Chihuly Garden and Glass, which opened in the Seattle Center complex in 2012, displays the works of glass blower Dale Chihuly.

Also on the Seattle Center property is the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP), formerly known as the Experience Music Project and the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. It was opened in 2000 by the late Paul Allen who was the co-Founder Microsoft and owner of the Seattle Seahawks.

Both of these museum tickets came with the CityPass I purchased. If you don’t want to purchase a CityPass, individual tickets to MoPOP range from $27-32 depending on the day. You can purchase them at the MoPOP website.

Individual tickets to Chihuly are $32. You can also purchase a Space Needle and Chihuly combo for $57 on either the Chihuly website or the Space Needle website.

I was able to show my CityPass QR code and redeem it for a ticket at the desk when you first walk into Chihuly.

There is a person checking tickets as you first walk in.

The first interior exhibit is called Winter Brilliance which was done for the Christmas window of Barney’s in New York in 2015.

In the Northwest Room Chihuly attempted to re-make Indian baskets out of glass.

In the center of the Sea Life room stands a 20 foot tall sea life tower.

Millie Fiori is based on a garden. This is a very difficult spot to get a picture. It’s a very popular place for people to pose for pictures.

Ikebana and Float Boats is based off of Dale Chihuly’s experience in Finland where he would drop his glass creations into the river from a bridge, then recover them in a boat.

The Chandeliers display originated when Dale woke up one morning with a desire to hang chandeliers over the waters of Venice, Italy. 

The courtyard between the Glass House and the Chandeliers offers an opportunity to sit and watch an artist work with glass.

I got a Space Garden IPA at the cafe to drink in the glass house.

The art work inside Chihuly’s Glass House is one piece that is 100 feet long and 25 feet tall.

I preferred the Glass House but here is the cafe seating.

There is a theater where you can watch a video on Dale Chihuly. It was quite crowded.

This is the garden area which can make for some good pictures with the Space Needle.

The garden area is 26,000 square feet.

I could not find the exit. Apparently there’s a gift shop and exit you can get to from the garden but I kept ending up back in the glass house. I had to backtrack and come out the same way I came in.

Also next to the Space Needle is the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP).

Out in front of MoPOP is a brass statue of Seattle native Chris Cornell. Chris was the lead singer for Soundgarden, Temple of the Dog, and Audio Slave. He committed suicide in his Detroit hotel room in 2017 after a Soundgarden concert.

Just like at Chihuly, I was easily able to redeem my CityPass for a ticket here.

There are a lot of cool guitars in the guitar gallery. Some of my favorites are Hank Williams, Sr, Buddy Holly, Eric Clapton, and Dave Grohl’s first Foo Fighters guitar.

They have a good size section dedicated to Nirvana.

Upstairs is an even larger section dedicated to Pearl Jam. This section includes two small theaters.

If you live in the Seattle area you can purchase a membership for $80 per year and learn how to play instruments here. 

These are sound proof rooms where you can play.

The wizards section had a lot of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings items. I’m not into any of that so the most interesting thing to me was the costumes of a guard and the cowardly lion from the original Wizard of Oz.

Down in the basement they have a horror film section.

I was a bit disappointed that some of the costumes were from more recent movies. Like this Jason costume from a 2009 movie.

This was an Alien costume from the original Alien movie.

There was a large hip hop section. The most interesting thing to me here was a suit and cane that belonged to Biggie Smalls.

There was also a Jimi Hendrix area which was in a smaller room with a lot of people in it so I opted not to take a picture of that section.

I was mostly interested in the Nirvana and Pearl Jam sections but I did find a few other exhibits here that interested me. I was surprised that despite having a statue outside there wasn’t a section dedicated to Chris Cornell and his bands.

I think MoPOP is a bit limited considering it’s name. If you aren’t interested in Rock, Hip Hop, Fantasy or Horror movies, you may not find anything you like here.

 

 

 

 

 

• Seattle