Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma (must see)

Tacoma Art Museum is a major cultural stop for visitors interested in Pacific Northwest art, Western American art, and studio glass. Founded in 1935 as the Tacoma Art Association, it began with a few exhibition rooms in Jones Hall at the University of Puget Sound. After decades in a donated former bank building, it opened its first purpose-built museum facility in 2003.

The museum is known for its regional focus, but its collection reaches further. Alongside Northwest and Western American art, it has shown medieval manuscripts, late Soviet avant-garde works, and pieces by Pablo Picasso. It also holds more than 300 Japanese woodblock prints and works on paper by artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, and Edward Hopper.

Glass remains one of the museum’s defining strengths, partly because of its connection to Dale Chihuly, the internationally known glass artist born locally. The museum holds a major collection of Chihuly’s work, while the Benaroya Collection adds studio glass, paintings, and sculptures by Northwest and international artists. Announced in 2016 on Rebecca Benaroya’s 93rd birthday, the gift also helped fund a major wing expansion. Beyond glass, the museum has the region’s largest collection of Pacific Northwest studio art jewellery.

The building itself reflects local materials, industry, and landscape. The main structure, designed by Antoine Predock, uses light, space, and angular forms to reflect its surroundings. Later expansions by Olson Kundig added the Haub Family Galleries and the Benaroya Wing. The 2014 Haub expansion used Richlite, a locally made material of recycled paper, organic fibre, and resin, while its forms suggest railroad boxcars, longhouses, and Northwest barns.