The Glass Art Collection

The glass art collection comprises about 200 artworks. These are stained glass panels, ware, vases and decorative objects. Several artworks have been received as donations after international exhibitions held in the museum. These are artworks designed by the contemporary Finnish glass artists Britt Flanders and Kari Kuisma. The collection holds also articles of pre-war industrial glass design – glass and crystal ware with silver decoration designed at the artist's Arnolds Naika's studio.

The oldest exhibit of the collection is the stained glass "Rooster" (1905) fashioned in a classical style by Kārlis Brencēns. Not less outstanding are singular stained glass panels of the 1930s and 40s created by Jēkabs Šķērstēns, Sigismunds Vidbergs, as well as stained glass of the 1960s to 1980s executed by Ģirts Vilks, Tenis Grass (senior) and Ludvigs Bērziņš.

Significant part of the collection is formed by the artworks of Arnolds Vilbergs – the founder of the contemporary glass art in Latvia. The collection preserves etched and gilded ware and vases executed by the artist since the 1960s. 

The quest for unconventional three dimensional solutions in the field of decorative glass art is represented by the ware and decorative glass objects created by Ārija Ēmane, Skaidrīte Rikša and Sandra Bērziņa-Skrauce. The artworks of the 1980s and 90s by Dainis Gudovskis and Juris Dunovskis bear philosophical generalisation of ideas and are significant acquisition to the museum's glass collection.

The younger generation is represented by the articles created by Inguna Audere, Marta Ģibiete, Inita Ēmane, Anda Munkevica and Ilze Dūdiņa. The artists are interested in technological experimentation and research of merging various materials together.