Tacoma Celebrates Its Native Son

While you can find Dale Chihuly’s amazing glasswork all over the world in famous museums, botanic gardens, and office buildings, but nowhere is it more accessible and abundant than in his hometown of Tacoma, Washington.

Chihuly, born in 1941, grew up in Tacoma, studied interior design at the University of Washington, and narrowed his focus to glass art at the University of Wisconsin. While on a Fulbright Fellowship in Venice, Italy, he first observed the team approach in glass blowing to create large-scale pieces. Utilizing this concept, he cofounded the Pilchuck School of Glass outside Seattle, and began producing large, multicolored, glass art works. He established the glass department at the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design and taught there for many years. Today he is considered the world’s premier glass artist and has made the Northwest a world center for glass art.

In Tacoma, many of his pieces are concentrated in an area known as the Museum District, a few blocks along Pacific Avenue adjacent to downtown. The Museum of Glass, Tacoma Art Museum, Bridge of Glass, and Federal Courthouse all feature Chihuly’s work. The best introduction to his style would be a stroll across the Bridge of Glass, a 500-foot span connecting the Museum of Glass and the plaza area of the Washington State History Museum on Pacific Avenue. The pedestrian-only bridge

showcases three Chihuly installations including two 40-foot, blue, translucent crystal towers. While they appear to be crafted from glass, they are made from a polyurethane material designed to withstand the elements. The main feature, however, is a tunnel called Seaform Pavilion. Inside, the ceiling displays over 2000 colorful, amorphous-shaped pieces of glass inspired by marine life in Puget Sound. On a sunny day, the sight is spectacular. Along the sides of the tunnel, are 109 glass sculptures, mostly Art-Deco style floral arrangements.

The bridge ends in a plaza adjacent to the Museum of Glass, easily identified by its silver, angled, conical shape. The museum houses a permanent collection of contemporary glass, and contains an amphitheater called the Hot Shot where visitors can observe a team of artists demonstrating glass making and glass blowing. There’s an on-site café, an excellent gift shop with unique glass items, and outside the doors, a mammoth, clear acrylic sculpture called Water Forest.

Back across the bridge, on Pacific Avenue, is the old Union Station, another successful historic preservation story. Built in 1911, it was praised as “…the most beautiful passenger station in the Pacific Northwest.”  With the demise of train travel, the station closed and the

dilapidated, aging facility was sold by Burlington Northern to the city of Tacoma for $1.00. After three years of renovation, the beautiful Beaux Arts building reopened as the U.S. Federal Courthouse. The interior is every bit as attractive as the outside and is decorated with examples of Chihuly’s glass work.  A colorful chandelier is suspended from the rotunda’s domed ceiling, and bright orange flowers cover the arched, north-facing window.  Altogether, the lobby area features five major installations.

Next door to the courthouse, is the Tacoma Art Museum. Nationally recognized for its collection of Northwest art, the museum has an entire gallery devoted to Chihuly pieces, many donated by the artist. Within walking distance of the Museum District, additional Chihuly installations can be seen at the University of Washington-Tacoma library which houses a striking red chandelier, and at the nearby Swiss Restaurant and Pub with an array of Venetian glass pieces above the bar.

Visiting these places requires a bit of pre-planning. The art museum is closed Monday, and the Union Station Federal Courthouse is only open on weekdays, leaving Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday the best times to visit. A picture identification is required to enter the courthouse. While the bridge and courthouse are free, there is an admission charge at both museums. A pass is available ($35 for seniors) that includes these two museums, the Washington State History Museum and the nearby LeMay-America’s Car

Museum, and Children’s Museum.

You can learn more about Chihuly and his works and these museums as the following websites:

 

www.chihuly.com

www.tacomaartmuseum.org

www.museumofglass.org

www.traveltacoma.com

Exploring the Oregon Museum of Mental Health

Kirkbride U, Oregon State Hospital

The one good thing to be said about the old Oregon State Hospital is that the dilapidated, decaying building was a real star maker. The movie shot there, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, swept the 1976 Academy Awards winning in all the major categories including Best Picture, Best Actor (Jack Nicholson), Best Actress (Louise Fletcher), Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Director (Milos Forman).  Thirty years later, a series of articles published in The Oregonian describing the facility’s deplorable conditions and mistreatment of patient cremains won the paper a Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing.

