Our Host Committee Co-Chairs, Richard Davis and Kelley Knickerbocker, have been working for over a year to identify mosaic treasures in and around Seattle and Tacoma to share with our members. The bounty they discovered couldn’t be contained in just one tour! They have created 3 special excursions for you to enjoy and we know you will be amazed, inspired and motivated to find ways to fill your community with mosaic art after taking these tours! These tours are optional and can only be added to a Full or Economy Registration Package. If seats remain available upon arrival in Tacoma, we will make them available for registrant’s guests to purchase.
Tacoma Mosaic Tour
Detail of “A Day in the Forest” by Mauricio Robalino. 2005, glass
Tour A: Wednesday, April 10th 8:00am – 5:00pm
JUST ADDED! Tour B: Thursday, April 11th 8:00am – 5:00pm
$65.00 (includes boxed lunch)
If you love unique ceramic tiles, you’ll love the veritable museum of antique American tiles that crowds the corridors of the labyrinthine Casablanca apartments. We are so fortunate that docents from the Tile Heritage Foundation will lead this section of our tour! Mauricio Robalino’s colorful, sparkling multilayered mosaics are perfectly placed to cheer children of all ages (you won’t be able to keep from touching these bumpy wonders!) in hospital hallways. Community mosaic fans will appreciate how three mosaic artists applied their skills and hearts to transform a school playground into a poetic memorial to a young girl. If mosaics are taking over your garden, you will love and empathize with the giant ones created by Jack Lewis in his. The trendsetting Tacoma Public Utilities features a number of industrial mosaics by Jo Braun and one of Sandra and Carl Bryant’s colorful stained glass mosaics. A bright 7-panel mosaic of local salmon and the environment is a surprising addition to a police station. Finally, a non-juried mosaic show at the Handforth Gallery in downtown Tacoma featuring fifteen Northwest mosaic artists, for a total of about 30 artworks to admire of all different aesthetics and materials.
We expect you will return in time to take an evening class.
WARNING: Casablanca Apt stop is a 4-story building with no elevator and is definitely not ADA! . Most of the tiles are in the stairwells. If you are not FIT, you will ONLY be able to see 1/3 of the tiles.
“Beneath the Surface” by Sandra and Carl Bryant. 2006, vitreous and stained glass
Spectrum Glass Factory Tour
Tour A: Thursday, April 11th 8:30am – 12:30pm $45.00 (does not include meal)
JUST ADDED! Tour B: Wednesday, April 10th 8:30am – 12:30pm $45.00 (does not include meal)
Spectrum Glass is one of America’s largest stained glass manufacturers. Their factory is located in Woodinville, just north of Seattle. During this one-hour tour you’ll walk the working factory floor and see every step of the stained glass making process, from the mixing of base ingredients to the ladling of molten glass from the furnaces to sheets of hot glass rolling along the conveyor belts to the cutting stations. Whether you work in stained glass or not, you’ll enjoy having a close-up, behind-the-scenes look at this fascinating process. Bus will leave the Murano at 8:30am and return by 12:30pm.
Note: Long pants and closed-toed shoes required in the factory. You should also plan to dress warmly. Please bring safety glasses if you have them.
Seattle Mosaic Tour
The Seattle Mural – Detail, by Paul Horiuchi (1906-1999), fabricated by Olivo Santagostino. 1962, smalti.
Sunday, April 14th 8:00am – 5:00pm
$75.00 (includes boxed lunch)
On the Seattle tour you’ll see an eclectic mix of public mosaics in fascinating materials and forms ranging from linoleum to kinetic. Here are just a few: Ann Gardner’s very modern 5-story kinetic mosaic Lebeg, as featured in MOSAIC ART NOW 2010; a large-scale mosaic made entirely from linoleum in 1942 as part of the New Deal; and a 7-panel community-built mosaic adorning a p-patch nestled amid downtown’s skyscrapers. In addition, fans of religious iconography mosaic will be pleased to see the work of mosaicist Robert Andrews, famous for his mosaics in Trinity Greek Orthodox church in San Francisco. You’ll also be able to run your hands over the huge, iconic Seattle mural created for the 1962 World’s Fair made only from sections of smalti pizzas. Finally, you’ll see mosaics from all over the Americas at the invitational show curated by Jo Braun, Kate Jessup, and Kelley Knickerbocker at INScape, an artists’ enclave in Seattle’s International District. And if there’s time, a surprise mosaic stop will be added. The bus will be buzzing all the way back to Tacoma!
Please do not plan on a departure from SeaTac airport before 10pm Sunday night to be sure you don’t miss your plane!
Modern Chemistry by Robert B. Inverarity (1909-1999), and executed by O.M. Hutson, O.R. Barnes, L. La Barnes, R. Donaldson, and E. Snyder. 1941, linoleum
Oh YES! There’s More!
Self-Guided Tours
All who register for the tours will receive the newest addition to SAMA’s collection of publications, The Guide to Mosaics of Seattle and Tacoma. This full color guide includes not only detailed information on the mosaics of the Bus Tours, it will included BONUS sites and outlines for Walking Tours of both Seattle and Tacoma. Look for the Guide to Mosaics of Seattle and Tacoma in the online SAMA Store in December! Order early so you can plan for additional sight seeing during your stay in Tacoma!
“Danza del Cerchio” by Ann Gardner, 1996, smalti. Pier 66, (aka Bell Str. Pier) exterior west wall of staircase
