Guest Blogger: Glass as tourist attraction (Part I)

The term “tourist” conjures up images of slow-moving hoards of out-of-towners dressed in bucket hats and fanny packs, easy targets for the derision of sophisticated locals. Yet tourists and the dollars they add to local economies are highly sought-after by municipal and regional officials looking to improve their fiscal realities. The top of the tourist class are the cultural tourists, a type of visitor assumed to earn more money, spend more money, and support upscale businesses and institutions. Nearly every ambitious city official wants to attract the museum-going tourist, and an increasing number of them are turning to the sparkling jewel of art made from glass to lure them.

History has proven the power of glass attraction as the cities of Venice, Italy; Novy Bor, Czech Republic; and Waterford, Ireland, have become well established tourist destinations in part because of their glass industries. But even as some historic glass factories are closing down (See Waterford blog item here)—casualties of an ongoing economic shift in highly-skilled production from Western to Eastern Europe, or to Asia—a number of cities have been trying their hand at glass tourism. This attempt to create new glass-oriented tourist destinations is different because the focus is on Studio Glass rather than production glass. This raises new questions about the effects of harnessing the creative energies of artists working with glass in the service of building visitor traffic. What are the implications for artists and the work they create? What follows is a closer look at three U.S. cities and their programs that provides some insight if not complete answers.

Tacoma, Washington

In Tacoma, a trio of landmarks defines the city: The Museum of Glass, the Chihuly Bridge of Glass, and the Hotel Murano. The Chihuly Bridge of Glass, a pedestrian walkway connecting downtown to the waterfront, is owned and maintained by the City of Tacoma. The hot shop cone, part of architect Arthur Erickson’s Museum design, single-handedly produced a recognizable skyline for the city.

“The City of Tacoma purchased the Superfund site that was our working waterfront and committed to its cleanup. This site is where the Museum of Glass was built,” Amy McBride, arts administrator for Tacoma’s Community and Economic Development department said in an emailed response to written questions. “The city also built the parking structure that supports the museum and developed the plazas and esplanade that surrounds the museum.”

Around 162,000 visitors come to the Museum each year, says Julie Pisto, the museum’s director of marketing and communications. “The Museum of Glass is consistently promoted by the Greater Tacoma Regional Convention and Visitors Bureau, which serves as an important and effective marketing organization for the entire region,” writes Pisto in an email. “The CVB encourages active member participation and the Museum is represented on its Board. The museum also works in a close partnership with the Tacoma Art Museum and Washington State History Museum as the ‘Tacoma Museum District.’ The City of Tacoma sponsors the Museum’s Mobile Hot Shop, which travels across the nation”

To those people who wonder how this town with six hot shops became synonymous with glass blowing, Zak Nelson, communications manager for the Tacoma Regional Convention + Visitor Bureau has an answer. “The glass art community here is truly a ‘glassroots’ movement: this isn’t just a marketing campaign or a museum plunking down in Chihuly’s birthplace,” he emails in response to questions. “It’s real community here, and you see it everywhere you go: not just in airports, but in old haunts like the Swiss Pub.” He cites the Hilltop Artists in Residence program, which Chihuly’s friend Kathy Kaperick started with his help in 1994, as the perfect example. It teaches junior high and high school kids how to blow glass so they’ll have something to enjoy about coming to school every day. Although Chihuly was born in Tacoma, he runs his own shop on Seattle’s Lake Union. Despite having only about six hot shops in the city, Tacoma has put itself on the international art map through the city’s efforts.

“I’ve been a collector of glass art for nearly two decades, so making a trip to Tacoma [was] akin to a pilgrimage,” wrote blogger Suzanne Wright after her visit.

So has formerly run-down and crime-ridden Tacoma found the formula for urban renewal through glass? If success looks like lots and lots of Chihuly, then yes. But if success looks like a vibrant downtown, open 24/7, then … not yet, but there are numerous hopeful signs. Still, some visitors express unease:. “We were all kind of unnerved by the lack of people in the city downtown—even at rush hour on a Monday morning,” writes blogger Jenna Huntsberger on her site moderndomestic.com.

