Mother's Day 2013: A visit to the Museum of Glass
After visiting visiting the stellar Chihuly Graden and Glass exhibition in Seattle Center last year, the Museum of Glass (MOG) in Tacoma moved up the priority list of local museums I wanted to visit. So when I mentioned MOG as a possible Mother's Day destination, she thought it was a perfect idea.
So we drove to Tacoma.
We knew we were at the museum when we saw a 90-foot silver cone surrounded by a spiral staircase.
Inside the stainless steel cone are rows of seats that face the Hot Shop (the largest in the world from what I read). From the seats, you can see the team of artists working below. An emcee narrates the process and even takes questions from the audience. You can see what it looks like here. On this day, I believe it was Gabe Feenan who was doing the main glass work.
Looking up into the cone. (This reminded me of that scene of the place in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory where Charlie and his Grandpa almost die after drinking the lighter than air soda).
Brenda and Drew in the Hot Shop:
Once the glass artists went on their lunch break, we walked around the rest of the museum. There was one gallery open, and a harp ensemble played beautifully in the lobby area. It was at this point I thought, "Is this all there is?"
Then we went outside. And here's the thing: You don't need to buy a ticket to see any of the art outside. In fact, unless your goal is to see artists working on glass (which is definitely a unique experience), I'm not sure MOG is worth the entrance fee. There's just not much else to do there, unfortunately (unless you want to go in the gift shop and go to a restaurant for lunch).
The view from the top of the Grand Staircase:
Walking across the 500-foot-long Chihuly Bridge of Glass:
From what I read, the Bridge of Glass is actually three different installations.
1. Venetian Wall: This contains 109 sculptures from three of Chihuly's series: Venetians, Ikebana, and Putti
2. The Crystal Towers:
3. The Seaform Pavilion. As you walk underneath this installation, you look up into 2,364 objects from Chihuly's Seaform and Persian series in the ceiling.
After all that walking (OK, it had only been about an hour), we decided to go to the Old Spaghetti Factory.
Here's a picture of Mom with her two boys.
Later in the evening, Brenda opened her Mothers Day present: a glass vase and flowers:
And then she ate her favorite dessert: Fruit Tart!
Happy Mothers Day 2013, Brenda!
