Olympic Sculpture Park Archives - Page 5 of 6

SAM Art: Sitting pretty

Seattle Art Museum on Jul 23 2013

Summer dancing, yoga, and Zumba in the Olympic Sculpture Park will keep you moving throughout the summer. When you are ready to take a break, look for these witty seating designs by local artist, architect and designer Roy McMakin. McMakin brings impeccable craftsmanship and spectacular finish to his work, making materials perform in new and surprising ways. Matte concrete becomes a warm bench, a plastic lawn chair turns out to be made from monumental bronze, and an enamel stool masquerades as a banker’s box. This is seating with a story.

Suspended between art and design, form and function, McMakin’s artistic practice combines the usually separate creative activities of sculpture, architecture, and design. McMakin coyly uses slight changes in context, scale, and material to alter our understanding of ourselves and our relationship to our environment.

Untitled, 2004-07, Roy McMakin (American, born 1956), concrete, bronze, and steel with porcelain enamel, overall dimensions variable, Gift of the artist and Michael Jacobs, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum, 2006.32, © Roy McMakin. Currently on view in the Olympic Sculpture Park.

SAM Art: A Surreal seat

Seattle Art Museum on Jan 23 2013

A contemporary Surrealist, Louise Bourgeois’ career stretched from the 1940s until 2010. Her lifelong fascination with myth, ritual, and totemic figures had its roots in French Surrealism, which reached a high point between the World Wars. In these Eye Benches, furniture takes the form of giant, observant eyes. Visitors encounter the disembodied eyes, which seem to follow their every movement around the Olympic Sculpture Park’s lower plaza, discovering that the enigmatic sculptural objects play a functional role: providing comfortable outdoor seating.

Louise Bourgeois was born in 1911 in Paris. She entered university in 1932, intending to study mathematics, but turned to art the next year. She studied in art schools as well as apprenticing in artists’ studios in Montparnasse and Montmartre. She emigrated to New York in 1938, where she continued her studies, eventually having her first solo exhibition in 1945. She lived and worked in New York until her death in 2010.

Eye Benches II, 1996-97, Louise Bourgeois (American, born French, 1911-2010), black Zimbabwe granite, 48 x 76 15/16 x 46 1/2 in. each, Gift of the artist, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum, 2005.114.1-2, © Louise Bourgeois, photo: Paul Macapia. Currently on view in the Olympic Sculpture Park.

“GREEN” Eggs and SAM

Seattle Art Museum on May 4 2012

In the past couple of weeks I’ve heard a lot of talk in the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) offices about an infamous group called The SAM Goes Green Team. The more email notices the Green Team sent out about daily “green” tips or “green” contests between staff members, the more I became curious about who takes part in this coalition, and what it takes to initiate “green” practices at SAM.

To investigate further, I decided to interview the head of the Green Team, Liz Stone. Liz holds the title of Operations Assistant/ Digital Media Support Specialist at SAM. Liz is a spirited, young woman who brings a lot of light to the busy offices here at SAM. When I asked to interview her, she was very excited for the opportunity to represent SAM’s “green” roots and sustainability concerns.

I asked Liz, “When did the Green Team start at SAM?” She provided the following information:

The Green Team was started in 2006, shortly before the Olympic Sculpture Park opened in January 2007. It began with a handful of staff representing different departments who were interested in making a difference. The excitement around Olympic Sculpture Park gave the museum the momentum it needed to develop an environmental face for SAM. Examples of how SAM conducts green operations in many different capacities include:

Reduced the museum’s carbon footprint, including cuts in energy use, paper conservation, and waste reduction
Switched to 100% recycled copy paper
Earned Salmon-Safe certification of land management practices at the Olympic Sculpture Park.
Supported SAM’s museum educators in designing art activities that use repurposed, recycled and non-toxic supplies
Created a culture of sustainability within SAM, including meeting with departments to identify barriers to “going green”

“There have been a few different Green Team leaders at SAM, but I was approached in 2011 and asked if I would take the reins of the Green Team to keep it moving forward,” Liz says.

In overseeing the Green Team, Liz presents green tips and activities in media posts and helps maintain sustainability around the offices. Each division at SAM—from IT to Exhibition Design to Engineering—has a representative on the Green Team.

