Tag Archives: art

‘Wednesdays are back’ — More than four years later, Capitol Hill’s Seattle Asian Art Museum back to pre-pandemic schedule

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(Image: Seattle Asian Art Museum)

Capitol Hill’s Seattle Asian Art Museum is ready to return to full power. Four years after pandemic restrictions closed its doors and after a few years of step by step return to more normal days at the Volunteer Park art venue, SAAM will finally get back to its pre-COVID schedule as it returns Wednesdays to its schedule starting next week.

Beginning August 28, the Seattle Asian Art Museum in historic Volunteer Park adds Wednesdays back to its calendar, bringing the museum to a schedule of five days a week, Wednesday through Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm.

To celebrate, the museum is inviting the community to enjoy opening day of the new exhibition, Meot: Korean Art from the Frank Bayley Collection for free. Meot: Community Opening Day is Wednesday, August 28 and is free and open to the public. To attend, purchase free admission to the museum for that day.

The historic building reopened on February 8, 2020, after a three-year renovation and expansion—only to close again on March 13, 2020 due to the COVID pandemic. It reopened on May 28, 2021, with a three-day-a-week schedule and added Thursdays back to the schedule on October 5, 2023. Now, it’s back to a full five-day-a-week schedule that aligns with the schedule of the Seattle Art Museum in downtown Seattle.

CHS reported here last September as SAAM added Thursdays back to its offerings.

SAAM returned from its pandemic shutdown in May 2021. SAAM has shuttered in mid-March 2020 as COVID-19 numbers climbed. Only weeks earlier, the building had reopened after three years of closure and construction to overhaul and expand the museum.

The return of Wednesday’s will bring a free celebration of SAAM’s new Meot show featuring the work of more than 60 Korean artists.

Learn more about SAAM and the free community opening day for Meot at seattleartmuseum.org.

 

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CHS Pics | Cal Anderson Park is also having a Rat Summer

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While the city and community organizations work to put on events like this past weekend’s Capitol Hill Garage Sale Day to help activate the park, Cal Anderson seems to stay pretty activated on its own, thanks very much.

Recently, artistic rodent creations popped up in the park in a kind of rat art scavenger hunt.

Rat summer, indeed. Continue reading →

New Stitch Cafe will knit together coffee and crochet on Capitol Hill

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Stitch Cafe is bringing coffee and crochet, an unexpected creative combination, to E Pine on Capitol Hill.

This new cafe is filling a gap in the neighborhood for both crafters and coffee connoisseurs alike—a space for people to share their love for fiber arts, learn a new hobby, and enjoy a coffee all at the same time.

Sarah Chae began working on Stitch Cafe over a year ago, joining forces with business partner, Shimon Masaki, owner of Upright Tree Coffee Roasters which will be the coffee supplier for Stitch.

The project hit the ground running when they found the right location, a space on E Pine formally home to Poco Bar & Lounge. Chae connected with Poco owner Jesse Rhodes, and purchased the business to proceed with Stitch.

“I wanted to have a cozy environment where you can go to do a craft, and I noticed Seattle was missing that,” said Sarah Chae, owner/founder of Stitch Cafe. Chae is passionate about the importance of third spaces, public and social locations that are not work or home. Continue reading →

On Capitol Hill’s 15th Ave E, a community mural is restored as a new work rises above

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Billy Davis

 

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Amid a wave of 2020s change, 15th Ave E is getting some artistic touch-ups with an effort to restore a 2000s-era community mural and a massive new mural from an artist synonymous with the 2008 presidential election victory of Barack Obama.

Shepard Fairey is at work this week above 15th Ave E.

Artist Billy Davis just spent the past weeks here after a bout of graffiti vandalism inspired a clean-up of an old project.

The Sanctuary mural was created by Davis on the building constructed in 2000 for the neighborhood’s new Walgreens. The painting’s origin traces to another time of change for Capitol Hill. When the beloved local business City People’s closed and its owners sold the land to Walgreens, many neighbors pushed back on the development. One of the concessions was Sanctuary. Davis was selected to bring it to life.

“There was an outcry in the neighborhood,” Davis recalls, reflecting on the community’s reaction to the changes. “But Walgreens donated a wall to the community.”

The resulting mural was intended to reflect the sense of refuge and belonging that residents associate with their neighborhood, Davis said.

“The name ‘Sanctuary’ is a shout-out to the community,” Davis said this week as he completed word on an extensive restoration of the painting. “The tree in the mural is a kind of totem for the community and a reflection of dream time.” Continue reading →

Check out ‘Mighty Realer – A Very Queer Art Show’ during tonight’s Capitol Hill Art Walk Pride edition

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Thursday is the Pride edition of the monthly Capitol Hill Art Walk with more than 20 studios, galleries, and venues officially participating — and the rest of the Hill unofficially participating as you enjoy a warm-ish June evening in the neighborhood.

