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Seattle Art Museum Connecting Art to Life One Blog Post at a Time

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A Message of Solidarity

Jun 6 2020

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Object of the Week: Portrait Drawing of Gwendolyn Knight

Jul 31 2020

Object of the Week: Male Farming Animal headdress (Ci Wara)

Jul 24 2020

Object of the Week: 400 Men of African Descent

Jul 17 2020

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SAM Performs: Trapsprung Dances

Jul 30 2020

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SAM Creates: Poetry Inspired by Calligraphy

Jun 9 2020

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Muse/News: Soul partners, gamechangers, and Kerry James Marshall’s birds

Aug 3 2020

Muse/News: Eagle’s makeover, open gazes, and dancing wire

Jul 28 2020

Muse/News: Art parks, virtual festivals, and good trouble

Jul 20 2020

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SAM Creates: Dance Like Lynette Yiadom-Boakye Is Watching

May 26 2020

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SAM Shop: Creative Pottery with Deb Schwartzkopf

Jun 30 2020

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$Betye Saar’s \"Cage (In the Beginning)\" points to a history of slavery and captivity—physical and psychological—but the towering enclosure also alludes to earlier beginnings, evoking ancestral figures of power and strength that rise to the top. This sculpture is part of \"Storied Objects,\" an installation that shares histories of Black lives and experiences in America. The artists in this installation rely on our powers of association to communicate narrative possibilities. Did you get a chance to visit this gallery before the museum closed? If not, we look forward to you seeing it once we can reopen. • #BetyeSaar #Sculpture #SeattleArtMuseum \"Cage (In the Beginning),\" 2006, Betye Saar, American, b. 1926, mixed media assemblage, 42 x 14 1/2 x 12 1/4 in., Courtesy of Lisa Goodman and Josef Vascovitz.$
$Swipe to see the #SAMObjectOfTheWeek, two works by Marita Dingus selected by our community to join SAM\'s collection 20 years ago. Dingus was inspired to create these works after visiting Elmina Castle, a Ghanaian fort where for two centuries enslaved Africans were held captive. As in Dingus’ larger sculptural practice, the miniature figures in \"400 Men of African Descent\" and \"200 Women of African Descent\" are comprised of discarded materials, in this case elements such as zipper pulls, Christmas light bulbs, and textile fragments. These works ignite conversations about slavery, colonialism, and systemic racism. Hopefully, they might also be seen as an offering, an emblem of a community’s support for important dialogue and change. • #LinkInBio #SeattleArtMuseum #MaritaDingus #SeattleArt [\"400 Men of African Descent,\" 1997, Marita Dingus, cloth and mixed media, African Art Acquisition Fund, 98.43 ©️ Marita Dingus. \"200 Women of African Descent,\" 1997, Marita Dingus, cloth and mixed media, Gift of the artist and Francine Seders Gallery, 2009.54 ©️ Marita Dingus.]$
$We are saying goodbye to an inspiring civil rights leader. John Lewis\' commitment to justice and nonviolence was lifelong and it will continue to inspire lives for a long time to come. In 2017, we were celebrating the release of this American icon\'s graphic novel, \"MARCH,\" winner of the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. At that time, SAM was honored to have John Lewis visit the galleries while \"Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series\" was on view. Today we are thinking of \"Confrontation at the Bridge,\" also by Jacob Lawrence, depicting the 1965 March from Selma to Montgomery that John Lewis helped organize. Known as Bloody Sunday, the violence of the state troopers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge to halt the march galvanized the public and led to the passing of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. Rest in power, John Lewis. • #JohnLewis #SeattleArtMuseum #JacobLawrence [Installation view of \"Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series\" at the Seattle Art Museum, 2017.]$
$For her upcoming exhibition “Barbara Earl Thomas: The Geography of Innocence,” Thomas is creating all new artworks that ask us to question how we consider light and dark, positive and negative, innocence and guilt. The exhibition will feature a series of cut-paper portraits of Black youth that lead into a dramatic contemplative environment of illuminated glass portraits, and a floor to ceiling illuminated sculpture. Learn more about the upcoming exhibition and @barbaraearlthomas\' art practice on July 21 during a virtual artist talk. \"The Geography of Innocence\" opens Nov 14 at SAM. • #SeattleArtMuseum #SeattleArt #BarbaraEarlThomas #WorksonPaper [Color Wheel, 2019, Barbara Earl Thomas, American, cut paper and hand-printed color, 26 x 40 in. Photo: Spike Mafford]$
$Roy DeCarava\'s high contrast photography contemplates life in Harlem as known to an artist born in 1919. His record of Black life emphasizes dark tones to create a visual poetry. The photograph, \"Man and Girl at Crossing,\" taken in 1978, has new dimension as we consider DeCarava\'s thoughts on cultural history and aesthetics in this quote from 1990 and the conversations taking place in 2020. • #RoyDecarava #SeattleArtMuseum #Photography [\"Man and Girl at Crossing,\" 1978, Roy DeCarava, gelatin silver photograph, 13 x 8 15/16 in., Gift of the American Telephone and Telegraph Co., 82.61 Roy DeCarava \"Man and Girl at Crossing,\" 1978, Roy DeCarava, gelatin silver photograph, 13 x 8 15/16 in., Gift of the American Telephone and Telegraph Co., 82.61 ©️ Roy DeCarava.]$
$If you find yourself downtown, take a walk past SAM\'s entrance on First and Union to check out the recently completed mural by @kimishaturner. Turner\'s quote and artwork acknowledge the historical suffering of Black people in America while offering hope and empowerment. Visually, the arrows in the mural created for SAM connect to Turner\'s other recently completed mural work on the \"B\" in the Black Lives Matter mural on Capitol Hill. We are excited to share work by this talented local artist with Seattle. • #KimishaTurner #SeattleArtMuseum #Mural$
$Last week we shared words and artwork by #TitusKaphar, winner of SAM\'s first Gwendolyn Knight & Jacob Lawrence Prize. Now we are sharing the words and work of Jacob Lawrence himself. One of the 20th century’s most important American painters and an esteemed local artist and teacher, Lawrence\'s legacy of generosity and talent continues to inspire SAM with a gallery and a bi-annual art award named for him and his wife. The painting you see in the second slide is from Lawrence’s revolutionary series, \"Struggle . . . from the History of the American People (1954–56).\" See all 30 panels in the series reunited for the first time since 1958 at SAM in February 2021. • #JacobLawrence #SeattleArtMuseum [\"We have no property! We have no wives! No children! We have no city! No country! —petition of many slaves, 1773,\" Panel 5, 1955, Jacob Lawrence, from \"Struggle: From the History of the American People,\" 1954–56, Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross, ©️ 2019 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.]$
$Juneteenth is an enduring emancipation holiday and a time to reflect on the promises of freedom and the bloody costs of its continuous delay. It’s a day to celebrate the genius of Black joy and resilience. Starting today, we\'re happy to begin commemorating Juneteenth as an official paid holiday for SAM employees. Learn more about this holiday and our country\'s history on #SAMBlog and swipe through to find out more about the many online events observing the holiday and taking place today! • #LinkInBio #Juneteenth$

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