The emerging high-tech businesses, creators, and entrepreneurs in the past 30 years made Seattle one of the leading cities in art collecting across the United States. Seattle attracts many art visitors every year, hosting well-known collectors. There is a great amount of influencers and serious art followers such as Barney Ebsworth, Tom Podl, Richard and Elizabeth Hedreen, Rebecca Stewart, Bill Gates and many others. Art and creation are now both in the fabric of Seattle as much as coffee, music, history, rain, mountains, Pike Place Market, organic food and the Space Needle.
1. SAM – Seattle Art Museum
SAM has been one of the most popular art destinations in the city since 1933. Besides its permanent collection of American, Asian, African, European, Oceanic and Islamic Art, there are lots of special exhibitions taking place, such as Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors.
2. Gather Seattle
Gather Seattle brings together the PNW food and design communities, creators, artists, entrepreneurs. They aim to build connections, inspire and nourish. It is always magical to meet all those inspirational people, having a meal in the greatest settings, being created by Seattleites who have a great eye for design. If you are visiting when one of the events taking place, I would highly recommend you to get tickets and stop by.
3. MoPOP (The Museum of Pop Culture)
The Museum of Pop Culture is a non-profit museum, dedicated to the contemporary popular culture. MoPOP is reaching multigenerational audiences through its rock ‘n’ roll collections, exhibitions, and educational programs, using interactive technologies. Even just MoPOP’s futuristic building designed by Frank O. Gehry is highly worth to see. If its 400 tons of structural steel were stretched into the lightest banjo string it would extend one-fourth of the way to Venus.
4. Olympic Sculpture Park
Olympic Sculpture Park is a free-admission outdoor park with both permanent and visiting installations, which makes it a unique institution in the United States. It embraces the idea of green space, near by the water, including monumental sculptures such as Alexander Calder’s Eagle (1971) and Richard Serra’s Wake (2004).
5. Georgetown Art Attack
The Georgetown Art Attack, held on the second Saturday each month, represents an ongoing effort by area artists to celebrate the creative diversity of Georgetown and generate public sentiment favouring preservation of this wonderful civic asset.
Seattle’s Only Free Art Ride Bus runs up and down Airport Way South and to The Equinox and Laurelhurst Cellars every 15 minutes, from 6 – 9:30 pm. Hop on the Art Ride and let us pamper you! Look for the Art Ride bus stops, manned by fanciful tour guides.
6. Chihuly Garden and Glass
Dale Chihuly was introduced to glass while studying interior design at the University of Washington. He has led the avant-garde in the development of glass as a fine art, his work is included in more than 200 museum collections worldwide. He has been the recipient of many awards, including twelve honorary doctorates and two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Chihuly Garden and Glass includes three primary components: the Garden, the Glasshouse, and the Interior Exhibits, with significant secondary spaces including a 90-seat café -decorated with many types of collections- with additional outdoor dining, a 50-seat multi-use theater and lecture space, retail and lobby spaces, and extensive public site enhancements beyond the Garden.
7. Paint & Wine Night
This is a very popular activity in Seattle and is taking place in many other places around the world. It is an event where you can create your own paintings while spending time with your friends and sipping from your wine glasses. You can check the upcoming events from the website; www.paintnite.com
8. First Thursday Seattle Art Walks
Pioneer square is one of the country’s most prominent art gallery districts where Seattle’s leading art events and openings are taking place. The First Thursday Art Walk in Pioneer Square that is started in 1981, was in fact the first in the nation, and set the stage for over a dozen Art Walks. It is now held regularly throughout the city every first Thursday of the month.
9. Seattle Art Fair
The Seattle Art Fair is founded in 2015 by Paul G. Allen, since then it takes place every year. Seattle Art Fair 2017 was recently organized and the experience was glorious. With a total of 97 exhibitors are representing 26 cities from 9 countries including 50 galleries from the Pacific Rim, the Seattle Art Fair is a one-of-a-kind destination to showcase the best modern and contemporary art and the vibrant arts community of the Pacific Northwest.
10. Bookshops
The Elliott Bay Book Company is one of the oldest bookstores in Seattle and no matter how online bookstores have all the hype, Seattleites love to spend time in these nostalgic bookstores and contribute to their business in any way they can. Mostly there are handcrafted recommendations posted on the books with post-it’s from other readers which I find very helpful; it gives the reader great insights about the book. Amazon also opened its first book store in the city. They select books based on Amazon.com customer ratings, pre-orders, sales, popularity on Goodreads, and their curators’ assessments.
Yasemin Soyen