Berlin Glassworks is a seven-member collective of artists, designers, historians, and thinkers committed to the education, promotion, and safeguarding of glass making. We aim to be a resource for artists, designers, and students, promote best practices of community engagement, environmental awareness, and to be inclusive for all in an effort to build a culture of peace. We equally aim to preserve the craft of glassmaking (a shared intangible heritage) and to create a bridge between traditional methods and new technologies.
The Studio Team
Nadania Idriss
CEO / Co-owner
Nadania is the founder and managing director of Berlin Glas e.V. and Berlin Glassworks. Born in Berkeley, California, she studied medieval art and architecture of the Middle East. She worked in Education Services at the British Museum in London, moved to Paris in 1998 to work at UNESCO, and in 2005, moved to Berlin. She will tell you that opening the studio was a culmination of everything she considers to be her purpose: creating a platform for artist collaborations, classes for the general public, programmes with youth and migrant communities, artist residencies, and bi-lateral exchanges with international universities, and teaching a joint-university class with the two art academies in Berlin. She is currently President of the Glass Art Society.
Luke Holden
Lead Gaffer / Co-owner
Luke is a visual and sound artist from Dublin, Ireland. His artwork is primarily focused on the medium of glass, exploring themes to do with our presentness of self in the contemporary world. He uses sound to focus our attention and plays with the noises we filter out or have grown to subdue in an attempt to momentarily reconnect us to time and place.
Viviane Stroede
Technical Manager / Co-owner
Having a background in Journalism, Visual Media and International Politics, Viviane Stroede started working with glass in 2018. She is a glass sculptor whose previous experiences with conflict studies and communication inform her artistic narrative. Viviane is originally from Berlin, and currently a board member of Berlin Glas e.V.
Francesco Langer
Lead developer with new technologies & Lead Instructor / Co-owner
Francesco graduated with a degree in design from Bauhaus University in Dessau. His passion for glass was ignited during a semester abroad at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. He then joined Berlin Glassworks as an intern, quickly becoming our Hot Shop Assistant, and working with Philipp Weber in the development of the fixtures for the lighting label ANALOG. Francesco explores his love for the beauty and fragility of our natural world, combining new technologies with glassblowing, in his own art and design practice.
Rudy Faulkner
Lead instructor/ Co-owner
Originally from California, Rudy started working with glass at San Jose State University in 2006. He went on to complete an MFA at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale with Jiyong Lee as his advisor. After moving to Germany in 2014, Rudy completed a second MFA in Idar Oberstein, focusing on jewelry. In 2015, he began working at Berlin Glassworks as one of the lead instructors.
Maya Harel
Hot-Shop assistant, Instructor
Originally from Tel Aviv, Israel, Maya Harel is a visual artist based in Berlin and Paris. She works with various media such as glass, painting, and installation. In her work she tries to raise questions that concern our relationship as humans with the various natural elements that surround us and that we tend to disregard.
Opening hours
Monday – Thursday
10am – 6pm
Saturdays
during classes only
If you would like to visit the studio, please send us an email to make an appointment.