Three of those five acres are going to be open space with a children’s garden, a basketball court, a maze for kids to climb through and a big tent for big band dancing, with picnic tables for semi-outdoor dining during the wet season. <\/p>\n
What’s left is the smaller kiddie ride parcel north of the Monorail and east of the Center House, a little more than one and a half acres. After the carousal and bumper cars are gone, there were no plans and no money to do anything but leave it as an asphalt wasteland until the economy improves.<\/p>\n
Enter Jeff Wright of the Howard S. Wright family. He’s offering to spend $15 to $20 million to fill it with a temporary museum dedicated to Dale Chihuly<\/a>. The museum would consist of a green-walled rehab of an existing shed-like arcade building, an open garden and a glass house. Chihuly would fill it with a rotating selection of his work and (potentially) the work of others, bolstered with a wide range of education programs. <\/p>\n Why Chihuly? Because his work is its own kind of fun forest. Full of play and dazzling in its high theatrics, his sculptures give shape to excess and make it shine. They are an international draw, breaking attendance records whenever they are shown. <\/p>\n Then there’s the man. Thanks directly to him, Seattle is the Manhattan of glass art. There are now more glass blowers in Seattle than in Venice. Even though Chihuly doesn’t know more than a fraction, he’s the reason they’re here. More than anyone else, he created the environment that makes their careers possible.<\/p>\n Without him, there would be no Pilchuck Glass School<\/a> and no Museum of Glass<\/a>. No artist since Robert Rauschenberg has done more to create art opportunities for others. He was the prime mover behind the scenes at the Hilltop Glass program in Tacoma, which gives at-risk youths a chance to put hot air to practical use, a program copied in Seattle at Pratt Fine Arts Center and elsewhere around the country. <\/p>\n He supports more charities than Jimmy Carter. The list of institutions thanking him is nine pages long (single-spaced) and includes museums, art centers, hospitals, schools and health programs, nearly all in this region. Look in vain for this list on his Web site. It isn’t there. The master of self-promotion doesn’t promote his own good deeds.<\/p>\n Back to the project: <\/p>\n We’re talking about less than two acres out of 74 to be the temporary Contrary to what has been charged, the museum is not a public-space giveaway. It’s a lease approved in five-year increments with a 20-year top, with projected revenues to the city running from $300,000 to $500,000 annually. <\/p>\n Who’s against Chihuly at the Needle? <\/p>\n 1. City Council member Sally Bagshaw<\/a>, who wants Seattle Center to be Seattle Central Park. (Never was, never will be.) Bagshaw appears to be following David Brewster’s musty, myopic lead<\/a>. He wants a park. Yes to grass, and only if that grass doesn’t have any colored glass spears and orbs nestled in its shoots. She says she doesn’t want a Seattle Center facility to be a tribute to one man. (Is she planning to raze the Bagley Wright?)<\/p>\n 2. Jen Graves, leading an anti-Dale campaign in the Stranger, here<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"dalechihulyneedle.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/dalechihulyneedle.jpg\")
Wright’s family helped build the Space Needle, and he was chairman of the the Century 21 Comittee that developed a master plan for the next 20 years of development at Seattle Center. He was also a major fundraiser for Seattle Center’s McCaw Hall, that houses Seattle Opera. <\/p>\n
\nhome to this mainstream attraction. Even so, when plans for the Chihuly
\nmuseum were announced last month, the just-say-no crowd rallied its
\nforces. If the Space Needle were proposed today, rest assured that they
\nwould bring it down. Who needs a giant Flash Gordon piece of kitsch? The
\nvery idea is an affront to our civic sense of our self-importance.<\/p>\n