Free Ways to See Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle

Chelsea Werner-Jatzke on Mar 2 2021

Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle opens this Friday, March 5, and tickets to opening weekend are already sold out! But, don’t worry, future dates are available and released on a rolling basis, every week on Thursdays. Meanwhile, we all love the sound of free—find out how you can experience this revolutionary story as told by Jacob Lawrence and contemporary artists Derrick Adams, Bethany Collins, and Hank Willis Thomas for free.

  • Free community passes are available to any requesting individual, family, or group as passes are available. Passes are especially those for whom the cost of a ticket is prohibitive and groups who have been historically excluded from the museum space due to systematic oppression, including communities of color, immigrant and refugee communities, low income communities, queer communities, and the disability community.
  • First Thursdays are back and better than ever starting April 1 (no foolin’)! Previously, admission to special exhibitions wasn’t included as part of Free First Thursday but now the entire museum, including The American Struggle, is free on the first Thursday of every month.
  • First Friday: With this reopening, we’ve also expanded benefits on First Fridays. Now, admission to The American Struggle is free for anyone 65 years and older and $7.99 for everyone else!
  • UW Art Students, fill out our customer service form to request free tickets.
  • Members of City of Seattle’s Gold and FLASH card program can get free tickets for caregivers by filling out our customer service form.
  • SAM members and children (14 & under) are free.

SAM is for everyone and we’re here to make sure anyone can see the art they love! Don’t forget, entry to SAM’s permanent collections is always suggested admission! You can experience our global collection year-round and pay what you want by calling our customer service center. At this time, capacity at the museum is limited and everyone must get tickets in advance of their visit. We can’t wait to see you at the museum again.

SAM Connects Jeffrey Gibson to Community for Free

Chelsea Werner-Jatzke on Feb 22 2019

SAM Connects Jeffrey Gibson to Community for Free

We are excited about Jeffrey Gibson: Like a Hammer opening in just a few short days and want to make sure you know all the free and discounted ways to see this new, colorful, and exuberant exhibition!

Artist Jeffrey Gibson is of Cherokee heritage and a citizen of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. He grew up in urban settings in Germany, South Korea, the United States, and England, and his work draws on his experiences in different cultural environments. In his artwork, Gibson creates a new visual language from familiar items associated with Native powwow, such as glass beads, drums, trade blankets, and metal jingles, which are overlaid with markers of queer club culture as well as the legacies of abstract painting. The inspiration and community of dance clubs and pop music reverberate throughout his work.

Mark your calendars with these opportunities to see this visionary contemporary exhibition where powwow meets pop culture meets punching bags.

We are kicking things off on February 28 with a free Community Opening Celebration from 5–9 pm. The museum will be open late for free so that you can spend plenty of time looking at Gibson’s art in the galleries and still take in the many activities of the evening such as dance performances by Marco Farroni, music and storytelling with The G’ma Project artists Nijuana Jones and Che Sehyun, art making with local artist Philippe Hyojung Kim, and tours led by Jaimée Marsh, and Iisaaksiichaa Ross Braine—all for free!

Also on opening day, Jeffrey Gibson will be in attendance and offering a free talk and screening of new video works. Don’t risk it, reserve a free ticket for Jeffrey Gibson: Like a Hammer and Next Steps at 7 pm on Feb 28!

SAM also offers free and discounted passes to visit our special exhibitions for community organizations or colleges and universities. Find out more and fill out our form to get yours today!

First Thursdays, tickets are to see Like a Hammer are half off and the museum is open late. Swing through on March 7, April 4, or May 2.

First Fridays, seniors get half-off entry to Like a Hammer. If you’re 65+, mark your calendar for March 1, April 5, or May 3.

We’ve also go special deals for teens to pay $5 for a ticket to Like a Hammer through our partner organization TeenTix. Oh, and kids 12 and under are always free!

We also offer free entry to caregivers accompanying a visitor, employees of other museums, gold or flash card holders, and members of the press with ID. Check out our FAQ for more information and other ways to get discounts!

While we’re at it, did you know that it’s always suggested admission to visit SAM’s collection galleries? These are just a few ways SAM connects art to life!