SAM is also a Presenting Partner with Seattle Center Foundation and Central District Forum for Arts & Ideas in presenting the performance, red, black, GREEN: a blues. This performance is coming to Seattle Center’s Intiman Theater May 30–June 2 for the Next 50 Festival and brings artists Marc Bamuthi Joseph and Theaster Gates back to Seattle once again! Both artists, as educators and social activists, strive through their work to ignite our collective responsibility towards social and environmental sustainability for every community. This performance shares SAM’s values in combining community engagement with art to work towards a greener, more sustainable community. The Green Team and Liz Stone are working hard to activate everyone’s involvement in “going green”.

You can also find more details about SAM’s environmental commitment and the SAM Goes Green initiative, as well as a list of partners joined in this initiative when you visit the SAM website. Some commitments involve joining the City of Seattle’s Seattle Climate Partnership and Seattle Climate Action Now to reduce SAM’s carbon footprint. You can also read more about the SAM Goes Green Team history on previous SAMblog posts, including SAM’s recent participation in the worldwide Earth Hour event.

This Time Drawing on the Walls is Allowed

Seattle Art Museum on Apr 11 2012

Brazilian artist Sandra Cinto is bringing a literal sea change to the Olympic Sculpture Park.

At the beginning of April, Cinto and two assistants started work on a site-specific installation titled Encontro das Águas (Encounter of Waters), an expansive wall drawing in the park’s PACCAR Pavilion. In addition to her two assistants, Sandra wanted to involve people from SAM’s community, so 20 volunteers and three SAM preparators have helped complete the piece.

Here is more detail on the installation from Marisa C. Sánchez, SAM’s Associate Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art:

The Seattle Art Museum unveils Brazilian born, São Paulo–based artist Sandra Cinto’s site-specific installation for the Olympic Sculpture Park’s PACCAR Pavilion. Influenced by artists as diverse as Sol LeWitt and Regina Silveira, and the woodblock prints of Japanese artists including Katsushika Hokusai, Cinto’s Encontro das Águas (Encounter of Waters) includes an intricate wall drawing, whose ambitious proportions convey a mesmerizing view of an expansive waterscape. Through humble materials—including blue paint and a silver paint pen—Cinto works directly on the wall and transforms a single line, repeated at different angles and lengths, into a titanic image of water that expresses both renewal and risk. As a counterpoint to this unbridled seascape, Cinto incorporates stories about individuals who were rescued at sea, to show the endurance of the human spirit in difficult circumstances.

Cinto’s work has been shown internationally, including Argentina, France, Portugal, Spain and the United States. She was included in the XXIV Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, in 1998; Elysian Fields, a group show at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, in 2000; TRANSactions: Contemporary Latin American and Latino Art, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia, in 2007–08; and the second Trienal Poli/Gráfica de San Juan: Latin America and the Caribbean, San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 2009; among other solo and group shows. She is represented by Casa Triângulo Gallery, São Paulo, Brazil, and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York.

Artist Sandra Cinto

Encontro das Águas will be on view at the Olympic Sculpture Park’s PACCAR Pavilion April 14, 2012 to April 14, 2013.

-Madeline Moy, Digital Media Manager

Photo Credit: Robert Wade

Last Call for Color

Seattle Art Museum on Feb 29 2012

Time is running out to bring your collection of lids in to the Olympic Sculpture Park!

In Trenton Doyle Hancock’s wildly fictitious narrative, color is the source of salvation to a race of creatures who are seeking spiritual nourishment. For his installation, A Better Promise, Hancock playfully encourages you to pour color into his work by bringing plastic tops in all colors. The plastic caps add a whole spectrum of light into the installation and, for Hancock they “are in a way the surrogates for the color salvation.” As the artist has said, this installation “has to do with hope, color, connecting with people, connecting with community.” And you all have shown that he’s definitely connected with this community. Read More

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

Seattle Art Museum on Jan 20 2012

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.

Resolve to See More Art in 2012!

