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City of glass

With a sophisticated Museum District sparked by glass artist Chihuly, Tacoma is emerging from Seattle’s shadow

By John Gottberg Anderson / For The Bulletin

Published: November 18. 2007 4:00AM PST

TACOMA —

Credit a creative genius — one who looks for all the world like a pirate with an eye patch — for helping to change the image of this sprawling city on Puget Sound.

For years, the industrial center of 197,000 people, 30 minutes’ drive south of Seattle, was better known for the fumes from its copper smelter and the activity in its harbor than for anything suggesting culture and sophistication. But in the first decade of the 21st century, that has changed dramatically.

Today three outstanding museums are clustered at the edge of downtown Tacoma, the most visible element in a major revitalization of the city’s heart. Visitors will also find a spectacular new convention center, major hotels, fine restaurants and an overhaul of the historic theater district.

In a way, it started with the artistic success of Dale Chihuly, Tacoma’s favorite native son and the Western world’s most renowned glassmaker.

Chihuly: an original

Now 66, Chihuly was born and raised in Tacoma, educated at the universities of Puget Sound, Washington and Wisconsin. He did graduate work at the renowned Rhode Island School of Design, whose glass program he later helped to establish, then accepted a Fulbright Fellowship to become the first American glassblower to work on the Venetian island of Murano, famed for glassmaking since the 13th century.

Returning to the Puget Sound area in 1971, Chihuly co-founded the Pilchuck Glass School, which soon established him as a pioneer in new approaches to glass art.

Refusing to accept classically held boundaries for glass art, he experimented with new themes: sea forms, Japanese ikebana, American Indian basketry, Irish cylinders. He took glass art beyond display shelves with spectacular large-scale installations, several of which can be found in Tacoma. In fact, Chihuly’s hometown features more of his artwork than any other city in the world.

Although an automobile accident in 1976 robbed him of his left-eye vision and thus his depth perception, Chihuly’s ability to conceptualize fanciful works of art, and to direct others in their creation, has placed him at the vanguard of his profession. “Glass is the most magical of all materials,” the Tacoma Art Museum (TAC) quotes him as saying. “It transmits light in a special way”

Dozens of Chihuly originals are at the heart of the TAC, which opened in May 2003. A large display case near the entrance features many of the brightly colored sea forms — whimsical anemones, jellyfish and more — with which he is so often associated. Just down a short ramp are pieces inspired by his mother’s love of Japanese flower arrangements, known as ikebana, and works motivated by the traditional Pueblo Indian basketry he observed during a stay at New Mexico’s Taos Pueblo.

There’s more to this art museum, of course. One gallery is devoted to features from the permanent collection, including works by Renoir, Pissarro, Gilbert Stuart and Mark Tobey. Three other galleries offer changing exhibits. Current exhibits present folk quilts from the African-American community of Gee’s Bend, Ala.; portraits by turn-of-the-20th-century American painter Cecilia Beaux; and contemporary black-and-white landscape photography by Seattle-born Mary Randlett.

Next summer — July 12 to Sept. 7, 2008 — it will display an illuminated St. John’s Bible, which curators say is “the only handwritten and illuminated Bible commissioned since the advent of the printing press more than 500 years ago.”

The trail of the artist

But it’s Chihuly that most first-timers come to see, and hear! The museum has assembled a 12-stop “Ear for Art” cell phone tour (dial 888-411-4220) to walk visitors through its own displays as well as those in nearby buildings. Chihuly himself interprets the art, describing the artistic process as well as inspirations and collaborations.

The tour’s second stop is historic Union Station, one block south of the museum. Now a federal courthouse, it was built in 1910 and served as Tacoma’s main railroad depot until 1983. The mood of the era is reflected in a bronze sculpture in front of the edifice on Pacific Avenue: “A New Beginning” depicts the anticipation and trepidation of a new arrival in Tacoma in the early 20th century.

Open weekday business hours (with free admission), Union Station features five important Chihuly installations. Among them are the multicolored “End-of-the-Day Chandelier,” which hangs from the 90-foot dome ceiling, and the “Monarch Window,” whose butterfly-like elements capture the morning sun as it rises over Mount Rainier.

But the highlight of a Chihuly tour must be the Bridge of Glass. A 500-foot-long pedestrian bridge over Interstate 705 and railroad tracks, linking downtown Tacoma (at the State History Museum) to the city’s waterfront (at the Museum of Glass), it opened in July 2002. Chihuly envisioned this masterpiece as “the gateway that welcomes people to Tacoma. We wanted something unique in the world, something that has a lot of color, a joyous experience, night or day.”

