Thinking of visiting one of Tacoma’s awesome museums in the near future? Be prepared – the Washington State History Museum, the Tacoma Art Museum and the Museum of Glass all change their opening hours around Labor Day. Admission prices stay the same, though (and look out for Museum Day on September 26, when they’re all free.)

Here are the new hours:

WSHM (as of Sept. 8): 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. third Thursdays (free from 2 p.m. onwards). 1911 Pacific Ave., Tacoma. 253-272-3500, www.washingtonhistory.org

TAM (as of Sept. 2): 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesdays-Sundays, 10 a.m.-8 p.m.
third Thursdays (free all day). 1701 Pacific Ave., Tacoma. 253-272-4258, www.tacomaartmuseum.org

MoG (as of Sept. 8): 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, noon-5 p.m. Sunday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. third Thursdays (free from 5 p.m.) 1801 Dock St., Tacoma. 866-4-MUSEUM, www.museumofglass.org

From now until the end of August, children under 18 years will get free admission to Tacoma Art Museum, in an offer made possible by museum donors.



“We want young people in our community to be exposed to the arts,”
said Paula McArdle, director of education and audience development.
 “We’d love to see teenagers and families take advantage of this
affordable, educational activity as the summer winds down.”



So what can kids see and do now at TAM? Current exhibitions include the vast array of art jewelry in the Helen Williams Drutt collection, some really funky jewelry from Seattle artist Nancy Worden, the best of Northwest painting and glass in the 2009 Neddy award show, selections from the permanent collection in "Speaking Parts," and the permanent showcase of Dale Chihuly's glass art (including the floats in the sculptural courtyard.)

There's also the excellent art studio, where activities are linked to current exhibitions, and the resource center/library.

TAM is open through Labor Day from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. third Thursdays and noon-5 p.m. Sundays. Hours change in fall. $9 adult/$8 student, senior, military/$25 family. Free for five and under and third Thursdays. 1701 Pacific Ave., Tacoma. 253-272-4258, www.TacomaArtMuseum.org

Margaret Morris, "Happy Frog." Photo courtesy Washington State History Museum.

This weekend at the Washington State History Museum it's the annual Native Arts Market and Festival. Held outdoors between the museum and the Bridge of Glass, the market is a great way to see local artists of many tribes in a variety of media: carving, weaving, glass, printmaking and more. There are storytellers and dancers, musicians and food vendors, and the outdoor stuff is all free.

With museum admission, though, you get to see "In the Spirit," the exhibition component to the market. It's a juried show, with prizes awarded and a People's Choice award (which you can vote on until 5 p.m. this Sunday.) This year's exhibit is smaller than in previous years, with more average and less high quality art, but it's still worth a look.

With just 16 two-dimensional and 11 three-dimensional works, it doesn't take long to make your way around the large exhibition room on the WSHM's third floor. Amid the preponderance of rather sentimental batik prints and cheesy loud acrylics are some understated, well-wrought items. A lovely bentwood box by Pete Peterson (Skokomish), has pale and cleanly carved sides, the lid woven in warm red and yellow cedar bark by Lois Thadei. Two interesting quilts include "Sea Otter Family" by Alaina Capoeman (Quinalut), its indigo and black wool quilted into a bold cut-out design.

One of the best is "Happy Frog" by Margaret Morris (Tlingit) – an elkskin drum painted with a wonderfully cheeky female frog, feet delicate and turquoise, mouth an orange-lipstick smile.

"In the Spirit: Northwest Native Arts Market and Festival" runs 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Aug. 8 and noon-5 p.m. Aug. 9. Outdoor activities free, indoor exhibit admission$25 families/$8 adults/$7 for seniors/$6 students and military/free for age five and under. For information and schedule, see www.washingtonhistory.org/artsfestival

Get in free to the Museum of Glass all weekend this Saturday and Sunday, and catch the new, MOG-organized exhibition of Tlingit artist Preston Singletary.

Singletary, a renowned Seattle-based artist whose work is featured at the Hotel Murano and who showed last November at Traver Gallery, transforms the curves and strong lines of Northwest Native art into opaque red, black and clear glass to create work that's both dramatic and profound. The MOG show, "Preston Singletary: Echoes, Fire, and Shadows," has been in the works for a while, and is the first mid-career survey of Singletary's work.

