The Hindu Business Line : Crystal gaze

At the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington, you can view the works of internationally acclaimed artists such as Dale Chihuly, Dante Marioni and Lino Tagliapietra, to name a few.

The architecture of the museum matches the creative brilliance of the artwork it holds. Designed by Canadian architect Arthur Erickson, the structure’s prominent feature is undoubtedly the 90-ft, slightly tilted stainless steel cone adjacent to the main museum building. Inside the cone are the latest facilities for advanced glassmaking techniques, a Hot Shop for the artists, as well as an amphitheatre where visitors can watch and interact with the artists at work.

Equally stunning is the Chihuly Bridge of Glass — this 500-ft pedestrian bridge connects the museum to downtown Tacoma and has three installations by Dale Chihuly, a legendary pioneer of the Studio Glass Movement. Exquisitely crafted glass plants and vessels adorn the walls of the steel-and-glass bridge, while an aquarium of sorts — fish, seashells and oysters, again all crafted in glass — adorns the roof covering a part of the bridge.

Open to the public since July 2002, the museum primarily displays glasswork from the 20th and 21st centuries, including 178 pieces in its permanent collection.

Glass works on view

It also conducts programmes to promote the art of glassmaking. Under the Visiting Artist programme, artists from across the globe are invited for short durations to experiment with glassmaking at the museum’s Hot Shop. Besides the infrastructure, the visiting artists are provided assistance by the resident Hot Shop team. This helps fuse diverse imaginations on the work-floor.

At the museum’s amphitheatre, visitors can watch the artists at work. An emcee is at hand to answer audience queries on the creative process at work. One can watch the artists blow and shape hot molten glass into exquisitely shaped vessels, birds, animals, lamps and so on.

The proceedings is available for view, via live video streaming, on the museum’s Web site www.museumofglass.org) during museum hours.

Documentary films on famous artists, techniques, the history of glassmaking and so on are screened for visitors at a small theatre on the premises.

The Kids Design Glass programme is a wonderful initiative at the museum where children up to 12 years of age submit ideas, in drawing, for a glass sculpture. Each month one design among these is chosen, and the child and his family get to watch the artists fashion it out of glass. Two sculptures are made — one for the museum and the other for the child. The museum proudly displays the demons, dogs and other creative forms dreamt up by the children. In fact, an exhibition of this collection is set to open at the museum in October 2009 before travelling to other places around the US.

Themed exhibitions are held throughout the year. During our visit, there was one titled ‘Contrasts: A Glass Primer’. More than 50 objects were arranged, either in pairs or in small groups, to highlight differences in technique, appearance or purpose for the layman. And so you have contrasts — a heavy brick paired with a lace-winged fly; a shapely vessel representing fluidity set against an angularly cast sculpture for rigidity. Acknowledging people’s urge to touch and feel objects, the exhibition set aside six pairs of objects that visitors could handle and “feel”.

From colourful vases with intricate designs and small animal figurines to large sculptures, it is amazing to see the wide-ranging forms and shapes that a fragile material like glass can take. Truly, the museum teaches one to appreciate the medium in a subtle, creative and beautiful way.