Barbara (Glastra) van Loon studied Cultural Anthropology at the University of Leiden during which period she worked in Mexico with the Indians of Oaxaca on an educational project, followed by a one and a half year project for children at the Browndale Foundation in Nijmegen.
She worked for five years in a garage as a part-time mechanic, entered the school of jewellery and learned the craft of working with heavy metals.
In the Eighties she decided to become an artist at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, where she graduated in monumental art. Her first large scale project that was realised was a ballet written for a performance by seven building cranes of the Amsterdam Opera House, followed by an internationally recognised intriguing ballet of harbour cranes. After these artworks she continued to work on installations and performances on a large scale both in city surroundings as in the country site.
Barbara van Loon has been involved in several International Design Seminars at Delft University of Technology and has supervised a commission of the Alliance of Dutch Architects. She worked alongside different famous international architects like Alvaro Siza and Herman Hertzberger.
Besides being an artist and designer she is a director, teacher and trainer and has been a member of different committees.
Her work contains visuals, sounds, music, choreography and (laser) light.
She works together with musicians, architects, dancers, actors and engineers.
She also realises small and large sculptures, drawings, adjusted furniture and a square.
Give her a chance and she will surprise you.