Make Your Own Wonderful Wardrobe at the Seattle Asian Art Museum on Free First Saturday

Seattle Art Museum on May 4 2012

Make Your Own Wonderful Wardrobe at the Seattle Asian Art Museum on Free First Saturday

On Saturday, May 5, bring your family to the Seattle Asian Art Museum for Free First Saturday! Explore the exhibition Colors of the Oasis: Central Asian Ikats, and design your own wearable art inspired by gorgeous garments from central Asia.
This fun-filled day will feature special performances by Silk Road Dance Company, which has delighted audiences around the country with traditional and fusion dances from the Middle East and Central Asia. Performing Uzbek, Afghani, Tadjik, Azerbaijani, Kurdish, Persian, and Egyptian dance techniques rarely seen in the United States, Silk Road Dance Company offers a unique glimpse of the life, culture, and art of little known regions.

Please note that a large public event in Volunteer Park will be taking place all day May 5. We recommend that you allow extra time for parking and walking to the Seattle Asian Art Museum. You also may want to consider biking or taking a bus instead of driving.

Free First Saturday at the Seattle Asian Art Museum is presented by Russell Investments with support provided by The Peg & Rick Young Foundation.

-Madeline Moy, Digital Media Manager

A Night Out with GO! Gauguin

Seattle Art Museum on Mar 9 2012

A Night Out with GO! Gauguin

The exotic flavors and colors associated with Gauguin & Polynesia: An Elusive Paradise have inspired bartenders around town to create special exhibition drinks.  This Friday night, enjoy a Polynesian-influenced libation with your GO! Gauguin coupon!

SAM is hiding two Gauguin & Polynesia tickets at one of these partner locations.  At noon today on Facebook and Twitter, we will reveal a clue for the location of this hidden pair of tickets.  The first person to reach the location and say, “Go Gauguin!” wins the tickets.

The following restaurants all have special Gauguin & Polynesia cocktails.  Tweet a picture of your cocktail tonight to @iheartSAM!

TASTE Restaurant
At SAM Downtown, 1300 First Ave. 

If you’re already at the museum, present your GO! Gauguin coupon while dining at TASTE to receive a complimentary exhibit inspired dessert. Cannot be combined with other offers or discounts.

Lecosho
89 University

Come on down to Lecosho – just a stroll away from SAM on the Harbor Steps – and receive 15% off your bill with your GO! Gauguin coupon. You may also enjoy The Gauguin, a special Polynesian-inspired cocktail, for only $5. Not valid with other offers, discounts or during happy hour.

Library Bistro and Bookstore Bar
92 Madison Street

Present your GO! Gauguin coupon during happy hour from 4–7 pm for a Polynesian-inspired cocktail at the Bookstore Bar or take 10% off your food bill in the Library Bistro Monday–Friday, 11:30 am–2:00 pm. Cannot be combined with other offers or discounts.

Marché
86 Pine Street

Dine at Marché located in Pike Place Market and delight in their special Gauguin-inspired menu items. Enjoy the Pousee au Crime cocktail, which means “the drink made me do it,” an intoxicating blend of French agricole rhum shot with cane sugar and lime juice for $8. Or try the Tahitian vanilla bean pot de crème with huckleberry conserve for $7.

Wild Ginger Asian Restaurant & Satay Bar
1401 Third Avenue

Satisfy your taste palette with a discounted, special Polynesian-themed appetizer and cocktail when you present your GO! Gauguin coupon at Wild Ginger Asian Restaurant & Satay Bar. Cannot be combined with other offers or discounts. No substitutions.

– Sean C. Fraser, Public Relations Intern

Experience the Art and Culture of French Polynesia at Community Day on March 10

Seattle Art Museum on Mar 7 2012

Experience the Art and Culture of French Polynesia at Community Day on March 10

Join us at SAM Downtown on Saturday, March 10 for a fun-filled celebration of French Polynesian art and culture that the whole family can enjoy.

The first 400 people in line at Hammering Man at 10 am will receive free tickets to Gauguin & Polynesia: An Elusive Paradise! These are timed tickets, which means that they are for various time slots throughout the day. Please proceed to the Gauguin & Polynesia gallery entrance on the 4th floor 10–15 minutes prior to the time listed on your ticket.

