Dale Patrick Chihuly, born in 1941, was a teenager when his father died of a heart attack. He started running with a bad crowd. His earliest work in glass, he’s joked, was shattering streetlights, an act that led to his arrest.
After graduating high school, he was determined to leave formal education behind. But his mother insisted, so he enrolled in college. In 1961, he started studying glass.
A car accident in 1976 cost Chihuly sight in one eye; still, he continued to blow glass. But after a 1979 bodysurfing accident dislocated his right shoulder, he has left the physical work to others, instead providing guidance and direction to those who work to achieve his visions.
The decision to go to college and study glass planted the seeds for a career which has flourished to such an extent that Chihuly has become a household name. His work can be found in the permanent collections of over 200 museums across 26 countries, and on nearly every island in Japan. From 1999-2000, a temporary exhibition in Jerusalem’s Citadel drew over 1.3 million visitors, setting a world record. His Fiori di Como, hanging in the lobby of Las Vegas’s Bellagio hotel, weighs over 50,000 pounds and is the largest glass sculpture ever made.
From May 2nd through November 1st, CHIHULY at Meijer Gardens will be on display at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park. It’s one of only two 2026 exhibitions of the artist’s work, and the only one in America.
This will be the third Chihuly exhibition to take place at Meijer Gardens, following a 2002 indoor exhibition and a 2010 exhibition held outdoors. That represents a significant relationship; only one other institution has been allowed to hold three exhibitions.
During CHIHULY at Meijer Gardens, his art can be experienced both indoors and outdoors. Outdoors, there will be 12 large-scale installations sited throughout the campus, while the indoor galleries will display more than 80 glass pieces along with 40 related drawings. This will be the largest exhibition of his works to have taken place at Meijer Gardens. It’s expected to draw over a million attendees.
Suzanne Ramljak, Vice President of Collections & Curatorial Affairs, said, “There are so few household names in sculpture. He has major popular recognition and appeal.” She attributes part of that appeal to the material he’s chosen to work with: glass itself, with its unique material properties. “It’s hard not to like glass,” she said.
Chihuly’s work takes the material and, drawing on traditional techniques while leaving room for innovation, stretches that material in scale and mass. “It’s unprecedented, what he’s done,” she said. “He’s brought glass into a whole new dimension, taking this very attractive material and making it into something new.” Before Chihuly, placing glass sculptures in outdoor gardens wasn’t done; we associate glass with fragility, and the outdoors can be unforgiving.
The outdoor pieces will allow garden attendees to view his work at its most expansive. There will be a 30-foot tower; in the Japanese Gardens, two glass boats will sit in the water. In contrast to the grand scale of the outdoor pieces, smaller, more intimate objects will be viewable inside the gallery exhibition CHIHULY: Radiant Forms. To get a full sense of the broadness of his work, you’ll need to experience both.
Asked what opportunities the public will have to learn about the process behind his work, Suzanne said while there won’t be a full hot shop, there will be related workshops and programs. A 10-minute film, which will run continuously, covers Chihuly’s career, showing him in his shop; it’s a wonderful portrait of Chihuly as a working artist. Full details as to classes, workshops, and programs will be made available on Meijer Gardens’ website.
Chihuly no longer travels, but Britt Cornett, the artist’s director of exhibitions, will visit Grand Rapids.
“To explain why Chihuly’s work is special—why it should be celebrated and enjoyed—it’s important to realize that it’s both traditional and innovative,” Ramljak said. “He’s been engaged with history, not just the history of glass but more generally of art.” She points to his engagement with other cultural traditions, including indigenous American art and Japanese craftsmanship.
“And he’s done new things with that knowledge. Truly, it’s thrilling. His art captures and contains light and color in this really beautiful way. Chihuly has said that he never met a color he didn’t like. That’s clear when you look at his work.”
Through the interplay of light and shadow, and of transparency and opacity, and through decisions involving color, line, and scale, Dale Chihuly has built one of the great bodies of work in American art. CHIHULY at Meijer Gardens, the most ambitious of the Gardens’ three exhibitions of his work, promises to be nothing short of limpid delight.
Meijer Gardens will be open until dusk on select evenings throughout the run of the exhibition.
CHIHULY at Meijer Gardens
Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park
1000 E. Beltline Ave. NE, Grand Rapids
May 2-Nov. 1
meijergardens.org/chihuly
Other Events:
- Keys in the Garden, May 20
- Japanese Handmade Ceramic Workshop Series: June 21
- Open Late Nights, Select Dates in May-August
- Tuesday Evening Music Club:
- Motown Sound - June 2
- Chris Cranick + Phabies - June 9
- Franklin Park - June 23
- Embodying Ubuntu: An Evening with Zondo, Samuel Nalangira And The Nathan Moore Affair - June 3
- Fifth Third Bank Summer Concert Series
- The Wallflowers with Early James - June 7
- Sierra Ferrell: Heavy Petal Tour (SOLD OUT) - June 8
- Five for Fighting + Edwin McCain - June 10
- An Evening with Wilco (SOLD OUT) - June 12
- Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue with Tank and the Bangas - June 15
- An Acoustic Evening with Trey Anastasio featuring Jeff Tanski - June 17
- Tash Sultana (North American Tour 2026) - June 19
- An Evening with Pink Martini All-Stars - June 22
- Larkin Poe + The Record Company - June 24
- Little Feat: The Last Farewell Tour - June 28
