This is an archived version of the Seattle Art Mutual Wiki demonstration from 2015. It is no longer being updated.

Welcome!

This is a community research site about museums, wealth and democracy. If you're interested in what you find here, please help us.

How are museums organized?

Can we design a better museum?

The research gathered here will be used to devise a proposal to transform the Seattle Art Museum. Each step along the way we hope to open up conversations about art, wealth and democracy. In this way, we hope to transform how we understand what is possible for ourselves and our city.

Who is working on this?

This site was started by Seattle artist Matthew Offenbacher and is growing with the assistance of David Strand, a student at Seattle University. We hope you will help us too.

Current Research Topics

Seattle Art Museum

Museum Challenges

SAM and Washington Mutual

Other Civic Institutions

Co-ops in Seattle

Utopian Socialism

Wealth Inequality in Seattle

Institution critique

Case Studies

About Seattle Art Mutual

About

The precipitous rise in wealth inequity and decline in social mobility is a central problem confronting our democracy. American art museums symbolically bridge this gap by transforming private wealth into public good, and by teaching diverse populations about art as a shared value. However, behind the scenes, many museums contradict this mission with an organizational structure ruled by a wealthy minority. My central question is: how might a museum’s structure instantiate a desire for access, democracy and wealth equality?

The Seattle Art Museum (SAM) presents a unique opportunity to explore this question. In 2006, SAM and Washington Mutual Bank (WaMu) became partners in a shared real estate agreement that allowed SAM to expand its galleries and WaMu to build new headquarters. Two years later, WaMu became the largest bank in U.S. history to fail, leaving SAM on uncertain financial footing. The aftermath of SAM and WaMu’s relationship provides the motivation for this project, and what we believe is real opportunity for social change.

Seattle Art Mutual will consist of sequential two-year phases. In phase 1, a research group will investigate the social, political and economic history of SAM. We will analyze alternative models for corporate administration and creative methods for promoting institutional change. We will place this research in the context of Seattle’s history of utopian socialist communities. In phase 2, we will work with museum stakeholders to devise a plan to democratize SAM’s organizational structure and advocate for its adoption within the museum and city at large.

Artistically, I am most interested in the process of consensus-building and persuasion: creating space to talk about difficult subjects such as class and wealth. “Museum stakeholders” represents a diverse set of communities. Roughly 40,000 households are currently SAM members. In addition, there are museum staff, curators, trustees, volunteers, artists, students in education programs and other non-member visitors. Initially, we will focus on the sixty-eight trustees who are SAM’s governing body. This focus is unusual among socially engaged artwork, which has largely partnered with under-resourced or marginalized communities. Seattle Art Mutual poses the interesting challenge of working for social change within communities of privilege. In my work, I have sought to position sites of authority as multivalent spaces full of potential for agency, pleasure and invention.


I have found that non-confrontational artistic approaches can access and influence existing power structures where political processes may fail. Alongside the trustees, my research group will work with the local artists’ community. Preliminary conversations have suggested this community will be a strong source of ideas, support and solidarity. Later in the year, we will expand our outreach to the museum membership in order to rally a broad base of support. Seattle is at a moment of extraordinary physical and economic change with increasingly stark economic divisions. Museums are powerfully symbolic institutions. With Seattle Art Mutual, I am framing the museum’s administrative structures themselves as symbolic forms. My project proposes transforming a very visible and charged civic site, rich with history and symbolism. In doing so, I hope to transform the way many people understand what is possible for ourselves and our city.

-- Matthew Offenbacher

Help

A Wiki lets communities write documents collaboratively. It is a database for creating, browsing, and searching information. What follows is a quick guide to using our Wiki, which is organized around topics of art, museums, wealth and democracy. Unlike the most well-known Wiki, Wikipedia, our goal is not to create highly polished articles for general audiences. Instead, we hope to gather all kinds of related ideas, notes, articles and pictures in various forms, both provisional and finished, artistic and scholarly. These pages will be used to help devise a working plan to transform the Seattle Art Museum. We hope you'll jump right in.

History of the Seattle Art Museum

Overview


Seattle Art Museum "In 1991, the Seattle Art Museum opened downtown in a building designed by famed architect Robert Venturi. In 2007, the museum moved to a newly expanded building (expansion designed by AWA Architects of Portland) with rethought installations and exhibitions. From wall texts to videos to computer screens and public programs, the Seattle Art Museum now offers multiple means and different perspectives to bring works of art to life. The installations create bridges between culture, time, and place. Surprises await you at every turn. Enter through a small door into a hauntingly beautiful Renaissance room of mellowed wood and be swept back to the 16th century in Northern Italy. The Wyckoff Porcelain Room dazzles the eye with wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling Asian and European porcelain arranged by color. Nearby, a spirited masquerade transports you to Africa in the midst of a celebration. Asian works of the most exquisite artistry are presented across time, and include contemporary as well as historic art. Masterpieces by Northwest Coast Native American artists are presented adjacent to major works by other American artists. The museum’s world-class Modern and Contemporary art collection is installed in frequently updated rotations, bringing new and surprising works to museum visitors."


Asian Art Museum "The original home of the Seattle Art Museum, this Art Deco building was completed in 1933. Following the opening of the Seattle Art Museum downtown, the Seattle Asian Art Museum (now the Asian Art Museum) opened in 1994 as a showcase for the museum’s world-renowned Asian collections and a community hub for Asian culture. The museum encourages visitors to view both venues within one week for the price of one admissions ticket."


Olympic Sculpture Park "With the foundation of the Olympic Sculpture Park, the vision of a third SAM venue to showcase outdoor sculpture, including remarkable works collected by local museum supporters, became reality. The site was named by founders Jon and Mary Shirley for its exquisite views over Elliott Bay of the Olympic Mountains. SAM, in partnership with the national land conservation organization The Trust for Public Land, purchased the last remaining undeveloped property on Seattle’s central waterfront in December 1999. It is a place that evokes the beauty of our city and the inspiration of artistic genius. The park, designed by Weiss/Manfredi, immediately gained international attention, with seminal works by Richard Serra, Alexander Calder, Claes Oldenburg, Louise Bourgeois, and other artists."

Source: http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/collections/collection-resources

A brief history of the Seattle Art Museum (Seattle PI)

Published by Seattle Post-Intelligencer (online) - Thursday, May 3, 2007

1908: The Seattle Fine Art Society, the parent institution of the Seattle Art Museum (SAM), is founded.

1928: The Fine Art Society is renamed the Art Institute of Seattle under president Carl F. Gould, an architecture professor at the University of Washington.

1931: The Art Institute becomes the Seattle Art Museum under Richard E. Fuller. He and his mother, Margaret E. MacTavish Fuller, offer the city $250,000 to build a museum. The city agrees to service and maintain the building if the Fullers and the institution are responsible for its construction, operation and collections. Gould is retained as architect and construction begins. The Fullers spend $325,000 to complete the Art Moderne structure in Volunteer Park.

1933: Seattle Art Museum opens June 23, 1933 with Fuller's Asian art holdings. There are 33,000 visitors on the first day. In its first year, the museum has 346,287 visitors, an extraordinary number since only about 365,000 people live in Seattle. In the midst of the Depression, the city reneges on its promise to match the Fullers' $250,000, so the museum opens at half its projected original size.

1935: Seattle banker Manson F. Backus gives etchings by Dürer, Rembrandt and Whistler.

1943: Sherman E. Lee becomes the assistant and then associate director of SAM. His contacts in Japan and with collectors bring the museum many of its most treasured works of Japanese art.

1944: The museum's first large-scale traveling exhibition, "India: Its Achievements of the Past and of the Present," occupies 12 of SAM's galleries for three months.

1951: Mrs. Donald Frederickson donates the most significant work of Japanese art in SAM's collection. The 17th-century "Deer Scroll" is a portion of a scroll considered a national treasure of Japan. The remainder of the scroll is in the collection of the Japanese emperor.

1958: Local gallery dealer Zoe Dusanne is responsible for the addition of Jackson Pollock's "Seas Change" and four other gifts from Peggy Guggenheim. Dusanne helps bring many important works into SAM's collection through the 1960s.

1973: Fuller, after serving 40 years as director and major financial supporter of the museum, retires.

1978: "The Egyptian Masterworks of Tutankhamen" attracts nearly 1.3 million visitors.

1981: Katherine C. White, a legendary collector of African art, transfers her comprehensive collection to SAM at the time of her death. With one of the largest holdings in the United States, the museum instantly becomes as well known for African art as it was for Asian art.

1986: SAM opens its Jacob Lawrence retrospective. It travels to five cities, breaks attendance records in each one and reintroduces Lawrence on the national scene.

1989: Virginia and Bagley Wright donate their collection of Japanese folk textiles. This gives the museum one of the finest collections of textiles outside Japan.

1990: Jonathan Borofsky's giant "Hammering Man" is commissioned. John Hauberg donates his renowned collection of Northwest Coast Indian art, transforming SAM into a major player in the field.

1991: SAM opens downtown. The Volunteer Park building is closed for extensive renovations.

1994: The Seattle Asian Art Museum reopens in Volunteer Park.

1997: "Leonardo Lives: The Codex Leicester and Leonardo da Vinci's Legacy of Art and Science" opens, lent to the museum by Bill and Melinda Gates. The exhibition is seen by 236,217 people.

1999: SAM and the Trust for Public Land announce they have raised $17 million to buy the waterfront site for the museum's future sculpture park.

2005: SAM closes downtown for expansion.

2007: Olympic Sculpture Park and expanded downtown museum open.

Source: Seattle PI http://www.seattlepi.com/ae/article/A-brief-history-of-the-Seattle-Art-Museum-1235822.php

Themes

notes by David Strand during research in SAM archives

Seattle Fine Arts Society

The Seattle Fine Arts Society was founded in 1908.

The Seattle Fine Arts Society was a separate organization from the Society of Seattle Artists, whose first recorded exhibition took place in 1904.

"...the Society of Seattle Artists was active in town before the organization of the Fine Arts Society (or Fine Arts Association, as it was then called) and gave every incentive possible to the formation of the new society. Among the original membership there were five from this artist group: Mrs. Herman H. Field, Mrs. Grace Elizabeth Kent, Miss Jessie Fisken, Miss Imogene Cunningham (Partridge) and Mrs. E. W. Andrews. There was some talk later of the amalgamation of the two groups but this never really eventuated. The Seattle Artists were turning out good work and when the Fine Arts Society was in good running order every effort was made to acquaint the public with what was being done."

"Extracts from the Articles of Incorporation of the Seattle Fine Arts Society"

Article I: The corporate name of this corporation shall be "The Seattle Fine Arts Society."

Article II: This corporation shall not have any capital stock. Membership in it shall be not be transferrable, and shall be only for the life of each member or until his membership shall be otherwise terminated, according to its by-laws, which shall prescribe the classes of membership, the privileges of the different classes of membership, the conditions thereof, and the causes and conditions of terminating membership in said corporation.

