer Adriano Berengo, who organised “Glass Stress”, an official collateral exhibition at the 53rd Venice Biennale (until 22 November), is opening a private museum dedicated to glass this November on the island of Murano. The Spazio Berengo will house his permanent collection, as well as travelling exhibitions, in an 18th-century glass factory with a projected cost of €1.5m.

   “Glass has been underappreciated and I see this new museum as part of my ongoing efforts to elevate it to fine art,” says Mr Berengo, who has three galleries in Venice, four in Murano and one in Arnhem, Holland. “Peggy Guggenheim inspired me to create this new initiative, and the glass I focus on has nothing to do with design or with the American studio glass movement.”

   Over the past 20 years, Mr Berengo—who owns a glass furnace that he permits artists to use on a regular basis—has accumulated a number of prototypes by artists including Kiki Smith, Tony Cragg and Fred Wilson. He has 900 examples in total, spanning the late 1980s to today, and many will be on display. He also has a vast amount of archival material including drawings and videos.

   “I think his new space will be a wonderful forum for contemporary glass, especially for Murano, and it should infuse new life into both the island and the medium,” says Tina Oldknow, curator of modern glass at the Corning Museum of Glass in New York state.

   Mr Berengo purchased the 12-room building seven years ago for the museum, which will also contain a bookstore dedicated to glassware.

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