Dale Chihuly's Seattle Center Garden And Glass Museum Sneak Peek (PHOTOS)

The largest museum in the world devoted to glass artist Dale Chihuly opens Monday in the Seattle Center, at the base of the city's iconic space needle. The high-profile commission, intended to be "a huge shot in the arm" for the Space Needle Corp. as it celebrates the 50 year anniversary of Seattle's World's Fair, wasn't without its critics. Locals feared the loss of open space. Some argued the world didn't need another museum devoted to Chihuly, whose wildly successful and prolific career (characterized by works that often resemble each other), they criticized as more a businessman's than an artist's.

Still, they may end up buying what Chihuly's selling -- even former skeptics are leaving early previews of the 45,000 square foot Garden And Glass Museum with handblown stars in their eyes. "On seeing it for the first time, it's hard to remember what was there before," wrote a Seattle Times critic of the permanent installation.

Check out photos below, and let us know how you rank the world's largest Chihuly museum in the comments:

Loading Slideshow

• Kay Solberg takes photos of the "Persian Ceiling" during a preview of the Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibit at the Seattle Center, Thursday, May 17, 2012, in Seattle. The new, permanent 1.5 acre exhibit is located near the base of the Space Needle and opens to the public Monday, May 21. It looks at the career of artist Dale Chihuly and features an eight-gallery exhibition hall, conservatory and garden as well as a cafe with a selection of Chihuly's collections of vintage accordions, radios, clocks and other mid-century memorabilia. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

• The Space Needle rises above the walls and ceiling of the "Glasshouse," featuring a 100-foot suspended, 1,340-piece sculpture, during a preview of the Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibit at the Seattle Center, Thursday, May 17, 2012, in Seattle. The new, permanent 1.5 acre exhibit is located near the base of the Space Needle and opens to the public Monday, May 21. It looks at the career of artist Dale Chihuly and features an eight-gallery exhibition hall, conservatory and garden as well as a cafe with a selection of Chihuly's collections of vintage accordions, radios, clocks and other mid-century memorabilia. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

• Dale Chihuly Garden and Glass

  The Space Needle towers over "The Sun," center, and the Glasshouse, left, at the new Dale Chihuly Garden and Glass museum at the Seattle Center, Wednesday, May 16, 2012. (AP Photo/seattlepi.com, Joshua Trujillo) MAGS OUT; NO SALES; SEATTLE TIMES OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT; TV OUT

• The "Macchia Forest" is seen during a preview of the Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibit at the Seattle Center, Thursday, May 17, 2012, in Seattle. The new, permanent 1.5 acre exhibit is located near the base of the Space Needle and opens to the public Monday, May 21. It looks at the career of artist Dale Chihuly and features an eight-gallery exhibition hall, conservatory and garden as well as a cafe with a selection of Chihuly's collections of vintage accordions, radios, clocks and other mid-century memorabilia. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

• The "Glass Forest," one of Dale Chihuly's first large-scale installations, done in collaboration with James Carpenter and originally exhibited in 1971, is seen during a preview of the Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibit at the Seattle Center, Thursday, May 17, 2012, in Seattle. The new, permanent 1.5 acre exhibit is located near the base of the Space Needle and opens to the public Monday, May 21. It looks at the career of artist Dale Chihuly and features an eight-gallery exhibition hall, conservatory and garden as well as a cafe with a selection of Chihuly's collections of vintage accordions, radios, clocks and other mid-century memorabilia. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

• The "Ikebana and Float Boat" is seen on display and in reflection during a preview of the Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibit at the Seattle Center, Thursday, May 17, 2012, in Seattle. The new, permanent 1.5 acre exhibit is located near the base of the Space Needle and opens to the public Monday, May 21. It looks at the career of artist Dale Chihuly and features an eight-gallery exhibition hall, conservatory and garden as well as a cafe with a selection of Chihuly's collections of vintage accordions, radios, clocks and other mid-century memorabilia. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

