Established | 1935 [1] |
---|---|
Location | 1701 Pacific Avenue Tacoma, Washington 98402 |
Coordinates | 47°14′51″N122°26′12″W / 47.2475°N 122.4368°W |
Type | Art museum [1] |
Director | Andy Maus [2] |
Curator | Jessica Wilks |
Architect | Antoine Predock |
Public transit access | Union Station/South 19th Street station |
Website | tacomaartmuseum |
The Tacoma Art Museum (TAM) is an art museum in Tacoma, Washington, United States. It focuses primarily on the art and artists from the Pacific Northwest and broader western region of the U.S. Founded in 1935, the museum has strong roots in the community and anchors the university and museum district in downtown Tacoma. [3] [4]
The Tacoma Art Museum developed out of the Tacoma Art League, an informal gathering that began around 1891. In the 1930s, it was renamed the Tacoma Art Society, before finally becoming the Tacoma Art Museum in 1964. [4] The museum is dedicated to collecting and exhibiting the visual arts of the American Northwest, with the mission of bringing people together through art. The museum's permanent collection includes the premier collection of Tacoma native Dale Chihuly’s glass artwork, on permanent public display.
In 1971, the L. T. Murray family (owners of the Murray Pacific Northwest timber company) gave the Tacoma Art Museum a three-story building at 12th Street and Pacific Avenue. Built in 1922, the building at 1123 Pacific Avenue previously housed the National Bank of Tacoma.
In May 2003, the Tacoma Art Museum moved into a 50,000 square foot (4,650 m2) building located at 1701 Pacific Avenue, which was designed by Antoine Predock. [4] The $22 million steel and glass structure nearly doubled the available space, allowing the museum to exhibit more of its permanent collection. In designing the building, Predock drew inspiration from the region's light and its relationship to the water, Mount Rainier, the Thea Foss Waterway, and the neighborhood's industrial history and character in what is now known as the Tacoma Museum District.
A $15.5 million building project expansion designed by Olson Kundig Architects was completed in November 2014. [5] The expansion, which houses the Haub Family Collection of Western American Art, added approximately 16,000 square feet (1500 m2) to the museum. [6] [7]
From 2005 to 2017, Stephanie Stebich served as Executive Director. She was preceded by Janeanne Upp and succeeded by David F. Setford.[ citation needed ]
The museum exhibits more than 3,000 pieces in its collection, two-thirds of which are classified as Northwest art. Since 1934, Tacoma Art Museum has built a permanent collection that includes work from artists such as Mary Cassatt, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Edgar Degas, Robert Henri, Edward Hopper, Robert Rauschenberg, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Jacob Lawrence, John Singer Sargent, and Andrew Wyeth. [4]
Nearly seventy percent of the collection consists of works from Northwest artists such as Guy Anderson, Morris Graves, Jacob Lawrence, Jared Pappas-Kelley, Akio Takamori, Mark Tobey, and Patti Warashina. [8] [9] [10] Untitled - Stone Wave , a major work by Seattle-based sculptor Richard Rhodes, occupies the central court of the museum.
The museum is known as being more open to overtly gay or queer art than most American museums. In 2012, it presented the Hide/Seek show that was censored at the National Portrait Gallery; TAM intended to present the show uncensored. The museum also planned to follow with another show curated by Jonathan Katz: Art, AIDS, America. [11]
Dale Chihuly is an American glass artist and entrepreneur. He is well known in the field of blown glass, "moving it into the realm of large-scale sculpture".
The Museum of Glass (MOG) is a 75,000-square-foot (7,000 m2) contemporary 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 studio glass movement through nurturing artists, implementing education, and encouraging creativity.
Pilchuck Glass School is an international center for glass art education. The school was founded in 1971 by Dale Chihuly, Ruth Tamura, Anne Gould Hauberg (1917-2016), and John H. Hauberg (1916-2002). The campus is located on a former tree farm in Stanwood, Washington in the United States. The administrative offices are located in Seattle. The name "Pilchuck" comes from the local Native American language and translates to "red water" in reference to the Pilchuck River. Pilchuck offers one, two, or three week resident classes each summer in a broad spectrum of glass techniques as well as residencies for emerging and established artists working in all media.
