Chihuly Garden is the one-stop destination to see the artist’s works spanning over 50 years. The garden is located inside the Seattle Center, which hosted the 1962 World’s Fair and has since become the most famous arts and cultural center in the city. The Wright family, who owns the iconic ‘Space Needle’ at the center, reached out to Dale Chihuly, who’s from the area, when they were planning on adding an artistic touch to the Seattle Center.
The native of the Pacific Northwest has built his career on trying to make his art easily accessible. His brand of art isn’t something that’s so cold and detached that it may make life feel worthless; instead, it is inspiring. That’s what defines Chihuly as an artist, and there couldn’t have been anyone who better fit the Wright family’s plans for an art center that visitors could enjoy comfortably.
Chihuly had 6,070 square meters of space to work with, and he wanted to make the use of both indoor and outdoor spaces. Inspired by his mother’s garden from his childhood, Chihuly worked with landscape architects to form the ‘Garden.’ Then the ‘Glasshouse’ was erected at the center of the garden, so that Chihuly could exhibit sculptures specifically built for the place. Chihuly has long had fascination with glass buildings, and not just glass greenhouses, either. He’s been collecting postcards and photos of train stations and industrial buildings made of glass. And the Glasshouse is truly the dream-come-true moment for Chihuly. He drew his inspiration from Sainte-Chapelle in Paris and Crystal Palace in London. The ‘Exhibition’ houses eight galleries, a theater and a café. Chihuly Garden and Glass opened in May 2012 as a long-term exhibit.
 

Chihuly wasn’t always in love with glass at first. Ever the creative type influenced by his mother, Chihuly studied interior design at the University of Washington in Seattle. Around this time, he began using new materials such as fabrics and neon. He also started taking interest in the relationship between his artworks and the environment that surrounds them. In 1961, Chihuly learned how to melt and fuse glass. He tried his hands on glassblowing using stained glass at home. He had his first ‘bubble.’
Glass now became Chihuly’s passion. In 1966, he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which offered the first glass program in the United States. The following year, Chihuly went to the Rhode Island of School of Design (RISD) and received a Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture. He had a chance to travel overseas with his scholarship money, and he chose to work at the Venini factory in Venice. He became the first American to blow glass there. After returning to the U.S., Chihuly set up a new glass program at RISD and taught for over 10 years.
As a sculptor, Chihuly also dabbled at bronze and ceramic, but nothing gave him the kind of satisfaction and sense of fulfillment that glass did. There was something magically inspirational about glass. Chihuly has broken down all stereotypes about glass, and has been experimenting with possibilities of its shape and expression.
 

An audio guide is available at the Exhibition Hall. Actor Kyle MacLachlan, a Washington native, opens things up. A star of several David Lynch films, MacLachlan says the unique cultural background of the area helped shape him into the actor that he’s become. And if you think of his series, you’ll understand why and how. Chihuly and his fellow artists, curators and architects who worked on the garden follow MacLachlan.

Most of large-size installations have been set up outside the Exhibition. The Garden, which offers the backdrop, has some 350 different kinds of plants and some 42,000 bulbs. Trees, shrubs, ferns, plus perennial and annual plants have been all meticulously planted. You’ll be greeted by plants in full bloom at any time of the year.
Pieces there include ‘Pacific Sun,’ an explosion of yellow and orange; ‘Citron Icicle Tower,’ which soars through the sky among trees; and ‘Leeds’ series, which offers clear contrast in colors with plants around it. The highlight is clearly the ‘Glasshouse.’ Built specifically for the garden, the Glasshouse is a sculpture in a color palette of orange, yellow and red. AT over 30 meters long, it’s one of the largest suspended sculptures by Chihuly. He has intentionally left plenty of empty space inside the Glasshouse. Chihuly wanted the visitors to be able to view colorful, suspended pieces together with the sky in the background. In a perfectly Instagrammable shot, you can get Space Needle and Chihuly’s colorful glass pieces in the same frame.