A core to this month’s Art Walk will be on 11th Ave at the Vermillion art bar where the Mighty Realer queer arts showcase follows up on last year’s Mighty Real show.

The 2024 edition features artists including Anouk Rawkson, Jordan Christianson, Kerstin Graudins, David Van Der Linden, Casey Curran, Maybe, Jeff Legere, Tony Barnes, Kelly O, Richard Peacock, Christopher Ando, Julianee Mendoza, and Ruben David.

It is going to be so -er. Continue reading →

New signal box portraits bring familiar faces to Broadway for Seattle’s 50th Pride

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This year’s Capitol Hill Pride will bring familiar faces to Broadway. The Broadway Business Improvement Area announced that traffic signal boxes up and down the street are now wrapped with new Pride portraits of LGBTQIA+ heroes in Seattle history.

Portraits include Cal Anderson, the state’s first openly gay legislator and park namesake, Judge Mary Yu, who officiated many of the city’s first same-sex marriages the day Washington legalized the vows in 2014, Ingersoll Gender Center founder Marsha Botzer, ACT-UP organizer Brian Day, and Wildrose bar owners Martha Manning and Shelley Brothers.

“Through our economic recovery grant, we employed local queer and trans artists to portray individuals who made a difference in the LGBTQIA+ community in Seattle, as chosen by a PrideFest selection committee,” the BBIA said about the new project. “The process took two and a half years but we are finally there.” Continue reading →

Meet the Capitol Hill artist | Emelia Black is sewing together community and sustainability at Summit Selvage

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(Images: Ananya Mishra/CHS)

Meet the Capitol Hill Artist is an occasional series on CHS documenting the lives of the artists behind the neighborhood’s galleries and arts venues.

By Ananya Mishra

As a middle schooler, Emelia Black would use her Project Runway-themed sewing machine to turn old bedsheets into experimental garments.

She grew up in a family that taught her the importance of repurposing items that would otherwise be thrown away. Her father and grandfather would eagerly take her to thrift shops in Snohomish County, hoping to find interesting repair projects. Today, thrift stores are still a primary source of unique fabric for Black. She has been able to transform them into one-of-a-kind pieces, including a jacket made out of fringe blankets, and several tote bags that are made out of tapestries.

After she graduated college, Black started a corporate job as a Product Designer. She designed and prototyped fire-resistant garments and other protective equipment. The job didn’t have a sewing component to it, so she continued to work on other upcycled projects on the side. Eventually, she quit her job to open up Summit Selvage, a business that combines her passions for sewing, community, and sustainability. Continue reading →

Massive art donation comes with a $25M gift for 12th Ave — plans for a new Seattle University Museum of Art

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(Image: Seattle University)

Dick Hedreen (Image: Yosef Kalinko/Seattle University)

A 12th Ave Seattle University parking lot could become a new art museum and the center of the school’s art holdings as property developer Dick Hedreen has announced he is gifting his family’s 200-piece, $300 million collection of paintings, pottery, photography, etchings, and sculptures to the Jesuit university on the southern edge of Capitol Hill.

The rare handover comes with a $25 million donation to begin the development of the Seattle University Museum of Art, “a teaching museum that will showcase centuries of art history and be a true learning extension of the classroom,” Seattle U says. Continue reading →

Meet the Capitol Hill Artist | Carolyn Hitt is reconciling timelines, sharp lines, geometric shapes, and bright colors on 11th Ave

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(Images: Ananya Mishra)

Meet the Capitol Hill Artist is an occasional series on CHS documenting the lives of the artists behind the neighborhood’s galleries and arts venues.

By Ananya Mishra

One of the interpretations of the multiverse theory is that there could be alternate timelines, or multiple universes, that exist in parallel. Carolyn Hitt, an integral part of the Capitol Hill artist community, thinks very deeply about this concept. It has shaped her perception of humanity and its connection to everything. Continue reading →

Seattle free to try to crack down on graffiti after appeal in East Precinct chalk protest case

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Seattle’s lawless days as a graffiti free for all are over after a federal appeals court ruling in a Capitol Hill free speech case.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has overturned a 2023 ruling that the city’s vandalism laws were unconstitutional in a case over arrests made in 2021 over chalk and charcoal messages scrawled outside Capitol Hill’s East Precinct.

The messages are a frequent and continuing protest method near the 12th and Pine facility and outside Seattle Police Department facilities across the city.

The previous ruling forced the city to back off prosecution for graffiti or tagging while City Attorney Ann Davison’s office appealed the case. Continue reading →