Alison Kinnaird

Biography

Alison Kinnaird MBE (born 30 April 1949) is a Scottish glass sculptor, Celtic musician, teacher, and writer. She is one of the most prominent glass engravers in Scotland.

Early life and education

Alison Kinnaird was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 30 April 1949.
Her application to art college having been rejected, Kinnaird earned a MA in Celtic studies and archaeology at the University of Edinburgh, in the course of which she also studied copper wheel glass engraving with Harold Gordon in Forres, having met him while on a family holiday there.

Career and practice

Kinnaird is one of the foremost and most original modern glass engravers in Scotland.
Kinnaird's glass engraving works are in many galleries and private collections. She has been commissioned to create pieces for the Royal Family such as an engraved goblet for the late Queen Mother, a bowl for Charles and Diana's wedding, also a blue disc for the Emperor of Japan, and the Donor Window in the Scottish Portrait Gallery. She uses lead and optical crystal. The techniques used by Kinnaird include copper-wheel engraving, cutting, sandblasting, acid etching and casting. Starting in a studio in the High Street, Edinburgh, her work won early recognition and was included in an exchange between the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the Salzburg Fringe. Later, believing that the small physical size of works produced in traditional glass engraving confines their appreciation to a limited audience, she expanded the scale of her works by using flexible drive engraving and sandblasting, combined with the adventurous use of dichroic glass. More recently she has employed bonded coloured glass as her engraving medium.
Kinnaird is also a musician, a gift that led her to discover relationships between music and glass engraving, notably through designs based on Lissajous figures. She started playing the harp at 14 and has been credited with starting the Scottish harp revival and the Celtic harp renaissance. She plays, teaches and lectures on the small Scottish harp also known as the clàrsach. She was one of the first acts signed to Temple Records during the 1970s and she has had eight albums released through the label. She worked with the Scottish music group Battlefield Band on their albums Music in Trust Vol I (1987) and Music in Trust Vol II (1988).
Kinnaird has written many books about traditional music and the small Scottish harp. Her first book on the subject was published in 1990 and is a collection of 24 harp tunes that she arranged. Tree of Strings (1992), written in collaboration with Keith Sanger, documents the history of the harp in Scotland and is the first book of its kind. The Lothian Collection (1995) has 25 harp tunes from the big houses and great families from East, West and Midlothian all arranged by Kinnaird. The Small Harp Tutor (1996) is a book about learning to play the small harp, which covers the history of the instrument, maintaining the instrument, arranging tunes and gives useful finger exercises. The book is accompanied by a 60-minute CD, which guides the learner from novice to more accomplished player. Kinnaird's most recent book is The North East Collection which features tunes mainly from the 18th and 19th century arranged by herself.

Recognition and awards

In 1997, Kinnaird was awarded the MBE for her contribution and longstanding service to art and music.
In 2011, National Life Stories interviewed Kinnaird for their "Craft Lives" archive. The interviews took place over three days and document her life from childhood to becoming a successful artist and musician.
She is a fellow of the Guild of Glass Engravers.
She has been recognised for her contributions to Scottish folk music, and was inducted into the Scots Trad Music Awards – Hall of Fame in 2010.
Kinnaird has been the recipient of numerous other awards, including:

2004: Glass Sellers Award
2002: Creative Scotland Award
2001: Adrian Sassoon Award
1998: CC Chelsea First Exhibitors Award
1998: Inches Carr Crafts Bursary
1987: Glass-Sellers Award
1980: SDA/CCC Crafts Fellowship

Personal life

Kinnaird was married to the musician, producer, and writer Robin Morton until his death.

Memberships

2003–2004: Member of the award panel for Creative Scotland Award
1993–1996 Scottish Arts Council Crafts Committee
1984–1987 BBC Broadcasting Council for Scotland
Contemporary Glass Society
Glass Art Society
Scottish Glass Society
Index of Selected Makers, Crafts Council

Teaching

Masterclasses, International Festival of Glass, Stourbridge, England
Urban Glass, Brooklyn, NY
College of Art and Design, Wroclaw, Poland
Northlands Creative Glass, Scotland
Corning Glass Studio, Corning NY, USA
Frauenau, Germany

