Tacoma Glass Museum and Chihuly Exhibit

Chihuly works of art in vibrant blues, reds, greens and yellow — Chihuly art on display in Tacoma

1801 Dock St.

Tacoma, WA 98402

While in Seattle recently we decided to step outside our normal line-up of "things to do" and head south to Tacoma. Being a fan of Dale Chihuly, the famed glass-blower, I wanted to see the Glass Museum and some of his handywork.

Turns out much of the museum contains a fair amount of work by world-renowned Preston Singletary. Singletary has a wide range of pieces on display which reflect his Northwest Native roots as well as pieces created in a more modern European style. Beautiful!

Equally impressive are the pieces based upon artwork produced in the children's workshop on the premises. Essentially the kids get to draw in the studio and in some cases a glass piece is created based upon the drawing. One lucky child receives the glass art and a second (identical) piece is kept in the Kids Design collection. All the work is done in the "hot shop" which is a huge open forum where the public can see the piece being created. t's all good fun on a drizzly day in the Northwest.

Want to create your own piece of glass handiwork? There is a glass studio up the street where, for $65 you can work side-by-side a professional to create a custom vase or other piece of choice. Again, a very interesting and unique way to spend the day.

Tacoma Glassblowing Studio

114 S. 23rd Street

Tacoma WA 98402253.383.3499