Chihuly CellPhone Walking Tour

By weeklyvolcano on July 13, 2006

Walkingtourswiss I’m sipping on a glass of Mad Housewife Merlot (surprisingly palatable!) listening to Jack McQuade talking about how the Swiss came to acquire the Chihuly pieces above the bar.  He’s there in front of me, but he’s not talking â€" His voice is coming at me from my cell phone. 
He’s only just heard his own cell-spiel, which is part of a cell-phone walking tour put together by the Tacoma Art Museum. 
I walked from the museum, to Union Station, to the Bridge of Glass (which only has temporary signage) to the University of Washington,Walkingtour2 Tacoma library, and finally up to the Swiss, stopping at the various points marked on my map (available from the museum.)
Dialing the (888) 411-4220 phone number brought me to a brief informational message, then a menu. Dialing the three-digit numbers on the map points (as well as on the signage at each place) gets me to a recorded informational blurb about each piece, some of which is narrated by Chihuly himself, or in the case of the Swiss Venetians, McQuade.
On listening to himself for the first time, McQuade remarked, “That was pretty cool.  We went to a studio to do that, and I didn’t know how it would turn out.  I’m used to standing behind the bar and doing my spiel.” â€" Jessica Corey-Butler