Museum of Glass

The Museum of Glass is Tacoma's most visited attraction and one of the better purpose-built art museums in the Pacific Northwest. Arthur Erickson's tilted steel cone dominates the waterfront and contains the Hot Shop, a working glassblowing facility where artists demonstrate their craft — this is not a recorded demonstration but live work by resident and visiting glass artists, changed on a rotating schedule.

The galleries beyond the Hot Shop cover glass art from contemporary studio work to historical objects, with a collection that takes the medium seriously as both art and craft. Temporary exhibitions rotate throughout the year. The museum sits at the end of the Bridge of Glass, a pedestrian footbridge designed by Chihuly that connects the waterfront district to downtown — making the walk between the museum and Union Station one of the more visually dramatic short strolls in any American city.

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A story
The Museum of Glass was designed by Arthur Erickson around a 90-foot tilted steel cone — the "Hot Shop" — where visiting artists blow glass in full view of audiences. The cone's form was inspired by the sawdust burners and lumber kilns that once defined the Puget Sound waterfront. Dale Chihuly, who grew up in Tacoma, has a permanent presence here, but the museum's programme extends well beyond its most famous local son to cover international glass art across centuries.