Seattle Art Museum on Jan 3 2012

Finally a New Year’s resolution that will be fun to try and keep–come experience the art at SAM Downtown, the Seattle Asian Art Museum and the Olympic Sculpture Park! Here are our top five picks for what to see and do with SAM in January.

1. Walk through Do Ho Suh’s Gate.
Luminous: The Art of Asia closes January 8, which means there are only five more days to see Do Ho Suh’s magnificent multimedia installation and to take in this gorgeous exhibition representing 5,000 years of Asian art.

2. Take a spin in Theaster Gates: The Listening Room.
Visit the “church of wax” at SAM Downtown and touch, feel and play the records (yes-vinyl records!) in this installation at SAM Downtown. The Listening Room also extends beyond the walls of the museum to a storefront in Pioneer Square called the Record Store, where you can be part of a listening party.

3. See a unique perspective of 1930s Seattle.
Painting Seattle at the Seattle Asian Art Museum features two painters, Kamekichi Tokita and Kenjiro Nomura, known in 1930s Seattle for their American realist style of landscape painting. They shared the cultural legacy of Japan and the active cultural life of Seattle’s Japantown, while they found a public audience for their work in mainstream art institutions and participated alongside the city’s advanced artists, such as Mark Tobey, Ambrose Patterson and Walter Isaacs.

4. Get ready for Gauguin & Polynesia: An Elusive Paradise.
Seattle Art Museum presents the only United States stop for this landmark show highlighting the complex relationship between Paul Gauguin’s work and the art and culture of Polynesia. The exhibition, on view at SAM Downtown February 9 through April 29, includes about 50 of Gauguin’s brilliantly hued paintings, sculptures and works on paper, which are displayed alongside 60 major examples of Polynesian sculpture that fueled his search for the exotic. Organized by the Art Centre Basel, the show is comprised of works on loan from some of the world’s most prestigious museums and private collections. Buy your advance tickets now!

5. Celebrate the Olympic Sculpture Park’s 5^th Birthday Party.
Five years ago Seattle’s waterfront was transformed forever. Come to the Olympic Sculpture Park on January 21 to help us mark this very important milestone with food, art and other activities.

Combine some of your other New Year’s resolutions with art. Trying to exercise more? Take a walk through the Olympic Sculpture Park or ride your bike to the Seattle Asian Art Museum. Looking to save money? Take advantage of First Thursdays or SAM’s suggested admission, which allows you to pay what you can. Art can even help you decrease stress.

SAM is always happy to connect art to your life, and we look forward to seeing you more in 2012!

-Madeline Moy, Digital Media Manager

Favorite 2011 Moments at the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle Asian Art Museum and Olympic Sculpture Park

Seattle Art Museum on Dec 30 2011

Preserving the Piece: Conserving the Olympic Sculpture Park

Chelsea Werner-Jatzke on Sep 23 2011

In light of the re-painting of Alexander Calder’s The Eagle I wondered what it took to keep the art housed at the Olympic Sculpture Park looking like new. I spoke with Liz Brown, one of the museum’s conservators. She gave me some great insight into what it takes to keep the sculptures in the park looking pristine. Read More

Need a Venue for an Event? Look No Further Than the Seattle Art Museum!

Chelsea Werner-Jatzke on Sep 15 2011

Museums are beautiful, tranquil places filled with some of the most beautiful pieces of art that history has to offer. Imagine holding a corporate meeting at the Seattle Art Museum to impress some important clients, or imagine impressing your friends by renting out the Seattle Asian Art Museum to throw a party, or even more amazing, imagine yourself getting married in the Olympic Sculpture Park with the Seattle waterfront as your backdrop! Many people are unaware that we can make these dreams a reality. You can rent just a portion of the museum or the entire building if it suits your needs and then have the event catered by our fabulous restaurant TASTE.

Jamie and Jared felt that the Olympic Sculpture Park was the perfect place for a ceremony and had an afternoon that they will never forget. Jamie and Jared were married on September 18, 2010 in the Park and our summer TASTE intern, Kristina Krug, had the chance to ask them a few questions about their wedding. Here’s to wishing them a happy one year anniversary from all the folks here at SAM!