Hospital grounds

The hospital, originally called the Oregon State Insane Asylum, was built in 1883 on 130 acres in what was then rural Salem, but is now well within the city limits on busy Center St. The grand, Italianate, brick building was constructed in the style devised by Thomas Kirkbride, a leading advocate for the mentally ill. His plans included a central administration building connecting two separate wings for male and female patients.  Over the years, additional wings and buildings were added, and the hospital grew to a peak occupancy of 3475 patients in 1958.

As state funding for mental health declined, so did conditions at the facility until it reached a state described in The Oregonian with adjectives like “grim,” “decrepit,” and “dreary.”  Amid mounting concerns for patient safety in the event of an earthquake, a governor’s task force in 2004 concluded it was time to tear down the hospital and build a new one more in line with current practices in treating mental illness. A preservation group rallied to put the campus on the National Register of Historic Places, and the original administrative unit was saved from the wrecking ball and incorporated into the new design.

Today the restored Kirkbride building houses the Oregon Museum of Mental Health. While small in size, it’s chockfull of pictures, artifacts, documents and interactive materials offering visitors an unusual opportunity to explore the history of mental illness and its treatments over the years, as well as the specific story of the Oregon State Hospital.  The exhibit “Why Am I Here” highlights patients’ stories and offers startling statistics on the types of diagnosis from dementia, menopause, or alcoholism that might mean a lifelong commitment in the asylum.

Another exhibit features equipment used in treatment ranging from straightjackets, lobotomies, insulin and electric shocks to the more benign hydrotherapy and cosmotherapy, a treatment encouraging patients to look their best. A section of the 1948-1951 financial statement for the Cosmotherapy Department shows line items for 224 eyebrow archings at 75 cents each, and 3071 finger waves at 50 cents each, for example.

Other displays show daily life at the hospital for both patients and staff, and there is a small exhibit related to the filming of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Using the hospital and patients for the movie project was extremely controversial at the time, but the hospital’s director, Dr. Dean Brooks, fought for it claiming the filming would provide jobs for patients and make for an exciting adventure for everyone at the hospital.  It might be noted that Dr. Brooks plays himself in the movie in the role of Dr. Spivey.

After leaving the museum, visitors should turn left and walk a short distance downhill to the Cremains Memorial. For years, the cremains of unclaimed, deceased patients were placed in copper canisters and stored in the basement of one of the buildings. Over time, water seeped in, corroding the canisters and turning the copper into marbled shades of blue and green. The labels on the 3500 canisters were mostly gone, and it took hospital employees two years to research the identities. Today the canisters reside in a special building allowing visitors to honor the dead.

The museum experience is a reminder of how our understanding and treatment of mental health has evolved over the years, and how much further we need to travel. To learn more about visiting, see www.oshmuseum.org.

Black Robes in the Northwest

Father Pierre deSmet

Before he had seen any white men and before there were horses in the northern Rockies, Shining Shirt, a medicine man of the Salish tribe, prophesized the arrival of pale-skinned men in long, black skirts. They would teach them a new way of praying and how to reach the place of happiness. This prophecy was reinforced years later when migrating Catholic Iroquois from Quebec confirmed the existence of white men in black robes (Jesuit priests) who carried crucifixes, said the Big Prayer (mass) and did not marry. The Indian religion was false and they would never reach the home of the Great Spirit.

The tribes of the Inland Northwest (Salish or Flathead, Nez Perce, Coeur d’Alene) became obsessed with the desire for a Black Robe to come live among them and teach this new religion. They sent a total of four delegations over ten years to the Catholic Church in St. Louis and, finally, in 1841, Belgium-born priest Pierre deSmet arrived. He established a mission and small settlement in the Bitterroot Valley of what is now the state of Montana, and named it St. Marys. Later, he returned to Europe to recruit additional missionaries, among them Father Anthony Ravelli. Ravelli, born to a wealthy family in Italy, brought with him a range of skills: pharmacist, doctor, artist, architect, engineer. His talents are visible today in the mission church he built and decorated in classic Renaissance style with paints created from local berries and minerals. He sculpted statues of Mary

Saint Marys Mission Church

and St. Ignatius of Loyola, and used a hand lathe to carve the altar rail and baptismal font.

