In 1965, a talented young art student at the University of Washington named Dale Chihuly, who up to that point had focused his skill on weaving intricate textiles, became fascinated with a very different art form—the process of making glass. As he likes to recall, “As soon as I blew that bubble, I decided I wanted to be a glassblower.”
The result was a career that has spanned continents. But although Mr. Chihuly’s large-scale creations have hung from bridges over the canals of Venice, have been displayed next to ancient walls in Jerusalem, and glow like a luminous seabed over the lobby of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, the center of his creative universe has always been the Pacific Northwest. As a direct result, the region has become world-renowned as a center for the creation of art glass.
Most people associate Mr. Chihuly with Seattle. Two of his three workshops and the museum that bears his name are there, as are installations such as the “Chihuly Garden of Glass” at the base of the Space Needle. But to really understand the scope and influence of Mr. Chihuly, you have to visit the city of his birth—Tacoma.
Within the space of a few square blocks you can visit the Museum of Glass with its expansive galleries and towering Hot Shop studio, take in the remarkable displays of works by Mr. Chihuly and other glass crafters at the Tacoma Art Museum, admire the 360-degree installation he created for the rotunda of Tacoma’s historic Union Station (now the courthouse), and experience the visual sensation of crossing the Chihuly Bridge of Glass—a 500-foot pedestrian footbridge collaboratively designed by Mr. Chihuly and architect Arthur Andersson.
The bridge, which connects Pacific Avenue to the Museum of Glass, includes three installations. The “Seaform Pavilion” is a 49-foot-long covered portion of the bridge whose illuminated ceiling contains 2,364 individually blown glass sculptures representing a radiant reef of seashells, snails, and gently curving anemones. Toward the center of the bridge are the “Crystal Towers,” two 40-foot-tall structures made from 63 “crystals” of translucent turquoise glass. The north end of the wall is devoted to the “Venetian Wall,” an 80-foot-long installation containing 109 individual showcases, each containing an example of Mr. Chihuly’s art. And while the bridge is spectacular by day, at night, its span and component parts are set alight.
The plans for the Museum of Glass and its connecting bridge were set in motion in 1991, when 27 acres of Tacoma’s heavily polluted industrial zone were targeted for redevelopment and transformation into a center of artistic design and innovation. The doors opened in 2002.
The collections of the museum reflect current experimental work alongside the legacy of the art-glass movement. The Jane Russell Hot Shop provides a gathering spot for national, international, and emerging artists. Aptly named for the heat its kilns produce, visitors are encouraged to sit in the amphitheater section and watch (and learn) as the magical molten transformation takes place.
A short walk away is the Tacoma Art Museum, which in addition to its fine modern art collection contains multiple galleries that showcase the remarkable diversity of art glass with pieces as solid as rocks, fantastical creations that contain an entire world within and others as fragile as, well, glass.