• Vintage string holders are seen built into a table top display in the cafe during a preview of the Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibit at the Seattle Center, Thursday May 17, 2012, in Seattle. The new, permanent 1.5 acre exhibit is located near the base of the Space Needle and opens to the public Monday, May 21. It looks at the career of artist Dale Chihuly and features an eight-gallery exhibition hall, conservatory and garden as well as a cafe with a selection of Chihuly's collections of vintage accordions, radios, clocks and other mid-century memorabilia. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

• A chandelier is seen from underneath during a preview of the Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibit at the Seattle Center, Thursday May 17, 2012, in Seattle. The new, permanent 1.5 acre exhibit is located near the base of the Space Needle and opens to the public Monday, May 21. It looks at the career of artist Dale Chihuly and features an eight-gallery exhibition hall, conservatory and garden as well as a cafe with a selection of Chihuly's collections of vintage accordions, radios, clocks and other mid-century memorabilia. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

• A small glass octopus is seen in on a sculpture in the "Sealife Room" during a preview of the Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibit at the Seattle Center, Thursday, May 17, 2012, in Seattle. The new, permanent 1.5 acre exhibit is located near the base of the Space Needle and opens to the public Monday, May 21. It looks at the career of artist Dale Chihuly and features an eight-gallery exhibition hall, conservatory and garden as well as a cafe with a selection of Chihuly's collections of vintage accordions, radios, clocks and other mid-century memorabilia. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

• Dale Chihuly Garden and Glass

  The Space Needle towers over the Glasshouse at the new Dale Chihuly Garden and Glass museum at the Seattle Center, during a preview on Wednesday, May 16, 2012. (AP Photo/seattlepi.com, Joshua Trujillo) MAGS OUT; NO SALES; SEATTLE TIMES OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT; TV OUT

• Dale Chihuly

  Dale, left, and Leslie Chihuly walk into the garden area and past the Glasshouse during a preview of the Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibit at the Seattle Center, Thursday, May 17, 2012, in Seattle. The new, permanent 1.5 acre exhibit is located near the base of the Space Needle and opens to the public Monday, May 21. It looks at the career of Chihuly and features an eight-gallery exhibition hall, conservatory and garden as well as a cafe with a selection of Chihuly's collections of vintage accordions, radios, clocks and other mid-century memorabilia. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

• Dale Chihuly

  Dale Chihuly sits in front of a wall featuring his drawings in the cafe during a preview of the Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibit at the Seattle Center, Thursday, May 17, 2012, in Seattle. The new, permanent 1.5 acre exhibit is located near the base of the Space Needle and opens to the public Monday, May 21. It looks at the career of Chihuly and features an eight-gallery exhibition hall, conservatory and garden as well as a cafe with a selection of Chihuly's collections of vintage accordions, radios, clocks and other mid-century memorabilia. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

Comments

[AshleyLowe]

06:20 PM on 01/11/2013

Way to go McGinn.. this is what you delegated our tax dollars to even though it was voted against by citizens and the council many times over, that and the stupid tunnel of death you plan on building. A tunnel?! Near an ocean front on a fault line.. smart.

The Chihuly money should have gone towards snow plows so we aren't such a clusterfk of a city whenever it snows.

[suqnswallow]

04:42 PM on 09/25/2012

I love his installations. There was an exhibit at the San Antonio Museum of Art a few years ago and I went numerous times just to sit among the pieces. The University of Texas at San Antonio has some windows in it's business building that were done by him and the Downtown San Antonio library also has one of his sculptures. Seattle is lucky to have it.

[MFierstos]

09:07 PM on 05/24/2012

Thankfully he is not trying to recreate his dreadful exhibit in Venice.

[livity]

04:17 AM on 05/24/2012

The beauty of art is that it is transpired in many ways, in different approaches. The fact that a team blows and builds the installations- it's still Chihuly's techniques and practices, his ideas. He oversees his work being done. Despite what others may say about a "one artist" exhibit, this place is amazing, breathtaking, welcoming, and very organic.

[yrabedra6]

09:07 PM on 05/23/2012

Miro, Dali, Chihuly.....artists who made too much work.

