The future of glassmaking on Wearside is a step closer to being secure today after Sunderland Culture was awarded a £5m grant by the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport.

Sunderland Culture will collaborate with partners including the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) along with Sunderland City Council and the University of Sunderland on the development of Glassworks: Sunderland – an ambitious, new world-class facility for glassmaking.

Glassworks: Sunderland will be located in the Sunniside area of Sunderland city centre, where the city council is leading regeneration plans to boost the creative economy.

The significant £5m grant towards the £7.5m project will come from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s (DCMS) Cultural Development Fund, which is administered by Arts Council England.

Nick Malyan, Chief Executive of Sunderland Culture, explained: “Glassworks: Sunderland will build on the city’s position as a leading international centre of excellence for glassmaking, while unlocking economic growth for the city, contributing to the regeneration of Sunniside, and securing important heritage skills for the future.”

Nick continued: “We are immensely grateful to DCMS for awarding this grant which is a significant step towards our ambition of safeguarding the future of glassmaking in Sunderland.

“Glassworks: Sunderland will be a nationally-significant centre of excellence for glassmaking, connecting Sunderland’s 1,350 years of glassmaking heritage and the city’s creative future.

“If we can achieve our ambition, Sunderland will remain one of the few places in the UK with specialist glassmaking facilities to create, make and produce in glass.

“We are extremely grateful to our partners’ commitment to developing the proposal and supporting the ambition for Glassworks: Sunderland.”

In 2022 the University of Sunderland commissioned a feasibility study which concluded the National Glass Centre (NGC) building, which houses a community of artists and makers, is no longer fit for purpose. The University announced its intention to close NGC in summer 2026.

Sunderland Culture has been working closely with Sunderland City Council and the University to identify a suitable home to enable artists and makers to continue their glassmaking practice in the city.

Nick added: “It is vital that the glassmaking community has opportunities to make, display and sell work produced in the city.

“Whilst there is still some way to go and further fundraising required this grant is a critical catalyst in realising our plans.

“Glassworks: Sunderland will ensure the city’s proud heritage of glass is continued. It will attract national and international expert glass artists, to work alongside Sunderland’s well-established community of world-class glassmakers, to safeguard skills and innovate creative practice.

“Our new facility will enable creative careers to be developed and sustained via access to specialist glassmaking facilities, studio spaces, and opportunities for Sunderland-based makers to promote and sell their work.

“It will create opportunities for the city’s highly-skilled glassmaking community whilst also allowing people to watch, take part and enjoy glassmaking.”

The V&A plans to work collaboratively with partners in Sunderland to champion the skills needed for the future creative economy, through this new national collaboration.

Dr Tristam Hunt, Director at the V&A, said: “Sunderland has an internationally significant heritage of glassmaking which warrants the provision of a dynamic, contemporary facility to house the infrastructure necessary to support and encourage making in the city while contributing new expertise to the creative sector.

“Glassworks: Sunderland will also play an important nationwide role in supporting excellence in making and the retention and the development of skills.”

Councillor Beth Jones, Cabinet Member for Communities, Culture and Tourism, at Sunderland City Council, said: “This is a really positive step forward in opening up new opportunities in glassmaking, reflecting the strength of the city’s history and heritage in this area which stretches back more than 1300 years.

“While there is still some way to go, we believe Glassworks: Sunderland would complement our own ambitious regeneration plans for Sunniside which centre around plans to encourage the growth of new and existing creative industries, so it’s great to see it moving a step closer to becoming a reality.

“We will be working closely with colleagues at Sunderland Culture and supporting glass making businesses in the city and wider region to come together as partners to continue to develop these proposals, growth their practices, and create a self-sustaining business model with glass making and glass artists at its heart.”

Sir David Bell, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of the University of Sunderland, said: “Glassworks: Sunderland represents a brand new opportunity to create an exciting model for the future of glassmaking in Sunderland.

“It will link the city’s heritage with its creative future, driving growth and productivity, and supporting cultural regeneration.”

Lewis Atkinson MP for Sunderland Central said: “I know how proud the people of Sunderland are of 1,350 years of glassmaking: that’s why I’ve been working with Sunderland Culture to support their bid for this new, nationally-significant facility.

“I’m delighted Ministers have recognised the strength of our case and have granted this £5m investment to continue Sunderland’s proud glassmaking heritage.

“Our glass is now 2/3 full – working together as a city, I’m confident we can secure the remaining £2.5m to deliver Glassworks: Sunderland and further boost Sunderland’s bright creative future.”

Glassworks: Sunderland is expected to cost about £7.5m and Sunderland Culture will be leading fundraising plans to secure match funding to realise the project.

Sunderland was one of 11 projects shortlisted nationally from 130 expressions of interest submitted to DCMS’s £16.2m Cultural Development Fund, and only one of four projects to be awarded funding.