Built by architect Arthur Andersson, the bridge has three principal elements: the Seaform Pavilion, a tunnel with a ceiling of delicate glass sculptures; the Venetian Wall, a full wall of Murano-inspired vases; and the Crystal Towers, two stunning, 40-foot-tall, glacial-blue pillars of crystalline Polyvitro. In the Seaform Pavilion, at the west end, 2,364 separate objects inspired by underwater life forms are suspended over pedestrians’ heads. The Venetian Wall, at the east end, displays 109 blown-glass works inspired by Venetian Art Deco, Japanese ikebana, and medieval European “Putti” representations of Cupid, the Roman god of love.

Museum of Glass

There’s nowhere else in North America like Tacoma’s Museum of Glass, an international showcase for contemporary artists who employ glass among their media. One current exhibit of large-scale art, called “Mining Glass,” features the works of a handful of artists, including renowned sculptor Maya Lin, whose new work “Dew Point” is a landscape suggesting droplets of water.

Nearby, in the same gallery, is a dark glass sculpture by New York artist Fred Wilson, who writes, “When I watch glassblowing, it’s like the creation of a planet or something. You get seduced by the material, by the process … ”

It’s exciting for visitors to the Museum of Glass that they can observe the glass art process within a giant, cone-shaped hot shop attached to the museum. Teams of studio-glass artists, typically about a half-dozen at a time, blow and shape molten glass into works of art as visitors watch from amphitheater seats or a walk-around mezzanine.

A narrator describes the work being done and answers questions. Frequently there are visiting artists from foreign countries; they are encouraged to share their knowledge and observations in afternoon lectures in a separate theater.

Next door is a “Studio” where kids and their parents can make glass art under the direction of an artist-in-residence; on my visit last week, they were crafting “boisterous brooches.” The museum store has an excellent selection of books and craft items; Gallucci’s Glass Café keeps visitors well fed with soups, salads, sandwiches and pasta dishes.

Back across Chihuly’s Bridge of Glass is the Washington State History Museum, which does a nice job of guiding visitors through a permanent display on the state’s heritage, from prehistory to the 21st century. Recorded voices, accompanying life-size models, make the exhibits come to life. A children’s history lab and model railroad display are on the top floor of the museum, along with temporary exhibits, which will focus on the U.S. postage stamp starting in early December.

Elsewhere in Tacoma

Tacoma’s Theater District, a few blocks’ walk from the Museum District and close to the Sheraton Tacoma Hotel, is a good bet for evening entertainment. The Broadway Center for the Performing Arts incorporates three facilities — the renovated, history Pantages Theater and Rialto Theater, as well as the Theatre on the Square — and offers a year-round schedule of plays, concerts and other events. Nearby are a couple of blocks filled with some of the best antique stores in the Pacific Northwest.

A longtime Tacoma landmark is the Tacoma Dome, 15 stories tall and 530 feet in diameter. Once considered a “mini Kingdome,” after Seattle’s since-demolished domed stadium, this arena hosts major concerts, trade shows and professional sports events just a stone’s throw from downtown.

At the north end of Tacoma, Point Defiance Park, now 102 years old, has been rated one of the top 20 urban parks in the United States. Its centerpiece is the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium, which showcases animals of the Pacific Rim, including Asia and Australia. Also excellent is the Fort Nisqually Living History Museum, a restored Hudson’s Bay Company fur-trading post with occasional interpretive presentations by docents in period costume. The park also features a historic logging exhibit, a Japanese garden, salt-water beaches and 14 miles of hiking trails.

Lodging and dining options

Tacoma has ample lodging in close proximity to the Museum District at the Sheraton Tacoma and Courtyard by Marriott hotels, as well as the very moderately priced King’s Inn, whose marquee announces its owners’ Christian values. Somewhat farther — a good walk, but a short taxi or bus ride — is the Best Western Tacoma Dome Hotel.

The row of historic buildings on the west side of Pacific Avenue, facing Union Station and the history museum, contains numerous interesting restaurants, including the Harmon Pub & Brewery, with custom brews and stick-to-your-ribs comfort food. Just down the block is A Renaissance Café, one of my favorite breakfast stops since owner Keith Flowers discovered he could use an espresso steamer to scramble eggs. Further down the block is Grassi’s Garden Café, on the upper floor of a florist’s shop; and a trendy sushi bar, TwoKoi, is a block uphill.

More upscale, also on Pacific Avenue in the Museum District, is Indochine. It’s Tacoma’s answer to Seattle’s wildly popular pan-Asian institution, Wild Ginger. I started my meal with a house salad dressed in coconut cream with hot chilies, and had a “yin yang ahi” entrée, my tuna rubbed in ancho chilies and sesame seeds, then seared and served with cucumbers and a wasabi aioli dressing.

For traditionalists, the El Gaucho steakhouse and Melting Pot fondue restaurant are a couple of blocks toward the Tacoma Dome, also on Pacific Avenue.

John Gottberg Anderson can be reached at janderson@bendbulletin.com.

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