My stomach gets geeky mom butterflies of pride for our community when I watch the Tacoma Art Place YouTube video. If you haven’t seen the video, the story is this beautiful man, Mark Bratlie, owner of Turtle's Shell Stained Glass in Chehalis, WA was selling a kiln for $450. When we saw it on Craig’s List, we wrote to him about Tacoma Art Place (non-profit art center in Tacoma inspired from art co-ops in West Africa creates affordable access to art equipment for everyone) and asked if he’d donate his kiln to the project. He did. In the video, Mark said of the kiln, “It’s a gift for Tacoma,” as he stood in front of one of his own majestic pieces of stained glass work with rays of sunlight beaming off of him as big as his smile.
As Mark and our friend Patrick Hogan loaded the kiln into a van to bring it back to Tacoma, my eight-year-old son Dylan said, “Mom, It’s pure gold.”
Put your sunglasses on, that pure gold is glittering in the hilltop this week! That kiln along with a second donated kiln and a darkroom are all now operational. Tacoma Art Place even held its first fused glass class this past Sunday. My brother, Jon Graef, took the class and said he enjoyed leaving with his own glass art.
So here’s the deal, what’s the cost to use all of this equipment? It’s the equivalent of $4 a month for an individual, only $48 a year and Tacoma’s best kept secret. To learn glass fusing with an instructor my brother only paid $20. It is a crazy inspiring good deal. Check it out: Tacoma Art Place
Spread the word. It’s a gift and it’s pure gold.
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