Seattle Rep Archives

Muse/News: King’s Day, New Plays, and Rihanna Slays

Rachel Eggers on Jan 18 2021

SAM News

All SAM locations are currently closed until further notice, but we’re still honoring a King. Our tradition of art & social justice tours in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day continue, but are taking place from SAM staff homes on our Instagram stories this week. Join us! And check out the Seattle Times calendar of MLK Day events.

Local News

The Seattle Times’ Crystal Paul reports on the bold new plan at Seattle Rep: three separate projects commissioning over 20 new plays over the next decade. One of the projects, 20×30, was originally inspired by Gardens of the Anthropocene, the 2016 augmented reality installation by Tamiko Thiel at the Olympic Sculpture Park.

Seattle Magazine’s Stephanie Ellis interviews two local cookbook aficionados about how food has provided comfort over the last year.

The Stranger’s Chase Hutchinson interviews director Sam Pollard about his new documentary, MLK/FBI, which explores through archival footage the FBI’s coordinated campaign to discredit the civil rights leader.

“It just goes to show you that, in America, anytime a group steps up and says, ‘we want change,’ the American status quo says, ‘Whoa, hold off there. What are you trying to do? You’re dangerous.’ It’s fascinating to me.”

Inter/National News

Culture Type recently posted about several exciting new curatorial appointments of Black women, including Natasha Becker at Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Kanitra Fletcher at the National Gallery of Art, and Naomi Beckwith at the Guggenheim.

Mike Diamond, AKA Beastie Boy Mike D, talks with the New York Times’ Alex Pappademas about “cleaning out the family attic,” AKA the auction of his parents’ incredible art collection. He mentions Brancusi’s Bird in Space—“I would compare it to a great jazz record”—which the Diamonds once owned and is now in SAM’s collection, a gift from Jon and Mary Shirley.

For ESSENCE’s January/February issue, the magazine commissioned Lorna Simpson to “interpret modern-day beauty” in collaboration with Robyn Rihanna Fenty AKA Rihanna. The resulting photographic collages shine bright like a diamond.

“Lorna is a legend…Honestly, I just didn’t think I could get her,” Rihanna laughed. “But I like reaching for the stars and I like challenging myself.”

And Finally

Cicely Tyson, just as she is.

– Rachel Eggers, SAM Associate Director of Public Relations

Muse/News: SAM director honored, food art pops up, and photos that puzzle

Rachel Eggers on May 29 2018

SAM News

Double Exposure: Edward S. Curtis, Marianne Nicolson, Tracy Rector, Will Wilson opens June 14! A photo by the Seattle Times’ Alan Berner of our First Avenue lightbox appeared in print on May 19. The exhibition was also their visual arts pick for the “hottest events for June” in last Friday’s Weekend Plus section.

“June will launch a series of shows about famous and troubling photographer Edward S. Curtis, his weird way of staging what Native American culture looked like and responses from contemporary artists. The flagship exhibit of this thorny flotilla will happen at Seattle Art Museum — the cultural struggle, using various art-weapons, is still raging.”

In their June issue, Seattle Met Magazine presents Light a Fire 2018, shining a light on the city’s most impressive nonprofits and the people who run them. This year, our SAM Director and CEO Kimerly Rorschach has been awarded Extraordinary Executive Director!

Esquire profiles Middle Fork artist John Grade, who has a new work in an unexpected location: Nordstrom’s new men’s store in Manhattan.

Local News

Did you catch Danai Gurira’s Familiar at the Seattle Rep? Two takes on the play ran in advance of the play’s final weekend from City Arts’ Gemma Wilson and The Stranger’s Charles Mudede.

You will find me NOWHERE NEAR those glass benches. But for those without fear, check out Seattle Magazine’s look at the Olson Kundig revamp of the 56-year-old Space Needle.

Mac Hubbard for Seattle Met on the launch of Sunday Salons, the latest gallery around town to pop-up in an apartment; this one hosts the FoodArt Collection of Jeremy Buben.

“This ability to approach and resonate with our relationship to food is part of Buben’s perpetual interest in this work. And the room for creative license is apparent from the trappings of the apartment: a nude with parts shielded by pancakes and a waffle wedge, neon indicative of diners, a mold of a Cheetos bag housing an air plant.”

