A kayaker on the Thea Foss Waterway breaks the long reflections of morning light with the skinny boat’s wake. The sun streams through windows on the Tacoma waterfront, and through thousands of pieces of glass, scattering the light into rainbows that turn the heads of pedestrians and invite them to bask in the color.

Once known as a colorless industry town focused on copper and timber, Tacoma has evolved into a vibrant magnet for artists and art lovers, embracing the culture of creativity with a burgeoning gallery scene and a Museum District. True to Tacoma’s past, most of the attention is on industrial art and the preference of blowtorches over paintbrushes.

Among those who added fire to the city’s creative evolution was renowned artist Dale Chihuly, a native son who with other glass artists in the Pacific Northwest was a leader in the studio glass movement that has since spread globally. When the Museum of Glass opened in 2002, it started displaying his work and began operating a working hot shop. Now, there are private studios, hot shops and glass public art all across the city.

It’s the kind of place where glass art isn’t found only in museums and gift shops, but also on a bridge, in a fountain, in a bar, in a hotel, in a federal courthouse and in a university study room. And if you want to channel your inner Chihuly, you can create your own rainbow.

Rising from the edge of the Thea Foss Waterway in downtown Tacoma, a tilted 90-foot-tall cone wrapped in stainless steel pierces the skyline. Inspired by the wood burners of sawmills that once proliferated in this region, the cone — part of the Museum of Glass — symbolizes the transformation of the city from an industrial to cultural center.

With a growing permanent collection, an exhibition schedule that includes works by internationally known artists, and artist residencies, the Museum of Glass highlights the development of modern and contemporary glass. While wandering through exhibits of Chihuly works from the museum’s permanent collection as well as glass-and-steel sculptures of Albert Paley, I have to resist touching the art at least a dozen times — so alluring are the colors and textures that I yearn to see how they were created.

Desires like this lead everyone to the museum’s Hot Shop in that distinctive stainless-steel cone. It’s here where the Hot Shop Team demonstrates how works of art are made from molten glass, often working alongside the artists in residence at the museum. If you can’t get enough of it in person, you can always follow along at home on the live feed.

A short distance away, the Tacoma Art Museum continues the glass tradition. Here, the museum’s collection of Chihuly glass gets a gallery of its own, loaded with gifts from the artist to represent a retrospective of his career. But that’s not where it stops. In addition, the Anne Gould Hauberg Collection and Paul Marioni Collection add 551 more studio glass works to the museum’s treasure.

Don’t skip out on the other exhibits at the Tacoma Art Museum, especially those by notable Northwest artists. In January 2019, the Benaroya Collection gets a permanent home in a new wing that’s currently under construction. Comprising 353 works of studio art glass, paintings, and sculptures by Northwest and international artists, the collection brings the museum’s glass holdings to approximately 1,000 works — placing it among the most important studio art glass collections in the United States.

Despite having no prior history with glassblowing, I’m so inspired by Tacoma’s museum exhibits that I decide to face the fire and see if I can create something that looks a little better than a kindergarten pottery project. Luckily, all I need to summon my inner Chihuly are closed-toe shoes, safety glasses and a visit to Area 253 Glassblowing.

“It’s the extreme sport of the art world,” claims Patrick Cahill, owner of the studio — an artist who’s been blowing glass since 2006.

Extreme in terms of heat, to be sure. A furnace with the crucible of molten glass is kept at 2,120 degrees Fahrenheit and the glory hole, for reheating and melting glass, tops out at 2,400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Together, Cahill and I gather glass onto the blowpipe, which measures about 4 feet long, thankfully allowing a little distance from the heat. As we begin to color and shape my chosen art piece, a small blue-and-green bowl, I’m shown how to turn the blowpipe to swirl the colors before I blow through the tube to create the growing bubble in the glass.

Watching the viscous glass ooze in the heat is mesmerizing, a little like watching a campfire. But I can’t lose myself completely to the romance, because I’m worried about losing some of my project to the fire. Cahill points out that it takes more time than I think to get the glass to a place where it’s beyond repair. Standing in front of the furnace, focused on the lava-like substance, the meditative feeling makes me forget thoughts of anything else.

Thankfully, I’m guided expertly through the process without dropping any glass, molten or otherwise. My still-hot bowl looks much like glass bowls in local gift shops, and while I’m far from displaying any future works in a museum, I’m hooked. We place my piece into the annealer, which controls the rate of cooling, and Cahill tells me to come back the next night to pick up my first piece of blown glass.

