OPENING: Paul Marioni donates glass collection to Tacoma Art Museum

Paul Marioni, Lickin’, 2005. H 5, W 16, D 9 in.

Artist Paul Marioni has donated his personal collection of approximately 400 artworks, many of them in glass and 70 of them by he, himself, to the Tacoma Art Museum, an institution he calls “one of the smartest, most innovative museums in the region.” Other artists represented in the collection include Sonja Blomdahl, Dale Chihuly, Marvin Lipofsky, Flo Perkins, Richard Marquis, Lino Tagliapietra, and Cappy Thompson. The addition of the Marioni collection, built up through the artist’s long involvement with the Pilchuck Glass School and its star-studded roster of visiting artists from around the world, will bring the Tacoma museum’s holdings of glass artwork to nearly 900 works in the material.In addition to the gift, the Tacoma Art Museum is also purchasing 10 additional works by Paul Marioni that span the pioneering artist’s long and accomplished career. “We are thrilled to add Paul’s collection to Tacoma Art Museum,” said Stephanie A. Stebich, Tacoma Art Museum’s director in a prepared statement. “With these artworks, we have reached one of our strategic goals of preserving the early history of the Pilchuck Glass School as we work to build the premier collection of Northwest art.”

Paul Marioni began teaching at Pilchuck just three years after it had opened; many of the pieces in the donated collection come from his tenure there, which lasted from 1974 to 1988. In PBS’s “Craft in America” series last year, Paul described his work as being inspired by human nature and his own dreams, which renders his style as markedly different from that of his glass artist son Dante, as well as his jewelry artist daughter Marina.

In related news, the institution has recently opened an exhibition celebrating the entire Mariojni clan’s contribution to art in various materials entitled: “The Marioni Family: Radical Experimentation in Glass and Jewelry.” Emerging from the exhibition is a portrait of the Marionis as a “family that’s devoted their whole careers to art,” as the museum’s senior curator Rock Hushka told the News Tribune.

Works by each member of the Marioni family are featured in the eponymous exhibition. The Marioni family will also be present at TAM for an artist talk on Wednesday, June 13, at 10:30 AM.

—Isabella Webbe