Community Day activities include art making, tours, dancing and live music.

  • Experience the power and beauty of Tahitian dancing and drumming performances by Te’a rama, including a Marquesan haka (a Polynesian traditional welcome) with performances at 10:30 am and 1:45 pm in South Hall, and 11 am and 2 pm in the Plestcheef Auditorium.
  • Enjoy French café music by Rouge in South Hall at 12:30 pm.
  • Participate in all day art making activities will include: paper leis, Polynesian-inspired printmaking, tiki masks, mixed media postcards, and landscape pastels.

-Madeline Moy, Digital Media Manager

Photo Credit: Dan Bennett

Japanese Internment Remembered at Final Weekend of “Painting Seattle”

Seattle Art Museum on Feb 15 2012

Japanese Internment Remembered at Final Weekend of “Painting Seattle”

In recognition of Remembrance Day on February 19, guest curator Barbara Johns will give an exhibition tour of Painting Seattle: Kamekichi Tokita and Kenjiro Nomura on Saturday, February 18, at 11 am.

Remembrance Day marks the signing of Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, which enabled the U.S. military to forcibly relocate anyone considered threatening to national security. The order resulted in the incarceration of 120,000 people of Japanese descent, two-thirds of whom were American born citizens, the children and grandchildren of the Japanese immigrant generation. Even as the order was signed, ranking officials understood that there were no grounds to suspect and hold an entire population. This year is the 70th anniversary of the signing.

The circumstances leading to the signing and the impact on peoples’ lives is movingly recounted in Tokita’s diary, which is published in Signs of Home: The Paintings and Wartime Diary of Kamekichi Tokita. Two of his paintings from the Minidoka Relocation Center are included in the exhibition.

Admission to the Seattle Asian Art Museum will be free on February 19—also the last day of Painting Seattle—in further recognition of the importance of the day.

Self-portrait, ca. 1936, oil on canvas, Kamekichi Tokita American (born in Japan), 1897-1946, 21 x 17 in., collection of Shokichi and Elsie Y. Tokita.

Spend Your Mid-Winter Break at SAM!

Seattle Art Museum on Feb 15 2012

In honor of Presidents Day and Mid-Winter Break, SAM is open extended hours over the week of February 20-24. We hope you can take advantage of this time to visit Gauguin & Polynesia: An Elusive Paradise. Michael Church, arts writer at The Seattle Times, said, “Dazzling is the defining word for the extraordinary display of work by Paul Gauguin at the Seattle Art Museum.”  Please note that tickets are reduced by $3 from 5-9 pm every day!

  • Monday, February 20: SAM is open 10 am – 9 pm.
  • Tuesday, February 21: SAM is open 10 am – 9 pm.
  • Wednesday, February 22: SAM is open 10 am – 9 pm. Check out a free exhibition talk by curator Pam McClusky at the Seattle Central Library.
  • Thursday, February 23: SAM is open 10 am – 9 pm. The François Truffaut film series continues with Two English Girls at 7:30 pm.
  • Friday, February 24: SAM is open 10 am – 6 pm. The late-night art explosion SAM Remix is 7:30 pm – 12:30 am.

Docent-led tours of the Gauguin & Polynesia exhibition are featured every day at 1 pm and 2 pm and are included with your admission ticket.

Drop-in art activities for kids are available in the Chase Open Studio. Visit the galleries and then make your own masterpiece to take home!

Everyone deserves a bit of paradise. Escape the gray of winter at the Seattle Art Museum!

Lots of Free Fun for February’s First Thursday!

Seattle Art Museum on Feb 1 2012

All of these events on February 2 are free and open to the public. For more information, please visit SAM’s website at seattleartmuseum.org.

Ladies Musical Club Recital
Noon-1 pm
Pletscheeff Auditorium, SAM Downtown
Seattle’s oldest arts organization presents an afternoon of classical music performed by club members and special guests. This month’s performance features Selina Chu (piano), Karin McCullough (piano) and Catherine Treadgold (mezzo-soprano).