Article III: The purpose and objects for which this corporation is formed are: To promote and cultivate the Fine Arts, and to that end to maintain in the city of Seattle, art rooms or buildings, art library and art instruction; to acquire works of art and exhibit paintings, sculpture, engravings, and other works of art; to provide lectures and generally to foster art in all its branches.

Article IV: The officers who shall manage the affairs of the corporation shall be : A Board of Directors and a President, a First Vice-President, a Second Vice-President, a Secretary and a Treasurer. Such officers shall, with the exception of the board of directors, be elected annually for a term of one year. The Board of Directors shall be elected for a term of three years; at the first election three members shall be chosen for one year, three for two years and three for three years. The election of directors shall be held annually.

In 1925, the function and financial backing of the Seattle Fine Arts Society was called into question. In order to carry on, the Society issued the following -

"The Seattle Fine Arts Society has been endeavoring for a number of years to meet the civic need for an organization to care for the art interests of the community. This has resulted in the following:

<WRAP center square box 100%> 1. The holding of free art exhibitions almost continuously during the last ten years for the benefit of the general public.

2. Co-operating with the public schools by exhibiting the work of their art departments to the general public, and by holding exhibitions of artistic merit to supplement the courses of study in the schools.

3. Assisting the city engineer and other public officials and civic organizations in the aesthetic phases of their work and endeavoring in other ways to make Seattle more beautiful and attractive to its citizens and visitors.

4. Promoting creative art in the community by exhibiting work of local artists and craftsmen and by encouraging them in other ways.

5. Providing lectures on art subjects for members and the general public. </WRAP>

The growth of the city has increased these demands and forced the Society to enlarge the scope of its work. This means getting greater financial support if the organization is to function as a city institution. Those who actively connected with the work of the Society believe that in a city of this size such an organization fills a definitive civic need.

You are asked as a citizen of Seattle, interested in its civic welfare, to assist the Society in determining whether it should continue as a civic institution..."

Exhibitions

"In recognition of meritorious work by individual artists, the Society arranged for one-man shows to be put on from time to time and in order to bring the work of local artists before a wider public, plans were made to have special exhibits during the summer months when tourists from other parts of the country might be in town.

Other exhibits sponsored by the Society were those put on by the Seattle Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Many members of this organization were very active in the Fine Arts Society.

From the groups of Seattle artists and those in other northwest localities, the Annual Northwest Artists' Exhibitions were developed. Exhibits were entered from all the northwestern states and British Columbia and there was a healthy rivalry between the neighbor towns...It was about 1915 that the Northwest Annuals first began..."

Source: "A Seattle Heritage: The Fine Arts Society" by Anne H. Calhoun, published 1942.

From Fine Arts Society to Seattle Art Museum

"The desire for an art gallery for the city of Seattle grew stronger as the membership expanded and the activities of the Society broadened. It was felt that in a town of Seattle's size and importance this was a definite civic need and there were many discussions as to a desirable location for such a building and different plans were considered from time to time whereby such an end might be attained. At one time Mr. H. C. Henry offered a donation which, with added subscriptions, would enable the Society to put up its own building and the location suggested was on Fifth Avenue across Seneca Street from the Y.W.C.A. At another time Mr. C. H. Frye spoke of the possibility of working together with the Society for an art gallery at the south end of Volunteer Park. The question of cooperation of the Fine Arts Society and the State University in the erection of such a building came up at times but the problem of state or municipal authority entered in here.

Other organizations in town were interested in the civic need and the Seattle Chapter of the Archaeological Society of America proposed that that organization, the Fine Arts Society, the Drama League, the Musical Arts Society, the Historical Society and the Ladies' Musical Club join together toward the achievement of the desired end. The Auxiliary of the Cultural Arts (a woman's organization, since disbanded) also was most desirous of having an art gallery for Seattle and offered to contribute to the Society ten percent of the proceeds from a series of lectures it was putting on to be used toward the erection of a fire-proof art gallery.

In 1922 an amendment to the by-laws was voted which read, "All money received by the Society shall be used for the purposes provided in the Articles of Incorporation...In case of the dissolution of the Society all property shall be given to the city towards the founding of a Municipal Art Museum..."

Other sites, besides those already mentioned, that were considered at different times as desirable locations for an Art Museum were: Eight Avenue between Pike and Pine Streets, Seventh Avenue and Pine Street, Seneca Street between Third and Fourth Avenues, the south side of the Denny Hill regrade, Fifth Avenue and Union Street, and "a central location on First Hill. The question of the purchase of the St. Nicholas School was considered but voted down.

At one time a committee was appointed to approach the Library Board in regard to an Annex of the Fifth Avenue side of the Public Library lot to be used as art gallery. This could be turned over to the Library at cost when the growth of the Library made it necessary. And so the Fine Arts Society and others interested planned--and lived in hope.

Upon moving to the gallery at 117 Harvard Avenue North, the Board of Trustees carried on their monthly meetings there. In 1903 Dr. Richard E. Fuller was elected President and soon after his installation he reported to the Board that he and Mr. Raymond G. Wright were to see about a renewal of the lease on the property and a committee was appointed to study the question of a permanent home. An application for assistance was made to the Carnegie Foundation but was later withdrawn until a more definite plan for the future could be outlined. Mr. Lawrence Vail Coleman, Director of the American Association of Museums with headquarters in Washington D.C. was engaged to come out and make a survey of the situation in Seattle. Mr. Coleman made a thorough canvass and turned in his report, and at the meeting of the Board of Trustees, October 6, 1931, the President reported that as a result of this survey he and his mother, Mrs. Eugene Fuller, had offered the city of Seattle $250,000.00 for a new building. "Provided the City of Seattle deems it desirable to have the much needed civic art museum constructed on the site of the pergola in Volunteer Park, we are willing to contribute jointly the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to the project...in the development of a plan of cooperation between the institution and the city along the lines already established by precedents, such as that of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the City of New York."

The city gladly agreed to the terms of the proposed gift and when all legal technicalities between the city and the donors were attended to Mr. Carl Gould was engaged as architect and the present beautiful building took shape.

As the people of Seattle now look upon this beautiful art museum in Volunteer Park on Capitol Hill and realize what it means to them and to their children, there is a warm sense of gratitude to the donors for what they have done for the city and a deep-felt realization that at last a dream has come true."

Source: "A Seattle Heritage: The Fine Arts Society" by Anne H. Calhoun, published 1942.

City Accepts Fuller Gift

From Quarterly Bulletin of the Art Institute of Seattle (1932)

President's Message

"Your Board of Trustees recently decided "that the present public service rendered by the Institute is not commensurate with the expense of operation," and therefore recommended that "the Institute operate in as economical manner possible and retain only such staff as may be necessary in preparing for entering the Volunteer Park Museum."

It is with considerable regret that we view any curtailment of our present very faithful staff, but from the standpoint of common sense the decision is undeniably absolutely sound. Our new building will offer Seattle the potential service which cannot be approached in our present quarters, yet the actual expense of our maintenance is approximately as high. In fact although our annual attendance has increased greatly in recent years, reaching about eighteen thousand, the dollars spent on the cost of operation amount approximately to the same figure. To furnish a striking comparison, the attendance should be instead nearly six hundred thousand to reach the exceptionally high efficiency attained in both of the art museums in San Francisco.

Our ultimate success depends not upon our present service, but on the educational material that we have to offer on entering the new building. When we take that step we become a truly civic institution and we must be prepared in material as well as in personnel to meet that opportunity. For sentimental reasons we cannot imperil our ultimate success by diverting funds from the purchase of equipment for the sake of retaining a relatively ineffectual tradition.

In recent months, our membership has greatly decreased. Much as we need support, we do not intend to take any drastic steps to counteract this rather natural reaction to the present financial conditions. Instead, we will postpone solicitation for new members until our physical equipment guarantees them adequate service to Seattle and an organization of which they may be truly proud.

During the transitional period in the coming year, we will have headquarters in down-town offices. With the acquisition and classification of collections of educational material such as reproductions, slides, etc., our service to the schools of the city will steadily increase. Although otherwise the precise scope of our activities has been definitely determined, we expect to have some lecture series and some current exhibitions such as the Northwest Annual.

We do hope that our members will agree with the decision of the trustees and will join with us in preparing for the future in order that we will at last be able to give adequate service and inspiration to Seattle."

-Richard E. Fuller, President

City Accepts Fuller Gift

"An important phase of the Art Institute's existence opended during December, with the ratification by the city council of an ordinance accepting the Fuller gift of $250,000 for the erection of a museum building in Volunteer Park.

The city ordinance, now in effect, is in the nature of a contract between the city and the Institute, governing operation of the new museum and setting forth the relationship of the board of trustees of the Institute to the city government and vice versa. For the benefit of Art Institute members a summary of the contract is here presented.

Probably the outstanding feature of interest to members is the fact that while the Art Institute assumes full civic status, the control of the museum is vested in the board of trustees of the Art Institute, and that elections to that governing board shall be at the discretion of the trustees. The mayor, city comptroller, president of the city council, president of the park board and the president of the school board shall sit on the board of trustees as ex officio members.

It is to be understood that all collections, libraries, objects of art and the museum itself shall remain in perpetuity the absolute property of the Art Institute of Seattle. The city acquires not title to these properties of the Institute; but will maintain service to the museum as to any other municipal building, providing water, light, heat, electric power, and janitor and custodian service, and will in addition keep the building in repair. No monetary grant will be made to the museum by the city.

All supervision and direction of the museum and the objects contained in the museum will be vested in the board of trustees of the Institute, who shall at the end of each fiscal year submit to the city a report of its operations and transactions during the previous year.

The selection of objects to be displayed in the new building will remain the province of the board of trustees of the Institute or its designated agents, and decisions made by directors of the Institute as to arrangement or choice of exhibitions shall be final and conclusive.

Duties of the Institute

The duties of the Art Institute to the public are defined in a section which states that on at least four days of each week, the exhibition halls of the museum shall remain open free of charge between the hours of 10am and 5pm on weekdays, or between 2 and 6pm on Sundays or holidays. At all times teachers and students of the Seattle public schools shall be admitted free of charge to all advantages offered by the museum. Where it is deemed necessary the Institute is authorized to raise operating expenses by use of an admission charge on three days each week.

Rules and regulations governing conduct within the museum shall be made by the board of trustees.

Civic Control Vested in Park Board

Such share as the city maintains in the control and direction of the museum shall be vested in the Board of Park Commissioners.

The ordinance provides that the building shall be completed within 18 months from ratification of the contract, which was signed by the mayor on December 11, 1931 and went into effect on January 11.

Termination of Contract

The agreement between the Art Institute and the city may be terminated by the latter three years from the date of an ordinance passed to conclude the city's participation in the museum; the Art Institute may withdraw from affiliation with the city three years after declaration to the city of intent to do so.

Institute Retains Identity

Members of the Art Institute will be particularly gratified to note that the Institute at all times maintains its identity as a public enterprise, and that is control remains vested in its board and directorship.

