Trail To Western American Art: colors, video, improved store at Tacoma Art Museum

By Alec Clayton on September 24, 2014

Things are heating up at Tacoma Art Museum leading up to the big opening of the new wing featuring the Haub Family Collection of Western Art in November.

Curator Laura Fry and Museum preparator Ben Wildenhaus are finalizing accent wall colors and working with a scale model to determine the layout for paintings and sculptures in each of the galleries in the new wing. Wall colors are chosen to complement the art and form a cohesive color palette.

Curatorial and Education staff is working on a brief video that visitors can view in the new Orientation space at the entrance of the new wing.

Staff and patrons visited the Walla Walla Foundry to meet with artist Marie Watt and see the foundry's work on her sculpture, "Blanket Stories: Transportation Object, Generous Ones and Trek," a sculpture comprising two curving stacks of bronzed blankets in front of the new wing along the Pacific Avenue streetscape. Many people in the community donated blankets to the sculpture and wrote their stories on tags attached to the blankets. One of the challenges is that the various materials of the blankets burn or melt at different temperatures during the bronzing process.

Monday, Sept. 29, the TAM Store is scheduled to be complete and will be turned over to the museum, so look for the new and improved store to re-open soon. The new family restroom on the lobby level is also scheduled for completion Sept. 29.

TACOMA ART MUSEUM, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. third Thursday, 1501 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, $8-$10, 5 and younger free, 253.627.6031

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Checking in with the Tacoma Art Museum