Tacoma: Forged in Glass, Paint, Stage + Design

A central pillar of Tacoma’s cultural identity is its glass arts community. The Museum of Glass hosts live glass‑blowing exhibitions, where visitors can watch artists shape molten glass before their eyes. Nearby, the iconic Bridge of Glass (designed by Dale Chihuly and Arthur Andersson) serves as a gleaming 500‑foot pedestrian link decorated with Chihuly’s suspended sculptures. It literally and symbolically welcomes thousands into the museum district and downtown Tacoma every day (Reddit, Wikipedia).

Beyond the museum, Hilltop Artists offers free after-school and advanced team programs that teach youth the art of glassblowing, fusing, and flameworking. Their “Team Production” and “Alumni Team” cohorts work on commissions and partner with the Museum of Glass during annual hot shop residency programs. The offerings start as early as age 12 and emphasize both craft and community outreach (Hilltop Artists).

The Tacoma Glassblowing Studio, with locations downtown and in the Proctor District, offers hands‑on workshops where beginners can try fusing and glass‑blowing experiences in a welcoming setting. Local participants frequently describe these as fun, informative, and accessible entry points into the glass arts, including holiday events like pumpkin blowing and float making (Tacoma Glassblowing Studio).

Tacoma’s theater ecosystem is anchored by historic venues that host a range of events, from local shows to touring Broadway acts. The Blue Mouse Theatre in the Proctor District is not only the oldest continuously operating movie theater in Washington state (opened in 1923), but it also sports neon blue mouse figures designed by Dale Chihuly. It screens second‑run films and is supported by community donations and preservationists (Wikipedia).

In downtown Tacoma, the Pantages Theatre (originally built in 1918, later renamed, then reestablished in the 1970s) remains a premier performing arts venue. It features Broadway musicals, orchestras, comedy, celebrity shows, ballet, and more. The Pantages, Rialto, and Theatre on the Square (collectively known as Tacoma City Theaters). The history of dazzling performances and unforgettable moments is preserved in the architecture of the theaters and the hearts of the engaged community.

Tacoma Opera, the city’s professional opera company since 1968, produces multiple full‑scale productions per year. After a hiatus in the 1980s, the company rebooted and continues today with a slate of diverse offerings. Its artistic leadership underwent a change most recently in February 2023 (Wikipedia).

Tacoma Little Theatre and Tacoma Musical Playhouse add grassroots and community‑oriented stage productions. Together, these institutions provide a diverse range of theatrical experiences in Tacoma, from student shows and operettas to local ensemble pieces and major touring productions.

The Tacoma School of the Arts (SOTA) is an elective high school that focuses on the Visual and Performing Arts, Film and Communication Arts, Creative Writing, and other related fields. Students produce gallery shows, performances, film, design pieces, and murals across the city. Graduates often move into Tacoma’s broader arts ecosystem, including glass, theater, design, and public art.

SOTA faculty collaborate with community organizations and programs such as Hilltop Artists and Fab‑5’s Fabitat to offer youth mentorship and public art experiences in the city.

The Visual Arts Department is designed to help students develop a unique artistic style. Students may then elect to pursue Photography, Graphic Design, Filmmaking, Advanced Illustration, or Painting. Each area of study comprises a sequence of courses that integrates both beginning and advanced students, serving as both teachers and learners.

The Performing Arts Department offers pre-professional training that balances theory and practical application. Through classroom study, studio preparation, and productions and performances, students are encouraged to pursue a commitment to excellence and collaboration.

Every summer, the “Art on the Ave” festival takes over the Sixth Avenue corridor from Alder to State Street. In 2025, Art on the Ave celebrated its 25th year. The festival features over 200 artists and vendors along with multiple stages, food trucks, a kids zone, and community art activations. It showcases musicians, visual artists, makers, designers, and interactive workshops in the street‑fair tradition (Art on the Ave). This event reflects Tacoma’s celebration of artist‑led community and invites creative entrepreneurship. It is backed by local organizations such as Tacoma Creates and the Sixth Avenue Business District.

Founded in 1935 and housed in a 50,000 square‑foot building on Pacific Avenue, the Tacoma Art Museum focuses on artists of the Pacific Northwest and the broader western region of the U.S. The permanent collection includes a significant holding of works by Tacoma native Dale Chihuly and other regional artists. In 2014, a significant expansion added a wing for Western American Art and more exhibit space.

The museum also sponsors public programs, such as the Teen Open Studio series, where artists lead mural-design workshops that teach scaling drawings to full wall size. These are free community events held regularly during Neighborhood Nights (Tacoma Art Museum).

The Tacoma Art Museum collaborated with Spaceworks Tacoma and local artists during the pandemic to launch the Rapid Mural Response Program, painting temporary murals on plywood storefront panels. Some murals expressed themes of hope, social justice, and BLM solidarity.

Tacoma’s mural and graffiti scene is increasingly vibrant. Spaceworks Tacoma’s Artscapes program commissions public art projects (window displays, storefront murals, installations, and more), often temporarily, but visible across neighborhoods. Since 2010, they have supported hundreds of artists and brought art to business districts in partnership with Tacoma Creates and downtown partners.

