Want to get updates on SAM program and events delivered to your inbox? Click here now to subscribe to SAM’s enewsletter. Here’s a message from SAM Director Derrick Cartwright from our May 2011 enewsletter highlighting some of the best SAM’s three sites have to offer.
Of course you’re coming to March to the Center of the Earth: Community Night Out on May 5.
The question is: Are you prepared to look FABULOUS?
This evening stop by the Chase Open Studio 5:45-8:45 pm to create your wearable art for Community Night Out. We have TONS of things that would give your look some F-L-A-R-E including fabric, sequins, feathers and more.
If you can’t make it tonight, the Open Studio will be available at 4:30 pm on May 5 an hour before the March to the Center of the Earth parade begins.
For inspiration, check out these photos from a recent SAM Creates workshop with artist Mandy Greer.
The recent exhibition, Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris, generated an estimated $66 million in economic impact for Washington State, of which $58 million was generated in King County, according to an economic impact study commissioned by SAM.
The study, prepared by University of Washington professor William B. Beyers, clearly demonstrates that a major arts event can stimulate the economy in multiple ways. The critically acclaimed exhibition was on view October 8, 2010 -January 17, 2011, and ranks as the most highly attended show in the history of SAM Downtown, attracting 405,000 visitors including nearly 20,000 school children and boosting the museum’s membership to an all time high of more than 48,000 households.
Get more details:
Jay Holcomb from local mobile marketing agency Knovolo discusses how SAM incorporated mobile into the Picasso exhibition experience with Microsoft Tag and a mobile website. Read his entire review at http://sh0w.me/mobile-at-SAM
Did you use your mobile phone to access information about the Picasso exhibition? If so, what did you think? Do you want SAM to create more ways to interact with the museum using your phone?
The SAM special exhibition Nick Cave: Meet Me at the Center of the Earth has arrived in Seattle in a very big way. Have you been dazzled by how Cave transforms ordinary objects into extraordinary art (or want to be)? Well, come to SAM Downtown on May 5 from 5:30 – 9 pm for a terrific celebration: March to the Center of the Earth: Community Night Out.
Bring your students, friends, parents, kids, neighbors, fellow artists and crafters—there will be something there for everyone! Plus, you could win these fabulous prizes:
How to enter:
All photo entries are due May 9 by 5 pm.
Family Festival: Earth Day for Kids was an amazing day of activities in celebration of Earth Day at the Olympic Sculpture Park! Everyone enjoyed making green art and fantastic live performances celebrating sustainability. Plus, dancers from Cornish College of the Arts brought Nick Cave’s Soundsuits to life! Thanks again to Target for making this event–and other family-friendly events that are focused on art–possible! Here are two fun videos from the event.
Create it, and parade it! Get your masquerade on during SAM’s special evening celebration, March to the Center of the Earth: Community Night Out. Bring a crafty costume or come early to SAM and create your own wearable art in the Chase Open Studio.
Community Night Out kicks off with a 5:30 pm procession that starts at Hammering Man at SAM Downtown, winds down 1st Avenue and returns to the museum for a night of free live performances, drop-in art making, tours and an onsite Soundsuit performance. That night is First Thursday so admission to SAM and the Nick Cave exhibition is FREE.
We are very excited to congratulate Patti Junker, the Ann M. Barwick Curator of American Art at SAM, on receiving the prestigious Frost Essay Award from the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Click here to read her essay.
Here is the Smithsonian’s offical announcement about the award:
The Smithsonian American Art Museum has awarded the 2010 Patricia and Phillip Frost Essay Award to Patricia Junker, the Ann M. Barwick Curator of American Art at the Seattle Art Museum. Her article, “Childe Hassam, Marsden Hartley, and the Spirit of 1916,” appeared in the fall 2010 issue (vol. 24, no. 3). The article presents a close contextual study and comparative analysis of Hassam’s production of impressionist paintings of American flags with an exhibition of Hartley’s abstractions of German military motifs at Alfred Stieglitz’s gallery 291 in the spring of 1916 when American sentiment about World War I had reached a fever pitch.