Selected exhibitions

2018 Berengo Gallery, Murano, Italy
2017 Edinburgh International Festival Fringe, solo exhibition
2017 Scottish Glass Society, Edinburgh
2017 Celebrating 80, London Glassblowing Gallery
2016 Unknown, Scottish Parliament to Kirkaldy Art Gallery (ongoing tour)
2015 British Glass Biennale, Stourbridge
2014 Edinburgh International Festival, solo show
2013 SOFA Chicago
2013 Edinburgh International Fringe Festival, solo show
2012 Luminesce, Linlithgow, Scotland, solo exhibition,
2012 Fleming Collection, London
2012 The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, solo exhibition
2012 Travelling exhibition, Wroclaw, Jelenia Gora, Ostrow, Lesno, Poland
2011 Johansfors, Kristallmuseum, Sweden
2011 British Studio Glass, Coburg
2010 Invited Artist, British Glass Biennale
2009 Urban Glass, NY, USA
2008 The Cutting Edge, Royal Museums of Scotland
2007 Invited Artist, Visual Arts Scotland, Royal Scottish Academy
2006 British Glass Biennale, Stourbridge
2006 Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, Denmark
2006 Coburg Glaspreis Exhibition'
2005 21st Century British Glass, London
2004 Psalmsong, V&A London Museum
2004 British Glass Biennale, Stourbridge
2004 Broadfield House Glass Museum, Dudley
2002 Art for Europe, Brussels
2001 Art Glass Gallery, Santa Fe
1999 Kaminesky Senov, Czech Republic
1999 National Glass Centre, Sunderland
1998 Contemporary Applied Arts, London
1996 British Glass, Prague
1996 Contemporary Arts Centre, Utrecht
1988 Solo exhibition, Coleridge, London
1987 Group exhibition, Galerie de Vier Linden, Asperen, The Netherlands
1984 Group exhibition, Habatat Gallery, Detroit, USA
1979 The Bowl, British Crafts Centre, London, organised by World Crafts Council
1977 Salzburg Festival, Art Gallery, Salzburg, Austria.
1975 Contemporary Scottish Artists, Exhibitions Centre, Edinburgh

Selected collections

2016 Eve, Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague
2012 Standing Feathers, Aberdeen Art Gallery
2010 Adam and Eve, Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead
2008 Maze, National Museum of Scotland
2005 Psalmsong, Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh
2005 Streetwise I, Tutsek Foundation, Munich
2005 Streetwise II, Dundee Museum & Art Gallery
2003 Portrait of Roy Dennis, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh
2001 Evolve, Broadfield House Glass Museum
2001 White Lies, Crafts Council Collection
1995 Triptych, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
1989 Man into Seal, Corning Museum of Glass, New York City, USA
1988 Ring of Crystal, Ring of Stone, Leicester Museum and Art Gallery, Leicester
1987 Disc – Leap, Ulster Museum, Belfast
1986 Doors on the Past, National Museum of Scotland
1986 Disc – She is Summer, Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery, Glasgow
1980 Doors – engraved block, Scottish Development Agency – Scottish Crafts Collection, Edinburgh

Selected commissions

2017 Nativity Window, St Mary's Church, Kenardington, Kent
2016 Window, St Cross College, Oxford
2015 Quaking Aspen Panels, Beverley Hills, California
2014 Windows, Dornoch Cathedral
2012 Donor Window, Scottish National Portrait Gallery
2009 Self Portrait, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
2007 Interface-Panels for Murano Hotel, Tacoma, USA
2006 Butterfly Panels, Marchmont St Giles Church, Edinburgh
2004 Praise Window, Dornoch Cathedral
2003 Portrait of Roy Dennis, National Portrait Gallery of Scotland
2000 Millennium Commission, Broadfield House Glass Museum
1993 British Film Institute Awards
1992 Door panels, commissioned by Lord Bute of Mount Stuart
1991 Alumnus of the Year Award, commissioned by Edinburgh University
1990 Gift for His Imperial Highness, the Crown Prince of Japan, commissioned by Royal Bank of Scotland
1989 Screen of 10 panels, commissioned by Lord Bute of Mount Stuart
1986 Gift for HM the Queen Mother, commissioned by Royal College of Physicians
1983 Duke of Edinburgh Design Award, commissioned by Alan Doe of Westland Helicopters
1980 Wedding bowl for HRH the Prince of Wales, commissioned by The Scotsman newspaper
1979 The Wealth of Nations presented to The London Institute of Banking & Finance in England, commissioned by Institute of Bankers in Scotland