In joining again in thanks to Mrs. Eugene Fuller and Dr. Richard E. Fuller for their generous gift members of the Art Institute should hold in mind the co-operative spirit of the mayor and the councilmen of the city of Seattle, the board of park commissioners, the members of the mayor's commission which recommended the acceptance of the Fuller gift, and the legal committee which studied and clarified all phases of the contract which so clearly defines the relations of the Institute to the city. </WRAP> Source: Quarterly Bulletin of the Art Institute of Seattle (1932) from Seattle Art Museum Library

Seattle Art Museum Pavilion

The Pavilion Era Ends [SAM Members' News Nov '87 - Jan '88]

"After a run of nearly 25 years, the Pavilion will close its doors in December, and the museum will concentrate its exhibitions at Volunteer Park. This will ease preparation for the new downtown museum's galleries. The galleries at Volunteer Park will continue to feature new exhibitions in addition to the permanent collection galleries.

The Pavilion was formerly the United Kingdom Pavilion during the 1962 World's Fair, and in 1963 was remodeled by the office of Paul Thirty, Architect, to make it suitable for the display of paintings and sculptures. A bronze plaque on the building states: "This building was remodeled for the permanent display of art with funds donated by PONCHO and from a bequest of Richard Dwight Merrill. It is the property of the City of Seattle and is to be operated by the Seattle Art Museum for the recreation, education, and inspiration of everyone." Renamed the Seattle Art Museum Pavilion, it first opened on May 1963, for the preview of Seattle Decoration and Design Show, a special exhibition that was held from June 1 through September 2 as a "trial run." More than 114,000 persons visited the Pavilion during the first three months. Dr. Richard Fuller, then president and director of the Seattle Art Musuem, remarked in the 1963 annual report: "We consider the trial run a remarkable success and hope that it may be continued."

September 13, 1964, saw the gala preview of Ancient Sculpture from India. Assembled from 21 museums in India, the exhibition consisted of 20 tons of stone and terra-cotta sculpture. Because of its size and weight, this was a complex exhibit.

The building in Volunteer Park had neither the space nor structural strength to display the art. In accepting the privilege and responsibility of being one of five American museums to participate in the circuit of this important exhibition, the Seattle Art Museum elected to install the exhibit at the Pavilion. In order to accomplish this, storage area adjacent to the Pavilion was rushed to to completion one week before the opening date.

However it was not until June 4, 1965, that the Grand Preview and Opening of the Pavilion finally took place, initiating a regular schedule of exhibitions. This occasion celebrated the opening of a group of three shows: Walter Issacs Memorial Exhibit; A Decade of New Talent, a survey of American painting; and Contemporary Art, featuring selections from the museum's permanent collection. The ceremony was officiated by Mayor Braman, who presented to the Seattle Art Museum a resolution of appreciation from the Municipal Art Commission.

The first truly major exhibition to be held at the Seattle Art Museum Pavilion opened in July 1965 - the notable and expensive The Responsive Eye. This "op art" show was assembled by William Seitz for the Museum of Modern Art, New York and was the first exhibition sponsored by the newly formed Contemporary Art Council of the Seattle Art Museum.

In its official 22-year history, the Pavilion has been the site of 230 exhibitions, and has welcomed more than 2,175,000 visitors through its doors. Outstanding exhibitions have included 557,087 (1969); Skagit Valley Artists (1974); American Art 1900-1950 (1977);The Art of Chivalry: Arms and Armor from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1982); Yo nu Bi: The Beauty of Japanese Folk Art (1983); Praise Poems: The Katherine White Collection (1984); States of War: New European and American Paintings (1985); and the unprecedented A Thousand Cranes: Treasures of Japanese Art from the Seattle Art Museum (1987). Also featured at the Pavilion have been numerous one-person shows such as the Ernst Ludwig Kirehner retrospective in 1968. At that time the museum acquired its Kirchner painting, Woman and Girl, which was a prominent work of art in the exhibition. Among the many artists showcased in exhibitions over the years were Jackson Pollock, Jean Arp, Helen Frankenthaler, and Claes Oldenburg.

The Pavilion's PONCHO Gallery, remodeled and renamed in August 1977, has hosted the Documents Northwest exhibition series since August 1983. Originated by Bruce Guenther, former curator of contemporary art, Documents Northwest: The PONCHO Series has featured to date 23 Northwest artists in solo exhibitions. Norie Sato, Robert Maki, George Tsutakawa, and Debra Sherwood are just a few of the artists featured in this series. Documents Northwest: The PONCHO Series: Patrick Siler continuing through November 15, will be the final Documents Northwest exhibition at the Pavilion. The series will continue in one of the North Galleries at Volunteer Park, beginning with an exhibition of recent sculptures and works on paper by Peter Millett on December 3.

Northwest '87, an exhibition of 51 recent works by 27 Washington and Oregon artists, also closes at the Pavilion on November 15. This exhibition is dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Seattle Center.

We hope you will take the time now to make a last visit to the Seattle Art Museum Pavilion."

Source: SAM Members' News Nov '87 - Jan '88 from Seattle Art Museum Library

Exhibitions of Northwest Artists

The Annual Exhibition of Northwest Artists

From 1914 - 1974, an annual juried exhibition of Pacific Northwest artists in painting and sculpture from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Alaska.

The Betty Bowen Memorial Award

[from "The Betty Bowen Memorial Award Tenth Anniversary Exhibition, June 18 - July 17, 1988 Volunteer Park - by Vicki Halper, Assistant Curator of Modern Art ]

"When Betty Bowen died prematurely in 1977, artists in the Northwest lost a dear friend. Praised as "vibrant, efficient, zany, relentless" by architecture and design critic Rae Tufts, she worked tirelessly for many causes, above all, the care, feeding and preservation of the artist.

Close friends of Betty Bowen established a memorial fund at the Seattle Art Museum where she had worked from 1954 to 1973. In 1979 the Bowen Committee awarded its first annual grant to a Northwest artist, chosen, then as now, through competition. In June 1988, the announcement of the tenth winner of the Betty Bowen Memorial Award will coincide with an anniversary exhibition showing recent work of the current and previous winners. Both the exhibition and its accompanying publication are supported by the Betty Bowen Memorial Fund and PONCHO. Two former winners are now residing in New York--Charles Stokes (1979) and Debra Sherwood (1985). The remaining seven continue to flourish in Washington. They are: Jeffrey Bishop (1982), Joan Ross Bloedel (1981), Mark Calderon (1986), George Chacona (1987), Joseph Goldberg (1980), Randy Hayes (1984) and Norie Sato (1983). Most of these artists have had one-person exhibitions at the museum, generally within the Documents Northwest format. The 1988 winner, whose identity is secret until the exhibition opening in June, was chosen in March from a list of approximately 400 artists.

Although the composition of the Bowen Committee has remained virtually unchanged since shortly after its inception (members are Morrie Alhadeff, Peffy Goldberg, Ann Gould Hauberg, Dottie Malone, Llewelyn Pritchard, and Kayla Skinner), the range of its choices is broad. The anniversary exhibition will include abstract and figurative painting, and mixed-media sculpture. The depth and the breadth of the work are a tribute to a women who was both dedicated and eclectic in her interests and tastes."

Source: Seattle Art Museum Members' News April-June'88, from Seattle Art Museum Library.

Documents Northwest: The PONCHO Series

[from Seattle Art Museum Calendar November 1984 - by Bruce Guenther, Curator of Contemporary Art]

"In its first year, the Documents Northwest exhibition series has established at the museum a new standard for the presentation of the art and artists of our region. Inaugurated as part of the museum's 50th anniversary celebration, the series will continue to showcase six Northwest artists annually. Each will have a one-person exhibition accompanied by an illustrated publication. The Documents Northwest publications are distributed widely in the region and mailed to over 150 museums and libraries nationally to broaden awareness of the art and artists of the Northwest.

Moving from the cool geometry of Jeffrey Bishop's watercolors and the elegant silence of Norman Lundin's drawings to the ferocious women of Gregory Grenon's paintings and the highly evocative installations of Diane Katsiaficas, the initial round of exhibitions declared the museum's intention to highlight the best from the rich diversity of the area's artistic production. The choice of artists reflects a desire to balance younger artists just beginning to attract attention and artists well established in the region. Additionally, an attempt is made to introduce Seattle audiences to artists whose works have not been seen here before, such as Robert Helm and John Buck this past year. It is my hope that as the Documents Northwest series continues it will create an extended survey of the Northwest Contemporary art scene, and through the distribution of its publications enhance the national reputation of the artists and their artworks.

The initial funding support from the National Endowment for the Arts and PONCHO's continued generous support has been essential in making Documents Northwest a reality. To them I would like to extend our gratitude. I would also like to acknowledge the important contribution members of the Seattle Art Museum staff--Deborah Barringer, Viciki Halper, Suzanne Kotz, Michael McCafferty, and John Pierce--make to insure that each exhibition is a success."

Source: Seattle Art Museum Calendar November 1984, from Seattle Art Museum Library

In Transition: The Years Leading to the Downtown Building

The Westlake Building Project

"The Museum entered into a Tripartite Agreement dated August 14, 1979 with the Westlake Development Authority, a public authority chartered by the City of Seattle (City), and Mondev, U.S.A., Inc. for development of a two block area in the City. The development, commonly known as the Westlake Project, would combine a multi-level downtown shopping center with a public art museum. In addition, the Museum has entered into an agreement for design services related to the proposed museum. Actual development of the proposed project is contingent upon approval by the Seattle City Council."

Report of the Chairman

Langdon S. Simsons, Jr. (Chairman) - 1983

"Our fiftieth anniversary marks a year of decision and action to bring into reality the long overdue expansion of the Seattle Art Museum.

Ten years ago, the Board of the museum approved a statement of direction calling for the museum to be the "preeminent regional resource for the enjoyment and appreciation of the visual arts," and to project "a new public image--the image of an open inclusive community resource for the enjoyment of all." The statement recognized the imperative need to expand the size of the museum to provide a greatly enlarged exhibition space, increased storage and work spaces, and public services such as restaurant and membership lounge. Today, only three percent of our collection can be exhibited at any one time.

Now ten years later, after the disappointment of losing the Westlake Mall site but with the gift of the downtown J.C. Penney property, instigated by Board Vice-President Richard Hedreen, the Board has realized its two immediate goals of confirming a site for a new, expanded art museum and of selecting an architect of international stature to design the new museum.

[...]

Seattle now stands to become the site of the next great American museum. But to bring this dream into reality will still require rigorous and skillful planning on the one hand and major capital funding on the other.

[...]

"Our objective in building a new museum, as suggested by the Commission on Museums for a New Century, will be to offer "rich encounters with reality, with the past, with what exists now and with what is possible. Men and women come together in cities in order to become more human and into museums to discover that collective experience charged with moral energy is still alive and well in America. The act of contributing to the richness of the collective human experience is at the very heart of what museums are all about. Museums are gathering places, places of discovery, places to find quiet, to contemplate, and to be inspired. They are our collective memory, our chronicle of human creativity, our window into the natural and physical world."

This is what the new Seattle Art Museum is all about."

Source: Report of the Chairman 1983, from Seattle Art Museum Library.

