Glass artists, Vicci Martinez, food trucks, free museums usher in new Tacoma festival
A new downtown Tacoma arts festival May 22 is bringing together the public with some of the world’s top glass artists along with food trucks, artist displays and sales, and the return of a hometown musical hero.
The free TAG (Together in Art and Glass) Festival kicks off Sunday, May 22 in what organizers say will be an annual event.
The festival showcases glass artists, painters, sculptors, ceramicists, jewelry artists, crafts people and more.
The event will occupy sidewalks and plazas from the Tacoma Art Museum (TAM) to the Washington State History Museum (WSHM), across the Bridge of Glass over Interstate 705 and to the Museum of Glass (MOG).
Tacoma native Vicci Martinez headlines the entertainment.
“It’s an opportunity for me to come home, play some music, see everybody,” the New York-based Martinez said Friday.
Glass Art Society
TAG is planned to be an annual event, according to co-organizer Travel Tacoma, and fills a gap that smaller arts festivals and crafts markets don’t.
“We want to do something to celebrate art, have some music, celebrate community,” said Mike Bush, Travel Tacoma’s spokesperson.
May 22 was chosen as the kick-off date because it coincides with the annual conference of the Glass Art Society, meeting in Tacoma Wednesday-Saturday. The group chooses a new city, anywhere in the world, each year for its conference, which attracts over 1,000 artists.
TAG will offer an opportunity for mingling between local and international artists. The conference is open to the public but admission is charged.
“While we have all these fabulous artists here, we wanted to be able to throw a party so they could see the local artisans, and the local artisans could meet some of these folks,” Bush said.
Vicci Martinez
TAG will mark the first public performance for Martinez since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down performing arts venues in March 2020.
“I was not playing my guitar during the pandemic,” Martinez said Friday. “So, I’m definitely having to get my body ready for that.”
Martinez, who rose to national fame on the NBC show “The Voice” and later starred in the Netflix series “Orange Is the New Black”, will appear in WSHM’s outdoor amphitheater.
She kept busy during pandemic acting in TV commercials for Uber, Budweiser, Crest and others. She also is providing voice work to a new adult animation project for HBO Max. The name is under wraps, she said, but will be released in fall.
Food, demos, free admission
Artist demonstrations, including mobile hotshops from MOG and New York’s Corning Museum of Glass will offer glass-blowing demonstrations.
Glass artist Dick Weiss will lead a workshop on glass lampshade making with local artist Lynn Di Nino. Tacoma-based artist Tiffany Hammonds will also host a workshop at MOG.
MOG, TAM and WSHM will all offer free admission during the festival.
Food trucks will set up along the festival route, and a beer garden will be near the Pacific end of the Bridge of Glass.
If you go
What: TAG
When: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. May 22 (Sunday).
Where: Pacific Avenue from Tacoma Art Museum to Washington State History Museum, the Bridge of Glass over Interstate 705 and the Museum of Glass plaza.
Admission: Free
Information: traveltacoma.com/tag/
This story was originally published May 15, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
