Confession time: Shae and I aren’t art lovers.
Well, not for the most part anyway. We love Thomas Dambo’s sculptures and have enjoyed other pieces of art (including quirky pieces like Matchstick Marvels) around the country that we’ve seen on our 50 state road trip, but art museums aren’t something that we seek out. In fact, we’ve visited Paris a couple of times, but have always prioritized other activities than the Louvre.
Despite that, while visiting Seattle recently we were keen on visiting Chihuly Garden and Glass as what we’d seen online made it look like it’s an impressive art museum. After visiting, I can say that impressive is an understatement – it’s glorious.
The glasswork art at Chihuly Garden and Glass was created by Dale Chihuly, a glass artist and glassblower who was born in nearby Tacoma, WA.
The first exhibit you’ll see when arriving is Winter Brilliance which gives a taste of the brilliance that’ll be coming in the rest of the museum.
Some of the artwork was more understated than other pieces, but striking nonetheless.
One of my favorite pieces in the entire museum was the Sealife Tower – an imposing 15 foot tall structure.
From a distance it looks incredible, but as you get closer you can see all of its intricacies. I have absolutely no idea how they managed to construct it considering there’s so much curved glass. To be honest, I’m not sure I’d want to know as it would probably take away some of its magic.
That same gallery had some smaller sealife-related pieces such as these turtle and squid pieces.
From there, you walk beneath the Persian Ceiling with dozens – if not hundreds – of glass-blown flowers. If this feature looks familiar, it might be because Bellagio in Las Vegas has similar glass art blossoms on their ceiling, also created by Dale Chihuly.
The next room was another of my favorites. This contained a display called Mille Fiori which is Italian for ‘a thousand flowers’. This first went on display at the Tacoma Art Museum in 2003 and was created more through the use of centrifugal force, fire and gravity than traditional glassblowing techniques.
This exhibit was reminiscent of a colorful coral reef and it was hard to take in each piece of art contained within it as it was such an enormous and extensive display.
In that same room were the Japanese-inspired Ikebana Boats and Niijima Floats.
That led through to a room with a large centerpiece and several other glasswork pieces hanging from the ceiling.
The next exhibit was called Macchia Forest. With this display, Chihuly had sought to use all 300 colors available in his hotshop. The exterior and interior colors were separate by a layer of white between them, with some of the pieces measuring up to four feet.
What comes next is one of the museum’s most iconic pieces. After walking through the fairly dark (but supremely colorful) museum, you emerge into the sunlit Glasshouse with the Glasshouse Sculpture hanging from its ceiling.
The Glasshouse Sculpture is one of Chihuly’s largest creations, measuring 100 feet in length.
The museum is called Chihuly Garden and Glass and the ‘garden’ part of its name is the final exhibit you’ll walk through after exiting the Glasshouse.
My second favorite piece in the garden was this 20+ foot yellow/green tree.
In addition to all the beautiful glasswork, the garden benefits from having the adjacent Space Needle as a backdrop.
Much of the garden features glass art where its color blends in with the colors of the surrounding grass and flowers of that section.
We weren’t the only ones enjoying the art museum that day. Apparently all creatures great and small can appreciate Chihuly Garden and Glass.
I mentioned earlier that the yellow/green glass tree was my second favorite piece in the garden. My most favorite was the glass sun blazing in the middle of the courtyard.
This was another piece where you just have to stand there and marvel at its construction.
Once again, the Space Needle serves as a fantastic backdrop to the sun sculpture and Glasshouse.
Finally, a wonderful aspect of the museum is that they have a photographer walking around who can take your photo. The service is free and you can download your digital photos for free using a 16 digit code on your entry ticket (the photographer scans your ticket before taking photos to ensure they’re linked to you).
The effect of the photo he took was interesting because it almost looks like we were superimposed on it after standing in front of a green screen, but he took it while we were standing right there in the garden.
Tickets to Chihuly Garden and Glass aren’t cheap, with ticket prices ranging from $35-$39 for adults and $26-$29.50 for children depending on what day and at what time you visit. However, as an avowed cheapskate frugal person, I can tell you that it’s worth every penny.
If you plan to also visit the Space Needle next door, you can get a combo ticket to save on entry for both attractions which is what we ended up doing. More about that in our next post.
Thank you for sharing these photos. I have been fortunate to see smaller exhibits of his work but your photos are exquisite.
Thank you! If you ever have a chance to get to Seattle, it’s so worth visiting this art museum.