Preview of the Visual Arts | April-May 2010

www.northwestmuseum.org
The Arts & Crafts Movement in the Pacific Northwest
NORTHWEST MUSEUM OF ARTS & CULTURE, SPOKANE WA – through Jun 26, 2010 The Arts and
Crafts Movement originated in Victorian England as a response to ornate style and a reaction to the
rise of poor quality consumer goods. Artist and writer William Morris, one of the founders of the late
19th century design movement, spread the ethos of pride
in craftsmanship, truth in materials, and living with beautifully
crafted domestic designs, both weather-functional
and decorative.
In America these ideals spread and evolved, with the
addition of unique influences from Native American and
Spanish Colonial designs from California and the Southwest.
The Arts and Crafts philosophy flourished in the
Pacific Northwest in the first decade of the 20th century
and well into the 1920s, as can be seen by architecture of
the period prevalent in many neighbourhoods in Portland
and Seattle.
This major travelling exhibition includes characteristic
furniture, metalwork, ceramics, textiles, stained glass,
photography, graphics, illustrations and more. Immaculate
pieces such as an elegant and utilitarian sterling silver
water pitcher and a table lamp with fine intricate cut-out
patterning are quintessential examples of American-made
wares that were represented in shops and department
stores in Northwest cities. Hundreds of objects, prints and
Crafts style with a regional flair; Thru Jul
17 Living Legacy: The American Indian
Collection, explore the MAC’s American
Indian Collection with a focus on the
Columbia River Plateau tribes; Ongoing
Spokane Timeline: Personal Voices, a
century of Spokane history; Campbell
House Tours in the historic turn of the
20th century house offered hourly 12-
3pm Wed-Sat.
TACOMA
★ Museum of Glass
1801 Dock St ✆253-284-4750
www.museumofglass.org
wed-sat 10am-5pm sun 12-5pm 3rd
thurs 10am-8pm (free admission 5-
8pm). Museum Store open tues 10am-
5pm. Admission: free for members, $10
adults, $8 seniors, military and students
(13+ with ID), $8 groups of 10+, $4 chil-
dren (6-12 yrs), children under 6 free,
admission is free every 3rd thurs from 5-
8pm. Thru Apr 25 MEZZANINE PLAZA
REFLECTING POOL Joseph Rossano, “Mirrored
Murrelets”, the installation comprises
250 mirrored glass birds that skim
just above the surface of the Museum’s
mid-level reflecting pool; Thru Jul 5
Incoming! Selections from the Permanent
Collection, the first in a series of
exhibitions devoted to showcasing the
Museum’s Permanent Collection of 20th
and 21st C. glass; Thru Sep 19 Preston
Singletary: Echoes, Fire and Shadows;
Thru Feb 2011 Kids Design Glass,
showcases 52 glass sculptures designed
by children and crafted by professional
glass artists; Ongoing MAIN PLAZA
REFLECTING POOL Martin Blank: Fluent
Steps, captures the essence of water,
comprising individual islands of glass
sculpture created in the Museum’s Hot
Shop, this monumental sculpture will
Table lamp (c. 1910), made by the Apollo Studios, New
York [Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, Spokane WA,
through Jun 26]
documentations embrace the spirit and grace of the movement’s design reform in the context of
regional identity.
The exhibition is largely based on a significant book of the same name (Timber Press, Portland,
2007), which was written by the exhibition co-curators Lawrence Kreisman, program director of
Historic Seattle, and Glenn Mason, former director of what is now the Northwest Museum of Arts &
Culture and current co-owner of Cultural Images, a museum and historical society consulting firm.
Allyn Cantor
span the entire length of the 210 ft-long
reflecting pool and rise from water level to
15 feet in height; Cappy Thompson,
“Gathering the Light”, installation of
painted stories on glass, depicting an
elaborate landscape of colourful vignettes
from a mythical world of glassmakers,
reverse-painted in the grisaille technique
of gray-tonal painting used for stained
glass since the Middle Ages.
★ Tacoma Art Museum
1701 Pacific Ave ✆253-272-4258
www.TacomaArtMuseum.org
wed-sun 10am-5pm, 3rd thurs 10am-
8pm. Admission: members free, adults
$9, students/military/seniors (65+) $8,
family $25 (2 adults + up to 4 children
under 18), children 5 and under free, 3rd
Thurs free. Thru May 23 A Concise History
of Northwest Art, surveys the major
movements, important figures and pivotal
moments in the art history of the
72 PREVIEW ■ APR/MAY 2010 ★ OPEN LATE ON FIRST THURSDAYS