Artists like XCIT are known for their whimsical daisy motifs, which are often painted around I-5, in the North End and South Tacoma Way areas. These are tagged with minimal drama, evolving skill, and visual playfulness.

Fab‑5 originated in the 2000s as an urban arts collective offering workshops in break-dancing, graffiti, music production, and visual art for youth. Their urban arts atelier, known as “Fabitat,” includes graffiti art studios, mural design coaching, and performances across Tacoma. Participants often assist in producing the local public murals around Sixth Avenue and Antique Row. They emphasize legal graffiti expression and youth creative leadership (southsoundtalk.com).

Tacoma is home to a variety of unique print design projects. The Beautiful Angle project, founded by designer Lance Kagey and writer Tom Llewellyn, produces letterpress posters that are wheat‑pasted around the city. Originating in 2002, these works employ split-fountain color and conceptual wordplay. Although often illegal, the project won local design and civic awards and is exhibited at galleries and museums in Tacoma and beyond.

Tacoma’s graphic design community also includes digital studios, freelance agencies, and collaborative projects tied to nonprofits, festival branding, and public‑facing visual identities. Events like Art on the Ave provide platforms for graphic designers to showcase posters, zines, and branding work, while Seattle‑based design schools sometimes partner with local institutions for workshops.

The Prairie Line Trail is a remarkable mile-long linear park that traces the former Northern Pacific Railroad corridor through Tacoma. Stretching roughly from South 25th Street at the Brewery District, through the University of Washington Tacoma campus, and ending at the Foss Waterway waterfront, it links key districts while serving as a living public gallery and ecological feature (prairielinetrail.org).

This trail is rich with public art installations that reflect Tacoma’s layered history and cultural diversity. At its northern end, directly across from the Tacoma Art Museum, stands Shipment to China, a compelling bronze sculpture perched upon an old 1909 rail car. It honors Chinese railroad workers and their sacrifices during the construction of the Northern Pacific line (Wikipedia). Further south, a sweeping mural titled Working Forward, Weaving Anew stretches across the side of Seven Seas Brewery. Painted by a team of fourteen Native American artists, this monumental work depicts weaving traditions and railway history in bold blue and gold tones (The News Tribune).

Along the UW Tacoma segment, visitors encounter All the Rivers in the World, a painted aluminum installation by artist Vaughn Bell. It spans over 250 feet along a retaining wall, utilizing river names submitted by community members to convey the flow of stories and identities that converge in Tacoma (University of Washington Tacoma). Nearby, the granite and steel sculpture Terminus by Brian Goldbloom offers ten sculptural forms reminiscent of suitcases, evoking travel, arrival, and settlement at Tacoma’s original passenger terminal site (prairielinetrail.org).

Environmental design is built into the trail’s infrastructure. The Rails and Rain Garden integrates historic steel rails into a functional rain garden that captures and filters stormwater from over 40 acres before it flows into the Foss Waterway (prairielinetrail.org). Brick pathways, native plantings, interpretive signage, and preserved rail segments invite pedestrians to engage physically and intellectually with Tacoma’s past, present, and ongoing community narratives (TrailLink).

The Prairie Line Trail exemplifies the spirit of Tacoma’s creative community. It is where historic infrastructure becomes an open‑air museum, ecology and art coincide, and community voices find expression in public space.

Tacoma is dotted with public sculptures and installations that reflect its industrial past, natural surroundings, and cultural diversity. These works transform parks, street corners, and plazas into open-air galleries accessible to all.

In Tollefson Plaza, Welcome Figure by Shaun Peterson (Qwalsius), a member of the Puyallup Tribe, stands as a cedar carving rooted in Coast Salish tradition. It honors Indigenous presence in the city and invites reflection on place and people.

Elsewhere, sculptures such as "Flame" by Gerard Tsutakawa and "Transformation of the Circle" by Kenjiro Nomura bring abstract forms to Tacoma’s civic landscape. Along Ruston Way, bronze salmon leap from stone, whales breach the water, and engraved poetry by local writers can be found on boulders.

Public art in Tacoma is deeply woven into its neighborhoods, transit stops, university campuses, and waterfronts. It reflects a commitment to incorporating art into daily life and fostering a shared civic identity.

Tacoma’s arts community thrives where glass meets graffiti, theater rubs shoulders with design, and festivals bring together school students, print artists, muralists, and operatic voices. The creative ecosystem comprises formal institutions like Tacoma Art Museum, Museum of Glass, and Tacoma Opera; educational engines like the School of the Arts; youth mentorship through Hilltop Artists and Fab‑5; community platforms like Art on the Ave and Spaceworks; and visual energy on the streets via murals, graffiti, and letterpress posters.

Tacoma’s creative landscape is precisely the kind of place where visitors, students, and emerging artists can find inspiration, connection, and creative opportunities. Whether you want to watch glass swirl in a steam‑heated studio, catch a Broadway‑style show, check out murals, or wheat‑paste a poster, Tacoma has made space for your creativity.