All about Seattle Art Museum - Greater Seattle on the Cheap

Seattle Art Museum features world-class exhibits and though-provoking visual arts. The museum includes three major facilities in the city:

Seattle Art Museum (SAM) in downtown Seattle
Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM) in Volunteer Park on Capitol Hill
Olympic Sculpture Park on the Seattle waterfront

Each of these locations is described in detail below.

Seattle Art Museum Hammering Man sculpture

Seattle Art Museum fronted by Hammering Man sculpture – DepositPhotos.com

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History of the Seattle Art Museum

The history of SAM begins in early Seattle history. Here are some of the highlights of SAM’s history that established each of its locations and its reputation as a world-class art institution.

The parent institution for SAM, the Seattle Fine Art Society dates back to 1906. The society staged exhibitions at various venues around the city. In 1929, it was renamed the Art Institute of Seattle as it continued to search for a permanent facility. From 1931-1933, a $250,000 donation provided for the construction of a new building located in Capitol Hill’s Volunteer Park–today, the site of the Seattle Asian Art Museum.

Seattle Art Museum opened its doors to the public in June 1933 at the Art Deco building in Volunteer Park. Over the next few decades, the museum continued to expand its collections in European and Asian arts, establishing itself as an important institution for international art.

When the 1962 World’s Fair was hosted by Seattle, the event established the city as a modern arts hub and allowed for further expansion and more diverse displays of art at SAM that continued through the 1970s. In particular, the 1978 exhibit the “Treasures of Tutankhamun” at the Seattle Center Flag Pavilion expanded the museum’s profile. The “Tut” exhibition’s popularity and financial success fueled plans for a permanent downtown facility.

In 1981, the SAM collection expands again with an unexpected gift of African art in an extraordinary combination of private philanthropy and corporate support.

In 1991, several significant events continues to expand the museum’s profile. SAM receives a donated collection of Northwest Native art, the Volunteer Park building closes for renovations, the new SAM location opens in downtown Seattle–fronted by Jonathan Borofsky’s 48-foot-tall Hammering Man, and the Seattle Asian Art Museum is formed in the former SAM location.

In 1994, the Volunteer Park location is rededicated as the Seattle Asian Art Museum. The new space allowed many more of the approximately its collection of Asian art objects to go on display. Today, SAAM is one of only a few art museums in the country, and the only in the Pacific Northwest that highlights art from throughout Asia.

In 2007, Olympic Sculpture Park opened. The waterfront park featuring massive sculptures has become a popular destination for tourists and locals alike. Located about one mile north of SAM, the unique outdoor park sits on nine acres long the Seattle waterfront. It is Seattle’s largest green space, highlighted by these stunning works of modern and contemporary art. Visitors to the park enjoy sweeping views of the Puget Sound as well as views of the city. Sculptures are occasionally rotated out and/or undergo maintenance to preserve them from the effects of being outdoors and exposure to saltwater from the Puget Sound.

In 2020, SAAM at Volunteer Park reopened following an extensive renovation.

Read on for more information about visiting each of the SAM locations.

Visiting Seattle Art Museum

SAM main staircase Art Ladder Photo by Joe Mabel (CC3)

Location: 1300 First Ave, Seattle, WA 98101. The museum is easily accessed via King County Metro bus service from stops along 3rd Avenue at University or Seneca.

Parking is available in the Russell Investment Center garage or the 3rd and Stewart garage. Make sure to ask for a voucher for a discounted rate from the art museum.

Hours: Re-opening weekend, March 5–7, 2021 (SAM members get access beginning February 27). Advance purchase tickets on sale beginning February 18. Download a map to your smartphone to use during your visit.

Their newest special exhibition is an American revolutionary story as told through the paintings of Jacob Lawrence along with multimedia works by contemporary artists Derrick Adams, Bethany Collins, and Hank Willis Thomas. Lawrence’s 30-panel series “The American Struggle!” is reunited for the first time since 1958, and SAM will be its only West Coast venue.

Admission: Visitors can choose what they are able to pay for general entry. Suggested admission is $19.99 for adults. Special exhibitions require reservations and a special ticket, which includes general admission to the museum’s collections.

Discount tickets:

FREE admission on the first Thursday of every month.
Seniors are FREE the first Friday of every month.
Students, teens, seniors, and military with IDs get a discount as well.
Membership provides FREE entry after the membership fee is paid.
The website also states “individual, family, or group as passes 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.”

Website: Seattle Art Museum

Location information and upcoming events at Seattle Art Museum

Current exhibits at Seattle Art Museum

November 18, 2021 – February 6, 2022. Imogen Cunningham: A Retrospective is the first major retrospective in the United States of Cunningham’s work in 35 years, the exhibition examines on the artist’s Seattle upbringing and includes works by female artists such as Ruth Asawa and Martha Graham who Cunningham championed, as well as works by Group f/64 which she helped found with Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, and others. The exhibit showcases the endless innovation and profound influence of the remarkable photographer who pushed the boundaries for women in the arts as well as photography as an art form. Cunningham’s spark of creative possibility asserted photography as a distinct and valuable art form in the 20th century. Nearly 200 of Cunningham’s insightful portraits, elegant flower and plant studies, poignant street pictures, and groundbreaking nudes present a singular vision developed over her seven decades of work. This Cunnigham exhibition is organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

Purchase tickets online at least a day in advance to save $3.

Virtual Seattle Art Museum

In 2020, Seattle Art Museum added a virtual collections featuring around 25,000 items.

Your first stop for a virtual tour of the museum is the Collections page were you’ll find highlights from the collection under several different categories. Each piece in the virtual collection includes information about the artist, history, and more.
Make sure to also check out the digital collection from the research libraries. Several libraries are available through the museum and can be searched online.
Finally, find more information on the Collection Resources page, including a number of online publications, educational and historical information about the museum, featured artwork, past exhibit information, and more.

Visiting Seattle Asian Art Museum

Seattle Asian Art Museum 2014 photo by Another Believer (CC3)

Location: 1400 East Prospect St, Seattle, WA 98112.

Parking: FREE parking in Volunteer Park. Easy access from public transit.

Hours: Closed until further notice.

Admission: Closed until further notice.

Discount tickets:

Upon reopening, FREE admission on the first and second Thursday of every month, and on the first Saturday of the month.
Seniors are FREE the first Friday of every month.
Students, teens, seniors, and military with IDs get a discount as well.
Membership provides FREE entry after the membership fee is paid.
FREE tours with regular admission price.

Website: Seattle Asian Art Museum

Location information and upcoming events at Seattle Asian Art Museum