Tacoma, WA
Dad and I take in some art and history in downtown Tacoma. We stop first at the impressive Tacoma Art Museum. After lunch at The Fish Peddler, we celebrate glass-maker Dale Chihuly at the Museum of Glass and the Chihuly Bridge of Glass. We finish our afternoon at the Washington State History Museum.
Tacoma Art Museum
Dad and I began our day at the Tacoma Art Museum, which was founded in 1935 and has been in its current 50,000-square-foot location in downtown Tacoma since 2003. The museum showcases the visual arts of the Pacific Northwest, with nearly 70 percent of its collection focused on the work of Northwest artists.The first gallery was an exhibit titled “Native Portraiture: Power and Perception,” which featured contemporary indigenous artists who “give voice to Native people and communities to show their resiliency and power over the ways in which they are portrayed and perceived."
“Tee-win-at” (Grand Teton area)
“Wikitata” (Grand Canyon area)
Portrait of a Sioux Scout, Stephen Foster (of Nanaimo, BC), 2013
Plains Warrior with Breastplate, John Nieto, 2018
We moved on to the remainder of the museum’s vibrant collection, full of surprises in style and tone. It included a temporary exhibit showcasing 21 glass artists from the nearby Hilltop Artists youth development program.
Harbinger of Sudden Departures Variation II, Meryl McMaster, 2015
Minidoka No. 5 (442nd), Roger Shimomura, 1979
Le Deuxieme Sexe (1948-1949), Lisa Liedgren, 2002-03
Going Up, Jacob Wilcox (of Tacoma), 2022
House of the Eagles, Tony Sorgenfrei, 2022
Trapped, Trenton Quiocho (of Tacoma), 2021
We finished our browsing with a gallery dedicated to Tacoma native Dale Chihuly, who is known for bringing a sense of large-scale sculpture to the world of blown glass. Chihuly pieces have been displayed in more than 200 museums around the world, from Kew Gardens in London to the Tower of David Museum in Jerusalem, to the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas… even to the Columbia Museum of Art, which Dad and I visited in 2021. But the Tacoma permanent collection is considered to be the premier exhibition of his work.
The Fish Peddler
We drove a block or so from the museum to lunch at The Fish Peddler, a friendly spot along the Thea Foss Waterway. My Padres played on a TV in the nearby bar. A tasty house IPA and a plate of fish and chips were on the way. The day was going great.Museum of Glass
After lunch, we walked further along the Thea Foss Waterway, toward a building capped by a 90-foot-tall cone wrapped in steel and jauntily tilted to one side. On this morning full of gloomy clouds, the cone resembled a shiny smokestack on a listing ironclad in a heavy storm. Inside, the building could not be any different.The Museum of Glass celebrates the work of Dale Chihuly and a host of other artists who use fire to bend matter into forms full of color and creativity. Near its entrance is a massive studio with stadium seating and regular demonstrations of the craft.
Pride from Circus Vase series, Dan Dailey, 2005
Mandara, Lino Tagliapetra, 2005
Red Crater, Stanislav Libenský/Jaroslava Brychtová, 1998-2008
Fruit Cocktail, Megan Stelljes, 2021
Goldenrod and Indigo Persian Set, Dale Chihuly, 2002
Chihuly Bridge of Glass
After making important purchases for our respective wives at the Museum of Glass gift shop, Dad and I climbed a set of stairs to the Chihuly Bridge of Glass, which extends over Interstate 705 toward the Washington State History Museum. Above the walkway is a ceiling of glass works by Dale Chihuly, with tubes and seashell shapes twisting and bending in a riot of color. On one side of the bridge is a long display of vases filled with glass flowers stretching tendrils of silica toward the growing sunlight.The installation, which lights up at night and is accessible to all, was a gift to the city in 2002. Chihuly has called it "the gateway that welcomes people to Tacoma."