The soaring arches and rotunda of Union Station, like the cone of the Museum of Glass, add more shapes to the Tacoma skyline. Built in 1910 by Grand Central Terminal architects Reed and Stern, the building was used as a rail station until 1984, and is now a federal courthouse. But duck inside, and you’ll see another treasure in the city’s trove of glass art.

The site is one of the stops on the Tacoma Art Museum’s “Chihuly Glass Walking Tour,” a self-guided excursion through Chihuly’s art in the Tacoma Museum District. In the early 1990s, Chihuly got the idea to display his art in the rotunda; he formally dedicated the pieces permanently in 2017.

Standing in the center of the rotunda, underneath the aqua, scarlet and lemon “End of Day” chandelier that almost looks as if it’ll take off like a rocket ship through the circular glass ceiling, I turn to see Chihuly glass in every direction — from the orange “Monarch Window” flowers backlit against the east window to the row of vermilion “Water Reeds” in the entry window to the giant “Lackawanna Ikebana” circle of tangled flower stems on the south mezzanine.

More Information IF YOU GO Getting there Nonstop flights from San Francisco to Seattle/Tacoma cost about $125 and take about two hours. Where to stay Hotel Murano: 1320 Broadway, Tacoma. 253-238-8000, www.hotelmuranotacoma.com. This downtown hotel has a museum-worthy collection of glass art from around the world, and provides a great home base only a few blocks away from Tacoma’s best museums. Room rates start at about $159 per night. Silver Cloud Inn Tacoma Waterfront: 2317 North Ruston Way, Tacoma. 253-272-1300, www.silvercloud.com/tacoma. Smack on Tacoma’s waterfront, this hotel is only two miles from the museum district and allows you to enjoy life by the water. Room rates start at about $169 per night. Where to eat The Swiss Restaurant & Pub: 1904 S. Jefferson Ave. , Tacoma. 253-572-2821, www.theswisspub.com. The best seats here are at the bar, where you can gaze at Chihuly glass vases. Choose from a menu packed with light fare, shareables, salads, sandwiches and burgers, and entrees. Prices range about $9-$16.99. Harmon Restaurant: 1938 Pacific Ave., Tacoma. 253-383-2739, www.harmonbrewingco.com. Tacoma’s first brew pub, this spot is in the heart of the downtown Museum and University District. The menu has a little bit of everything, and prices range about $6-$28. Dirty Oscar’s Annex: 2309 Sixth Ave., Tacoma. 253-572-0588, www.dirtyoscarsannex.com. Is it the smoked pork hash, the shrimp and grits, the waffle rito or the spicy B loody Marys? Try them all for breakfast at this joint. Prices range about $10-$18 for breakfast; $10-$24 for lunch and dinner. What to do Museum of Glass: 1801 Dock St., Tacoma. 253-284-4719, www.museumofglass.org. This contemporary art museum dedicated to glass and glassmaking in the West Coast’s largest and most active museum glass studio hosts exhibits, as well as a live hot shop where the team works with visiting artists to demonstrate the process of creating artworks from molten glass. Admission: $15 per adult, $12 seniors/students/military, $5 per child. Tacoma Art Museum: 1701 Pacific Ave., Tacoma. 253-272-4258, www.tacomaartmuseum.org. The museum’s exhibits focus on the art and artists of the Northwest (including a significant collection of studio art glass), as well as western American art. A new wing is currently under construction to house the Benaroya Collection that includes studio art glass, among other works. Admission: $15 per adult, $13 students and seniors, free for military and children 5 and under. Area 253 Glassblowing Studio: 2514 Holgate St., Tacoma. 253-779-0101, www.area253glassblowing.com. This public-access glassblowing studio holds classes, workshops and private lessons for beginner, intermediate and advanced glassblowers. Try your hand at making your own art. Rates start at $75. More Information Travel Tacoma + Pierce County: www.traveltacoma.com

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Just outside the doors of Union Station, a 500-foot pedestrian bridge over Interstate 705 connects to the Museum of Glass and Tacoma’s waterfront. During the day, the Chihuly Bridge of Glass offers beautiful views of the city, but I quickly learn that my favorite time here is at night, when I can walk under the 2,000 glass objects in the pavilion ceiling and feel as if I’m swimming underwater in a multicolored coral reef. Farther along the bridge, an 80-foot wall displays 109 Chihuly sculptures as if they were in a museum.

With the glass treasures in Tacoma, everywhere becomes a museum, and you don’t need to rely on the sunlight in order to see rainbows.

Jill K. Robinson is a freelance writer based in Half Moon Bay. Email: travel@sfchronicle.com Twitter and Instagram: @DangerJR