The Museum of Glass (MOG) is a 75,000-square-foot (7,000 m²)

art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own Collection (artwork), collection. It might be in public or private ownership and may be accessible to all or have restrictions in place. A ...

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, Washington, Olympia, and northwest of Mount ...

, dedicated to the medium of

glass Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of ...

. Since its founding in 2002, the Museum of Glass has been committed to creating a space for the celebration of the studio glass movement through nurturing artists, implementing education, and encouraging creativity.

History

The idea for the Museum of Glass began in 1992 when Dr. Philip M. Phibbs, recently retired president of the

University of Puget Sound The University of Puget Sound (UPS or Puget Sound) is a private university in Tacoma, Washington. The university draws approximately 2,600 students from 44 states and 16 countries. It offers 1,200 courses each year in more than 50 traditional an ...

, had a conversation with Tacoma native and renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly. Dr. Phibbs reasoned that the Pacific Northwest’s contributions to the studio glass movement warranted a glass museum, and just a few weeks later he outlined his idea and rationale for the Museum of Glass to the Executive Council for a Greater Tacoma. The timing of his proposal corresponded with the idea to redevelop the Thea Foss Waterway, and the chairman of the council, George Russel, concluded that the Museum of Glass would be the perfect anchor for the renewed waterway. The site for the museum, directly adjacent to the Thea Foss Waterway, was secured in 1995, and two years later acclaimed Canadian architect

Arthur Erickson Arthur Charles Erickson (June 14, 1924 – May 20, 2009) was a Canadian architect and urban planner. He studied Engineering at the University of British Columbia and, in 1950, received his B.Arch. (Honours) from McGill University. He is known ...

revealed his design for the museum. Construction of the museum began in June 2000, and the steel frame of the iconic hot-shop cone was completed in 2001. Shortly thereafter construction began on the Chihuly Bridge of Glass to link the museum to downtown Tacoma. The museum opened on July 6, 2002, to thousands of visitors and worldwide accolades. Since its opening, the Museum of Glass has become a collecting institution, and has introduced a mobile hot-shop.

Architecture

The Museum of Glass was designed by Canadian architect

and was his first major art museum in the United States. The museum totals 75,000 square feet (7,000 m²) in area, featuring 13,000 square feet (1,200 m²) in gallery space and a 7,000-square-foot (650 m²) hot shop. This hot shop, shaped as an angled cone, is the museum’s most striking architectural feature. The cone, inspired by the wood "beehive burners" of the sawmills that once dotted the waterway, is composed of 2,800 diamond-shaped stainless steel panels and is 100 feet (30 m) in diameter at its base. Also featured in the Museum of Glass’ architecture are a sweeping concrete stairway that spirals around the exterior of the building, and three rimless reflecting pools featured on the museum’s terraces. Connected to the museum is the Chihuly

Bridge of Glass The Bridge of Glass is a pedestrian partially-covered footbridge spanning Interstate 705 in Tacoma, Washington. It was opened in 2002 as a gift to the city. The Bridge of Glass connects the Museum of Glass on the Thea Foss Waterway to the downt ...

, designed by Arthur Erickson in collaboration with artist Dale Chihuly, to connect the Museum of Glass to downtown Tacoma.

Exhibitions

Permanent collections

* ''20th and 21st Century Glass Collection '' * ''Kids Design Glass Collection'' * ''Visiting Artist Residency Program Collection'' * ''Cappy Thompson: Gathering the Light''

Current exhibitions

*"Beyond the Hot Shop: Glass in a Digital Age" , January 29, 2020May 2020 * ''Joey Kirkpatrick and Flora C. Mace: Every Soil Bears Not Everything'' , September 23, 2015September 6, 2016 * ''#BeTheCurator'' , January 16October 23, 2016 * ''David Huchthausen: A Retrospective Selection'' , July 23, 2016January 8, 2017 * ''David Willis: Daisies'' , May 4, 2016August 2016

Past exhibitions

* ''Chihuly's Venetians: The George R. Stroemple Collection'' , July 25, 2015January 4, 2016 * ''Vanity'' , March 4, 2015August 30, 2015 * ''Treasures from Glass Collectors'' , July 13, 2015September 7, 2015 * ''Tools of the Trade'' , July 13, 2015September 7, 2015 * ''Kids Design Glass Too'' , January 17, 2015July 12, 2015 * ''Chihuly Drawings'' , March 1, 2015June 30, 2015 * ''Patra Passage'' , February 14, 2015May 10, 2015 * ''Look! See? The Colors and Letters of Jen Elek and Jeremy Bert'' , February 7, 2014February 1, 2015 * ''Coastal Alchemy - Anna Skibska and Associates'' , February 22, 2014February 8, 2015 * ''Lightness of Being - New Sculpture - Howard Ben Tré '', September 13, 2014January 4, 2015 * ''Hilltop Artists 20th Anniversary'' , September 13, 2014February 1, 2015 * ''Celebrating

Lino Tagliapietra Lino Tagliapietra (born 1934) is an Italian glass artist originally from Venice, who has also worked extensively in the United States. As a teacher and mentor, he has played a key role in the international exchange of glassblowing processes and te ...