[from the Seattle Art Museum Calendar May 1986 - Letter from Acting Director Bonnie Pitman-Gelles]

"...The progress in our plans for the new museum raises an important question for all who have a stake in the museum's future-staff, board, volunteers, members, and the community alike: What will be the use of the building in Volunteer Park once the new museum is constructed? Within the museum family this issue has been hotly debated for the past several years.

Volunteer Park has been the museum's home for more than half a century. Seattleites are strongly attached to the location and have been assured of its place in the museum's future.

Last fall the staff and board's long-range planning committee considered alternatives for the future use of Volunteer Park, which ranged from a decorative arts museum to a museum for Northwest crafts. The staff and board carefully constructed criteria with which to study and select the most compelling suggestions for the building's use. Those criteria included how best to use the museum's collections, community interest and audience appeal, and operating cost.

In late March three proposals were selected for presentation to the full board of trustees. These were an Asian art museum, a museum for the art of the Pacific Northwest, and a plan to exhibit selections from the Asian art collection together with special thematically related exhibitions drawn from other areas of the museum's permanent collection.

The third proposal was recommended and unanimously approved by the board of trustees. This proposal will increase exhibition space for the museum's Asian collections and other permanent collections. The exhibitions at Volunteer Park will support and complement the permanent collection installations at the downtown building. For example, an exhibition may be drawn from the museum's collection of European decorative arts to demonstrate the strong influence of Chinese ceramics."

Source: Seattle Art Museum Calendar May 1986 Page 2, from Seattle Art Museum Library

Vote for a Better Seattle [from Seattle Art Museum Calendar September 1986 - Letter from Acting Director Bonnie Pitman-Gelles]

"In a few days, the museum and citizens of Seattle will together face one of the most critical steps towards making the new downtown facility a reality. On September 16, the Seattle community will be asked to vote on Proposition #1, a $29.6 million tax levy to support the construction of the Seattle Art Museum Downtown, located on the southern half of the block bounded by University and Union streets and First and Second avenues. Private donations now stand at over $13.3 million, wand the museum will have approximately $12 million to raise from private sources to ensure the completion of the project once the levy is approved. With your continued support, we can open the door on success; the passage of Proposition #1 is the key.

This project and campaign, we feel, demonstrate something special: the innovation and spirit that represents the best of Seattle and holds the most promise for the future of a vital city. The downtown museum, designed by Robert Venturi, will become the cultural focal point for this city's diverse and dynamic population. It will provide a substantial increase in gallery exhibition space and feature state-of-the-art facilities for music, film, and educational programs.

Its appeal includes its ready accessibility--within walking distance from work for many and within easy distance of all major buse lines. We have combined our efforts to pass Proposition #1 with Proposition #2, which will provided needed housing in Seattle, because we believe in the integral values of art and in making Seattle a better place to live.

Organizing a public campaign to pass the levy is a new role for the museum. So many individuals have been involved in making this campaign as successful and exciting as it has been. We have been fortunate to have the leadership of Downtown Project Executive Director Doug Hurley and his staff to implement the many pieces of this effort and the help and support of individuals involved in passing Proposition #2 as well.

The museum staff and trustees have generously given their time to work on the campaign. And thanks are also due to the hundreds of volunteers who came forward to assemble yard signs, ring doorbells, host coffee hours, and work on phone banks.

For five months, we have told the story of why we need a new facility and the ways in which the new building will benefit the Seattle community. We hope the people of Seattle will respond with a vote in our favor.

[...]

When is the vote? --Tuesday, September 16, 1986

Who can vote? --Any registered voter in the City of Seattle.

What percentage of the vote is needed for passage of the levy? --A simple majority of the voters who turn out for the election.

How is the levy listed on the ballot? --As Proposition #1

What will the levy cost taxpayers? --The levy will run over eight years. It will cost owner of a home worth $80,000 approximately $12 per year.

What is Proposition #2? --Proposition #2 is a $49.9 million levy that will provide housing for Seattle's needy families and individuals. The museum supports the passage of this levy and is part of a joint campaign to urge passage of both propositions.

Why do we need a new museum? --The museum has simply outgrown its facility in Volunteer Park. Since its founding in 1933, the museum's collection has from 2,000 to over 14,000 objects. Currently, the museum can exhibit only 3% of its permanent collection; 97% of our artworks are held in storage.

Where will the new museum be built? --The museum will be built on the souther half of the block bordered by First and Second avenues, and University and Union streets in downtown Seattle.

Why was a downtown site chosen? --The Board of Trustees has studied the issue of site selection for a number of years. A downtown site was chosen to make the museum accessible to the largest number of people. The downtown facility will be within two blocks of every bus line in the city, and near the commercial and retail centers of town.

Why not expand facilities in Volunteer Park? --The Volunteer Park facility site on city parkland that was determined to be undesirable for further construction.

When will the new museum be completed? --According to current schedules, the new facility would open in late 1989 or early 1990."

Source: Seattle Art Museum Calendar September 1986, from Seattle Art Museum Library

The Downtown Project [from Seattle Art Museum Calendar October 1986 - Letter from Acting Director Bonnie Pitman-Gelles]

"We made it!

After months of hard work and preparation, yard sign building, coffee hours, and doorbelling, Proposition 1 was passed by Seattle voters on September 16. The approval of the $29.6 million levy is our go-ahead to begin the design and construction phase of the Seattle Art Museum Downtown. It was an important victory for the museum and the community, and on behalf of the Board of Trustees and staff, I would like to express our gratitude to our supporters.

[...]

Fundraising for the downtown project is also making great strides forward. Phase I of the three phase capital campaign surpassed its $10 million goal this spring, ending with a total of $13.3 million raised in gifts and pledges. We are now in the midst of Phase II, which involves securing $50 million in major donations from individuals, corporations, and foundations. It is exciting to note that we are already one third of the way to meeting that goal. Recently we are able to announce a $1 million anonymous pledge to our campaign. The final phase of the capital campaign will begin next year. We are all grateful to the Phase II co-hairs, Faye Sarkowsky and Bagley Wright, and to their committee for this important work."

Source: Seattle Art Museum Calendar October 1986 Page 2, from Seattle Art Museum Library

Board of Trustees

Current

1970-71

Officers 1970-71

M.J. Alhadeff President, Mrs. Bagley Wright Vice-President, Mrs. Peter Rawn Secretary, Robbert Dootson Treasurer,

Committees Mrs. Michael R. Johnson Arrangements, Mrs. Sidney Gerber Exhibitions, Mrs. Bagley Wright Membership, John S. Denman Nominations, Mrs. Sheffield Phelps Publicity, Joanna Eckstein Tours, Albert S. Kerry, Langdon S. Simmons, Jr. United Arts Club, Mrs. David E. Skinner Ways and Means

Members Bassetti, Fred; Calderhead, William F.; Caner, Mrs. John E.; Friendlander, Mrs. Paul S.; Gurvich, Mrs. Max; Hendersen, Dan; Lang, Mrs. Richard E.; Lobb, Dr. Allan; Kirk, Paul H.; McCarthy, Mrs. Joseph; Monsen, Dr. R Joseph; Mueller, Anton; Nordstrom Mrs. Lloyd; Owen, Mrs. Thomas; Perthou, Mrs. Alfred V.; Rubinstein, Sam; Schluger, Dr. Saul; Stimson, Mrs. David; Wagner, Mrs. Corydon; Weinstein, Max; Wright, Mrs. Howard S.

1908-1934

Officers 1908-34

1970s Documents

Report of the President and Director (1971 Annual Report)

The major achievements of 1971 lay primarily in the areas of special exhibitions and in the initial efforts toward financial and administrative restructuring. Many varied exhibitions at both the Museum and Pavilion provided one of the most exciting years in the Museum's History. However, when combined with rising costs in all areas, they contributed to an increasingly major deficit.

Therefore, the Board of Trustees has expressed a desire to more fully assume responsibility for the Museum's financial stability. With the realization that our operating expenses have increased by more than fifty percent in the past four years alone, and may accelerate in the future, a Special Committee was formed as an outgrowth of the Long Range Planning Committee. Charged with examination of the Museum's financial needs and proposals for their solution, the Committee recommended establishment of the position of Business Coordinator, whose first responsibility was to prepare a detailed survey of our financial resources and requirements.

Completion of the survey and reorganization of the accounting systems has revealed a deficit in excess of $22,600 and anticipation of annual deficit increases of as much as $40,000 (or about 15% of annual operating costs) at the present rate of income. The survey also revealed the need for changes of financial organization which will afford some additional income, and the desirability of changing our fiscal year from the calendar year to one which more closely corresponds to our seasonal activities. Consequently, the Trustees have changed the fiscal year to one beginning July 1 and ending June 30, effective in 1972. As a result of this decision, the next annual report will include the eighteen month period from January 1, 1972 through June 30, 1973.

It is expected that a more detailed understanding of the Museum's budget will permit the Trustees to plan effectively to meet operational needs.

Report of the Acting Director (1973 Annual Report)

The responsibilities of leadership of the Museum have been accepted by its newly elected President John H. Hauberg, formerly Vice President, and the other members of the Board of Trustees. During 1972 and 1973 a Special Committee of the Board appointed by Dr. Fuller continued their study of the Museum's organizational, fiscal and programmatic needs ...

Recognizing that the effective operation and growth of the Museum relies upon sufficient financial support, the Board authorized a development survey, made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Washington D.C. The survey by a nationally prominent firm specializing in the museum field, was completed in 1972 and the recommendations were establishment of a permanent Development Office, broad-based program for increasing public support and dramatic increase of museum membership. The Development Office was established in July of 1973 and a generous grant from PONCHO will fund its operations during the first year.

Late in 1972, Dr. Fuller appointed an ad hoc By-laws Review Committee of the Board to study and revise the Museum's By-laws to meet new circumstances and the requirements of the Museum for the future. Chaired by Board Secretary Willard J. Wright, the Committee revised the By-laws to provide an effective organizational structure within the Board, broadening Trustee involvement in setting policy for the Museum and clearly defining the responsibilities of the Board, Director and Staff. The revised By-laws were adopted at the February 22, 1973 Annual Meeting of the Membership. An important provision was for the enlargement of the Board from twenty-four to thirty-nine to allow participation and guidance of the Museum by a broader segment of the community.

The newly established Planning Committee , chaired by Vice President Langdon Simons Jr., immediately embarked upon a careful assessment of the resources and requirements of the Museum both in the present and for the future. The Committee's deliberations produced the Statement of Direction which was presented at the October 3 Annual Meeting of the Membership. While recognizing that its conclusions will warrant periodic review, the document sets forth a summary of responsibilities, the requirements, the goals and the "style" of the Museum as seen by the board. Among its fundamental conclusions are that the Museum must be the preeminent regional resource for the visual arts, must serve a diversity of tastes, must achieve radically increased physical space in which to display now largely hidden collections and provide essential services and programs.

The Board of Trustees has been enlarged to accommodate members who have had a great interest in the Seattle Art Museum and who brings to its leadership a wide variety of talents. Collectors of art, artists, educators, long time Guild members, and youth all come to mind as planned auditions. There will be others with a similar interest in the Museum and representing different viewpoints in due time, although it's not the present intention to have a group as large as our By-laws permit, which is sixty.

