Magic of Glass: Glassware from the Ethnological Collection of Household Furnishings of the National Museum Kraljevo

The exhibition “Magic of Glass: Glassware from the Ethnological Collection of Household Furnishings of the National Museum Kraljevo” by Violeta Cvetanoska, senior curator of the National Museum Kraljevo, was organized on the occasion of marking 2022 as the International Year of Glass, declared and supported by the United Nations.

The Year of Glass encouraged the International Council of Museums – ICOM to accept this initiative and celebrate it worldwide in cooperation with numerous member museums. In Serbia, on the initiative of the Museum of Applied Arts and the Museum of Science and Technology from Belgrade, the National Subcommittee ICOM GLASS Serbia was established, within the parent organization of the National Committee of ICOM Serbia. The initiative was supported by many museums from Serbia and joined the commemoration in the form of numerous events and exhibitions with glass, among which is the National Museum Kraljevo.

The exhibition “Magic of Glass: Glassware from the Ethnological Collection of Household Furnishings of the National Museum Kraljevo” covers the period from the appearance of glass production in our country, which marks a new level of industrialization and modernization of the entire society. Exhibits and accompanying material from the Ethnological Collection illustrating the production of the most important factories of the 19th and first half of the 20th century from the territory of Serbia are on display. For the first time since the foundation of the museum, the public will be presented glass objects that represent the culture of everyday life. The appearance and operation of factories that operated within the former Yugoslavia are monitored: “Nacko Janković and Son”, “Kristal” in Zaječar, “Serbian Glass Factory” in Paraćin, “Ukras” in Alibunar, “Skopska Staklarnica” in Skopje, and present are also items made in various factories in Central Europe.

At the opening of the exhibition the audience will be addressed by Biljana Jotić, acting director of the Museum of Applied Art in Belgrade, Zoran Lević, director of the Museum of Science and Technology in Belgrade and Darko Gučanin, director of the National Museum Kraljevo, while the exhibition will be opened by Biljana Crvenković, senior curator of the Museum of Applied Art in Belgrade.