Tacoma’s Museum of Glass continues its summer visiting artist series this week with the return of New York-based artist David Levi. Levi’s residency continues live in the museum’s Hot Shop through the rest of the week and culminates with a lecture/discussion Sunday at 2 p.m.



The Visiting Artist Summer Series provides Museum of Glass visitors with a chance to watch practicing glass artists from around the world at work in a live workshop setting — the museum’s Hot Shop Amphitheater. Now in its sixth season, the series presents professionals in five-day residencies working in the Hot Shop environment alongside museum staff artists, creating original works while visitors watch. One of the pieces created by each visiting artists is added to the museum’s growing collection.



According to the museum’s director, Timothy Close, “The Visiting Artist Summer Series is designed to provide artists with a platform for experimentation and development as well as expanding our visitors’ understanding of the creative process.”



“This program demonstrates just how diverse the medium of glass has become in contemporary art.”



This year’s summer program began June 25, and continues through Sept. 7. Taking this week’s slot in the 2008 lineup is David Levi.



Levi originally studied glass art at Washington University in St. Louis. After finishing his BFA, he apprenticed with Swedish master glassblower Jan-Erik Ritzman. He was later a founding partner at Ibex Glass Studio in St. Louis. Levi moved to Whidbey Island in 1993. Two years ago he left to begin work as a designer for Steuben Glass in Corning, N.Y.



Because of his Whidbey Island tenure, Levi is no stranger to either the local glass-working community or to MOG.



Levi says that he is happy to be returning to work at museum’s Hot Shop. “It’s an excellent facility … very unique,” he says. “They have all the equipment and tools you could want.”

Levi also enjoys working with the amphitheater facility’s permanent working staffers, whom he describes as “very talented and dedicated.”



Why did David Levi accept the museum’s invitation to spend a week making glass art in Tacoma? For one, he says, “I miss the Northwest; the Northwest is God’s country.”

But more than that, he adds, “It’s an opportunity to spend some concentrated, focused time … and a chance to be experimental.”



Levi arrived in Tacoma with a “sketch book full of ideas” that he hopes to try out during his residency.



“It’s good exposure as well,” he adds of the residency opportunity. “At the end, as an artist, you want people to see your work.”



So what might visitors see as some of Levi’s works come to life this week? Who can say, although Levi himself has written about what he strives to accomplish in his pieces: “Some messages are universal. The Flood. The Emperor’s Clothes. I have a fantasy that I will make the perfect shape, the most perfectly obvious thing — and then no one will be able to resist.”

There are two ways to watch Levi and the museum staff at work in MOG’s Hot Shop. During museum hours, visitors can watch the artists at work from the seating area inside the amphitheater. (The amphitheater is housed under the museum’s signature 90-foot cone structure.) Also, the MOG Web site (www.museumofglass.org) now features live streaming video of Hot Shop action.



The 2008 summer program concludes Sept. 3-7 with Seattle-based artist Michael Fox.

In addition to the Hot Shop Amphitheater, MOG also includes some 13,000 square feet of gallery space, where shifting exhibitions of glass art are exhibited. The facility also features a hands-on studio and a museum store.



[Museum of Glass, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday - Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, through Labor Day, $4-$10, 1801 Dock St., Tacoma, 253.284.4750]