Museum of Glass in Tacoma

Thanks go to fellow artist Diane Cutter for recommending the Tacoma Museum of Glass! We were able to go to visit it after our Alaska cruise in June.

As Diane says, the museum collection is modest. I enjoyed seeing the Dale Chihuly glass on the bridge connecting the museum with Tacoma downtown. We found we were especially impressed with the educational element there, as they do comparison and contrast for different approaches to the glass art forms. Another fun and admirable addition to their collection is the art glass made from the artwork of inner city children, who drew pictures and wrote stories about the characters they created. Each child receives a glass creation of his/her creature made by the museum workshop group, AND sees the another version of the same creature in the collection of the museum!! What a marvelous way to affirm kids and involve them in art expression at an early age!

The Hot Shop was another treat. Watching glass blowers turn blobs of glass into matched sets of martini glasses for auction was amazing. A fascinating narrative accompanied our up close and personal observation of the artists.