Glass goes to good cause
UniSA‘s
South Australian School of Art glass workshop has used the proceeds from a
special commission to help improve the lives of children at Li Zi Ping
primary school in far western Sichuan Province in China.
The glass workshop was commissioned by the Adelaide City Council to produce a gift to commemorate the visit of Madam Fu Ying, the Chinese Ambassador to Australia who visited Adelaide in October for the opening of the new Gouger Street Chinatown gates.
The glass vase was designed and made by the head of the glass workshop Gabriella Bisetto and honours student Rebecca Hartman Kearns. The transparent cobalt blue and scarlet red vase was blown in the hot glass studio and encased while hot in silver leaf. When it was cool the silver casing of the vase was carved away to produce an abstracted image of spinifex grass revealing the rich cobalt and scarlet colours underneath, symbolising the remote Australian landscape.
The proceeds of the commission were donated to the Australia-China Friendship Society, the Charles Foundation for Children in Need and the Multi Education Department who have been working together to refurbish Li Zi Ping primary school and upgrade dormitories for the 90 children aged between 5 and 12 who live there. The foundation‘s assistance has helped provide new bedding, solar panels and a shower block for the first time in the upgraded dormitories. The children – who up until now have cooked all their own meals over an open fire and survived without hot water or washing facilities – will also have a local person employed to assist in their day to day living.
Bisetto said she was humbled to have been able to help the children at Li Zi Ping primary. “UniSA has at its heart of education the vision to target communities who experience disadvantage, and through active interaction foster in our students the life long sense of social responsibility and a commitment to building a more just society. Our ability to assist these students to even attend school with the most basic facilities is a humbling experience.“