My name is Madeline Moy, and I just started working at SAM. I’m the digital media manager for the museum, which means I’ll be overseeing strategy and content for our website and social media.
I grew up on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. Seattle was just an hour away by ferry, but it truly was another world to me. I first visited SAM many years ago when I was in high school–not because I was interested in art, but because I was interested in a boy who was interested in art.
Each week for the past two years we have shared one work out of the nearly 25,000 in our collection on Facebook, in a feature called “SAMart.” Starting this week, SAMart comes to SOAP! Check back each week or subscribe to our RSS to learn more about new acquisitions and old favorites in the SAM collection.
Opening on April 30, Modern Elegance: The Art of Meiji Japan features paintings and decorative objects exemplifying the essence of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Japanese art.
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On Saturday, April 16 from 10am-3pm, join us for Family Festival: Earth Day for Kids, an amazing day of family-friendly activities in celebration of Earth Day at the Olympic Sculpture Park! This event is presented by Target.
This month, I traveled to Japan on a study tour for American curators of Japanese and contemporary art. Sponsored by the Japan Foundation, the two-week adventure took us on a whirlwind tour of museums in Tokyo, Yokohama, Kanazawa, Kyoto, Osaka, and Naoshima. The objective of the trip was to introduce a wide range of U.S. art professionals to Japanese museum practices and to foster a cross-cultural dialogue between specialists. The trip accomplished this goal, without a doubt, but it will be the events of March 11 and beyond that will prove most memorable.
The SAM conservation department has launched a new webpage within the SAM website! Please visit http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/conservation for information on SAM conservation activities and updated quarterly news.
Rebecca Nickels is one of our designer extraordinares on staff here at SAM. Recently she had the idea to create tactile wall lettering for the upcoming Nick Cave: Meet Me at the Center of the Earth galleries. Cara Egan, SAM’s PR Director, recently interviewed Rebecca about this most unusual task.
I am eager to welcome you back to SAM after the recent, short furlough. While this was a difficult measure to undertake, it did achieve its goal of significantly reducing expenses associated with this year’s budget. My colleagues and I returned to the museum this week after a two week break, energized and ready for the year ahead. I thank you again for your support and understanding during our absence.
Wondering what the SAM staff are up to over our furlough (more info on that here)? Some of us are getting out of town, some of us are staying home and catching up on sleep, and at least one individual is in training. Our Senior Accountant, Richard Heine, is running the Paris Marathon on April 10. Did I mention this is the first marathon he’s ever run? So while we normally encourage hours of browsing in the Louvre instead of passing it by at a 10 mph clip, in this case, we’re all behind him.
Two Chief Sealth International High School students write in response to the Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum, November 2010. Photo: Catherine Anstett.
Wallace Stevens published his poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird in 1917, around seven years after Pablo Picasso painted the cubist landscape Sacre-Coure. In the poem and the painting, these two artists explore one object (a blackbird and a Parisian church, respectively) through multiple perspectives. Jumping forward to November 2010, students from Chief Sealth International High School were introduced to both works during a visit to SAM Downtown and asked to add a layer of their own perspectives in a creative writing exercise led by teaching writers Cambray Provo and Jeanine Walker.
We are gearing up for our next show Nick Cave: Meet Me at the Center of the Earth which opens March 10. Check out this video to learn more about Nick’s work. You are in for a fantastical treat.
It is hard to believe that we are entering the final weekend days to catch Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris!
We’ll be updating this blog post regularlyas regularly as we possibly can with the current ticket situation, so you can check out what timeslots are currently being sold on site and any other urgent information. Be sure to check out this blog before you come!
There are just 10 days left before Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris closes, and we have the info you need to make your experience with these amazing works of art – and the crowds they’ve attracted – even more … well … amazing!
Here are some tips, tricks and answers to common questions that we hope will help.
