Museum Hours
Wednesday – Sunday | 10am–5pm. Live glassblowing demonstrations all day.
The Latest at Museum of Glass
Here’s what you need to know.
Last chance to see Nancy Callan: Forces at Play
Nancy Callan will visit the Museum of Glass Hot Shop during the final days of her landmark exhibition Nancy Callan: Forces at Play at Museum of Glass! Forces at Play celebrates the thoughtfulness, wit, and sense of wonder that are signatures of Callan’s work and invites viewers to see the medium of glass with the same curiosity and passion that have fueled Callan’s artistic career. The exhibition will close after September 1.
Cartoons, Heroes, and Monsters Chalk Drawing Event
September 13 | 10am-1pm | Free
Join us for chalk drawing on the Museum’s Grand Plaza! Hosted by artist and educator Walter Lieberman, this community program is presented in conjunction with Lieberman’s exhibition Walter Lieberman: Are you the guy who does the chalk drawings in the Hot Shop?
Inspired by Lieberman’s early practice of sketching characters from Mad magazine, the event invites participants of all ages to create their own chalk illustrations that explore fantasy-themes, from comic book heroes to movie monsters.
Selected drawings will be recognized with special prizes and giveaways from the Museum Store.
Curator High: Suspended in Air
This summer, in partnership with Jobs 253 (Tacoma Public Schools), Museum of Glass held its third year of Curator High, a program for students interested in learning more about the curatorial and administrative processes at museums. Working closely with the Museum's Education and Curatorial departments, the students designed a display for the Grand Hall with works from the Museum’s Permanent Collection. The high school curators determined the display’s topic and content, wrote interpretive content for the case, and worked with all departments in the Museum to not only realize their vision, but to learn and understand the division of labor in a Museum. Click below for more from the student curators about their installation, Suspended in Air, opening August 31, 2025.
Museum of Glass Stories
Artist interviews, program spotlights, and more.
In the Galleries
Learn more about the exhibitions currently on view.
Nancy Callan: Forces at Play
October 9, 2024 – September 1, 2025
Seeing glass through the eyes of Nancy Callan is a delight, and experiencing the material through her work is a master class in the artistic process. Her elegant, playful designs are inspired by a seemingly limitless visual vocabulary and executed with extraordinary technical expertise. Nancy Callan: Forces at Play, Callan’s first museum survey, will invite visitors to experience the multitude of ways Callan has used hot glass as a canvas for her perspectives on the world around her.
Field Notes: Artists Observe Nature
November 16, 2024 – December, 2025
Not surprisingly, artists have looked to the natural world for inspiration for millennia. And, since the turn of the 20th century, there have been significant moments in which artists have sought to mimic the forms and patterns of nature in glass. Field Notes: Artists Observe Nature begins with works from the Art Nouveau period, roughly between 1890 and 1910, centered in France during the Belle Époque. More than a century later, contemporary glass artists have been similarly inspired by the natural world as a focus in their work. These innately curious artists have trained their prodigious skills in glass to honor the natural world.
Spotlight on Chihuly
March 30, 2024 – January 2026
Dale Chihuly’s boundless artistic vision has elevated the Pacific Northwest to an internationally acclaimed center for glassmaking. A native of Tacoma, Chihuly was one of the first Studio Glass artists to travel to the island of Murano, Italy to observe the secretive processes of Venetian glass factories. He was struck, not only by their technical prowess, but the importance of working as a team. These two ideas: experimentation to push the limits of glass, and the importance of collaboration, have had a lasting impact on Chihuly’s career and, subsequently, the culture of glassblowing in the Pacific Northwest.
Walter Lieberman: Are you the guy who does the chalk drawings in the Hot Shop?
April 26, 2025 - January 2026
World-renowned illustrator Walter Lieberman has provided a unique layer of artistry and education to Museum of Glass as Hot Shop Emcee for over a decade. Lieberman has made an art of educating through floor chalk drawings – his detailed, instructive sketches captivate and educate audiences, sharing the intricate techniques used by the glassblowers. In this exhibition, his drawings are paired with the works whose process they once recorded, reversing the drawings’ original purpose. Now, the glass objects illustrate Lieberman’s works, showcasing them as art pieces and lasting evidence of the craft they served to explain
Enhance Your Experience
Take a guided tour, participate in workshops, and visit the Museum Hot Shop.
Make Your Own Art
Learn how to create your own glass art in a variety of hands-on workshops inspired by the Museum’s current exhibitions, the season, events, and more.
Details on available workshops is available here.
Take a Tour
Add a docent-led tour to your next visit to MOG and get an personal and interactive experience in the galleries. Want to really stretch your legs? Consider an outdoor walking tour and learn about the art and architecture on the Thea Foss Waterway.
See Who’s in the Hot Shop
The Museum’s Visiting Artist Residency Program hosts artists in our world-class Hot Shop to create new works in glass with our Hot Shop Team. These artists create a sense of excitement and wonder as they experiment and explore new directions in their art that may not be possible in their own studios.