All Roads Lead to SAM: New and Improved Visitor Information

Seattle Art Museum on Aug 24 2011

At the suggestion of one of our customers, SAM’s online visitor information just got tricked out. In an effort to encourage people to use different forms of transportation and to make it easier to find us no matter where you are, we’ve added several links to maps that show people how to bike, bus and even walk to SAM Downtown, the Seattle Asian Art Museum and the Olympic Sculpture Park. Some of the exciting new features include:

Bike rack information (did you know that there are bike racks at all three locations?) as well as maps that have bike and bus directions.
Links to three different public transportation sites with a SAM location already entered as the destination, as well as a link to Metro that lists all the buses that go nearby.
Read More

Dear SAM: A Love Letter From a Summer Intern

Seattle Art Museum on Aug 17 2011

Dear SAM,

I usually begin letters more eloquently than this. There’s usually a smooth intro, a “how do you do,” a nifty tidbit about my life. But brutal honesty is all that’s coming to mind now and I think we’re now close enough for that. So here it goes: I am going to miss you immensely. And here’s why…

SAM Art: Some Thoughts from Our Interns, Part II

Seattle Art Museum on Aug 16 2011

For this week’s SAMart, I would like to share with you the reflections of two summer interns I have been lucky enough to work with for the past several weeks. Katie Tieu and Jasmine Graviett have been friendly, thoughtful, conscientious, and eager colleagues this summer, and will be missed when they go back to their “real” lives—as a sophomore and a senior in high school, respectively.
-Sarah Berman, Collections Coordinator and Research Associate

My experience at the Seattle Art Museum

Jasmine Graviett

You don’t find many 17-year-old girls working/interning at an art museum, but I am one of them.

Hi, my name is Jasmine Graviett and I am a YWCA GirlsFirst intern, which is an all girls program that helps young ladies get through their high school years and this program is how I got my awesome internship at SAM. Working at SAM has helped me see art in a different way and understand more about the art work. At first I wasn’t really all that into art, I only liked art that made sense to me or that I could relate to. Things that looked like a whole bunch of paint splashed on a board or something that looked like a 2-year-old drew it never really appealed to me because I thought that I could make something like that. I mean, what could be so special about that? This summer I found out there’s a story behind every single painting and that it isn’t always as it seems.

7 Tips for Having an Awesome Time at SAM Remix

Seattle Art Museum on Aug 12 2011

1. Print your tickets at home.
We’ll admit it: the Will Call line can be a little slow. So we suggest you print your tickets at home and skip it altogether.

2. Get in the right line.
The PACCAR Pavilion will close at 4:00 pm and the park will close at 6:00 pm to the public. The doors for Remix will open at 8:00 pm. Print-at-home ticket buyers enter at Western Avenue and Broad Street. Will Call ticket holders and ticket buyers enter at Broad Street and Elliot Avenue (near the Neukom Vivarium).

3. Bring cash and your ID.
There isn’t an ATM machine at the Olympic Sculpture Park. We suggest picking cash up before coming to the park. The nearest ATM to the park is located at Ellington Grocery & Deli, corner of First Avenue and Clay Street.

Remix is an 18+ event. All guests 21 and older will need to show ID at the two ID Check stations in order to receive a wristband to consume alcohol. There will be one ID check station at the main entrance on Western and Broad and a second ID check station along the Z path. Look for the white tent with lights.

4. Wear warm clothes and comfy shoes.
The weather forecast for Remix is sunny with temperatures in the 70s. However, once the sun goes down, it can get a little chilly at the Olympic Sculpture Park. Ladies (and some gents), remember that you will be a park with grass so we would advise against wearing heels.

The first 50 people wearing gingham will get into Remix for free. The first 50 line will be at the Western Avenue and Broad Street entrance.

5. Know where the restrooms are located.
Inside the PACCAR Pavilion, there are restrooms available for use. Additionally there will be temporary facilities along the Z Path in the park.

6. Carpool, bus, bike or take a taxi.
We encourage using public transportation or cabs to the Olympic Sculpture Park. The parking garage will be closed to the public there is some street parking and several pay lots surrounding the Olympic Sculpture Park.

7. Reap the benefits of being a SAM member.
Get the VIP treatment at the Remix Members Lawn. Perks include the opportunity to mix and mingle with Remix artists, and a first-class viewing area of performances in the Gates Amphitheater.

