Seattle Art Museum receives National Endowment for the Arts Grant

Great news! SAM’s upcoming summer blockbuster exhibition, Disguise: Masks and Global African Art recently received a $50,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).

On view June 18, 2015 through September 6, 2015 Disguise provides an updated look at 21st-century evolutions of the mask and explores contemporary forms of disguise.

For this exhibition, SAM’s Curator of African and Oceanic Art Pamela McClusky, and Consultant Curator Erika Dalya Massaquoi sought out contemporary artists from Africa and of African descent to create new installations, visions, and sounds for the exhibition. These artists fill the galleries with inventive avatars and provocative new myths, taking us on mysterious journeys through city streets and futuristic landscapes.

Through its grant-making to thousands of nonprofits each year, the NEA promotes opportunities for people in communities across America to experience the arts and exercise their creativity.

NEA Chairman Jane Chu said, “The NEA is committed to advancing learning, fueling creativity, and celebrating the arts in cities and towns across the United States. Funding these new projects like the one from Seattle Art Museum represents an investment in both local communities and our nation’s creative vitality.”

Image: Chimera, from the Empathic Series, 2013, Saya Woolfalk, United States, b. 1979, single-channel video, 4:12 minutes, filmmaker: Rachel Lears. © Saya Woolfalk, Photo: Natali Wiseman.

SAM Thanks Those Who Serve Our Country

SAM Downtown & the Seattle Asian Art Museum are participating with the National Endowment for the ArtsBlue Star Families and over 1,000 museums in the US by offering free admission to active military personnel and their families from Memorial Day to Labor Day. We will also offer free admission to any retired or non-active military personnel members during this time.

Since both Beauty and Bounty and Reclaimed close on Sunday, September 11, we will be extending the promotion through the end of the exhibits.

Blue Star Museum free admission dates at SAM and the Seattle Asian Art Museum are Wednesday, June 1-Sunday, September 11, 2011. 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.

SAM is proud to be a Blue Star Museum and thanks the thousands of men and women across Washington state–and throughout the country and world–who protect and serve the United States.

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