Tacoma Art Museum facts for kids
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| Established | 1935 |
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| Location | 1701 Pacific Avenue Tacoma, Washington 98402 |
| Type | Art museum |
| Architect | Antoine Predock |
| Public transit access | Union Station/South 19th Street station |
The Tacoma Art Museum (TAM) is a cool art museum located in Tacoma, Washington, USA. It's a special place that mainly shows art from the Pacific Northwest and the wider western part of the United States. The museum started way back in 1935. It's a big part of the community and helps make the downtown Tacoma area a fun place for learning and art.
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The Museum's Story
The Tacoma Art Museum began as a small group called the Tacoma Art League around 1891. In the 1930s, it changed its name to the Tacoma Art Society. Finally, in 1964, it became the Tacoma Art Museum.
The museum's main goal is to collect and show amazing visual art from the American Northwest. They want to bring people together through the power of art. One of their most famous collections is the glass artwork by Dale Chihuly. He's from Tacoma, and his beautiful glass pieces are always on display for everyone to see.
In 1971, a family named L. T. Murray gave the museum a three-story building. This building used to be a bank! It was built in 1922 and was a big step for the museum.
A New Home for Art
In May 2003, the Tacoma Art Museum moved into a brand new building. This building was designed by a famous architect named Antoine Predock. It's made of steel and glass and is about 50,000 square feet. That's almost double the space the museum had before! This meant they could show even more of their amazing art collection.
When Predock designed the building, he got ideas from the local area. He thought about the special light, the nearby water, Mount Rainier, and the industrial history of the neighborhood. This area is now known as the Tacoma Museum District.
In November 2014, the museum got even bigger! An expansion was finished, designed by Olson Kundig Architects. This new part added about 16,000 square feet. It holds the Haub Family Collection of Western American Art, which is full of art from the American West.
What Art Can You See?
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The museum has more than 3,000 pieces of art in its collection. About two-thirds of this art is from the Northwest region. Since 1934, the Tacoma Art Museum has collected works from many famous artists. Some of these include Mary Cassatt, Edward Hopper, Jacob Lawrence, and John Singer Sargent.
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A large part of the collection, nearly seventy percent, features artists from the Pacific Northwest. You can see art by people like Guy Anderson, Morris Graves, Akio Takamori, and Patti Warashina. A very large sculpture called Untitled - Stone Wave by Richard Rhodes is in the middle of the museum.
The museum is also known for being very open to showing different kinds of art. In 2012, they showed an exhibit called Hide/Seek. This show had been presented elsewhere, but TAM decided to show it completely. The museum also planned another show called Art, AIDS, America.
Art Collections and Shows
The Tacoma Art Museum has many different art collections and special shows.
Art You Can Always See
These are some of the collections that are always on display:
- The Christopher and Alida Latham Display
- Dale Chihuly at Tacoma Art Museum
- Metaphor into Form: Art in the Era of the Pilchuck Glass School
- Martin Blank's Current
- Richard Rhodes' Untitled
- Outdoor Sculptures at TAM
Current Special Exhibitions
The museum also has temporary shows that change over time. Here are some examples of past or current exhibitions:
- Animals: Wild and Captured in Bronze
- On Native Land: Landscapes from the Haub Family Collection
- Native Portraiture: Power and Perception
- Places to Call Home: Settlements in the West
- Winter in the West
- Painting Deconstructed: Selections from the Northwest Collection
- Benaroya Project Space: Glass as Canvas
