museum-of-glass: The Museum of Glass, Tacoma, Washington, USA
Designed 1996 with Nick Milkovich Architects Inc.
The Museum of Glass is a museum of the 21st Century- an experiential museum- dynamic, spontaneous and evolving. The vision statement for the museum is "we visualize a center that pulses with life, light and fire. It is a place of discovery, surprise, collaboration and joy that transforms the visitor as profoundly as fire transforms glass." It is a museum where creativity will be celebrated and will be visible for the public to watch, learn and participate in.
The museum is approximately 75,000 square feet. It contains glass workshops and an artist studio, exhibition spaces, permanent collection display area, a retail area for the sale of handmade glass art and books, food services area, library, theater and classrooms.
The Museum's programs have been designed to give the broadest experience possible to people of all ages and levels of knowledge. The mandate of the Museum of Glass is to recognize the importance and excellence of glass art as a major international art form and to provide a forum for the open and free discussion of artistic creativity.
The heart of the Museum is the Workshop Amphitheater where, through the roar and heat of the furnaces, the public watch the dynamic process of glass art creation unfold.
Photo by Nick Lehoux