American craft is craft work produced by independent studio artists working with traditional craft materials and processes. Examples include wood, glass, clay (ceramics), textiles, and metal (metalworking). Studio craft works tend to either serve or allude to a functional or utilitarian purpose, although they are just as often handled and exhibited in ways similar to visual art objects.
Lino Tagliapietra 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 techniques between the principal American centers and his native Murano, "but his influence is also apparent in China, Japan, and Australia—and filters far beyond any political or geographic boundaries."
Anne Gould Hauberg was an American civic activist, philanthropist, and patroness of the arts.
Dan Owen Dailey is an American artist and educator, known for his sculpture. With the support of a team of artists and crafts people, he creates sculptures and functional objects in glass and metal. He has taught at many glass programs and is professor emeritus at the Massachusetts College of Art, where he founded the glass program.
The Bridge of Glass is a 500-foot (150 m) 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 downtown and attractions along Pacific Avenue such as Union Station, Washington State History Museum, and Tacoma Art Museum. Together, these attractions make up an area of Tacoma described as "Museum Row." The Bridge of Glass was designed by Texas architect Arthur Andersson and is decorated with artworks by Dale Chihuly. Chihuly has described the Bridge of Glass as "the gateway that welcomes people to Tacoma." It is accessible and free to the public 24 hours a day, lighting up during the nighttime.
Richard Rhodes is an American sculptor, stonemason, entrepreneur, and scholar of stonework worldwide.
Zahner or A. Zahner Company is an architectural metal & glass company located in Kansas City, Missouri.
Fireworks of Glass Tower and Ceiling, also known as Fireworks of Glass, is a blown glass sculpture installation in the permanent collection of The Children's Museum of Indianapolis located in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America. The tower sits on a glass base, a pergola ceiling, and rises through the center of the museum's spiraling ramp system. Created by Dale Chihuly in 2006, it is his second-largest permanently installed glass sculpture. Beneath the tower is an accompanying exhibit that describes the sculpture and the process by which it was made. The tower and pergola ceiling are two distinct accessioned objects in the Children's Museum's collection.
Richard Weiss is an American glass artist.
Sonja Blomdahl is an American blown glass artist.
Chihuly Garden and Glass is an exhibit in the Seattle Center directly next to the Space Needle, showcasing the studio glass of Dale Chihuly. It opened in May 2012 at the former site of the defunct Fun Forest amusement park.
Debora Moore is a contemporary glass artist. She is best known for her glass orchids.
James Mongrain is a Seattle-area glass artist. He was educated at Moorhead State University in Minnesota, then studied glassblowing at Massachusetts College of Art and Design and the Appalachian Center for Crafts. Mongrain lives in Everett, Washington and operates a studio in Mukilteo at a former salmon smokehouse. He is considered one of the leading artists of the studio glass movement in the Pacific Northwest, and has unique mastery of Venetian goblets, combining the techniques of using a mold and blown glass on the same piece.
Leslie Jackson Chihuly is an American arts executive and philanthropist. She is the president and chief executive officer of Chihuly, Inc., which includes Chihuly Studio and Chihuly Workshop, both of which feature the artistic work and vision of her husband, Dale Chihuly. In 2018, she was elected as chair emerita of the Seattle Symphony Board after serving nine years as board chair and implementing a number of revitalizing changes. Those included filling the roles of CEO and music director with fresh talent, and taking the organization from financial challenge and organizational strife in 2009 to the stage of Carnegie Hall in 2014. Under her leadership, the symphony won three Grammy Awards and the Gramophone “Orchestra of the Year Award” in 2018. Leslie Chihuly serves on the boards of the Seattle Symphony, Vassar College and the Pilchuck Glass School. In 2022, President Joe Biden announced his intention to appoint Jackson Chihuly to the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts.
Virna Haffer was an American photographer, printmaker, painter, musician, and published author.
Pat DeCaro is an American artist based in Seattle, Washington. She has lived in the Pacific Northwest since 1980, where her works are held in the collections of the Northwest Museum of Art, the Washington State Arts Commission, the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture, and the Pilchuck Glass School. DeCaro’s work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group shows in the United States and Europe. She received the 2012 Twining Humber Award for lifetime achievement in the arts.