'' , September 24, 2014January 18, 2015 * ''Iittala Birds by Toikka'' , September 24, 2014February 22, 2015 * ''Bohemian Boudoir'' , January 15 – May 4, 2014 * ''Links: Australian Glass and the Pacific Northwest'' , May 17, 2013 – January 26, 2014 * ''An Experiment in Design Production: The Enduring Birds of Iittala'' , September 25, 2013 – January 12, 2014 * ''Northwest Artists Collect'' , January 19, 2012 – October 27, 2013 * ''Translucent: Benjamin Moore'' , February 16, 2012 October 20, 2013 * ''Outgrowth: Highlights from the Museum’s Collections'' , February 9, 2013 April 21, 2013 * ''Origins: Early Works by Dale Chihuly'' , May 19 October 21, 2012 * ''Beauty Beyond Nature: The Glass Art of Paul Stankard'' , November 12, 2011 July 1, 2012 * ''Gathering: John Miller and Friends'' , October 29, 2011 June 19, 2012 * ''Mildred Howard: Parenthetically Speaking: It’s Only a Figure of Speech'' , July 2, 2011 April 29, 2012 * ''Glimmering Gone: Ingalena Klenell and Beth Lipman'' , Oct. 23, 2010 March 11, 2012 * ''Peter Serko: Transformation: Art Changes a City'' , August 7, 2011 January 8, 2012 * ''Kids Design Glass'' , October 31, 2009 October 30, 2011 * ''Fertile Ground: Recent Masterworks from the Visiting Artist Residency Program'' , October 9, 2010 October 16, 2011 * ''Masters of Studio Glass: Richard Craig Meitner'' , July 17, 2010 June 19, 2011 * ''Preston Singletary: Echoes, Fire, and Shadows'' , July 11, 2009 September 19, 2010 * ''Incoming: Selections from the Permanent Collection'' , May 16, 2009 July 5, 2010 * ''Contrasts: A Glass Primer'' , November 11, 2006 October 11, 2009 * ''White Light: Glass Compositions by Daniel Clayman'' , September 14, 2008 June 14, 2009 * ''Dale Chihuly: the Laguna Murano Chandelier'' , September 14, 2008 April 19, 2009 * ''Dante Marioni: Form , Color , Pattern'' , February 16, 2008 March 8, 2009 * ''Lino Tagliapietra in Retrospect: A Modern Renaissance in Italian Glass'' , February 23 August 24, 2008

Hot shop

The Museum of Glass features a 7,000-square-foot (650 m²) hot shop amphitheater that provides seating for 145 guests to watch live glass blowing demonstrations. The hot shop contains both a hot glass studio for blowing and casting glass and a cold working studio. Hot shop activity is streamed live through the Museum of Glass’ website and is also archived online. The Museum of Glass hot shop also provides residencies for both visiting and featured artists.

Visiting Artist Program

The Museum of Glass hosts internationally acclaimed and emerging artists through its Visiting Artist Residency Program. The residencies range in length from one day to several weeks, and a piece is selected from each residency for inclusion in the Museum’s collection. Most residencies are streamed online through the museum’s website and conclude in a Conversation with the Artist lecture. Since its opening, the Museum of Glass has partnered with Pilchuck Glass School to produce the Visiting Artist Summer Series in which artists who attend or work at Piilchuck are invited to a residency at the Museum of Glass. The first ever visiting artist to the Museum of Glass was Dale Chihuly at the museum’s opening in 2002.

References

External links

www.museumofglass.org
{{authority control Art museums and galleries in Washington (state) Museums in Tacoma, Washington Art museums established in 2002 Glass museums and galleries in the United States

Museum of Glass The Museum of Glass (MOG) is a 75,000-square-foot (7,000 m²) art museum in Tacoma, Washington, dedicated to the medium of glass. Since its founding in 2002, the Museum of Glass has been committed to creating a space for the celebration of the st ...