KOMO News Meetup
6-8 pm
Brotman Forum, SAM Downtown
Join KOMO News at SAM Downtown for drinks, music, prize giveaways and great art! Admission to SAM’s Collection Galleries will be free, including one of our newest exhibitions, Theaster Gates: The Listening Room. Incorporating a vast array of disciplines, Theaster Gates’ solo exhibition at SAM will transform the gallery with cultural ephemera. Coupled with objects and architectural elements that elicit stories through every day practices, the backbone of the installation will be a collection of vinyl records that reflect cultural and social currents of the 60s, 70s and 80s. Every First Thursday, a DJ will be spinning  and a volunteer archivist will be recording those mixes.

Theaster Gates: To Play a People’s Music
6:30 pm
Kane Hall 120, University of Washington Seattle Campus
The Seattle Art Museum and the University of Washington’s College of Built Environments are bringing Theaster Gates back to Seattle for a free lecture. Gates provided the following description for his talk: “This night, we will play and sing songs. We will reflect and breathe together. We will remember why sentiment was a necessary political tactic. The nostalgic, the desperate and the mundane worked perfectly for love, revolution and trans-national belief accumulation. It is melodic word, not just the spoken, that gives soul-power. Sound all alone has done so much. I want to be funk and gospel and soul. I am curious about yourselves and how the podium might move us all if we ride together. 2 turntables and a mic recomposed. Maybe.”

Food and Faith in Japan Lecture Series
Modernizing Mochi: From Divine Mirror to Frozen Treat
7-8 pm
Stimson Auditorium, Seattle Asian Art Museum
Independent anthropologist and artist Julia Harrision will look at the many forms, flavors, and cultural roles assigned to mochi, a traditional Japanese food made of pounded rice, and the technological, historical, and religious factors that influence how mochi is made and consumed.

Food and Faith in Japan

Seattle Art Museum on Jan 25 2012

A fascinating series of lectures will be offered at the Seattle Asian Art Museum on two topics that have increasingly entered the purview of art historians across the world: food and ritual in relation to art.

Japanese culture, both ancient and modern, is rich in elements of ritual display. Foods, drink, implements for ceremonial performance, and a wide range of display objects such as lacquer and ceramics are found on temple and shrine altars. Paintings extoll the sins and virtues of various foods—often in encoded visual subtexts. Mochi, which many of us know as a frozen ice cream treat, traces its origins to secular rituals for harvest or the New Year and religious rites in ancient Japan. Paintings in the Seattle Art Museum collections transport us back in time to the days when wrongly accused courtiers and statesmen took vengeance on the perpetrators of injustice and were pacified only by regular ceremonies at court or posthumous enshrinement at Shinto jinja.

Professor Cynthea J. Bogel (East Asian visual culture and art history, University of Washington) has organized colleagues, community, and students to form a creative collaboration that explores ritual, foods, objects of display, and medieval Japanese painting side by side. Working with the Simpson Center for the Humanities, the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle artist and cultural anthropologist Julia Harrison, and input from Seattle’s Asian-American artist and confectionary-making community, four lectures will be offered at the Seattle Asian Art Museum free of charge.

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Celebrate the Olympic Sculpture Park’s 5th Birthday with Cupcakes, Caramels and Some Seriously Cool Hats

Seattle Art Museum on Jan 20 2012

Celebrate the Olympic Sculpture Park’s 5th Birthday with Cupcakes, Caramels and Some Seriously Cool Hats

It’s hard to believe, but the Olympic Sculpture Park is already 5 years old! By the numbers, that’s:

  • 5 seasons that salmon have been able to rest in a protected area just off our beach after hatching
  • 60 months of growth to the native plants, 1,800 sunsets over the Olympic Mountains
  • About 2.5 million people walking (and running!) through the park.

And that doesn’t even account for the art in the park – over 20 pieces of monumental sculpture sited on 9 acres, with new and temporary works installed regularly.

To celebrate this milestone, we’re inviting everyone to a FREE birthday party at the Olympic Sculpture Park’s PACCAR Pavilion on January 21 from 11 am – 3 pm!

