Story: Tacoma, City of Glass Art

Tacoma, Washington, called the City of Destiny by early twentieth century developers, is now being hailed as the City of Glass, a destination for glass art tourism. Visitors from around the world flock to Tacoma to experience studio glass art created by the masters of this art form. Public spaces and private galleries in this urban center just south of Seattle glisten and glow in the pure colors of light. Tacoma has bloomed into a contemporary art destination out of the decay of a city some likened to a "bombed-out Beirut" just over a decade ago.

The juggernaut that forced Tacoma, as well as the entire United States, to take studio glass seriously is Dale Chihuly, a native of Tacoma. In the years Tacomans now call "BC", or "Before Chihuly," glass was viewed as a highly technical craft that could certainly be used in the creation of some artful works, like stained glass windows, lamps, mosaics or other pieces, but was not viewed as art itself.

Dale Chihuly revolutionized the way art collectors viewed studio glass. Chihuly co-founded the Pilchuck Glass School and taught glass blowers how to make massive sculptural works of art using European techniques that had been kept secret for centuries. Chihuly led the way in using glass in large-scale installations and environmental displays.

Chihuly enlisted the aid of the world's foremost glass blower, Lino Tagliapietra to bring Venetian glass blowing secrets to the United States and then to the world. Tagliapietra shook off the ancient rule of secrecy that kept glass blowing techniques confined to its Murano, Italy enclave for centuries, and he dared to teach others how to master this art form.

The best place in the world to watch current masters blow glass is the Museum of Glass in Tacoma. Visiting artists blow glass in the museum's centerpiece, a large amphitheater with spectators just a few feet above the stage. Teams of glassblowers dance a dangerous ballet with molten gathers of glowing-hot glass backlit by the red glow of several huge furnaces and glory holes where the glass is gathered and reheated after it is blown and shaped. The radiance from these furnaces burnishes the interior of a huge cone built from stainless steel. The exterior of the cone is an iconic beacon for visitors to the museum, and captures in steel a memory of an old wood burner from Tacoma's days as a center of wood milling. The grand staircase wraps itself around the cone as it descends from street level to the waters of Commencement Bay.

Lino Tagliapietra used the museum's stage in February and March, 2008 to inaugurate the first retrospective of his fifty years of glass blowing and nearly thirty-years in the studio glass movement. Lino will again take the Museum's stage June 11-15, 2008 to demonstrate his mastery of glass blowing to art patrons and visitors. Until August 24, 2008, visitors to the Museum of Glass can see his works from public and private collections. This exhibition is curated by Susanne K. Frantz, former curator of twentieth-century glass at The Corning Museum of Glass.

There are several places in Tacoma to view studio glass, especially works by Chihuly. The most extensive collection of Chihuly glass resides on the Chihuly Bridge of Glass. Tacoma and its waterfront long had been separated by a steep hillside, multiple train tracks and an interstate highway. The site of the first superfund clean-up in the 1980's, Tacoma's Commencement Bay became a source of civic pride as the smokestack industries disappeared and the waters cleared. Dale Chihuly envisioned a pedestrian bridge connecting downtown with the waterfront. Chihuly donated his art work and design ideas. The architectural firm of Arthur Anderson brought the Bridge of Glass into a reality. Hundreds of seaforms and Persians inhabit the ceiling of one pavilion, while a wall of enormous Venetian vases with scampering putti, those sometimes naughty winged cherubs, fill display cases in another. The bridge is crowned by glacial-blue crystals atop tall poles that stand up like rock candy treats for giants.

Chihuly is also well represented at the Tacoma Art Museum. The permanent collection contains a variety of Chihuly pieces, and the museum often showcases Chihuly's work in its curated galleries. Chihuly loans art pieces to display in various locations, most prominently the central lobby of the United States District Courthouse. The walls and windows are covered with glass art, and a fanciful chandelier floats below its central dome. Private collections open to the public include the William Traver Gallery and the Tacoma News Tribune lobby.

The synergy of art glass tourism and the Tacoma renaissance is best witnessed in the just-completed $21 million renovation of an old Sheraton Hotel into the Hotel Murano. Within walking distance of the museums and downtown, the hotel's lobbies are filled with signature glass pieces from important glass artists, and the 21 floors each profile one glass artist with public exhibitions of the artist's work. A new 104-foot, steel-and-glass sculpture by renowned Greek artist Costas Varotsos stands tall outside the hotel entrance.

Museum of Glass: http://www.museumofglass.org
Tacoma Art Museum: http://www.tacomaartmuseum.org
Traver Gallery: http://www.travergallery.com
Hotel Murano: http://www.hotelmuranotacoma.com