Sources: Annual Reports from Seattle Art Museum Library

1980s Documents

Trustee Elections

There was a period in the late 80s, early 90s when it appears SAM was holding annual members meetings where the membership voted to elect the Board of Trustees for three year terms. Notices such as the following were included in the member newsletter. <WRAP center square box 80%> Notice of Annual Meeting

of Seattle Art Museum Members

1989-1990

Tuesday, October 23, 1990 4:30 p.m. Volunteer Park Auditorium

You are cordially invited to the annual meeting of the Seattle Art Museum for the following purposes:

If you cannot attend the meeting, please sign and return the proxy below. If you will be able to attend, please return the RSVP.

Dated this 1st day of August, 1990

[signed]

P. Cameron Vore, Secretary, Board of Trustees

Agenda

  1. Call to Order - C. Calvert Knudsen
  2. President's Report - Virgina Wright
  3. Treasurer's Report - David Maryatt
  4. New Museum Report - David C. Hoedemaker
  5. Director's Report - Jay Gates
  6. Election of Trustees
  7. Ratification of Acts of Trustees - P. Cameron DeVore
  8. Other Business
  9. Adjournment

Financial Structure

1930s

1950s

1970s

Extracts from the articles of Incorporation of the Seattle Fine Arts Society

Published in mid-1930s, dating from 1920(?)

ARTICLE I

The corporate name of this corporation shall be "The Seattle Fine Arts Society."

ARTICLE II

This corporation shall not have any capital stock. Membership in it shall not be transferable, and shall be only for the life of each member or until his membership shall be otherwise terminated, according to its by-laws, which shall prescribe the classes of membership, the privileges of the different classes of membership, the condition thereof, and the causes and conditions of terminating membership in said corporation.

ARTICLE III

The purposes and objects for which this corporation is formed are:

To promote and cultivate the Fine Arts, and to that end to maintain in the city of Seattle, art rooms of buildings, art library and art instruction; to acquire works of art and exhibit paintings and sculptures, and other works of art; to provide lectures and generally to foster art in all its branches.

ARTICLE VI

The officers who shall manage the affairs of the corporation shall be: A Board of Directors and a President, a First Vice-President, a Second Vice-President, a Secretary and a Treasurer. Such officers shall, with the exception of the board of directors, be elected annually for a term of one year. The Board of Directors shall be elected for a term of three years; at the firs election three members shall be chosen for one three; three for two years and three for three years. The election of directors shall be held annually.

Membership

Member Levels

Contributors Circles

Discounted Memberships

Source: http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/join-and-give

Professional Staff

SAM Departments

Source: http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/about-sam/contact-us#dep

Volunteering at SAM

"SAM involves hundreds of volunteers in dynamic and engaging opportunities at all three museum sites. Our volunteers provide great customer service, support administrative tasks, facilitate art experiences, and more.

Prospective volunteers should be passionate about art, enjoy interacting with the public, and able to make at least a six-month commitment to a weekly or every-other-week schedule. Required orientation provided by SAM." - From SAM website.

http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/about-sam/volunteer

Volunteer Positions Include:

The Building

Architecture

From Allied Works Architecture

The Seattle Art Museum is one of the foremost cultural institutions in the Pacific Northwest. A significant increase in the museum’s holdings and a visionary public-private partnership were the catalysts for the construction of a new 16-story building. The 450,000 s.f. expansion and renovation project allows SAM to grow incrementally, converting lease space to new exhibition galleries over a period of 20 years.

The new building sits on First Avenue overlooking Elliott Bay. It is primarily a western prospect, with views extending to the Olympic Range. Four exterior “shells” form the boundary of the building and site, each responding to a particular orientation. Their surfaces of flush glass, fixed and operable stainless steel panels engage varied light – filtering, reflecting, and diffusing it into the exhibition spaces. At the street, the museum is open and transparent, providing glimpses into the galleries from the sidewalk below. Rising through the lobby, the exhibition spaces are defined by parallel structural walls that filter light and provide views deep into the center of the block. These walls create rooms of varied proportion and height, providing a broad spatial palette for the curators and the collection. The museum is ordered by an internal landscape of double-height galleries that intersect exhibition floors above, drawing the eye further up into the heart of the museum. The expansion is an open field for vertical growth, both lens and filter for a shifting series of relationships with art and landscape.

Source: http://www.alliedworks.com/projects/seattle-art-museum/#/overview/1

Shock And Awe

The New Seattle Art Museum Blows the Old One Away

By Jen Graves, Published May 3, 2007 for the Stranger

The new Seattle Art Museum is so much better than the old Seattle Art Museum it's shocking.

A corridor of light stretches almost the entire length of its interior. Art fans out from it in every direction, visible through vast doorways. From the third-floor elevator doors, a John Singleton Copley painting of Sylvester Gardiner is straight ahead in the distance. It's thoroughly 18th century: his white wig, his long jacket with gold buttons, the patriarchal expression of a British loyalist who would later flee the Revolution for Nova Scotia. This painting has never before lived outside its ancestral home in the town in Maine named after him. Now it's sitting behind a stop sign made by an obscure 1970s Vancouver art collective called N.E. Thing. The stop sign reads "GO." To Gardiner's left is a large Warhol silk screen—silvery Elvises—and to his right, facing him, is a huge moose against a pink background by Mel Ramos.

Gardiner has shot full throttle into the information age, landing in an urban museum where no artwork, no culture, and no era is an island. Moving through the light-filled corridor, works of art in other rooms leap in and out of view in an exhilarating exchange of information that works like an iPod Shuffle, making the viewer consider which connections between works are noteworthy, and which are just coincidences.

A visual analogue between Gardiner's jacket with its delicate lace cuffs and the maroon-and-cream hues of a signature abstraction by Clyfford Still—visible but in another gallery—is a nice surprise. Each man is, after all, known for stubborn loyalty in the face of movements concerning American liberty: the Revolution and abstract expressionism, respectively. Also visible from the same spot—you still haven't moved—is a hand-embroidered canvas of pornographic goings-on with Still-esque streakiness by New York–based Egyptian artist Ghada Amer, and a used Ford Taurus tumbling through the air, tossing out light like a Fourth of July firecracker, by New York–based Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang. So much America in one panorama—and that's just a quick interpretation.

Brad Cloepfil, the Portland architect responsible for designing the $86 million new building, has an obvious gift for interior spaces. But the heroes of the new SAM are its curators: Chiyo Ishikawa, Pam McClusky, Michael Darling, Patti Junker, Barbara Brotherton, Julie Emerson, and Yukiko Shirahara. They've brought an entirely new vitality to the museum. This opening feels like the arrival of a general-interest museum in a city that never had one before.

The best and most radical decision by the curators and director Mimi Gates: to devote the big, beautiful, central galleries of the new building to the permanent collection instead of to touring exhibitions. In the old SAM building, designed by Robert Venturi and built in 1991—and declared by New York Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp to be "a rancid piece of work"—the permanent collection was shunted to the atticlike upper floors while big-name blockbusters (usually touring shows) hogged the first floor of galleries. The old building ruined one of the most pleasurable relationships in art: the friendships, built over time, between the local visitor and the local museum's permanent holdings. Touring shows, along with changing exhibitions curated at SAM, will be relegated to the Venturi building, and the permanent collection will stay where it is.

The way the permanent collection is installed is brilliant, too. Each section is hung in its own way. Disparate collections are linked. Juxtapositions are playful—a taxidermied dog on a plastic chair by the contemporary artist Maurizio Cattelan with a Dutch still life with cherries and a butterfly from 1617 by Balthasar van der Ast. Wall labels are opinionated. The whole place has an air of confident, conversational intelligence and in several spots, curators seem to be throwing out the question, "Why the hell not?"

A video is projected onto the floor beneath an abstract painting, because the painting was made on the dusty ground of the Australian outback, as the footage shows. In another room, a coffin made to look like a white Mercedes Benz, by Ghanaian artist Kane Quaye, sits on the floor. Above it, projected onto the ceiling, is a video of Ghanaian burial ceremonies in coffins like these. You can walk right underneath and miss it.

(As a bonus, suddenly the ceremony of Ghanaian burials seems to reference Giovanni Battista Tiepolo's immortalization of an 18th-century Italian landowner in his ceiling painting of angels and demigods in a nearby gallery.)

This, ideally, is what curators do. They make these same old African masks, modern paintings, ancient Greek fragments, majestic Asian scrolls, spotless rare silver, humble furniture from rural America, and French Revolution–era dishes with the profiles of unpopular royals hidden in tree designs look as if you're seeing them for the first time. It was headline news when SAM was promised nearly 1,000 works of art to its collection of 23,000 objects recently. But bigger news is that SAM is prepared to make the most of them. I'd say this is one of the best-installed museums anywhere.

The land deal for the new SAM—an arrangement unprecedented in the museum world—was hatched in a car. The people in the car were Washington Mutual developer Matt Griffin and SAM trustee Charlie Wright.

Here's what they came up with: SAM would sell half the city block it owned, between Union and University streets and First and Second avenues, to WaMu, which would provide construction loans to SAM. WaMu would build a 42-story world headquarters, and SAM would build a 16-story tower abutting WaMu headquarters on the west side. (The arrangement has earned SAM's building the unfortunate nickname "the goiter.")

By renting eight floors in the SAM building that the museum eventually would move into, the bank—in a handsome and deceptively slender-looking tower by NBBJ—would cover SAM's mortgage until the museum was ready to expand. This expansion increased the museum's overall square footage from 150,000 to 268,000, and doubled its gallery space.

When the museum takes over all 12 floors it owns (the bank owns the top four outright), it will have 450,000 square feet.

In return, the bank got prime land for cheap—without having to compete for it—and the city removed certain zoning restrictions so the tower could be larger, because of the bank's association with the museum.

From the outside, SAM's new building is more of a business statement than an architectural one. It projects conflicting messages: hip to hip with that jumbo corporate tower, it seems strong and secure and global, but it also looks like a needy little parasite stuck to the side of a money depository. It is barely distinguishable from standard corporate architecture, and in the skyline, makes no statement at all.

Aside from the architecture, will there be any substantive consequences to SAM's close financial affiliation with an international banking concern, or does the alignment just have an uncomfortable veneer? After all, many corporations with strong R&D departments do what artists do: They experiment, they push. And the boards of museums are packed with businesspeople.

But SAM doesn't have much of a record of experimentation when it comes to showing art. Whether the museum will be as brave and ambitious in its exhibitions as it has been in its capital campaigns remains to be seen. The museum has raised $179 million of the $180 million it needs to pay for the Olympic Sculpture Park, the downtown expansion, and renovations to the Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park.

SAM director Gates and Cloepfil say any blandness in the building is a vote for humble structures that serve the art rather than upstaging it. (Judging by the opening displays, I'm not so sure how serviceable the adjustable sunshade on the façade of the building is.) And I'll take Cloepfil's almost digital-looking exterior any day over Venturi's all-over-the-place postmodern façade.

