Heart of glass (art)

(An earlier version of this post misstated the value of an art acquisition.)

Dense gray clouds crawl across Mount Rainier, erasing the snow-capped icon that seems to float above Tacoma’s eastern horizon. Drizzle spatters the downtown Museum District, but it disappears on the walkway across Interstate 705, where pedestrians stop in their tracks, stare, spin, back up and stare again.

More than 2,300 hand-blown, backlit glass shapes stretch across the first 50 feet of the Chihuly Bridge of Glass. The Seaform Pavilion ceiling bursts into a kaleidoscope of color: Cobalt blue edges curl like coral, delicate gold tubes mimic kelp, translucent red orbs seem to pulse like jellyfish. 

Dale Chihuly’s distinctive glass artistry can be found at more than 200 museums around the world, including Chihuly Garden and Glass below Seattle’s Space Needle, slightly more than 30 miles from Tacoma. But Tacoma has a special distinction: It’s Chihuly’s hometown, a place where glass artistry thrives. 

Self-guided tours in town highlight numerous destinations — several of them free — featuring Chihuly’s installations, as well as those of other globally known artists who have defined the studio art glass movement. Chihuly co-founded the famed Pilchuck Glass School north of Seattle in the 1970s, and in the mid-90s, co-founded Tacoma’s Hilltop Artists, which begins training kids as young as 12 in hot shop skills at public schools.

“Glass art is central to our identity” in the Northwest, says Rock Hushka, chief curator of the Tacoma Art Museum, which just opened a preview of a major new glass art acquisition  that will be housed in a new $14 million wing by 2018. 

The 500-foot-long Chihuly Bridge of Glass links the Tacoma Art Museum to the Museum of Glass, known for the tilted silver cone that rises 90 feet high along the Thea Foss Waterway and is home to the West Coast’s largest hot shop. Inside the cone, visitors can watch glassblowers at work, feeling the warmth as artists work the furnace, spin molten glass and coax it into shapes. 

Jeannine Sigafoos, who co-owns the nearby Tacoma Glassblowing Studio with her husband, Mark, says the region’s cool weather can be ideal for glassblowing; furnaces and molten glass add warmth to the foggy, drizzly days. 

Like Chihuly, local artists who work at the studio — as well as beginners — find ideas for shapes and colors in the vibrant palette of the Pacific and among the landscapes of pristine rivers and lush, ancient forests. 

“It’s always nature that inspires them,” Sigafoos says.

Make a weekend of it

-- Swiss Restaurant and Pub pours 30 beers, serves sliders and fish tacos and features several of Chihuly’s Venetian pieces amid its eclectic décor in the heart of the Museum District. 

-- Four miles from downtown, The Lobster Shop serves regional wines and seafood overlooking scenic Commencement Bay with views of seals and jellyfish from the patio.

-- The chic 319-room HotelMurano doubles as an unofficial museum, where guests and diners can study the Norse myths depicted in the stained glass of Vibeke Skov’s three Viking boats suspended from the lobby ceiling. The hotel’s collection features 45 artists from a dozen countries, with each of its guest-room floors highlighting an artist and his or her techniques.

-- Download the Chihuly Smartphone Walking Tour; it covers installations in the Tacoma Art Museum and around town. Don’t miss historic Union Station Federal Courthouse, a free stop with four Chihuly installations and a collage of sketches.

-- The Museum of Glass’ resident hot-shop team tackles a range of projects, from Martin Blank’s 754-piece Fluent Steps sculpture rising from the plaza reflecting pool, to endearing pieces inspired by real kids’ drawings such as a fierce Ninja doughnut, a fox in colorful socks and crazy-eyed aliens. Hands-on classes include glass-fusing ornaments, pendants and suncatchers.