Bee Kingdom Glass is a collaborative studio collective based in Calgary, Alberta. Ryan Fairweather, Tim Belliveau, and Phillip Bandura met at the Alberta College of Art and Design and built their own glass studio in 2004. The studio specializes in unique, low volume glassworks that are known for its vibrant colour palettes and subject matter. The studio’s practice is artful in nature versus the mass production of the factory tradition. Each artist has his own body of work but team also works together to design particular works as well as assist each other no matter what the design.
Bee Kingdom Glass enjoys travel and collaboration with other artists. The studio has travelled and shown in a variety of galleries, festivals, and museums, in cities such as Cheongju, Athens, Turkey, Berlin, and Mexico.
The studio was the Pilchuck Centerpiece designer in 2008 and was later invited to the Tacoma Museum of Glass for a residency where they got to create in glass the Flower Turtle, a realized children’s drawing from the Kids Design Glass project.
In 2010 the studio was awarded Avenue Magazine’s Top 40 Under 40 (and was featured on the front cover in all their high kick glory), and the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Emerging Artist Award.
Recently Bee Kingdom has been a participating artist at Calgary’s own Beakerhead event, a smash-up of science, art, and engineering. They’ve been designing large scale inflatable sculptures, the Fabulist, and the Saturnian.