We’ll be:

  • Handing out cupcakes and chocolate caramels (courtesy of TASTE Restaurant)
  • Giving away Olympic Sculpture Park T-shirts for kids (to the first 400)
  • Making birthday hats (with Mark di Suvero’s Bunyon’s Chess as inspiration)
  • Giving special tours of the park

What do we want for our birthday, you ask? Most importantly – you! But if you must, we’re accepting $5 donations to SAM’s Annual Fund, which helps SAM put on great exhibitions and programs. Come join us for fun and festivities!

Here’s vintage coverage by the Seattle Channel of the Olympic Sculpture Park’s opening day festivities on January 20, 2007.


-Madeline Moy, Digital Media Manager

Photo credit: Sean Fraser

Top photo: From left to right: SAM staffers Madeleine Dahl, Emily Eddy and Carlos Garcia model the birthday hats guests will have the opportunity to make at the Olympic Sculpture Park’s 5th birthday party.

Free PARK(ing) Day at SAM on September 16

Seattle Art Museum on Sep 15 2011

Free PARK(ing) Day at SAM on September 16

On Friday, September 16 from 10 am – 2 pm, SAM and The Trust for Public Land will bring PARK(ing) Day downtown by hijacking parking spots, feeding the meters and adding a few more square feet of green space to Seattle.

Developed by Rebar, PARK(ing) Day is a one-day global event in which artists, activists and citizens collaborate to transform parking spots into temporary public parks.

Come visit our temporary park by Hammering Man on University Street between First and Second Avene, and check out a variety of fun activities:

  • All ages hands-on art making with teaching artist Elizabeth Humphrey
  • An artist-designed cornhole game (bean bag toss)
  •  A 12 pm concert by classically trained sarod and tabla musician James Whetzel
  • Interactive photo/design activity led by Seattle Design Festival
  • “What’s Your Park Personality” quiz by TPL

Also, make a purchase of at least $10 at SAM SHOP on Friday and get a free Olympic Sculpture Park t-shirt!

PARK(ing) Day is free and open to the public. Visit us at our pop-up park, and then come inside the museum to enjoy more art.

-Madeline Moy, Digital Media Manager

Create “pop-art” during PARK(ing) Day on September 16 from 10 am – 2 pm.

Free days at SAM!

Seattle Art Museum on Sep 2 2011

If you missed the opportunity to take advantage of free admission to SAM and the Seattle Asian Art Museum on First Thursday, don’t fret. This weekend, there are several ways you can come visit us for free!

First Fridays: Admission is free for seniors 62+ the first Friday of every month. (And by the way, teens aged 13-19 get in free every Second Friday from 5-9 pm.)

First Free Saturday Presented by Wells Fargo: On September 3 from 11 am – 2 pm, bring your family to the Seattle Asian Art Museum to create ink drawings with music from the drums played across Asia, including Japan, Korea, India and the Philippines.

Bank of America’s Museums on Us: On the first full weekend of every month, Bank of America cardholders receive free admission at SAM and the Seattle Asian Art Museum.

Blue Star Museum Program: SAM and the Seattle Asian Art Museum are participating with the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families and over 1,000 museums in the US by offering free admission to military personnel and their families.Over 2,000 people have already come to SAM thanks to this program. Just show your military ID. The military ID holder plus up to five  immediate family members (spouse or child of ID holder) are allowed in for free per visit.

If none of these free days apply to you, please remember that admission at SAM and the Seattle Asian Art Museum is suggested, and we welcome you to pay what you can.

Free Admission on International Museum Day

Seattle Art Museum on May 17 2011

On Wednesday, May 18, we will participate in International Museum Day, an incredible world-wide day of free admission to museums sponsored by the International Council of Museums. This day is an occasion to raise awareness on how important museums are in the development of society. From America to Oceania; including Africa, Europe and Asia; this international event has grown in popularity. In recent years, International Museum Day has experienced its highest involvement with almost 30,000 museums participating in more than 100 countries.

Admission will be free all day Wednesday at the Seattle Art Museum and the Seattle Asian Art Museum. Both museums will be open from 10 am – 5pm. This is a great opportunity to see Nick Cave: Meet Me at the Center of the Earth or Modern Elegance: The Art of Meiji Japan.

Click here for more visitor information, including directions and parking details.

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