Adults say ‘wow’ but kids say ‘gross’ as hundreds of bugs descend on Tacoma museum
.jpg "Glass insects by Italian artist Vittorio Costantini greet visitors to “Field Notes: Artists Observe Nature” at Tacoma’s Museum of Glass Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024.")
Don’t call an exterminator. The bugs at Tacoma’s Museum of Glass are invited guests. Plus, they’re made from glass.
The life-size, anatomically correct works of art herald visitors to the Tacoma museum’s newest show, “Field Notes: Artists Observe Nature,” which opened Saturday.
Just some of the 300 insects made by Italian artist Vittorio Costantini were on display Saturday. The rest are arriving next week, according to MOG’s curator of education Susan Warner. They need to be delicately wrapped — even their antennae are made from glass — before they can be transported.
As adults were ooing and ahing over Costantini’s work, about a dozen children and adults were making “trash bugs” in MOG’s entry hall.
Janett Villegas brought her six-year-old daughters, Amy and Ariana Balderas, to the museum from Federal Way to watch glass blowing but took a break to make insects out of discarded items. Hair clips became bodies, plastic food container lids became wings.
The girls were absorbed in their work making butterflies but took a few moments to answer a reporter’s query: what did they think of real bugs?
“They’re gross,” said Amy.
“They’re gross,” said Ariana.
The girls are twins, by the way.
Recycling trash into insects wasn’t accidental, Warner said.
“We’re teaching children not to be afraid of bugs, because they’re really important to preserving our planet and we have to be kind to them so that they survive,” she said.
Inside the gallery where the show is located, a variety of works with nature as the theme were on display. Perhaps the most unusual are sculptures made from salt blocks. Artist Malia Jensen placed them in wild settings where animals like deer and elk modified them as they took licks.
“The animal was kind of a collaborator on the art,” said MOG spokesperson Tim Butler.
This story was originally published November 17, 2024 at 6:00 AM.