The lobby of Tacoma's Hotel Murano features original works by Karen LaMonte and Dale Chihuly among many others. courtesy: hotel murano, tacoma

Though crime rates continue to fluctuate, there have been more years of decline than increase in the past decade according to official statistics. And there could be no better sign of Tacoma’s rising profile as a tourist destination than The Hotel Murano, which opened in 2008 with contemporary glass exhibited on every floor. This upscale hotel is part three of Tacoma’s glass trifecta, and was voted the number six hotel in the United States according to readers of Conde Nast Traveler this year. It was beat narrowly by the number one 21c Hotel in Lousiville, Kentucky, another city becoming known for glass art.

Louisville, Kentucky

“Louisville has had a longstanding reputation for glass art,” says J. Page Von Roenn, vice president of Glassworks, in an emailed response to questions. Architectural Glass Art, the other side of the company, has been in business since 1875.

“It’s not Seattle as of yet—but there is remarkable talent in town that is getting more skilled an notable,” she says.

According to Von Roenn, the city developed its glass arts reputation through the initiative of private businesses and Stephen Rolfe Powell’s glassblowing program at Centre College. The University of Louisville also has a glassblowing program led by Powell’s former student, Che Rhodes.

The City of Louisville supports the glass arts with promotion by its tourism board. Glassworks, a hot shop/residential lofts/jazz club, used the city’s tourism and historic tax credits to open in 2001 and the city continues to promote Glassworks as an attraction essential to the Louisville experience. Von Roenn estimates that there are about four studios that operate in Louisville, less per capita than Tacoma, but significant for a city this size.

As for that skyline, plans for the chair-shaped skyscraper Museum Plaza, which was set to open in 2011, have been derailed due to the economy. The Museum Plaza was the future home to a contemporary art museum, and the University of Louisville’s fine arts program, including it’s glass shop.

Still, the Glass Art Society has chosen Louisville to host its 2010 Conference. “Louisville’s nascent but burgeoning glass scene offers an opportunity for individual and community growth rivaled by few other locales,” Pamela Koss, executive director of GAS said in a press release.

Von Roenn is positive about the conference . “We actively work on attracting artists that live in other bigger cities to Louisville, where it is more manageable, affordable, and lucrative to live. We hope that the upcoming Glass Arts Society Conference in 2010 will result in some new Louisville transplants.”

Toledo, Ohio

Not every city with a couple of hot shops becomes known for glass art, but it would be surprising if Toledo, Ohio, didn’t take advantage of its local history with glass to attract tourists to the city.

“This area is well known for a long history of hand-blown glassblowing well before it became popular,” says Terri Sharp, public relations manager for the Toledo Museum of Art.

The Libbey Glass Company established itself in Toledo in 1888. They manufactured light bulbs, sheet glass, automotive glass, and bottles, with such success they quickly renamed Toledo as “Glass City.” The Toledo Museum of Art, founded by Edward Libbey, with its large collection of decorative glass, opened in 1901. Toledo is also known as the birthplace of Studio Glass, due to the Toledo Workshops that took place in 1962 in which Harvey Littleton, Harvey Leafgreen, and Dominic Labino collaborated on a way for an artist to use this formerly industrial medium in their own shop to make one-of-a-kind works of sclupture.

Today Libbey manufactures around 50-percent of their glassware outside the U.S. In fact, the glass walls of the new addition to the Toledo Museum’s Glass Pavilion, were shipped in. That’s not ironic anymore, it’s a simple fact of life that it’s cheaper to make glass in countries where the labor cost is lower and the demand for glass is high. And, like many other cities with industrial roots, including Tacoma, that lost manufacturing jobs overseas, tourism is an attractive option for revenue.

Teri Sharp, public relations manager for the Toledo Museum of Art, estimates that there are between six and 12 hot shops running in Toledo at any given time. “This area is well known for a long history of hand-blown glassblowing well before it became popular. The quality work is extremely good.”

In 2006, The Chicago Tribune featured an article on the revitalization of Toledo. “Can a museum built on glass help lead a revival?...With such a strong aesthetic, [it]should be happening soon.”

