Post navigation

Prev: (01/14/20) | Next: (01/14/20)

Sold out: 10,000 free tickets for Seattle Asian Art Museum’s reopening weekend already snapped up

(Image: Tim Griffith/Seattle Asian Art Museum)

Turns out Seattle art lovers are jazzed about the reopening of the Seattle Asian Art Museum. Officials from the museum located in Volunteer Park that has been closed for a two-year, $56 million renovation and expansion say the SAAM’s “Housewarming: Free Reopening Weekend” is already “sold out” with every free ticket already snapped up for the February 8th and 9th event.

SAAM announced Tuesday morning that 10,000 “free timed tickets” for the two-day housewarming event have been claimed and “there will not be a wait-list for the event.”

If you missed out, join the Seattle Art Museum. The Members Open House planned for Wednesday, February 5 and Thursday, February 6 still had spots available as of this morning.

After that, you can enjoy the newly overhauled museum on its new regular schedule starting Wednesday, February 12th or you can aim for the first Free Thursday at the venue on February 13th. The museum will also now be free to visitors on Satursdays:

HOURS

Monday: Closed

Tuesday: Closed

Wednesday: 10 am–5 pm

Thursday: 10 am–9 pm

Friday: 10 am–5 pm

Saturday: ​9 am–5 pm

Sunday: 10 am–5 pm

 

TICKETS

Adults: $14.99

Seniors (65+): $12.99

Military (With ID): $12.99

Students (With ID): $9.99

Teens (15–18): $9.99

Children 14 & Under: Free

SAM Members: Free

 

Tickets include access to all exhibitions. Tickets purchased onsite are suggested admission.

 

FREE DAYS

First and Second Thursdays: Free To All

First Friday: Free To Seniors

First Saturdays: Free To All

After becoming available in December, only a few Sunday slots were left as of this week before those, too, were claimed, the museum says.

CHS reported last fall on the planned February free weekend reopening of the 1933-built museum that will now be expanded by more than 13,000 square feet with more display space to represent South Asia and India as well as a new climate control system and seismic upgrades, plus new ADA accessibility.

Highlights of the overhaul include:

  • A new glass-enclosed park lobby on the east side of the building, creating a visual connection to Volunteer Park
  • Two new portals in the Fuller Garden Court opening onto the park lobby
  • A new gallery, education studio, conservation center, and community meeting room
  • The restoration of Olmstedian pathways in the park near the museum
  • Restoration of three fountains (two exterior, one interior)
  • Cleaning and preservation of the original sandstone façade
  • Cleaning of the façade’s Art Deco metalwork and reglazing of the glass

The museum’s collection will be organized by theme rather than by region and the first special exhibition will be called Be/longing: Contemporary Asian Art.

The lead up to the project included a new 55-year lease signed for the City of Seattle property promising wider access for the city’s schools. The project was funded by a mixture of public and private funds, with a final budget of approximately $56 million, officials said Tuesday. Of this funding, $21 million comes from the City of Seattle, which owns the building. Additional government support includes $1.5 million from the State of Washington and $1.4 million from King County. The remaining funds were raised through private support.

 

PLEASE HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE!
Subscribe to CHS to help us pay writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month.

 

 
Subscribe and support CHS Contributors -- $1/$5/$10 per month

11 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
HTS3
HTS3
4 years ago

This is so cool. I’ve seen pictures of some of the remodeling and I can’t wait to see it for myself. One of the 10,000!

PD
PD
4 years ago
Reply to  HTS3

Do you remember all the hysterical voices that were against this project?

I’m sure they’re all ready to admit that they were wrong, and that the project was very much a success and has added a lot to Volunteer Park….

Lol, just kidding. I’m sure they are just as shortsighted and morally self-righteous as ever.

HTS3
HTS3
4 years ago
Reply to  PD

Yes. There was a great deal of concern about losing that area behind the original structure. In one weekend, the museum will serve about 9,500 people more than used that area in a year. Okay, I’m a little prejudiced. I was always supportive of this remodel.

RWK
RWK
4 years ago
Reply to  PD

Yes, this enthusiastic response (to the re-opening) is a solid repudiation of that small minority of grumps who held up this project.

Ross
Ross
4 years ago
Reply to  PD

Serving 100x as many people as before may seem good, but it changes the character of Volunteer Park forever, try finding parking or just finding peace and quiet if 110x the flow of people is going on. I love(d) that park as a refuge and never minded that the museum was aging. Now the taxpayers must pay to keep up this new facility and prices and personel never go down, only up.
I agree it is beautiful.
I don’t agree it was a no-brainer to do it.
The ones against it never were given any kind of fair chance to win, it was all a show. The ones in charge had already decided. This is one reason it was resented: why ask for the people to comment when the decision has already been made? The park could be radically changed with this “100x” increase in museum traffic. Just sayin’.

Ross
Ross
4 years ago
Reply to  PD

When I said 100x the visitors:
Just to explain, someone said

“in one weekend 9,500 more people than in the whole YEAR beforehand”.

I didn’t do the math but there are about 52 weekend in a year, and if each one is serving 9,500 more visitors than the whole year before it, that is a huge, huge increase. In fact I doubt that can be right.

Seattle native here, wandering that park since age 3, but wishing the museum but more the park, the best it can be.

Rod
Rod
4 years ago
Reply to  PD

So you are ready to proclaim this a success before it has barely opened? That is like anti-hysterical –you haven’t even seen or cared about the effects this could have on the park over say the next 5 years. My bet: you don’t use the park or live nearby and don’t care much as long as it looks pretty. Non Seattleite too I bet. Good luck with that. Taxpayers will be footing it for a long time, pretty or not.

Happy Gentrifier
Happy Gentrifier
4 years ago

Any oriental rugs on display?

HTS3
HTS3
4 years ago

I know there are some textiles, but I don’t know about rugs.

Ross
Ross
4 years ago

Very smug, these first few comments.
There were valid reasons to oppose it, many nearby residents and longtime/native Seattleites did.
The renovation is one thing, the add-on expansion was another.
I guess if you are an dog illegal off leash user, you lost your place for your dog to “do it’s thing” and all that, but to denigrate the longtime Seattleites who had reasons to oppose it is just sophomoric.

rod
rod
4 years ago

As a park it has so much more value than as an essentially boring museum, which now has a huge glass appendage on the back end, which will require taxpayer support forever. Open space is at a huge premium, if you live in the City. Big glass rooms are the realm of Amazon and other wannabes. This museum was a non-starter from day one, if you think an expensive glass cube add-on makes it “world class” good luck with that. Meantime regular daily park users just have to ignore it and hope to find parking where it was plentiful before, or aside from parking just ignore big crowds of visitors, to something that honestly is not very interesting. It was better as a venerable Seattle park, not a wannabe museum attraction.