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Reflections on Picasso

Seattle Art Museum on Jan 19 2011

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.

Up Next at SAM!

Seattle Art Museum on Jan 18 2011

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.

Picasso Ticket Alert

Seattle Art Museum on Jan 10 2011

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!

Picasso: Tips and Tricks

Seattle Art Museum on Jan 7 2011

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.

PICASSO online ticketing experiencing temporary “Blue Period”

Seattle Art Museum on Dec 29 2010

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

Another ‘To Do’ List – SAM’s Top 10

Seattle Art Museum on Dec 23 2010

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!

SAM Libraries: Book(s) of the Month Club: November and December

Traci Timmons on Dec 23 2010

This is the final entry in this Book(s) of the Month Club series and a bit longer than usual. I appreciate the feedback and comments (both online and off) we’ve received over the past twelve months. Thank you!

Read More

Win 2 Tickets!

Seattle Art Museum on Dec 21 2010

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.

A Fire in My Belly

Seattle Art Museum on Dec 16 2010

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. 10^th, 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.

My Favorite Things Tours: Where Picasso Meets Lil’Wayne

Seattle Art Museum on Dec 10 2010

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.

SAM Remix: details, details, details

Seattle Art Museum on Nov 12 2010

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.

Cleaning up

Seattle Art Museum on Nov 12 2010

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.

Win 2 Tickets to Remix!

Seattle Art Museum on Nov 9 2010

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!

First Thursday Parking!

Seattle Art Museum on Nov 3 2010

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:

SAM Libraries: Book(s) of the Month Club: September and October

Traci Timmons on Oct 29 2010

September marked the beginning of National Hispanic Heritage Month (it runs through mid-October). In addition to Hispanic artists you may already be familiar with – Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, José Clemente Orozco, etc. – this celebration gives us an opportunity to look at other areas of our collections dealing with Hispanic art and artists that are perhaps less well-known. All books in this list are available for consultation at the Dorothy Stimson Bullitt Library at SAM Downtown:

This Saturday: Yoga Morning and Diwali Ball Night

sarahl on Oct 20 2010

Doesn’t it seem that every Seattle neighborhood has a yoga studio? At SAAM too, you can begin your Saturday with a yoga session at 8:30am, offered by 8 Limbs Yoga, before the 9:30am Saturday University talks. (Beginners welcome: pay by voluntary donation.)

Sacred Sites of Asia series at SAAM

sarahl on Sep 24 2010

The Gardner Center for Asian Art and Ideas kicks off a second year of programs with a series of outstanding speakers on Sacred Sites of Asia! These nine sessions are a sampling of new perspectives and images, from the Angkor Wat temple of Cambodia, to an Australian aboriginal forest, Buddhist caves of the Chinese Gobi Desert, and Zen monasteries.

Win 2 opening night tickets to
SAM Film Noir Series

Seattle Art Museum on Sep 15 2010

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.

Our Summer with SAM

Seattle Art Museum on Sep 2 2010

This summer, two very bright and curious high school seniors helped out in the museum’s curatorial division. Milo and Henry spent their summer helping organize our object records, and researching several works in the SAM collection. Here, they write about their experience.

Win Tickets to SAM Remix

Seattle Art Museum on Aug 26 2010

From a crochet party to Truckasaurus – dancing under the stars to cool new art – Sam Remix is tomorrow! It’s been a year since we’ve taken the party outside, and we can’t wait for the festivities at the Olympic Sculpture Park. Take a look at the line-up.

I’ve got your tickets, too – one pair to be exact. Wanna win them? Read More

SAM’s American Art Library: A Collection of Collectors: Professor David Tatham

Traci Timmons on Aug 25 2010

An art museum is often fittingly described as “a collection of collectors,” for each is founded on the gifts of magnanimous individuals who loved art and built personal collections that became an invaluable public resource.

The same can be said about library book collections, too—they represent the personal interests of individual readers. This is especially the case with the American art book collection found within the other collections of the Dorothy Stimson Bullitt Library at SAM downtown. The museum’s founding director, Dr. Richard Fuller, took a special interest in building a reference library to enhance public knowledge of the city’s art collection, and his tenure was marked by yearly growth of the book collection in all areas, through purchases, gifts, and exchanges with other libraries. Over the years, the library grew in relationship to the growth of individual curatorial departments, with American art thus little represented, since American art was not actively collected or exhibited at SAM.

