When the Seattle Art Museum was finally ready to reopen after finishing its newly-expanded facility, what more Seattle-y way to celebrate than to stay open 35 hours straight, bring over some performers and DJs, and open the museum for all, for free? That's indeed what they did, and people (including a group of us) turned out in droves.
We showed up around 11pm and there were a ton of people there. The old, the young, the conservative, the punk, the extroverts and the introverts all came out to see the new museum. Sounds like nerdy way to spend a Saturday night? Not really - it felt more like a party someone threw in a big, big house with a lot of art. And music. And dancing.
The main floor opens up to a large entry area featuring a large piece of art that includes cars and flashing streams of light (yeah, you kinda have to see it for yourself). From there, there's a shop and restaurant on the bottom floor, and two floors of art upstairs.
As for the art, there's a bit of everything. Classical Greek sculpture, Chinese landscapes, Native American woodworking, Renaissance portraits, and quite a bit of contemporary art (including a Pollock and a Warhol). The new space affords some mixture of media which not only allows for things like video installations, but also lets one, say, observe Native American art while viewing a documentary on the artists.
We spent about two hours there and felt like we had looked at everything, but not really studied it. But after a while, our feet were tired, and watching others groove to the beat was wearing us out, so we decided to go to a neighborhood bar and grab a beer.
Thumbs up to SAM - great job with the new space. We'll be returning soon.
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