Seattle sports fans have a lot of cheering to do in the coming days, with so many local teams suiting up for arenas at home and away. The Sounders, Reign, Kraken and Huskies (which sounds like a fearsome law firm) all play this weekend, plus the Seahawks on Monday. And meanwhile the Mariners continue tacking toward the World Series, shimmering on the horizon.
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Amid all this bunting and punting, this kicking and high-sticking, there’s also an arts festival going on — one that roots for a home team of a different sort: the estimated 700 glass artists working across the region.
And for those who think there’s no comparison between a sports event and the glass art process, consider the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat! (The Mariners’ recent 13-4 loss to the Blue Jays was certainly shattering.)
Refract: The Seattle Glass Experience (Oct. 16-19), now in its seventh edition, is a series of exhibits, talks, films, open studios and hotshop demonstrations that celebrates the wild range of glass art being made in the Puget Sound region. That’s thanks to our longstanding reputation as a source of education and innovation in the form, which stretches back to the 1971 founding of the revered Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood.
Despite the region being a hotspot for hot shops, I’ve met plenty of locals who have a knee-jerk reaction against glass art. I suspect this comes from seeing one too many glass pumpkins around Thanksgiving. But the art form is much more than glass gourds (which, like them or not, provide a seasonal source of income for artists).
Consider a visit to Stonington Gallery, where the annual Luminosity show (through Nov. 1) coincides with Refract and showcases Northwest Native glass artists including Dan Friday (Lummi), Marvin Oliver (Quinault), Lillian Pitt (Warm Springs/Wasco/Yakama) and some cool new sea-creature collaborations by Tlingit artists Preston Singletary and Raven Skyriver.
Sea-Tac Airport is offering a special small-group tour of its onsite glass collection, which includes a huge enameled piece by glass legend Cappy Thompson (Concourse A) and Cable Griffith’s immersive glass walls that glow in forest greens (Concourse C).
Speaking of glowing green, Kait Rhoads is restaging her tubular glass Proto Kelp (first installed at Method Gallery) in the Ninth Avenue storefront window at the Seattle Convention Center. And currently at Method, William Pikakelowna Passmore (Okanogan and Arrowhead Lakes) is showing a similarly dangly and inviting installation called Taut, which features his glass-blown antlers, feathers and organic-looking bulbs suspended from branches.
At the Tacoma Museum of Glass, you’ll find a stunning array of flora, fauna and extremely detailed bugs in Field Notes: Artists Observe Nature (through Dec. 2025). At Traver Gallery’s airy new location along the Ship Canal, see Bronson Shook’s layered glass stacks painted with incredibly lifelike flowers in On Perspective (through Oct. 25), as well as The Glass Compendium (Oct. 17-18), a survey of glass that’s been blown, cast, flameworked, etched and slumped by the pros.
There are many more glass happenings, so if you’re interested in expanding your understanding of the form, check out the packed Refract calendar.
I’m just back from a trip to New York City, where despite my daily and urgent clicking on a rush-tickets app, I failed to acquire entrance to a Broadway show. But no matter! There is a ton of theater happening right here in Seattle. Noticeably, many of the current shows are based in farce and fantasy (both of which feel timely).
For a classic dose of escapism, head to Brigadoon (running through Oct. 19 at Village Theatre in Issaquah; Oct. 25 - Nov. 16 on the Everett stage), the magical Scottish village that materializes only once every 100 years. Lerner and Loewe’s romantic musical from 1947 spawned the standard “Almost Like Being in Love” — as well as the spoof streaming series, Schmigadoon!
Stay the romantic course with Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest (extended through Nov. 1 at Taproot Theatre), a comedy of manners that since 1895 has been amusing audiences with its farcical plot featuring double lives, witty repartee and cucumber sandwiches.
At Seattle Opera, the hijinks come courtesy of high seas with The Pirates of Penzance (Oct. 18 - Nov. 1). Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera premiered in New York in 1879 and was apparently a hit from the get-go, for who can resist the tongue-twister charm of the modern Major General?
An even older farce comes in the form of Shrew (Oct. 18 - Nov. 2), a new spin on Shakespeare’s comedy The Taming of the Shrew. Working from the original text — already full of slapstick and disguises — director Bobbin Ramsey slices, dices and updates, while playing with puppetry and drag. It’s the first Shakespeare production from Union Arts Center, the new entity that emerged from the merger of ACT Theatre and the Seattle Shakespeare Company.
In case you missed it: There’s been a slew of arts venue news in recent days.
SIFF announced it will end its lease in the storied Egyptian Theater on Capitol Hill, marking another sad loss of Seattle’s historic theaters. Constructed in 1916 as a Masonic Temple, the building’s auditorium was designed by B. Marcus Priteca (who also designed the Coliseum Theater downtown, the Admiral Theater in West Seattle and the Pantages Theater in Tacoma, among many other movie houses).
The Masons rented out the theater for wrestling events in the 1970s, before SIFF arrived and gave it a makeover in the 1980s — adding “Egyptian” elements and renaming it accordingly — and began its long run of programming films in the space. But a flood caused by a leaking water pipe last fall closed its doors indefinitely. While the water damage has been fixed, according to The Seattle Times, SIFF will not renew its lease. (Seattle Central College is still the owner of the building.)
“For many months we prioritized finding a path to reopen this beloved venue,” SIFF director Tom Mara said in a press release. He noted that given the challenging financial picture for independent movie theaters, “SIFF is currently prioritizing financial and operational sustainability” at its other three venues.
“The Egyptian Theater has been an integral part of SIFF’s identity for nearly 50 years, and especially the last decade,” said Mara. “Its absence has already been deeply felt.” I can’t count the number of films I’ve seen there over the past 30 years, and I’m very sorry to see it go.
Elsewhere in arts venues: Bellevue Arts Museum finally, officially ceded any possibility of continuing as an art museum, announcing plans to sell the Steven Holl-designed building to KidsQuest Children’s Museum. The latter is expected to open in its new home in early 2026.
Frederick Holmes & Company Gallery has also announced its closure, after 12 years of showcasing modern and contemporary art in the heart of Pioneer Square. It was a steady source of unexpected works by big deals including Toulouse Lautrec, Marc Chagall, Joan Miró and Salvador Dalí — not to mention live jazz shows. Holmes is retiring, and the building in which his gallery operated has been purchased by arts philanthropist Andrew Conru.
Lastly, Actualize AiR, the scrappy group of artist residents working in the former Banana Republic Downtown (previously the Coliseum Theater) has also lost its lease. But this time there’s good news: The group has secured a new space in Pioneer Square and is packing up to move all 30 studios and a gallery into the new digs soon.
Catch up with the printmakers, painters, sculptors, carvers and photographers featured in the new season of Art by Northwest.
