Hilltop glassblowers get their time in the gallery spotlight at Tacoma Art Museum
A little more than a mile separates The Hilltop Artists program from Tacoma Art Museum. Yet for years, it might as well have been a continent.
The art program was created for at-risk youth by Tacoma-born glass artist Dale Chihuly and gallery owner Kathy Kaperick at Hilltop Heritage Middle School (formerly Jason Lee) in 1994. Since then, legions of youth, many of them Black and brown, have learned how to blow glass.
While some of those youth became successful artists, TAM remained an aspirational destination. In 2015, protesters staged a “die-in” outside the museum in protest over the lack of Black artists in an AIDS-themed show there.
On Saturday, TAM opened “GATHER: 27 Years of Hilltop Artists” and some of those same kids, now grown men and women, were able to see their work and each other in their hometown museum.
“That’s really the purpose of this exhibition,” said TAM director David Setford. “To show that there are these wonderful, talented artists, in this case, who went through Hilltop.”
TAM is committed to its community, Setford said, particularly youth. The arts can connect young people to a brighter future.
The recognition for the artists in GATHER is long overdue, he said.
“You will all look at this show and wonder why they haven’t been given that attention because, my word, they deserve it,” Setford said.
‘GATHER: 27 Years of Hilltop Artists’
GATHER — the term means to collect molten glass on the end of a blow pipe — brings 21 alumni of the Hilltop Artists program and places them on an equal footing with other artists who have shown at TAM, including Chihuly.
The show, which runs through Sept. 4, isn’t entirely glass. Paintings and other media are represented by the 30 pieces. But glass dominates.
A line of gigantic glass cheese puffs climbs from floor to ceiling in Jessica Hogan’s “Chitoe.” Nearby, is a neon assemblage of glowing shapes by Dani Kaes.
Tony Sorgenfrei’s highly detailed glass works are inspired by Mesoamerica. Sorgenfrei is an alum and current instructor at Hilltop Artists.
“Ofrenda”, a glass altar by David Rios, is laden with orange marigolds. The work is reflective of Rios’ Mexican-American heritage. He works with students at Hilltop and at the Museum of Glass.
Hilltop Artists executive director Kimberly Keith said art museums began centuries ago as spaces for white cultural elites. A lot has changed since then, but not everything.
“Where we’re still challenged, is who was represented in the museum, in terms of the artist who was represented on the walls, who sees themselves reflected,” she said.
GATHER changes that, Keith said.
TRENTON QUIOCHO
The show was curated by Trenton Quiocho, a Hilltop alum and current instructor and hot shop manager.
“I grew up in Tacoma, my whole life,” Quiocho said last week at a preview for the show. “And this is one of the first museums I’ve been to. And you know, I never understood why some of these artists that are sitting here today, I’ve never seen them represented in galleries or museums.”
Quiocho is a glass artist, not a curator, he’ll be quick to tell you. He simply wanted to highlight some of the artists who got their start on the Hilltop. He grew up with several of them.
“I remember the first day that I was in the class (at Jason Lee), and I never really looked back after that,” he said. “I was so into glass.”
In 2020, Quiocho pitched the idea of a pop-up show at TAM highlighting the work of he fellow alumni. Then, COVID-19 shut the museum down.
Last fall, TAM revisited the idea with Quiocho, but this time the museum pitched a show that would be bigger and equal in scale to other shows at the museum.
Like Keith, Quiocho said GATHER will expand the possibilities for young artists of color.
“I’m hoping that anyone that comes to see the show (will) see the different names,” he said. “And if you research the artists, you’ll see the faces and realize that we do have a very diverse group of individuals here, and whose work speaks for itself.”
EDGAR VALENTINE
Edgar Valentine might be the most well known artist in the show, thanks to pop culture. He has competed on two seasons of the Netflix glassblowing reality show, “Blown Away”.
“The Netflix thing was cool,” Valentine said last week. But, being in the TAM show is more meaningful.
“I’ve always wanted to be in museums and especially Tacoma Art Museum,” he said.
“So, just being in one of these galleries in this building, with my own work ... is just really cool,” he said. “Especially alongside with all the people I grew up with.”
Valentine’s work in GATHER, plague doctors’ masks and hats like those worn during the 14th century Black Death, were a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.
“Everything shut down,” he said. He found the empty streets of locked-down Tacoma eerie.
“No one’s outside. It’s just like a dead town,” he said. “But, it reminded me of when the black plague was a thing.”
Shows like GATHER are important for artists of color, Valentine said, because it shows museum goers — and young budding artists — that they have a place in museum galleries.
“There’s definitely artists that are around here that are young, from, like, 12 to mid-20s, that are just as good, if not better than some of these people that have had been in these museums for decades,” he said. “Just giving them the opportunity is the biggest thing.”
SAMANTHA SCALISE
Samantha Scalise began blowing glass with Hilltop Artists in 2003. She was in the seventh grade.
During high school, she worked on the production team and eventually aged out of the program at 21.
Now, she’s an instructor there.
“I don’t know where I would be today if it wasn’t for Hilltop and all these guys,” she said last week.
Growing up wasn’t easy at times, she said. Hilltops Artists provided a safe haven.
“Glass was our outlet,” she said. “We got to separate from what was going on in our lives — all the chaos and stuff — and just focus on this thing and have fun together with like our family.”
IF YOU GO
WHAT: “GATHER: 27 Years of Hilltop Artists”
WHERE: Tacoma Art Museum,
WHEN: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday with extended hours to 8 p.m. on Thursdays.
ADMISSION: $18 adult, $15 senior (65+), free for 18 and under, active duty military, reservists, veterans, and their families.
INFO: 253-272-4258, tacomaartmuseum.org
