Making A Pilgrimage To The Pilchuck Glass School

Pilchuck has made a profound effect on my life and work as a glassmaker. The environment is so conducive to research and experimentation, the teaching is of such high quality that I cannot imagine where the studio glass movement would be without it. - William Morris, quoted in `Maestri Vetrai,' the Pilchuck auction catalog. -------------------------------

The name "Pilchuck" - shorthand for Pilchuck Glass School - is all but worshipped in art circles. It signifies the best in glass art. It describes works that fire the imagination, works that capture soul, works with a haunting, dreamlike flow and elegance.

Seattle - roughly an hour's drive south from the Pilchuck Glass School - is no stranger to world-class glass. Local art galleries display pieces by renowned glass artists. A magnificent private collection remains on display in the lobby areas of the Pacific First Center downtown. And Sea-Tac Airport has a stunning exhibit.

Yet most Puget Sounders have not yet had a chance to see the Pilchuck Glass School on a wooded campus near the town of Stanwood in Snohomish County.

The Pilchuck Glass School site isn't remote, even though it is tucked away in the center of a 15,000-acre tree farm. But climbing into a car and heading north by northeast is emphatically not the way to visit the school.

The lack of accessibility is by design. Pilchuck's director Marjorie Levy points out that Pilchuck is a school, not a museum or tourist attraction. Privacy of the learning environment is closely guarded.

But this doesn't mean that visitors are never tolerated. Levy lists several ways to see the campus. Here are some possibilities:

-- The school holds two public open houses each year (the charge is $5 per person). In 1992, those dates, both Saturdays, are July 18 and Aug. 22. (The charge is $5 per person.)

At the open houses, visitors tour the campus and see demonstrations of glass blowing and casting, flameworking and other glass art. Visitors are encouraged to bring picnic lunches to eat in the meadows or by the school's picturesque swimming lake. It's also possible to purchase light refreshments.

-- A special Aug. 8 picnic will be held on the Pilchuck Glass School grounds to celebrate the opening of a Dale Chihuly exhibit at the downtown Seattle Art Museum. Anyone can attend. (The fee is $35 for the public; $25 for art museum or Pilchuck members.)

-- Pilchuck Society members receive an invitation to an annual members-only picnic. This year the membership event will take place June 20. (Call the school office at 1-206-445-3111 to inquire about joining. Membership contributions are tax deductible.)

-- If you belong to a moderate-sized group (say 12 to 20), it's possible to make arrangements to tour the Pilchuck campus during the off season.

There is a fee for such tours, which are booked well in advance. For information, call the Pilchuck office, 1-206-445-3111, during the May 15-Sept. 5 school season. (Classes are held only in summer.)

-- Retreats also can be scheduled at the campus during the off season, Sept. 6 to May 14. The campus has facilities where governmental, educational or nonprofit groups can meet and enjoy the wooded setting.

The campus of the Pilchuck Glass School is nestled in the foothills of the Cascades, not far from Stanwood. (Take exit 215 from Interstate 5 and head east. Prior to the two annual open houses, the school posts directional signs.)

One of the first discoveries on arrival is how thoroughly the campus has adopted to its forest setting.

The rustic buildings themselves are works of art, wedded to the site so artfully that you'd swear the structures grew there, just like the trees around them.

The buildings, designed by Seattle architect Tom Bosworth, have won architectural awards. They cluster above a small swimming lake with its guardian corps of wild ducks. The tiny student cottages are hidden in the trees.

Pilchuck was founded in 1971 by Dale Chihuly and art patrons Anne Gould Hauberg and John H. Hauberg.

Seed money came from a $2,000 grant from the Union of Independent Colleges of Art. That first class had just 16 students.

Today Pilchuck houses 110 students and staff at each of five summer sessions between May and September. Last year, students came from 31 states and 21 countries. They study with a faculty of glass artists from all over the world.

During the two public open houses, students and instructors are on hand to demonstrate and explain techniques. No question is deemed too dumb to receive a response from the patient artists.

Among the questions they field: "If you don't like it, can

you melt it down and change the shape?" `"hy can't you keep that hot color?" `"s it really as easy as it looks?"

The site has a small exhibition gallery and a booth where you can sign up to become a member or merely buy a Pilchuck T-shirt to wear home. There is no sales gallery. On the other hand, if you see something you like, it's sometimes possible to strike a bargain with the artist.

At the August open house last year, I fell for a lustrous piece of cut and etched glass that was displayed on an artist's work table.

But, unfortunately, I was not the only one so smitten. The piece belonged to one of the glass artists who had bought it from a colleague. Alas. It was not for sale.

The experience of visiting the campus is an unusual one. Even during the hubbub of the open house, I had the feeling that I was visiting a benign, but esoteric, religious cult, complete with accolytes and high priests.

The campus's central structure, the hot shop, outfitted with its fiery furnaces, accentuates that pervasive feeling of mysticism. I felt as if I'd entered the temple of the fire-tending vestals.

It is said that great art alters the way one feels. If that's true, then a visit to the Pilchuck campus is a form of performance art.

I found it impossible to ever again view glass art in the same manner as after making the pilgrimage to Pilchuck.

Jean Godden's column appears Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday in the Northwest section of The Times.