Here are the events for the opening weekend:
8 p.m. July 10: Member and artist reception. Free for MOG members and tribal members; $15 otherwise.
10 a.m.-5 p.m. July 11: Opening day. Free admission to all. 1-4 p.m.: Family activities include readings by Tlingit artist and author Miranda Belarde-Lewis, creating your own family crest regalia, performance by Native American violinist, storyteller and poet Swil Kanim (1 p.m.), performance in regalia by Northern Star Dancers (3 p.m.)
Noon-5 p.m. July 12: Museum open and free to all. 2 p.m.: Conversation, lecture, slide presentation and walk-through with Preston Singletary


After this weekend, however, MOG admission rates are going up. (Sign of the economic times?)
The new rates are: $12 adults/$10 seniors, students and military/$10 per person for adult groups of 10+/$5 children 6 – 12/$36 family/free for members and under-fives
The Museum of Glass is located at 1801 Dock St., Tacoma. 866-4-MUSEUM, www.museumofglass.org

Margaret Bullock, Tacoma Art Museum's new curator for Kittredge Gallery at UPS. Photo courtesy UPS.

As of yesterday, Tacoma Art Museum is now managing and curating Kittredge Gallery at the University of Puget Sound. The gallery had previously been run by a part-time curator--most recently Carol Adelman--and featured mostly contemporary Northwest artists, with occasional student and faculty shows. Margaret Bullock, TAM's curator of collections and special exhibitions, will now oversee both the gallery and the university's small collection, including the nationally-significant Abby Williams Hill collection.

“This offers an opportunity to bring the knowledge and expertise of key individuals at Tacoma Art Museum to the benefit of our students and art department,” said Kris Bartanen, academic vice president and dean of UPS.

Stephanie Stebich, director of Tacoma Art Museum, said the partnership is an important and unusual collaboration that will give her institution opportunities to pursue different kinds of exhibitions.

=> Read more!

The call to redesign Tacoma Art Museum's plaza and perimeter garnered 95 submissions. And now TAM has winnowed those down to six design firms, it announced today.

Submissions for the $3 million project were received by individuals and firms from Tacoma to New York.

The shortlist of finalists are BCRA (Tacoma), the design team led by E. Cobb Architects (Seattle), Johnson Architecture and Planning LLC (Seattle), Mithūn (Seattle), NBBJ (Seattle), and Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen & Charles Anderson Landscape Architecture (Seattle).

The museum wanted the proposals to address landscape, art and signage elements to increase visibility and approachability.

The museum’s Plaza Redesign Task Force reviewed the submissions and determined the finalists. Task Force chair Steve Barger said, “The submissions showed impressive creativity and a wide variety of approaches. The selection process was arduous. We now look forward to meeting the finalists for interviews on July 9.”

TAM will announce a finalist sometime this fall.

April Surgent, “Between the Night and the City.” Photo: Jeff Curtis.

This year's Neddys (a.k.a. the Neddy Artist Fellowship finalists) are up at Tacoma Art Museum, and I went along to the official opening party on Saturday night. Plenty of people, and just a bit more than the usual excitement that attends these things. Why? Because this year, for the first time, the Neddy awards honor artists in one of the Northwest's most idiosyncratic media: glass.

Established in 1996 by the Behnke Family and Foundation as a memorial to Seattle painter Robert E. (Ned) Behnke, the fellowships are given each year in two categories: paint, and one other medium. They've included ceramics, photography, printmaking and sculpture, all twice. So why has it taken the awards 13 years to come around to the idea of glass as an awardable art form?

"It's a question of priorities," says TAM curator for the show, Rock Hushka, who says the non-paint category is chosen by the Behnke family. "Glass was an obvious medium that they hadn't gotten around to yet."

On display now at TAM (the museum has hosted the awards since 2005) are the three nominees and one fellowship-winner in both painting and glass. These include painters Eric Elliott (winner), Timothy Cross, Gary Faigin and Lynda Lowe; and glass artists April Surgent (winner), Benjamin Moore, Joey Kirkpatrick/Flora Mace, and Jenny Pohlman/Sabrina Knowles. It's a really nice show, and the glass is particularly stunning (and welcome - TAM doesn't usually do much glass.)

Eric Elliott, “Studio Corner.” Courtesy of the artist and James Harris Gallery, Seattle.

Highlights are Elliott's dense, 3D-daubed canvases, which cloud an empty room with opaque greens and blues like an almost-lost memory; and Cross' draftsman-like landscapes, painted like a sumi-e artist in love with duct tape. Surgent's glass cameos, with black-and-white photographs engraved on layered fused glass, also obscure - her window-shopper is beautifully submerged in the glitter of the pastries in the window.

Pohlman and Knowles show a stunning eye for balance and form as they combine beads, metal and delicately female glass forms in altar-like sculptures, while Mace and Kirkpatrick play easily with technique and humor in their huge glass fruit, polished like plastic or candy-striped with zanfirico filigree.

Sabrina Knowles and Jenny Pohlman, “Memory Unchained” from the Tapestry series. Photo: Russell Johnson.

The Neddy Fellowship is on view through October 4 at Tacoma Art Museum, 1701 Pacific Ave., Tacoma. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. third Thursdays, 12-5 p.m. Sundays. $7.50/$6.50/five-and-under free, third Thursdays free. 253-272-4258, www.tacomaartmuseum.org</div>