Not a SAM member? Join tonight! Turn your Remix ticket in for $10 off a new SAM membership. Offer good on Student- ($30) through Patron-level memberships. Please present your Remix ticket at the Membership Table or Members Lawn to redeem this offer. Offer good onsite only during Remix.

Get to Know the Olympic Sculpture Park After Dark at Remix

Seattle Art Museum on Aug 11 2011

At SAM Remix on August 12, experience the Olympic Sculpture Park in new and unexpected ways with highly-opinionated tours led by artists, Remix co-hosts and special guests.

8:30 pm: Steven Vroom, Executive Director & Curator of Exhibitions, 911 Media
8:45 pm: Erin Fetridge, Canoe Social Club, Remix Co-host
9 pm: Sharon Arnold, Artist and Youth Program Manager, Gage Academy
9:15 pm: Julie Parrett, Landscape Architect
9:30 pm: Susan Robb, Artist
9:45 pm: Stephanie Pure, American Institute of Architects Seattle, Remix Co-host
10 pm: Kathy Lindenmayer, One Reel/Bumbershoot, Remix Co-host

Tours will meet on the Mosley Path near Dante’s Inferno Dogs. If you don’t have your Remix tickets yet, click here to buy them now!

-Madeline Moy, Digital Media Manager

Photo: Robert Wade

Art You Can Touch, Throw and Smell at SAM Remix

Seattle Art Museum on Aug 9 2011

My co-workers and I were talking about the upcoming SAM Remix at the Olympic Sculpture when someone mentioned that there would be artist-designed cornholes at the event.

I must admit that the term “cornhole” made several of us first think of this, but we soon learned that cornhole is actually a bean bag toss game, which fits in nicely with this Remix’s county-fair theme. Remix cornhole will feature play boards designed by Troy Gua and Dumb Eyes.

One of the best things about Remix is that you get the chance to experience art in unexpected ways:

Contribute to a collective massive paint-by-numbers landscape, and watch the image take form as the night progresses.
Join Seattle artist Nicholas Nyland and guests for a journey to the East Meadow. Illuminate the path with luminaria and admire the sunset from Gretchen Bennett’s sculpture, The Jetty.
Witness the newest iteration of Carolina Silva’s Air Below Ground, a series of actions composed by the artist to take place on, in and around her wooden platform and frame sculpture.
Sample the Olympic Sculpture Park’s signature scent, created by artist Susan Robb. Inspired by the park’s geography and art, the artist’s “spritzers” will offer Remix guests the chance to wear the scent of their choice.

So not only will you be surrounded by the amazing art of the Olympic Sculpture Park, you’ll have the opportunity to create, share and talk art all night long at SAM Remix. Click here to buy your tickets now!

-Madeline Moy, Digital Media Manager

Three Bands, Five DJs and John Travolta at Remix

Seattle Art Museum on Aug 8 2011

Last August, I attended my first SAM Remix at the Olympic Sculpture Park, and I danced the night away under The Eagle, which was easily one of the highlights of my summer.

But I almost never made it to Remix that night.

Love Takes SAM by Storm

Seattle Art Museum on Aug 8 2011

SAM’s hallways recently echoed with joyous shrieks and laughter. Although perhaps a common occurrence, the aura of joy and excitement was not from a new art piece or an exhibition opening or even a Soundsuit…

It was a marriage proposal! A young man named Storm Bennett proposed to his long-term girlfriend Stephanie in the hall of the Seattle Art Museum in a most creative way… Read More

Beauty Shot Fridays: How Have You Personalized or Reclaimed Your Outdoor Space?

Seattle Art Museum on Aug 3 2011

This week’s Beauty Shot Friday highlights our current exhibition Reclaimed, which focuses on contemporary artists and how they find inspiration in nature and question our relationship to it. This week’s question was: How have you personalized and/or reclaimed your outdoor space?

Satisfaction Guaranteed for Thursday at the Park

Seattle Art Museum on Jul 28 2011

FINALLY—we’re going to have nice summer weather for this week’s “Thursday at the Park,” an evening of live music, art and food at the Olympic Sculpture Park from 5:30 – 8:00 p.m.