But there is plenty of room between, say, the "look-at-me" exterior of Daniel Libeskind's recent Denver Art Museum, and SAM's anonymous-indistinct-corporate-chic-dom. Both Gates and Cloepfil have repeatedly used the word "timeless" to describe the building, which seems at once suspicious and presumptuous. Compare Carl Gould's art deco Asian Art Museum to this corporate hulk, and you get a shiver.

Then again, maybe the vertical museum of the future is all on the inside. That's where Cloepfil triumphs—except, poor guy, where he had to work with Venturi's dead-end galleries.

The interlocking, double-height galleries in the new core create a profound sense of being in a unified vertical space at all times. Cloepfil talks about the vertical museum as a new organism; Yoshio Taniguchi's Museum of Modern Art in New York is its prototype. Where that building's tall, airy core dwarfs art and visitors, SAM's center is surprisingly warm and human scaled. Even the supersized contemporary gallery is soft, its white ceiling resembling sewn-together fabric.

Or take the edge of the new lobby, overlooking the former lobby, where the limestone columns have been extended. If there is another interior public gathering space as grand and as unpretentious as this, I don't know it.

The galleries in the Venturi building remain drab. There's still no natural light, and although the artificial lights are turned to nearly blinding levels, the feeling in those rooms has nothing on the new galleries. Plus, the layout is as confounding as ever. (The grand "Staircase to Nowhere" still leads nowhere, though thanks to installations by Jason Puccinelli, you have a better time on your way.)

The new galleries, meanwhile, flank the central corridor of the big new facility along a single axis, as an enfilade, which brings symmetry and clarity to the experience.

And the congruence and architectural rhyming emphasizes that certain works occupy the same position on different floors. In a striking example, a pair of 14th- and 15th-century saints toil directly above Catherine Opie's giant photograph of a man bearing dozens of chandelier crystals embedded in his skin and a stomach tattoo that reads "DIVINITY."

The art has never looked better, and there has never been so much of it. Anyone expecting to see all the promised gifts announced in March should keep in mind that many are bequests, and not yet at the museum. But who could complain about a hallway bookended by Brancusi's Bird in Space, given by Jon and Mary Shirley, and Sandro Botticelli's egg tempera painting on wood panel Madonna of the Magnificat, circa 1482, loaned by the Allen Family Foundation? (Strange fact: Neither Paul Allen nor Bill Gates, director Gates's stepson, have ever given art from their personal collections—incredible collections—to SAM.)

Almost all of the museum's porcelain, around a thousand pieces, takes over the walls of a single room. Whole sets are displayed, not just single taxonomic examples. They're arranged by color and separated by mirrors so the room flashes and glints. This is total, deliberate aesthetic overload on an almost carnal order, paired with the newly restored Tiepolo ceiling painting and its luscious study on the wall.

The African collection is another knockout experience. William Kentridge's shadow puppets and a series of masked and costumed figures are arranged like a processional on its way to the special-exhibitions galleries nearby. The installation is a send-up of the stereotypical visitor's beeline for blockbusters, which causes them to overlook collections such as this one.

The lure of the first two special exhibitions, SAM at 75: Building a Collection for Seattle and Five Masterpieces of Asian Art: The Story of Their Conservation, is strong, with highlights from the Edo-period Japanese crow screen to a large room with seven Gerhard Richter paintings in his gloriously divergent styles. But there's an equally interesting experience through the other doorway out of tribal Africa—a troubled connection between Europe and Africa.

"I will protest like a gentleman," the contemporary African-English artist Yinka Shonibare says in a wall label, in a statement directed toward the West. "You won't even know. You'll invite me into your museum." In front of the label are Shonibare's headless mannequins outfitted in Victorian fashions made from African textiles. The nuclear family stands between tribal costumes from Nigeria and William Hogarth's 18th-century satirical prints of a decadent European married couple. In the European galleries, there's a single portrait of an African, a 19th-century painting of a man positioned so that his glance is directed, longingly, toward the African collection.

The splashiest of the art is Cai Guo-Qiang's Inopportune: Stage One, the nine Ford Tauruses that fly through the free entry area along First Avenue. SAM has plastered this purchase on all of its publicity materials, and understandably so—it is a spectacle. In its original incarnation in a dark, huge hall at MASS MoCA, the shooting lights sparkled and the cars lined up like unbroken film frames from a crash. Here, regrettably, the architecture interrupts their line and their explosions pale in the flood of natural light from outside.

What I love best about the new SAM is its dark heart, the thing that will save it from the complacent festivalism of capital campaigns and grand openings even at the height of the parties. It's in several places at the juncture of the African and the European galleries, and it's even in the slightly sinister explosions and rusted underbellies of the Ford Tauruses. In a quiet way, SAM is using its multicultural arsenal to articulate something about where the feel-good multiculturalism of the 1990s has gotten us. In one corner of the giant, soaring contemporary gallery, several dark works are gathered to form something like a visual wail.

Do-Ho Suh's stiff, terrifying robe of military dog tags spreads out like a warning already gone unheeded. Same goes for the unstretched, skin-like canvas of Leon Golub's enormous 1982 portrait of one man about to shoot another. And for Anselm Kiefer's pile of ashy clothes in a thick mural of pure aftermath. Glenn Ligon's sparkly black monochrome is actually a coal-dust and oil-stick transcription, black on black, of a James Baldwin story about being the first black man ever to set foot in a Swiss town. Next to that is Ed Ruscha's 1993 gray-scale acrylic, a piece that reads, in big letters from an oil-drunk time, "AN EXHIBITION OF GAS-POWERED ENGINES."

In other words, the art museum asks: Where are we as people, besides in an art museum?

Source: http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=213754&mode=print

SAM-WAMU

Subprime Mess Topples Seattle Art Museum’s Faustian Tower Deal

Commentary by James S. Russell - October 1, 2009

Seattle Art Museum

Oct. 1 (Bloomberg) -- In what seemed a cultural coup, Seattle Art Museum officials opened a glistening glass-and-metal-paneled, $86 million addition in January 2007, just months after completing an acclaimed sculpture park.

The arrangement with Washington Mutual Inc. even offered the museum space for future growth along with income to pay down the cost of the extension.

Thus, the museum accepted compromises on the interior and external design of the extension for the sake of rapid expansion. And just when the papers were signed, the subprime beast began eating away at the foundation.

When Washington Mutual collapsed a year ago, the museum lost $5.8 million in annual rent that was supposed to go toward the $65 million debt it incurred on the project.

The story began in 2002 with an agreement to clamp a 16-story box as a museum extension onto a 42-story headquarters that Washington Mutual would build on land owned by and adjacent to the museum. The bank wanted a prominent downtown site and the museum owned just the right parcel.

The extension opened with 100,000 square feet on four levels. The bank agreed to lease the extension’s remaining 240,000 square feet until the museum needed it.

What happened is that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. sold the collapsed bank’s assets to JPMorgan Chase & Co., minus some liabilities, such as the lease agreement with the museum.

Chase softened the blow with a $10 million grant to the museum. Thousands of bank personnel got the boot as Chase slashed Seattle-area staffing to about 800 from a peak of 5,000.

New Tenant

So the museum must find a new tenant, raise nearly $6 million annually, or cut deeply. It has already seen its endowment decline. It fired 12 percent of the staff and trimmed the budget by more than $1 million to $25.1 million.

The museum may not be in immediate financial danger, but it will face a monumental distraction for years. Should it have moved ahead with Washington Mutual when it wasn’t ready to grow and was still fundraising for the sculpture park?

“Who wouldn’t do business with a company based locally for over 100 years and worth $32 billion?” said developer Matt Griffin, managing partner of Pine Street Group, a Seattle-based real-estate developer. He helped match the two in the deal and is now trying to help the museum find a new tenant.

The Seattle Art Museum may come out ahead if it finds one quickly, although that’s not easy in today’s market.

Last month, Chase announced the sale of Washington Mutual’s tower to insurance firm Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance, which will move in 900 employees of its Russell Investment Group. The museum said the transaction doesn’t include its floors.

Lasting Damage

The lure of a “free” addition damaged the museum in a lasting way. Washington Mutual wasn’t interested in creating a deserving setting for the museum; it wanted a generic office building -- a large one -- and persuaded the city to let it build 900,000 square feet on a site that would normally have been capped at 750,000.

The bank didn’t want the museum’s architecture to compete with that of its tower, so the extension has little distinctive identity, even though it is part of the city’s crown-jewel museum and the extension had its own architect (Brad Cloepfil, of Allied Works Architecture Inc. in Portland, Oregon). The extension’s metal- paneled box juts from the bank headquarters’ oversized, tinted- glass blandness (by local architect NBBJ).

In having to align its floors with the lower-ceilinged office floors, the museum ended up with too many cramped levels for its exhibition space. Cloepfil links the museum’s floors with escalators, and interleaves high spaces and intimate ones, but there’s only so much you can do to keep visitors clambering upward and stopping to gaze on the way down.

Vertical Pain

That’s why curators hate vertical museums. And the problem will be exacerbated when the museum takes the rest of its space.

The museum has seen some benefits from the deal. Largely because of the expansion, it “has acquired and been promised more than 1,000 works of art in all collecting areas,” said spokeswoman Nicole Griffin.

Still, even without big bankruptcies, real estate and cultural marriages of convenience too often turn into Faustian bargains.

New York institutions are well-acquainted with the cost of buying culture with square footage. There are the crummy Broadway theaters squashed under eyesore towers. The residential Museum Tower underwrote a 1980s overhaul of the Museum of Modern Art. That work was obliterated 20 years later by the museum’s 2004 expansion, while the tower lives on.

MoMA looks ready to repeat its mistake with a bloated wedge of zoning exploitation conjured by Jean Nouvel. The 1,050-foot hotel and condominium obelisk would be wedged between the museum and a drab corporate tower typical of the 1960s, and it could cast some of Midtown’s most prized and densely built blocks into darkness.

The lesson of the Seattle Art Museum’s debacle is that it’s time to expand cultural institutions another way.

(James S. Russell is Bloomberg’s U.S. architecture critic. The opinions expressed are his own.)

Source:http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aF_Zjo_LO_NU, last accessed 3/11/15

Nordstrom leasing more space from art museum

Article by Eric Pryne for The Seattle Times Originally published March 2, 2011 at 6:33 pm Updated March 2, 2011 at 9:01 pm

Nordstrom has agreed to lease all the downtown office space the Seattle Art Museum once rented to Washington Mutual, a deal that will help fill the deep financial hole the bank's collapse created for the museum.

Nordstrom has agreed to lease all the downtown office space the Seattle Art Museum once rented to Washington Mutual, a deal that will help fill the deep financial hole the bank’s collapse created for the museum.

Seattle developer Matt Griffin said Nordstrom, which had signed a lease a year ago for three-quarters of SAM’s space, agreed in November to lease the remainder — about half of it now, half in 2014.

The deal was only revealed Wednesday.

“We’re thrilled,” Griffin said. “It’s great to have good citizens like Nordstrom.”