Cataldo Mission Church, Idaho

St. Marys was the first of the Pacific Northwest missions, but it was soon followed by others. The Cataldo Mission in the Idaho Panhandle near Coeur d’Alene was established in 1850, and is the state’s oldest, standing building. This charming, Italianate church is another example of Father Ravalli’s ingenuity and workmanship, and is created from the simple tools and local building materials available on the frontier at that time. He faux-painted the altar to resemble marble, crafted chandeliers from tin cans, and stained the ceiling with huckleberry juice. There’s not a nail in the entire building.

Interior, St. Ignatius Church

By far the most prosperous of the missions was St. Ignatius, also located in Montana, north of present-day Missoula. It had a saw mill, grain mill and school for boys. Later, the Jesuits were joined by the sisters of Providence and Ursuline who established a girls’ school and hospital. In the early 1890s, the need grew for a much larger facility and the current church was constructed using a million bricks made from local clay. However, the building’s most striking feature is the interior collection of 58 colorful frescoes painted on the walls and ceiling. The artist, Brother Joseph Carignano, was the mission’s cook and had no formal training in the arts.

All of these mission churches are National Historic Sites and open to the public.  St. Marys, located in Stevensville, Mont., about an hour’s drive south of Missoula, is open during the summer months only. Visitors are welcomed to explore the mission grounds including a museum, visitor center, Father Ravalli’s cabin and pharmacy, cemetery, Salish encampment, but a guide is required to view the chapel interior.

St. Ignatius on the Flathead Indian Reservation

St. Ignatius, about an hour’s drive north of Missoula, remains a functioning Catholic church located on the Flathead Indian Reservation and is open daily.  In addition to the beautiful paintings inside the church, the grounds include original log structures housing a small museum with mission and native artifacts.

Interior, Cataldo Mission

The Cataldo church is the centerpiece of Old MissionState Park, 25 miles east of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, along Interstate 90. With its pretty, hillside setting and charming rustic interior, it is not surprising that it is a popular venue for weddings. Of the three missions, this one offers the most extensive visitor center and museum. The first-rate exhibition, Sacred Encounters, was organized by Washington State University and explores the complexities of two intersecting cultures: European Christian missionaries, and indigenous populations with a very different sacred belief system and lifestyle. Highly recommended.

 

 

Seattle's Olympic Sculpture Park

Typewriter Eraser, Scale X

Among the items in the bin of obsolescence, you’ll find rotary phones, cassette tapes, carbon paper, hardbound encyclopedias, and a funny little round, rubber circle with a plastic brush attached.  Remember the typewriter eraser?  It has not been forgotten by the famed husband/wife team of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen who created a whimsical, 19-foot sculpture of stainless steel and fiberglass called Typewriter Eraser, Scale X for the Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park.

Located on the waterfront north of downtown in the Belltown neighborhood, this nine-acre park combines landscaping, art, and a stunning view of Puget Sound and the snow-capped Olympic Mountains to create an urban redevelopment success story. The site was previously occupied by Union Oil of California as a transfer facility and tank farm. When they pulled out in the 1970s, they left behind a blighted, industrial eyesore with soil contaminated by years of oil seepage.

The idea of creating a sculpture park in this wasteland grew out of a collaboration between the Trust for Public Land and the Seattle Art Museum. Sufficient funds were raised to purchase the land, clean up the contamination, and engage the New York architectural firm of Weiss/Manfredi to transform the property into a vibrant green space to showcase art.

The landscaping, an important element in the design, consists of four Northwest ecosystems: Valley, Meadows, Groves, and Shore. Each is planted with native trees (over 500), shrubs, and wildflowers; and the entire area is connected with a 2200-foot long, Z-shaped, pedestrian path.

Interspersed along this path is a collection of monumental, modern sculptures designed by some of the best-known regional, national, and international artists.  Probably the most recognizable is Alexander Calder’s bright red Eagle which provides a perfect picture frame for Seattle’s Space

Caler's Eagle

Needle.  Other noted artists represented in the collection include Mark di Suvero, Richard Serra, and Louise Bourgeios. The twenty-plus sculptures are mostly metal and abstract including benches mimicking eyeballs, curving monoliths in oxidized steel, and a 50-foot tall stainless steel tree.

One unusual piece brings together art and science. The Neukom Vivarium consists of an 80-foot greenhouse occupied by a giant, dead “nursery log” where viewers can observe life and decay amid the ferns, lichens, and insects that have made the tree their home.

The park is open all year and is free to the public. In summer months, a café serves espresso and snacks, and the park’s amphitheater hosts a variety of special concerts and other events.

Love & Loss