I’m really looking forward to seeing hip-hop duo THEESatisfaction perform. Their energetic beats and tight rhymes are sure to get the crowd dancing.

Tonight’s “Art Hit” tour will feature On-Site artist, Gretchen Bennett, who will discuss her temporary work installed in the Olympic Sculpture Park. Coinciding with the event is the launch of Bennett’s new Publication Studio book, Windfall Alphabet, which showcases recent work by the artist, as well as an essay by New York-based art critic and writer, Jill Conner. The tour meets in the PACCAR Pavilion at 6:30 pm.

After the tour, maybe you’ll be inspired to make your own art. This week’s art activity is creating abstract pendants. Materials are supplied, and all ages are welcome to participate.

Say aloha to Pai’s Food Truck, which will be making its first appearance at the Olympic Sculpture Park this summer. Pai’s serves Thai-Hawaiian dishes, such as lemongrass huli huli chicken. Veraci Pizza, Whidbey Island Ice Cream and our very own TASTE will provide other yummy bites. This week’s doughnut from TASTE pastry chef Lucy Damkoehler is sweet cheese empanada. I had some last week, and while I don’t think they’re anything like an empanada, I would definitely say that they’re delicious.

See you at the Sculpture Park in the sun!

-Madeline Moy, Digital Media Manager

Photos: Robert Wade, Madeline Moy

Top photo: Specter by Gretchen Bennett

Beauty Shot Fridays: Summertime Sun and Fun

Seattle Art Museum on Jul 27 2011

In hopes of procuring more sun from the sky this week, we asked people to send us photos of their summertime fun in the sun. Photos did not have to be of Seattle or from this summer but could be of anything sun- and summer-related. I’ve selected a few of our brightest submissions from last week and written some of my thoughts on them… Read More

Latin Jazz, Art Making, and More at Thursday at the Park

Seattle Art Museum on Jul 13 2011

At last week’s “Thursday at the Park,” at the Olympic Sculpture Park, I did not intend on making a new friend.

Thursdays at the Park–Rain or Shine!

Seattle Art Museum on Jul 7 2011

So the weather isn’t exactly what we were hoping it would be like for the Olympic Sculpture Park’s first Thursday Night at the Park of the summer season. However, this being Seattle, we are fully prepared.

Christopher Martin Hoff to Teach Watercolor Workshop at Olympic Sculpture Park

Seattle Art Museum on Jul 6 2011

Usually when I think of painting en plein air, I picture a French Impressionist working at a canvas while seated under a large white umbrella in the middle of a meadow. Painting en plein air evokes a natural and pastoral setting.

Although he carries on the tradition, Christopher Martin Hoff is a different kind of plein air painter. You can see him all over Seattle painting all day, every day. He captures the urban landscape–billboards, bridges, traffic lights swaying over empty intersections, bright green dumpsters scrawled with graffiti. Hoff has also documented several important construction projects across the country and in 2003 was awarded an Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation grant, to create a series of paintings that document construction at the World Trade Center in New York.

Participants in the upcoming SAM Creates workshop “En Plein Air: Watercolor Painting” will get a chance to work with Hoff to explore the unique interplay of art, architecture and landscape present at the Olympic Sculpture Park. This is a three-part workshop, and the first session is Saturday, July 9. Click here to register now.

The SAM Creates workshop series provides a forum for artists to explain the philosophies underlying their work and for participants to delve into the artistic, practical or quirky processes at work in their daily lives. Instruction will include strategies for creating engaging compositions, the use of color to build space, creating work that has a sense of place and general practices for an effective outdoor studio. All materials provided, and all levels are welcome.

-Madeline Moy, Digital Media Manager

Silva Thinks Outside (and Inside) the Box

Seattle Art Museum on Jul 5 2011

On-Site, the second summer exhibition at SAM’s Olympic Sculpture Park, brings together new sculptures by Gretchen Bennett, Nicholas Nyland, and Carolina Silva.

Silva titled her sculpture Air Below Ground. The wooden platform and frame, as well as a series of actions the artist has composed to take place in, on, around, or underneath the sculpture were conceived specifically for the Olympic Sculpture Park.