The space is in a 16-story building constructed in 2006 in conjunction with an adjoining 42-story tower then called the WaMu Center. The buildings were the products of a complicated development deal between SAM, Washington Mutual and the city that allowed the museum to expand and WaMu to build a new headquarters.

SAM owns eight floors in the 16-story tower, and was leasing all of them long-term to WaMu, collecting $5.8 million a year in rent, until the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. seized the bank in September 2008 and sold its assets to JPMorgan Chase.

Chase, which laid off 80 percent of WaMu’s headquarters employees, announced in January 2009 that it was backing out of the lease with the museum.

The revenue loss hit SAM hard. It had been using the rent money to pay off bonds issued to finance its expansion. Nordstrom’s decision a year ago to lease six of the eight former WaMu floors helped. So did a $10 million gift from Chase.

But the museum said in court papers last summer that it still faced a shortfall of up to $10 million because of the cancelled WaMu lease, and planned to borrow that much from its own endowment fund to make up the difference.

Nordstrom agreed in November to lease the remaining two floors, about 58,000 square feet. That will reduce the amount that must be borrowed from the endowment fund to about $7 million, museum spokeswoman Cara Egan said.

“It’s definitely a positive step forward for us,” she said. “We’re now stabilized, which is a really good feeling.” In addition to the SAM space, Griffin said, Nordstrom also agreed in November to lease an additional 18,000 square feet in the former WaMu Center, where it had previously leased about 83,000 square feet a year ago.

The tower, now known as the Russell Investments Center, largely emptied after Washington Mutual’s collapse. Insurance giant Northwestern Mutual bought it in September 2009, and since has leased more than 80 percent of its 886,000 square feet to new tenants.

Nordstrom spokesman Colin Johnson said the retailer should start moving into the space it leased in November later this year.

Source: http://www.seattletimes.com/business/nordstrom-leasing-more-space-from-art-museum/

Co-ops 101

What's a co-op?

It's an enterprise owned and operated by and for its members, people working together to meet a common need. While co-ops are for-profit, we're driven by the needs of our members and by internationally-recognized principles, not just the pursuit of profit. As envisioned by the pioneers of the modern cooperative movement, co-ops should embody the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity.

The Cooperative Principles

Most co-ops are guided by the internationally-recognized Seven Cooperative Principles:

1. Voluntary and open membership

​Cooperatives are voluntary organizations, open to all persons able to use their services and willing to accept the responsibilities of membership, without gender, social, racial, political or religious discrimination.

2. Democratic member control

​Cooperatives are democratic organizations controlled by their members, who actively participate in setting their policies and making decisions. People serving as elected representatives are accountable to the membership. In primary cooperatives members have equal voting rights (one member, one vote) and cooperatives at other levels are also organized in a democratic manner.

3. Member economic participation

​Members contribute equitably to, and democratically control, the capital of their cooperative. At least part of that capital is usually the common property of the cooperative. Members usually receive limited compensation, if any, on capital subscribed as a condition of membership. Members allocate surpluses for any or all of the following purposes: developing their cooperative, possibly by setting up reserves, part of which at least would be indivisible; benefiting members in proportion to their transactions with the cooperative; and supporting other activities approved by the membership.

4. Autonomy and independence

Cooperatives are autonomous, self-help organizations controlled by their members. If they enter into agreements with other organizations, including governments, or raise capital from external sources, they do so on terms that ensure democratic control by their members and maintain their cooperative autonomy.

5. Education, training, and information

Cooperatives provide education and training for their members, elected representatives, managers, and employees so they can contribute effectively to the development of their cooperatives. They inform the general public - particularly young people and opinion leaders - about the nature and benefits of cooperation.

6. Cooperation among cooperatives

Cooperatives serve their members most effectively and strengthen the cooperative movement by working together through local, national, regional and international structures.

7. Concern for community

Cooperatives work for the sustainable development of their communities through policies approved by their members.

source: [[|http://ica.coop]]

Group Health Cooperative

Group Health Cooperative began in 1947 as a community coalition dedicated to making quality health care available and affordable. Today it is one of the few health care organizations in the country governed by consumers. Its 11-member Board of Trustees — all health-plan members elected by other members — work closely with management and medical staff to ensure that the organization's policies and direction put the needs of patients first.

Group Health Cooperative, together with its subsidiary Group Health Options, Inc., operates in all or parts of 20 counties in Washington and two counties in North Idaho. In Washington, Group Health Cooperative offers coordinated-care plans for both groups and individuals and our Medicare Advantage plans.

Care is provided by Group Health Physicians doctors and other clinicians at Group Health-operated medical facilities. In service areas where Group Health doesn't own facilities and for plans offering more choice, a network of nearly 9,000 community clinicians and 41 hospitals meets member health care needs.

Source:https://www1.ghc.org/html/public/about/overview

Seattle Seahawks

Seahawks' playoff game a big bonus for local businesses, economy

By Josh Kerns, Publish January 8, 2015 on MyNorthwest

There's plenty of excitement around the area for Saturday's Seahawks' playoff game, especially at local businesses who will get one or two extra windfalls.

"What we would do normally in a week in the winter, we are going to double in just a day," says Tyler Pascoe of Elysian Fields, a popular brewpub just north of CenturyLink Field.

"January and February are usually dead," he says.

An extra playoff game or two also puts some much needed cash in the pockets of employees. Where normally Elysian Fields would have just a handful of employees on a winter day, it's all hands on deck for workers who'll benefit from both extra hours and tips alike.

"You're talking, literally, from about 60 hours to over 320 hours in staffing in a given day when we have a playoff game. That's how big it is," he says.

The extra games are a welcome bonus for local hotels as well.

Seahawks fans commonly travel from all over the region throughout the season. The playoffs attract far more fans from across the country, says Bill Weise, general manager of the Silver Cloud Inn adjacent to CenturyLink Field and Safeco Field.

With 211 rooms and 26 suites overlooking the stadium, the hotel and many others around the city will be packed for the weekend with guests who wouldn't have normally visited this time of year, says Weise.

The impact of one or two extra playoff games extends far beyond the local hotels, restaurants and bars, and can pay huge dividends well into the future, says Ralph Morton, the executive director of the Seattle Sports Commission, which promotes pro sports for the city's Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Millions around the country will tune in to a playoff game. Every time the city is in the national spotlight, it equates to millions of dollars more in free TV exposure.

"It is so amplified, it is invaluable in building our national brand. Every time we play a game like this we're exporting that brand throughout the country," says Morton.

Some analysts estimate an NFL playoff game can generate between $9 and $20 million in economic activity.

Along with attracting future visitors to the city, the exposure also helps attract other businesses who see Seattle as a dynamic, trend-setting city.

"When you bring Seattle into people's living rooms, it makes us not seem so far away to the rest of the country," says Morton.

That's important in helping attract other events as well. The city will host second- and third-round games of the NCAA Men's basketball tournament March 20 and 22 at KeyArena, the first time the tournament has been played in Seattle since 2004.

Morton and others have their sights set on a much bigger prize: the Super Bowl. He was among a contingent of local tourism officials and city leaders who traveled to the Super Bowl last year in New York/New Jersey to see what it takes to host the big game, and begin a long term lobbying effort to convince the NFL to bring the title game to the Emerald City.

"From the opening game of the season to the playoffs, every time we do a good job, it's another positive for Seattle and the NFL can't help but notice."

Source: http://mynorthwest.com/11/2684413/Seahawks-playoff-game-a-big-bonus-for-local-businesses-economy

Seahawks No. 15 in franchise value

By Terry Blount, ESPN Seattle Seahawks reporter - Published August 20, 2014 for ESPN

RENTON, Wash. -- Winning the Super Bowl in dominant fashion and having some of the most marketable players in the NFL, including cornerback Richard Sherman and quarterback Russell Wilson, wasn't enough to move the Seattle Seahawks into the top 10 on Forbes' list of most valuable NFL franchises.

The Seahawks rank near the middle of the 32 teams at No. 15 on the list with an estimated value of $1.33 billion. Forbes lists the team revenues last year at $288 million, with an operating income of $27 million.

The Dallas Cowboys are No. 1 on Forbes' list with a value of $3.2 billion, topping the list for the eighth consecutive year even though they haven't made the playoffs since 2009 and haven't won a Super Bowl since 1996.

The rest of the top 5 were the New England Patriots ($2.6 billion), the Washington Redskins ($2.4 billion) the New York Giants ($2.1 billion) and the Houston Texans (1.85 billion). So four of the top five teams did not make the playoffs last season, proving overall financial value isn't much about winning and losing.

The Seahawks fell just below the league average of $1.43 billion for franchise worth and rank second in the NFC West behind the San Francisco 49ers, who have a listed value of $1.6 billion.

However, the Seahawks do have the wealthiest team owner in Paul Allen, with an estimated worth of $15.6 billion.

Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/seattle-seahawks/post/_/id/7933/seahawks-no-15-in-franchise-value

What makes Seattle's 12th Man so special?

By Louis Bien, Published January 22, 2015 on SB Nation

If you're just becoming familiar with the Seattle Seahawks, then you might want to start with the 12th Man. The Seahawks have become one of the best teams in professional football because of their tremendous home-field advantage. They have gone 26-2 at CenturyLink Field over the last three seasons, including a 4-0 record in home playoff games. A big reason for that advantage is the "12th Man," a.k.a, the Seattle fans, who support the 11 players on the field and who are regarded as perhaps the loudest fanbase in the NFL.

The 12th Man has been making a difference in Seattle for decades. The team even retired the number 12 in honor of its fans in 1984. However, the crowd noise has gained even more notoriety in recent years for its drastic effect on opponents. On Nov. 27, 2005, the New York Giants committed 11 false start penalties and missed three field goals in a loss in Seattle. The next day, head coach Mike Holmgren dedicated the game ball to the 12th Man.

Under Holmgren's successor Pete Carroll, the 12th Man's legend has only grown. The Seahawks twice set world records for crowd noise, registering 136.6 decibels in a 2013 game against the San Francisco 49ers before breaking the record several months later at 137.6 decibels against the New Orleans Saints. The Seahawks proudly display the nearly eardrum-rupturing level of noise inside the Clink on their official website.

The 12th Man has even been known to set off minor earthquakes, as it did in 2011 when running back Marshawn Lynch went "Beast Mode" on the New Orleans Saints in the playoffs. Lynch had a 67-yard touchdown run that has become legendary, and is now affectionately known as the "Beast Quake."

Wait, why the "12th Man"?

Each team can have no more than 11 players on the field at any time -- 12 players would be a penalty. But if fans are loud enough, they can make things more difficult for the away team, thus acting like the home teams' figurative 12th man on the field.

Do other teams have a 12th Man?

Several other NFL teams have also honored their fans as the team's 12th Man. The Buffalo Bills and Indianapolis Colts put the 12th Man on their Wall of Fame and Ring of Honor, respectively. The Seahawks took the tradition a step further by retiring "12" as a jersey number.

Are Seattle fans really that loud?