We are so thrilled with the enthusiastic response to Picasso, but unfortunately our online ticketing system is not. Due to the unprecedented demand this week we are experiencing system delays so please bear with us as we resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Please note: We are very busy this week due to the holidays and tickets are limited.
Though you can always buy tickets on-site at all three of our locations: SAM Downtown, Seattle Asian Art Museum and the Olympic Sculpture Park, be aware that due the high volume of ticket sales we are averaging about a 4 to 5 hour wait for the next available timeslot to see Picasso.
Our best advice is to visit in the evenings or on a weekday during the first two weeks of January. We are open unprecedented extended hours- every evening until 9 p.m. with a few exceptions.
Don’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime show before it closes on January 17! For more details on how best to plan your visit go to http://picassoinseattle.org/visit.html
It’s that time of year when most of us become obsessed with “lists”. We’ve got holiday gift lists, grocery store lists, New Year’s resolution lists, party lists… it goes on and on. Even Santa has a list! We don’t want to add to your holiday stress, but we do want to add another list to your lists!
Geesh! Where did the time go? 2011 is right around the corner and SAM Films is preparing to kick off the New Year with an action packed film series from Viennese producer – director – actor Otto Preminger. To get you in the mood for some of this award winning director’s best work, we want to give you an opportunity to win 2 tickets to the January 6th opening night of the series; The Art of Living: Films by Otto Preminger.
As the director of the Seattle Art Museum, I am concerned about the recent removal of David Wojnarowicz’s film “A Fire in My Belly” from an exhibition in Washington, DC. Wojnarowicz, who died of complications from AIDS in 1992, made two versions of the film between 1986 and 1987. Holland Cotter’s thorough discussion of the history of this particular work, the sources of its imagery, and Wojnarowicz’s life, which appeared in the New York Times on Dec. 10th, is worth reading. The decision to withdraw this politically-charged, intentionally-troubling imagery from public view in Washington DC serves to remind us that controversy can ignite at almost any time, that it is almost always painful, and that those of us who are lucky enough to work in the arts need to be prepared to stand up for what we believe is right, if we are going to maintain democracy.
So it’s a Friday night and you made it to SAM, waited in line (admiring Cai Guo-Qiang’s twinkling cars suspended above your head, of course), purchased your ticket to Picasso, followed the orange line up 2 floors, fidgeted with the audio guide while you wait in line again, entered the Picasso exhibition and you’re ready to earn your way onto Team Picasso. Normally what takes place from this point on is around an hour of doing the “museum shuffle” with your fellow audio guide aficionados. Here’s where we like to shake things up a bit.
Wow! There are a lot of you beautiful people coming to SAM Remix tomorrow. We can’t wait to see you, and we want to try to make the night as fun and hassle-free for you as possible, so we’re passing along some IMPORTANT EVENT INFORMATION.
Last week, on one of our 70 degree sunny days, the Olympic Sculpture Park teamed up with Puget Soundkeepers Alliance to collect and remove creosote logs from the waterfront. Bobby McCullough, SAM’s lead gardner at the park, was part of a team that removed ten tons (!) of creosote soaked wood from the Olympic Sculpture Park, Myrtle Edwards and Elliott Bay Park.
Our special, Picasso edition of SAM Remix is this Saturday, November 13, and we’re giving away 2 tickets to this wildly popular event. From the “party rock” sounds of Tigerbeat to artist trivia contests led by Geeks Who Drink to live figure drawing in the “Blue Studio”, performances by the Harlequin Hipsters and much, much more. You really don’t want to miss this one!
Remember we’re open until midnight this First Thursday! Wondering where to park? Here’s information on the most convenient place to park during your visit:
Hurry! You could be the winner of 2 tickets to tomorrow night’s season opening of the SAM Film Noir Series! Help SAM celebrate thirty-three years of presenting some of the world’s best films in this genre. Enjoy the feature film “Nightmare Alley” and immediately afterwards join in the special opening night festivities.
