As an Interior Designer and an artist - Amazing and spectacular!! The Chihuly Collection is a must see.
I had the pleasure recently to meet up with some fellow blogger and twitter friends for dinner and a special private tour of the Morean Art Center’s Chihuly Collection. Upon our arrival at the Chihuly Collection, we were greeted by Wayne David Atherholt, Director of Marketing & Communications at The Morean Arts Center. Our tour began as we were escorted thru the large over-sized metal pivoting door, as a lover of architecture and all things design, my attention was captured and was I was immediately drawn into the Chihuly Collection exhibition space.
As Atherholt began our private tour he explained to us that the exhibit space was designed using only natural materials for all the surfaces inside the Chihuly space, as was visually evident accompanied by the light scent from the beautiful raw cedar walls. Each room flowed into the next and as you walked thru the space you were drawn to the next gallery space in a circular manner with glimpses of what was ahead leading you forward and peeking thru openings behind you.
It
is an amazing exhibit and truly a marvel to see in person!
Our Group (left to right)- Kenna Miller, Eric Miller, Carmen Christensen, Paul Anater, Tom Wiebe, Michelle Wiebe, Jeremy Parcels & Ginny Powell.
DALE CHIHULY – Biography
(Biography compliments of Chihuly website)
Born in 1941 in Tacoma, Washington, Dale Chihuly was introduced to glass while studying interior design at the University of Washington. After graduating in 1965, Chihuly enrolled in the first glass program in the country, at the University of Wisconsin. He continued his studies at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where he later established the glass program and taught for more than a decade.
In 1968, after receiving a Fulbright Fellowship, he went to work at the Venini glass factory in Venice. There he observed the team approach to blowing glass, which is critical to the way he works today. In 1971, Chihuly cofounded Pilchuck Glass School in Washington State. With this international glass center, Chihuly has led the avant-garde in the development of glass as a fine art.
His work is included in more than 200 hundred museum collections worldwide. He has been the recipient of many awards, including ten honorary doctorates and two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Chihuly has created
more than a dozen well-known series of works, among them Cylinders and Baskets
in the 1970s; Seaforms, Macchia, Venetians, and Persians
in the 1980s; Niijima Floats and Chandeliers in the 1990s; and Fiori
in the 2000s. He is also celebrated for large architectural installations. In
1986, he was honored with a solo exhibition, Dale Chihuly objets de verre,
at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Palais du Louvre, in Paris. In 1995, he began
Chihuly Over Venice, for which he
created sculptures
at glass factories in Finland, Ireland, and Mexico, then installed them over
the canals and piazzas of Venice.