[spkninglsh]

11:31 AM on 05/22/2012

The Thomas Kinkade of glass art.

[MFierstos]

09:02 PM on 05/24/2012

Not really a compliment

[spkninglsh]

09:48 AM on 05/25/2012

Wasn't meant as one.

[Rocketr Hulsey]

04:47 AM on 05/22/2012

looks nice

[RaiderFan13]

11:55 PM on 05/21/2012

Seattle should be proud.

[MrDeLeon]

10:28 PM on 05/21/2012

Simply beautiful. He had a showing here in Phoenix at the Desert Botanical Garden it was even more beautiful during the sunset in a winter evening in the desert.

[glitterpet]

04:52 PM on 05/21/2012

.. oh, by the way, I have been and it is like stepping into a kelidoscope. . . the work is delicate and yet the displays allow an intimate encounter. . . highly recommended if only for the sensory experience. . .

[Ember Firedog]

04:49 PM on 05/21/2012

Spectacular as usual!

[maverick9808]

03:00 PM on 05/21/2012

I wish they would have suspended these in the streets of Seattle rather than locked up in rooms. Glass art is so much more enjoyable when taken out of a sterile atmosphere.

[glitterpet]

05:02 PM on 05/21/2012

.. the wind and other saftey concerns would not allow this. .. plus maintenance maintanence cost would go through the roof as they would have to be cleaned regularlay or taken down in storm events. . . not to mention insurance costs!

They shine at their best in the venue chosen . . have you seen it yet? Before the exhibit was build that "open" space was not well-used for a varity of reasons and somewhat dangerous. . .

If you get a chance to go, please do, if only for the sensory experience . . . it's like being inside a kaleidoscope! =)

[maverick9808]

05:50 PM on 05/21/2012

Sounds cool, i should note my earlier comment was propelled by the venice chihuly exhibits; the ones hanging over the canals.

[argus4]

11:57 PM on 05/21/2012

"storm events" -- Have you ever worked as a TV weather person?

[Going In]

02:44 PM on 05/21/2012

Said better than I could say it myself:

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
"It's sad when even our art critics in Seattle don't possess the self-awareness to realize when we are all held up as laughingstocks of the art world.

Only the Seattle art community would bless a monument to living ego of this size, built by the ego itself. I guess in one limited sense the facility makes sense: The giant glass structures accurately house the work of an "artist" who sells by the yard...a guy who insists that if he makes it bigger, it has to be better. Yeah, that's the spirit of a true artist. Hah.

And only in Seattle would so many insist that this work is even art at all. It's craft, folks. Craft. And old Dollar Dale doesn't even dirty his hands with the actual work. Hasn't for years. Just cashes the checks from rubes with more money than sense...certainly more money than taste.

These works should be displayed at the Puyallup Fair, not in something calling itself an art museum.

Gee, have I been too harsh? Nah.

Here's hoping the ridiculous price for such a one-dimensional and unimaginative pastiche of writhing shapes masquerading as content will drive the place out of existence in a decade. Then we can have a space in our central park that is actually LIKE central park...as in, something that can be enjoyed by the entire

[Brad Ruszala]

10:34 PM on 05/21/2012

Nothing gains attention quite like pretension.

[argus4]

11:54 PM on 05/21/2012

Assuming there's an admission charge, whoever gets the majority of that will make a pile of money. If entrance is free, it'll be sure to please the booboisie. And think of the profit to be turned from books, miniatures, postcards.

In outdoing Barnum and Bailey, and Ringling,
Chichuly has done a colorful thingling.

(with apologies to Ogden Nash)

[Passenger57]

01:51 PM on 05/21/2012

There's a small sign on the door: "No Tauruses Allowed"...

[Zuzette]

12:52 AM on 05/29/2012

LOL!
(a Chihuly fan)

[Passenger57]

08:55 PM on 05/30/2012

Good! I like making people LOL...!
: )

[Sadtothebone]

01:15 PM on 05/21/2012

Very entertaining museuam demonstrating with no fear in the use of color unlike most americans who seem trapperd in a black, white and silver gray world.