Carol Bintz, of TMA, in her remarks at the pening of hte Glass Pavillion discussed the city’s involvement in the project: “The Toledo Museum of Art did not expect, nor receive funding from the city to build the Glass Pavilion. However, the city was supportive of the project and allowed the reconfiguration of streets near the new building, installed new traffic lights, vacated a portion of a street that ran through the middle of the desired building site, and donated two small parcels of land adjacent to the Museum campus for the Glass Pavilion.

“Tonight is more than just the inauguration of this grand building. It is the return to public view of the glass collection, new pieces, a learning institution, and a new landmark for our community to help keep Toledo’s reputation as the Glass City,” Don Bacigalupi, director of TAM, decreed at the Director’s Welcome party and first look at the Pavilion in August 2006.

“There are probably between a half-dozen and dozen hot shops up and running at any given time. There also are other studios where artists are working with slumping and fusing glass,” Terri Sharp estimates. More hot shops per capita than Louisville or Tacoma. Glass Pavilion Studio Manager and world-renowned goblet-maker, Jeff Mack says, “Are there an abundance of full-time jobs locally for glass artists today? No, but that doesn’t mean there are no opportunities for artists to pursue glassblowing. Artists in the Toledo community feel the ups and downs of the market as other do. The Glass Pavilion studio offers a place where artists can work without having to run their own studios.”

The Toledo Museum of Art hosted 340,000 visitors in 2008. The Chihuly Toledo! exhibit which ends in February 2010 after an extension, featuring works from the Museum’s own collection, doubled attendance to the Glass Pavilion since the exhibition officially opened in September 2009.

A happy marriage?

A city and a glass community can work together to create an aesthetic for the city that is exciting, sophisticated, and inclusive of a city’s historic identity. This can result in more tourists for the city, more revenue, and more recognition and income for the city’s glass businesses and glass artists. But what does it do for the artists? The proponents of the partnership feel strongly that the sustainability of this art form is not at risk when it comes to citywide promotion.

At the Museum of Glass, Amy McBride writes: “Because glass has entered the fine art world there is really no limit to its presence. Tacoma has a sacred space dedicated to this medium at the Museum of Glass. The Center for Glass has moved around over the course of history from the Middle East to Murano to Czechoslovakia. These areas have been large centers for glass production factories. In the NW, glass is so prevalent, but it isn’t centralized from one factory. To quote [local artist] Oliver Dorriss, the glass community in Tacoma ‘is made up of a bunch of small sparks, not one big flame.’ This diversity and abundance not only creates critical mass, but it ensures flexibility and agility to respond to markets and adjust as need be. It is a method that will create a lot of light nonetheless.”

In Louisville, J. Page Von Roenn acknowledges a risk in tying an artist’s career to the ebbs and flows of tourism, but sees the benefits outweighing the potential risks: “There is always concern for basic business sustainability—both in the arts and in tourism, two things that frequently decrease in spending dollars during slow economic times. As far as long-term demand outside of the state of the economy, I don’t see any decrease from collectors, tourists, or architectural glass commissions—as long as we continue to grow, change, and adjust to meet the wants of the consumers—as it goes in any business.”

In a 2003 magazine article, the writer characterized it as “A symbiotic interaction between artist and art consumer is at the heart of Glassworks’ philosophy.” It went on to quote Beverly Bromely, the executive director of Glassworks: “The more you educate the public about how glass art is created, the more you are creating an audience for it. It’s a cyclical thing. The public’s spending helps finance more educational opportunities for glass artists.”

But is the relationship between the glass community and regional tourism balanced? Glass provides a historical and cultural attraction and visitors coming to see Chihuly may also visit local glass galleries and hot shops. But what percent do the visitors spend on glass, thereby supporting the artists, versus hotels and meals at restaurants, thereby supporting low-wage service jobs. And to what degree does glassblowing itself become a service job when tourism is added into the mix? These are all questions to be explored in Part II.

—Lauren Fujii

The author is based in Seattle where she maintains a blog called ABJ Seattle Glass Online.