Inter/National News

Eileen Kinsella for Artnet on a show about sports and social justice opening in September at the High Museum in Atlanta; it will feature works by artist Glenn Kaino in collaboration with Olympic athlete and activist Tommie Smith.

Artnet’s Sarah Cascone on the shuttering of the much-troubled and once-beloved Interview Magazine.

Ksenya Gurshtein for Hyperallergic on an exhibition of early American photography at the J. Paul Getty Museum that reveals much about the complexities of American life during the 1840s to the 1860s.

“It’s necessary to look to such images as a reminder that evil has long been done in the name of national interests and that photography was as suspect at its inception as it is today, in the age of fake news and truthiness.”

And Finally

This is something I can get behind: Lunch at 11 am. It’s OK to be hungry! Eating is good!

– Rachel Eggers, SAM Manager of Public Relations

Photo: Natali Wiseman

GO! Gauguin Deals for Performing Arts

Seattle Art Museum on Mar 7 2012

It’s day three of GO! Gauguin Week and we’re highlighting deals that allow you continue exploring your inner artist through music and theatre. Act soon to take advantage of these deals which provide an opportunity to explore French culture and modern art with specific performances in March and April.

Don’t forget that you’ll need to print your coupon, available here, in order to take advantage of these awesome deals. At noon today on Facebook and Twitter, we’ll be releasing a clue for the location of the hidden pair of tickets for Gauguin & Polynesia: An Elusive Paradise. The first person to reach the secret location and say, “Go Gauguin!” receives these tickets.

Seattle Symphony
200 University Street

Sights and sounds make for a profound experience and when you present your GO! Gauguin coupon at the Seattle Symphony Ticket Office you will receive 10% off the all French program Morlot Conducts Debussy & Ravel on March 15 and 16 at Benaroya Hall. Hurry in to buy your tickets for next week’s concert as the offer is good through March 16, 2012. This offer cannot be combined with other offers or discounts.

Taproot Theatre Company
204 N. 85^th Street

Receive 20% off tickets to Taproot Theatre’s Freud’s Last Session running from March 23 through April 21, 2012. In Freud’s Last Session C.S. Lewis and Freud meet for a stimulating exchange about life, love, and God. For tickets and more information visit their website. To receive the discount use IHEARTSAM online or call the box office at 206.781.9707 and present your coupon at Will Call. This offer is not valid with other offers or previously purchased tickets.

"Red" at the Seattle Repertory Theatre

Seattle Repertory Theatre
115 Mercer Street

Enjoy $5 off tickets to Red, playing at the Seattle Repertory Theatre until March 24, 2012. Winner of six Tony Awards, this sizzling 90-minute drama about famed abstract expressionist Mark Rothko is one of the most intellectually riveting shows to hit Broadway last season. The discount is available for any performance but not valid for D level seating. Use SAM when purchasing your tickets online to receive the offer and don’t forget to visit a real Rothko at SAM in the Modern and Contemporary Galleries when visiting Gauguin & Polynesia.

Return tomorrow for information regarding the GO! Gauguin partner restaurants and learn about the fabulous food deals from local restaurants!

-Sarah Lippai, Public Relations Intern

SAM Art: A Red Rothko

Seattle Art Museum on Feb 28 2012

“What do you see?”

This question creates the framework for John Logan’s play Red (currently running at the Seattle Rep), centered on painter Mark Rothko; it also provides a point of departure for an investigation of Rothko’s painting.

Rothko had worked in a traditional, figural mode early in his career, and dabbled in surrealism for a time, before finally arriving at his signature composition of pulsing blocks of color. For different viewers, the forms which emerge are stubbornly objective, ranging from biota to landscapes, humans to storm clouds. However, the strong verticality of works such as this resolutely assert their abstraction, mesmerizing viewers with a maintained focus on color and light.

#10, 1952, Mark Rothko (American, born Russia, 1903-1970), oil on canvas, 81 3/4 x 42 1/2 x 2 1/4 in., Partial and promised gift of Bagley and Virginia Wright, 91.98. © 1998 Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher Rothko / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.Currently on view in the Modern and Contemporary art galleries, third floor, SAM downtown.