The Venice Glass Week: Murano Glass & Venetian Craftsmanship

September 22, 2025

A curator’s view of master glassblowers in Murano and Venice, the standout exhibitions during The Venice Glass Week, and objects worth bringing home.

The Venice Glass Week: Murano Glass & Venetian Craftsmanship

The Treatts team visited Venice for the ninth edition of The Venice Glass Week, the city’s annual celebration of Murano glass and Venetian craftsmanship. From the roar of the furnaces to exhibitions by rising artists, we sought out the names, places, and workshops that keep this tradition alive. Along the way, we uncovered where to see Murano glassblowing up close and where to shop in Venice. Consider this your elegant, practical guide to bringing home a timeless Venetian gift.

The Legacy of Murano Glass

For more than seven centuries, Murano has been the beating heart of Venetian glassmaking. In the late 13th century, the Republic of Venice moved all glass furnaces to the island, partly to protect the city from fire but also to guard the secrets of its artisans. From that moment, Murano became synonymous with innovation: inventing crystalline glass, perfecting enamel decoration, and mastering techniques like filigrana and lattimo.

Events like The Venice Glass Week continue this story, bringing together master glassblowers, contemporary designers, and curious visitors. To stand before a glowing furnace and watch sand transform into something timeless is to witness history in motion. It is a reminder that true craftsmanship, like Murano glass itself, is made to be treasured and shared.

Exhibitions & Installations That Inspired Us

At its heart, The Venice Glass Week is a city-wide exhibition that turns palazzos, foundations, and museums into stages for glass in all its forms. This year, three shows stood out: one gathering established international artists, another spotlighting emerging talent, and a third that brought history vividly to life in Murano. Together, they revealed how Venetian glass continues to balance tradition with reinvention.

The Venice Glass Week HUB at Palazzo Loredan

Inside the historic halls of Palazzo Loredan, the main HUB presented works by more than fifty artists from around the world. The variety was remarkable, showing just how far Murano’s techniques have traveled. Among the most striking pieces was Alison Mac Cormaic’s Say Yes to the Test, a glass dress inspired by the fragility of the human body. Its surface patterns, drawn from microscopic imagery, transformed biological detail into something both monumental and poetic.

The Venice Glass Week HUB Under35 at Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa

The Under35 HUB introduced thirty young artists and designers who are shaping the future of glass. Mar Bermejo Aldeguer’s Floral Dip was a highlight. Mirrored pedestals suggested the quiet reflection of Venice’s flooded squares as they resurface, while delicate blown-glass vases held mouth-blown floral arrangements. The result was a dialogue between past and present that celebrated memory, beauty, and shared history.

Casanova at the Museo del Vetro, Murano

Across the lagoon, the Museo del Vetro in Murano hosted an unmissable exhibition dedicated to Giacomo Casanova. Far from a simple chronological display, it explored the adventurer’s many facets through eleven contemporary glass works and installations. Each one interpreted a different aspect of Casanova’s personality — his contradictions, passions, and intelligence — in conversation with the spirit of the Enlightenment. The exhibition offered not only a portrait of Casanova as a symbol of ingenuity and desire, but also of Venice itself as a cultured, ever-changing city.
From a dress that embodied resilience, to floral meditations on memory, to a reimagining of one of Venice’s most famous figures, these exhibitions confirmed that Murano glass is not a relic of the past. It is a living language, capable of speaking to the present while honoring centuries of tradition.

Master Glassblowers to Know

Behind the exhibitions and celebrations of The Venice Glass Week are the workshops where fire, breath, and skill come together. Some names have defined Murano’s reputation for generations, while others are giving Venetian glass a contemporary voice. Together, they show the breadth of a tradition that remains alive and evolving.

Carlo Moretti

Founded in 1958 by brothers Carlo and Giovanni, Carlo Moretti is celebrated as a “factory of originals,” where Murano’s crystal tradition meets contemporary design. Each piece is mouth-blown, hand-finished, signed, and often produced in limited series, blending purity of crystal with bold explorations of color and layered transparency. Iconic designs such as the Ovale and Cartoccio reflect the house’s ability to draw inspiration from everyday gestures and elevate them into timeless forms, making Carlo Moretti a synonym for modern Venetian glass.

NasonMoretti

For over a century, NasonMoretti has created glassware that elevates the rituals of everyday life. Founded in 1923 and still family-run, the house is celebrated for its refined goblets and tumblers, crafted entirely in its historic Murano workshop. Each piece passes through every stage of traditional glassmaking, from the mixing of raw materials to blowing, cutting, and polishing, embodying the philosophy that quality is the daughter of time. What sets NasonMoretti apart is its mastery of color: a palette of more than eighty shades and over 25,000 developed models.

Venini

Founded in 1921, Venini is the most internationally renowned of Murano’s glassmakers, celebrated for combining centuries-old Venetian techniques with daring contemporary design. Within its historic Fornace, master glassblowers work side by side with artists and designers from around the world, creating chandeliers, vases, and sculptural objects that are as much works of art as they are examples of craftsmanship. Known for its extraordinary palette of colors and mastery of complex techniques, Venini has shaped a century of Italian design and continues to embody the fusion of tradition, innovation, and beauty that defines Murano glass today.

Alongside these landmarks, a new generation of studios continues to expand the language of Venetian glass. Micheluzzi Glass explores sculptural textures and velvety finishes, Yali Glass offers minimalist forms in subtle hues, La Fornasotta preserves the intimacy of a family-run furnace, and Giberto creates refined glassware enriched with hand-painted detail. Each one adds a fresh voice to Murano’s heritage, ensuring the tradition remains as alive today as it was centuries ago.

Bringing Venice Home

The Venice Glass Week reminded us that craftsmanship is not just heritage, but a living language that continues to evolve in the hands of master artisans. Venice remains a city where beauty is still created slowly, thoughtfully, and with purpose — just as we aspire to build Treatts.

To bring home a piece from Venice is to carry more than an object: it is to preserve a story, a memory, and a tradition that has been passed down for centuries. These are gifts that transcend the ordinary, tokens of artistry that invite us to pause, reflect, and share in something enduring. At Treatts, we are proud to celebrate the same spirit by curating gifts shaped by Europe’s finest artisans, designed to be treasured and shared for generations to come.