The Crystal Valley Week summer festival lit up Liberec with record visitor numbers. Glass, jewelry, and costume jewelry from across the Liberec Region, i.e., Crystal Valley, were admired by nearly 35,000 people. Exhibitions in museums, galleries, and directly on the streets, guided tours, a special market, and entertainment programs were attended by city residents, but also by tourists from all over the country and abroad. The festival took place in Liberec for the fourth time, for the second time under the auspices of UNESCO.

Visitor numbers and participant involvement

The renowned Czech glass concentrated in one city was admired by Germans, Austrians, Ukrainians, and even Americans, but above all, of course, by the residents of Liberec. However, exhibition curators also mention visitors from Poland, attracted by the promotion of participating Polish artists from the Association of Glass Artists (Związek Artystów Szkła).

Crystal Valley Week also attracted great interest from artists this year. Crystal Valley, a project of the Liberec Region Regional Development Agency, currently has more than 120 active members from among artists, craftsmen, glass and jewelry companies, galleries, museums, and schools. More than a hundred of them, including foreign guests, were actively involved in the preparations this year. Their work and enthusiasm add to the splendor of this showcase of art and traditional crafts from the Liberec Region. They are all co-organizers of the entire festival, dedicating their time and ideas to its visitors.

Organizations that provided the necessary space for the festival or added guided tours to their own existing exhibitions were also involved. However, they prepared these so that they would fit thematically into the festival program. Examples include the North Bohemian Museum and the Desítky Gallery in Vratislavice nad Nisou.

This year's festival was attended not only by thirteen Polish artists, including curator Natalia Komorowska, but also by artists from Belgium and France.

There was constant interest, for example, in the creative program with glass on the square in front of the town hall in Liberec, visitors were also attracted by the unique dresses made from the scales of glass dragons from the island of Saipan by Lasvit, huge crystal display boxes in the streets with exhibits from the Jílek, Novosad, and Preciosa glassworks, the creation of Christmas decorations with Decor by Glassor and Rautis, the large glass nativity scene by Jiřina Tauchmanová in the Christmas House, and rides on the festival Crystal Tram by artist and designer Martin J. Pouzar, which carried 150 kilograms of glass beads from Preciosa Ornela.

Liberec Castle and Liebieg Palace hosted a total of five exhibitions and installations, and there was also interest in unusual exhibition spaces such as the foyer of the F. X. Šalda Theater in Liberec with the Ajeto glassworks, the Naive Theater, and the meeting hall of the historic town hall, where Andréa Berthet and Pavel Kopřiva Jr. presented their work. Visitors were also impressed by a visit to the city's civil defense shelter, where they experienced "Neprostor" (Non-Space), the bachelor's thesis of Ondřej Kábele, a student at the Department of Design at the Technical University of Liberec.

The Granát cooperative from Turnov prepared an exceptional concept for its exhibition at the Clarion Grand Hotel Zlatý Lev, presenting its jewelry in a refined menu on a moss-covered dining table under glass covers from the Florián glassworks. Visitors also admired a set of precious stones made for the Expo 2025 world exhibition, a necklace and earrings worth one and a half million crowns.

A new trip to Jablonec nad Nisou to see world-class glass

The Museum of Glass and Jewelry, Nisa Factory, and Galerie N participated in Crystal Valley Week for the first time. A fully booked festival bus departed from Liberec to Jablonec, with additional participants joining at the destination. The first two venues opened their doors free of charge and attracted visitors with guided tours of major exhibitions by world-renowned artists. Galerie N. invited festival visitors to the opening of an exhibition of works from the International Engraved Glass Symposium in Kamenický Šenov.

Audiovisual show in the tram depot

The highlight of the festival, subtitled Glass Fashion, were two fashion shows in the unusual setting of the Liberec tram depot, where models and dancers presented not only fashion creations but also jewelry and costume jewelry from the region, with glass also playing a key role. At Saturday's Inspiration from Crystal Valley show, for example, loud cries of enthusiasm were elicited by the exceptional clear all-glass dresses by Liberec's Kultivar, and the presentation of the work of the Department of Design at the Technical University of Liberec was also a great success, as was the poetic finale with a giant glass flower from the Pačinek glassworks, which grew under the models' hands. Both shows were presented as audiovisual shows under the baton of Ondřej Rea and the Rea Models agency.

Support for the renovation of the Glass Museum in Kamenický Šenov

During Friday's From History to the Future fashion show, Lucie Karlová presented the town of Kamenický Šenov with a symbolic check for half a million crowns from the Preciosa Foundation and RealLoocate. The money is earmarked for the renovation of the Glass Museum in Šenov. The Prague-based Poner studio also presented its designs at Friday's festival fashion show and is donating one of its dresses to the Glass Museum. Fashion designer Vladimíra Jelínková, with her brand Quis quis, is also participating in the auction to help the museum. In collaboration with other artists from Kamenický Šenov, she created eleven original garments, which she also presented at shows in the tram depot. The auction of the dresses began on September 1 on the Facebook profile of the town of Kamenický Šenov.