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Lime Green Icicle Tower, 2010, 42½ x 8½ x 8½'
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, installed 2011
Slumped Baskets, monumental Towers, ornate Venetians: Chihuly’s avant-garde approach to glass sculpture has defined the Pacific Northwest studio glass movement for the last half century. But it’s New England where his career first took shape. And thanks to the passion and collaboration of the Boston arts community in 2011, his work has a permanent presence there.
Chihuly earned an MFA and became the head of the glass arts program at the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in nearby Providence in the late 1960s. For over a decade, he taught and mentored artists you may recognize—now-prominent names like Toots Zynsky, Roni Horn, Therman Statom, and Martin Blank.
Eventually, however, growing recognition—including an acquisition by the Metropolitan Museum of Art—pulled him back to Seattle in the 1970s to focus on his own artwork.
It wasn’t until 2011 that he returned to New England to look back at the 40 years since his time at RISD with Chihuly: Through the Looking Glass at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA Boston). This major retrospective introduced the city to his Chandeliers, Ikebana, Boats, Venetians, Mille Fiori, and Towers—especially the instantly recognizable Lime Green Icicle Tower.
The tall ceiling and natural light of the MFA’s newly built Shapiro Family Courtyard inspired Chihuly to create Lime Green Icicle Tower as a striking response to the space. Bright green, spinous, and 42 feet tall, it instantly became the focal point of the exhibition. According to Senior Curator Gerald Ward, “Pretty much from day one, people almost invariably ask, ‘Does this stay, is it permanent, can we keep it here?’”
Visitor demand and rave critical reviews spurred the MFA to launch a fundraising campaign to acquire the Tower. While most major museum acquisitions rely on the generosity of a major donor, the MFA turned instead to small contributions from the community that had fallen in love with the Tower. At the time, MFA Director Malcolm Rogers said that “Many ordinary people indicated they wanted to give. It's a great opportunity for people to give in a quite modest way and feel they contributed to making this a great place.”
Watch the full story below to get a closer look at the 2011 exhibition and learn how the community-driven fundraiser made MFA Boston the permanent home of the monumental Lime Green Icicle Tower.