Yoga and drawing at the Olympic Sculpture Park

Seattle Art Museum on Aug 25 2010

Can you believe how quickly this summer is zipping by? In June, we kicked off three months jam-packed with art activities at the Olympic Sculpture Park. This Saturday, Aug. 28, will be the final day for yoga and drawing in the park for the summer. If you haven’t made it to a free outdoor yoga class yet, we hope to see you Saturday. (Class runs from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., rain or shine.) Read More

Opening celebration for the Quileute exhibition

Seattle Art Museum on Aug 16 2010

The Brotman Forum was packed with energy Saturday for the opening celebration of Behind the Scenes: The Real Story of the Quileute Wolves. More than 1,600 people turned out to see the Quileute Nation drum circle and to hear stories from the Quileute culture.

The exhibition, which was curated by Barbara Brotherton, runs through Aug. 14, 2011.

Photo by JiaYing Grygiel

— JiaYing Grygiel, admissions representative

SAM Libraries: Book(s) of the Month Club: July and August

Traci Timmons on Aug 10 2010

July and August books are all about American artists.

August is American Indian Heritage Month. We are excited about the upcoming exhibition on native Quileute art and artists: Behind the Scenes: The Real Story of the Quileute Wolves. This is an excellent opportunity to talk about a number of new additions to the library collections to support the works in this exhibition.

What about those wolves….

Seattle Art Museum on Aug 5 2010

A small Native community, knit together by ancient beliefs, living in their ancestral homelands—a remote coastal village, ringed with primordial forests and in the shadow of Mt. Olympus—seems like a fitting scenario for a supernatural story line. Cast as shape-shifting werewolves in the Twilight saga books and films, opposite a band of sophisticated vampires, the Quileute really do have ties to wolves—but not werewolves! Quileute oral traditions trace their distinguished ancestry back to myth time when the powerful transformer, Kwa-ti, changed a pair of wolves into the first Quileute people. Thus began a long association with the wolf. I don’t know if Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight books, knew this but her mention of the mysterious Quileute tribe and an ancient treaty with vampires catapulted their small nation into notoriety.

Special Picasso ticket offer extended to SAM’s electronic friends

Seattle Art Museum on Jul 27 2010

As a special “thank you” to our Facebook fans and Twitter followers, we’d like to let you in on an advance opportunity, otherwise only available to museum members.

You can reserve your tickets for the Picasso exhibition NOW – one week before ticket sales open to the general public! Also, for a limited time, we will waive the $3 transaction fee when you buy Picasso tickets online.

Reflections on a Volunteer Experience

Traci Timmons on Jul 19 2010

I started volunteering with the McCaw Foundation Library at the Seattle Asian Art Museum in October of 2007. Since then I’ve applied to, attended, and graduated from, the University of Washington’s Masters in Library and Information Science (MLIS) program. These two experiences have been intertwined from the start.

Behind the Scenes: In Space & Time with Gretchen Bennett and D.W. Burnam

Seattle Art Museum on Jun 29 2010

Two weekends ago, on the gloomiest of Saturday afternoons, I had the pleasure of participating in Gretchen Bennett and D.W. Burnam’s “Unconventional Portraits” workshop on songwriting. Created in conjunction with the Kurt exhibition and Gretchen’s video installation I don’t blame you, the artists put together a day of vigorous writing exercises for those who participated.

SAM Libraries: Book(s) of the Month Club: May and June

Traci Timmons on Jun 28 2010

I didn’t get an entry in for May, so you’re getting a double-whammy of book highlights this month!

June is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month. Many artists acknowledge, raise awareness of or define their own sexuality through their artistic practice. We have a number of books in our libraries that address the art, intersections, relationships and crossroads of the LGBT community.

Yes, Party in the Park is about the music and Party in the Park is about the art. But don’t forget about the FOOD

Seattle Art Museum on Jun 23 2010

TASTE Events

And more!

And, put that wallet away! Food, beer and wine are all covered in your ticket price.

It’s not too late to buy tickets. Promo code GETOUT! gets our fans and followers 25% off.

Top photo: Maximus/Minimus (yep, the pig truck will be there)