Silva, who will create a number of installations in the structure throughout the summer, is interested in the process by which sculpture is defined, engaged with and realized. An evolving work, her activities will engage a variety of materials, including lights, sound, fog, clay, and balloons that will expand viewers’ interaction with a sculptural object, one that is in a constant state of transformation.

A Call to Color

Seattle Art Museum on Jul 5 2011

If you haven’t been to the Olympic Sculpture Park lately, you should go. Not only is it summer in the park but Trenton Doyle Hancock’s, A Better Promise—an art installation in the PACCAR Pavilion—is especially mesmerizing and animated when the bright sunshine manages to peek out of the clouds and shine into the pavilion. Ironically, this is partly because of its numerous colorful raindrops but partly it’s because of the giant vitrines full of plastic lids that sit below the installation.

As part of the work, Hancock issues a “call to color” by encouraging visitors to bring their own morsels of color—in the form of plastic bottle caps—to the park and drop them into the work of art. Nine large-scale “earthbound” vitrines have been placed on the floor in front of the hand sculpture. On the face of each of these nine containers, there is a teardrop cut-out where plastic bottle caps can be deposited by color. Visitors are encouraged to bring plastic bottle caps ranging in all shapes and sizes from detergent bottles, to clear water bottles to the black and white caps from drink bottles.

Spend Your Summer with SAM

Seattle Art Museum on Jun 30 2011

People in Seattle make the most of the all-too-short summers and so does SAM! We’ve got a diverse array of art exhibitions, events and experiences at all three of our sites this summer. Whether you’re interested in Bollywood, baseball, yoga or landscape painting, we’ve got you covered.

Beauty Shot Fridays!

Seattle Art Museum on Jun 29 2011

From the PR Office at SAM comes a new and fun project called “Beauty Shot Fridays.” In order to promote Beauty & Bounty and Reclaimed, we are asking our Facebook Fans to send us photos in response to a weekly question that is based on themes in the exhibitions.

We will update our question on the SAM Facebook page every Monday by 3pm and submissions will be uploaded to the page every Friday by 4pm. If you’d like to send a photo submission (captions are welcome too!), please email beautyshots@seattleartmuseum.org

Our question this is week is: where do you find beauty and bounty in your day?

Read More

Get Ready for Artistic Feats at Party in the Park

Seattle Art Museum on Jun 17 2011

The day of Party of the Park is finally here, and we couldn’t be more excited! The weather is going to be great, and we have a full line-up of amazing entertainment and experiences.

Guests will enjoy beautiful beats from live bands Hey Marseilles, The Paperboys, Curtains For You and The Lumineers, as well as music curated by Dave Hernandez from the Shins and the DJ beats of DJ Aanshul and DJ ‘G.’ Bountiful eats will be provided by fabulous food trucks Dante’s Inferno Dogs, Maximus/Minimus, Molly Moon Ice Cream, Skillet, Street Treats and Veraci Pizza. And our hosted bar will serve Northewest beer and wine.

If that wasn’t enough, Party in the Park will feature a variety of artist-designed interactive play and experiences.

Win 2 Tickets to Party in the Park!

Seattle Art Museum on Jun 9 2011

Party in the Park is just a little over a week away – do you have your ticket yet? If not, here’s a great chance to win a pair of tickets for this fabulous event. All you have to do is describe what you would do in this box.

Confused? Let me explain. As part of the Summer Season at the Olympic Sculpture Park’s art installations, called On-Site, artist Carolina Silva has created a work of art that is meant to be performed in called Air Below Ground, pictured here. Throughout the summer, you have the opportunity to see her perform in this space every week! The very first performance is going to be at Party in the Park, and I hear it involves a fog machine.

Back to the question – if you had the opportunity to perform in Silva’s box, what would you do? The best answer wins a pair of tickets to Party in the Park, where you can see Silva’s first performance. So in the comments section, let us know what you would do, but do it fast. We’ll be announcing a winner on the morning of Monday, June 13. And keep it clean, folks. We’re a family friendly organization.

-Calandra Childers, Associate Manager of Public Relations