There are scads of well-known artists and other famous people all over the world. They seem to be everywhere, although I bet most of them gravitate to larger cities. But before they were famous, every one of them had to have come from somewhere, right? Do you know the name Dale Chihuly? He’s a glass-blower and glass artist. He is world famous. And … he’s from Tacoma, WA!
Yep, he’s from this very town that I live in. Not surprisingly, there are a number of permanent displays of his glass art right here in Tacoma, most of it free for the viewing. This town is chock-a-block full of Chihuly glass. Here’s a short list of some of the locations in Tacoma where his glass is displayed:
- The Frank Russell Company, a private investment firm soon moving to Seattle
- Union Station
- Pacific Lutheran University, Glass Roses
- University of Puget Sound
- Tacoma Art Museum
- The Tacoma Museum of Glass
- The Bridge of Glass
We sure have our share of Chihuly glass, don’t we? I’ve been to most of those displays, but not all of them yet. On one recent, fine, sunshiny, winter day, I was in downtown Tacoma anyway, so I took a stroll over “The Bridge of Glass” and snapped a few photos. I’ve also borrowed a few photos off the internet and posted them here as well.
The view as you approach the Bridge of Glass is not particularly exciting. It’s a pedestrian bridge. It crosses over a busy freeway and a bunch of often-used train tracks.
The big blue balloons are rather nice. Actually, the big blue “balloons” are Chihuly glass. Look at the size of them!
The building on the left in the photo above is the first one we’ll walk through … then we’ll walk further along the bridge and take a look at the single, tall panel that’s on the right side of the bridge, the one just a few feet past the big blue “balloon” tower on the right.
When you first walk into the black box of a building on the left in the photo above, here’s what you see (below) when you look UP!
The entire ceiling is FULL of individual glass art pieces, some of them tiny, some of them huge. The ceiling is actually a very sturdily built clear glass “shelf” that contains all manner and sizes and colors of Chihuly glass. The entire display must weigh a few tons.
It can be mesmerizing. And when the sunshine is strong and bright and it shines directly through the glass from straight overhead, you are bathed in the colors of the glass … it looks and feels as though you are inside a kaleidoscope. When I was here this day, the winter sun wasn’t high enough in the sky to create that effect, but wait until summer comes!
Then I walked on across the bridge a bit further to that single, tall panel on the right. Again, it’s fairly boring when looked at from the outside.
But from the inside, it’s an entirely different experience.
It’s a wall full of individual Chihuly glass pieces. An amazing variety! And again, some of them are large, some are several feet tall.
Each piece is fascinating in its own right … together, they are extraordinary.
As evening descends, the display lights come on and the magic changes.
The Bridge of Glass is a great place to spend some time on a nice day or evening just looking and dreaming of a different world, just letting your imagination wander.
Downtown Tacoma and the city’s Tacoma Art Museum are near one end of the Bridge of Glass. The Washington State History Museum is very close by. At the other end of the Bridge are the Museum of Glass and, not mentioned above, a live glass-blowing facility or “hot shop” where the public can watch live glass-blowing.
Since I moved to Tacoma, I’m finding it is full of wonderful things like these gorgeous glass displays and the Pacific Bonsai Museum and so many other terrific things to see and do. When the weather gets warmer later this spring, I’ll be off again on camping trips in the trailer. Until then, it appears I’ll be busy exploring this city and its surrounding areas and telling you all about them. 🙂