Yes ... well, sort of. There's no doubt that Seahawks fans are proud of their reputation and are willing to do a lot to uphold it, but don't discount the effect of CenturyLink Field. Team owner Paul Allen specifically requested that the stadium be designed to retain crowd noise.

Source: http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2015/1/22/7871519/seattle-seahawks-12th-man-super-bowl-patriots

Woodland Park Zoo

About

Mission

Woodland Park Zoo saves animals and their habitats through conservation leadership and engaging experiences, inspiring people to learn, care and act.

About Woodland Park Zoo

Founded in 1899, Woodland Park Zoo has sparked delight, discovery and unforgettable memories for generations of Northwest families. People who experience the wonders of the natural world are inspired to protect it. That's why every year we lead more than 1 million people on a journey that inspires a lifelong love of animals, makes science come alive, and gives people the tools to take conservation action.

Collection

Animal care professionals at Woodland Park Zoo are experts in their field and provide the highest quality care for animals every day. The zoo manages the largest live animal collection in Washington state, with 1,000 animals, representing more than 300 species. The zoo provides a home for 40 endangered and 17 threatened or vulnerable animal species. The zoo’s botanical collection includes more than 92,000 plants and trees representing more than 1,300 species.

Field Conservation

Through funding provided by the zoo’s Partners for Wildlife, Living Northwest, Wildlife Survival Fund, and the contributions of zoo members and donors, the zoo is supporting conservation of wildlife, preserving fragile habitats, and increasing public awareness for wildlife and environmental issues. The zoo currently collaborates with 37 field conservation projects taking place in the Pacific Northwest and around the world. These include some of the smallest life forms—the endangered Oregon silverspot butterfly—to the largest mammals on land—the African elephant.

Education

From early learners to senior learners, and on and off grounds, the zoo’s developmental approach to lifelong learning is to foster empathy for nature, build conservation knowledge and skills, and increase people’s personal ownership for action that benefits wildlife and habitats. In 2013, more than 900,000 visitors participated in the zoo’s public programs and nearly 83,000 students, teachers and chaperones visited the zoo in school groups or received a zoo outreach program. The many educational elements at the zoo—classes, public programs, signage, and volunteer activities—serve to illustrate the importance that conservation plays in our mission.

Leadership

Woodland Park Zoo’s leadership team brings passion, expertise and a broad range of experiences to the zoo, from animal care to wildlife conservation and education. They inspire excellence from a staff of 275 employees, 100-150 temporary staff, and 750 volunteers dedicated to the zoo’s mission. Beyond the zoo, leadership team members play critical roles in an extended network of partners and allied organizations, both locally and internationally.

Board

A 38-person, volunteer Board of Directors governs the Zoo Society with eight Board committees providing forums for information sharing between the Board and staff for various areas of zoo administration. The Board provides fiduciary oversight and strategic guidance to Woodland Park Zoo.

Seattle Public Library

Guiding Principles

Support intellectual freedom The Seattle Public Library enables all individuals in our community to exercise their right to access constitutionally protected information.

Promote literacy and a love of reading Recognizing the vital importance of reading to open doors and expand horizons, the Library strives to support every patron in becoming a lifelong reader.

Protect confidentiality of patron records The Library respects the confidentiality of our patrons’ requests for information, the online sites they access, and their borrowing history.

Respect and embrace the entire community We celebrate Seattle’s diversity and strive to ensure that all people feel welcome in the Library. We strive to meet the needs and expectations of every Library patron. The Seattle Public Library actively supports efforts that combat prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination.

Foster a healthy democracy The Library is committed to building an informed community, and providing neutral ground where participation in civic life is open to all.

Support children and youth We strive to join parents, educators and young people in helping to raise thoughtful readers and citizens. We recognize the priority of efforts to close educational achievement gaps.

Form strong partnerships The Library extends its reach and impact in the community through partnerships with individuals, public and nonprofit agencies, community groups, educators and businesses.

Adapt and innovate To stay relevant to patrons’ changing needs and interests, we continuously adapt what we do and how we do it. We are a learning organization and invest in our staff, technology, and infrastructure to improve service.

Read the complete strategic plan here: http://www.spl.org/Documents/about/strategic_plan.pdf

Brief History of the Seattle Public Library

The initial move to form a public library in Seattle came only 17 years after the first white settlers arrived on the shores of Puget Sound. It was July 30, 1868, when 50 residents of the rough-hewn logging town gathered to form a library association, good intentions that produced only minimal success over the next two decades. A new Ladies Library Association in 1888 provided the strongest foundation yet for The Seattle Public Library. In 1890, the city established the Library as an official city department, designated to receive 10 percent of the amount raised by city licenses and fines.

The new public library opened in 1891 on the fifth floor of the Occidental Building in Pioneer Square. A lumber company vice president borrowed its first book, a brand new copy of Mark Twain's "Innocents Abroad."

The fledgling Library endured an itinerant existence during its first decade. Tight budgets forced moves to two more upstairs locations downtown and several crises nearly led to the closure of the Library. But librarian Charles Wesley Smith still managed innovations, including the first book stacks on the West Coast open for patrons to browse.

Good fortune finally seemed to smile on The Seattle Public Library in 1899 when it rented the Yesler Mansion, the city's most elegant structure. The Library was transformed from imperiled transient to civic showplace and annual circulation soared by 26 percent to 137,941 volumes.

Then disaster struck. The wooden Yesler Mansion was consumed by fire in the early morning hours of Jan. 2, 1901, a New Year's horror that destroyed most of the Library's collection and sent shockwaves through the city.

Four days later came another shock. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer trumpeted its great scoop: Andrew Carnegie had agreed to donate $200,000 to build a new "fireproof" library in Seattle after city officials promised to buy a new library site and guaranteed an annual maintenance amount of $50,000 - such a lofty figure that the nation's pre-eminent library philanthropist thought it was a mistake in the secret telegram from the distant Northwest. He was assured that $50,000 was "none too large" for Seattle's needs. Carnegie responded with one of his largest library donations and his notation, "I like your pluck."

Choosing a site for the new library produced two years of debate and rancor between the City Council and the Library Board. Newly expanded from five to seven members by city charter and newly empowered by a state Supreme Court ruling that firmly established its governance of library affairs, the board finally decided to act alone. The city spent $100,000 in 1902 to buy the city block bounded by Fourth and Fifth avenues and Madison and Spring streets.

An architectural competition to design the new Carnegie library in Seattle drew entries from 30 firms, with Peter J. Weber of Chicago selected as winner. The German-born architect produced a classic Beaux-Arts design for the 55,000-square-foot structure, which featured massive pillars and spacious interiors.

Construction of the new library consumed more than two tantalizing years before it was formally dedicated on Dec. 19, 1906, during a gala evening that drew an excited throng of 1,000 people.

The new library was swamped with patrons. In its first year of operation, the number of registered borrowers skyrocketed 94 percent to 19,229 and the number of books taken out increased 50 percent to 454,735.

These were heady days of growth for The Seattle Public Library, both downtown and in surrounding neighborhoods. Seattle's annexation of Ballard in 1907 yielded the Library's first full-scale branch, a two-story brick structure donated by Carnegie.

A Carnegie gift of $105,000 produced three more buildings, which opened during two triumphant weeks in summer 1910. The first was the West Seattle Branch, which was followed by the Green Lake and University branches. Another $70,000 donation from Carnegie resulted in two more branches, the Queen Anne Branch in 1914 and the Columbia Branch in 1915.

The first branch financed by city funds also opened in 1914, the Henry L. Yesler Memorial Library, named to honor the city's pioneering sawmill owner and longtime library supporter. The Yesler Branch, which served a hardscrabble area that was home to many newcomers to the city, soon became the busiest branch in the Library system.

Times of growth gave way to times of challenge. The final months of World War I erupted in a worldwide influenza epidemic that caused more than 1,000 deaths in Seattle and resulted in a city quarantine that shuttered public gathering places, including the Library, for five weeks.

The 1920s produced more up-and-down years for the Library; one of the highlights was the 1921 opening of the new Fremont Branch, courtesy of a $35,000 donation by Carnegie. But Fremont also represented the end of an era - the last new library branch in Seattle financed by the philanthropist and the last new library branch built in the city for three decades. That gap was one of the great disappointments in the Library's long history.

The Depression pummeled The Seattle Public Library. Jobless men seeking refuge crowded into the Central Library. Those looking for work or diversion snapped up library books at unprecedented levels, sending circulation past 4 million for the first time in 1932. Yet, at the same time, Library budgets shrunk precipitously, forcing layoffs of employees and termination of programs. The Library was caught in a painful double bind seen during tough economic times - soaring demands and evaporating resources.

A forward-thinking 10-year plan for The Seattle Public Library published in 1930 included the urgent need for a $1.2 million bond issue to expand the cramped Central Library. Yet by decade's end, only two of the seven goals in the 10-year plan had been put into effect, and the Library's 1939 budget still was $40,000 less than its 1931 budget. The Depression instilled "so many hard lessons," wrote librarian Judson T. Jennings, that it left The Seattle Public Library "without illusions."

Aiding the Allied cause in World War II infused The Seattle Public Library with a new sense of purpose and patriotism. The Library rallied to provide the latest war information to stressed citizens on the home front and booming war industries, including The Boeing Airplane Co. But the internment of Japanese Americans on the West Coast cost the Library some of its most loyal patrons.

The new Friends of The Seattle Public Library, organized in 1941 to help celebrate the Library's 50th anniversary, worked to expand public awareness and financial support for the Library's needs. Those efforts escalated after the war ended, with much attention devoted again to the inadequacies of the aging Central Library.

Progress came in slow and fitful steps over the next decade, with construction of a $400,000 book stack addition to the Central Library in 1949, construction of three modern new branch libraries in 1954 and passage of the Library's first-ever bond issue in 1956 after failures in 1950 and 1952.

The style of the new branches demonstrated just how long it had been since The Seattle Public Library had been in the construction business: Greenwood, Susan J. Henry on Capitol Hill and especially the North East Branch, designed by noted Seattle architect Paul Thiry, were modern structures decidedly different from the Library's Carnegie branches.

So, too, would be the new Central Library, designed by the Seattle firm of Bindon & Wright, a $4.5 million expression of the International Style. It would rise on the same downtown site as its Carnegie predecessor, which had become an object of scorn when it finally fell to the wrecking ball after the library had relocated most of its collection to a building at Seventh Avenue and Olive Way.

The 206,000-square-foot Central Library was dedicated on March 26, 1960, and drew 5,000 eager patrons. The crowd gawked at the library's thoroughly modern features over five spacious floors, including the first escalator in an American library, a drive-up window for book pick-ups and the first extensive use of new artworks to grace a new public building in Seattle. There were distinctive art pieces by James FitzGerald, Glen Alps and Ray Jensen, but the first fountain by sculptor George Tsutakawa proved to be a particular favorite.

Throngs kept coming even after the library opened for regular business. Patrons checked out 5,000 books on the library's first Monday and the atmosphere in the opening weeks was likened to a department store during the holiday shopping season. The new Central Library loaned out almost 1 million volumes in its first nine months, a 31 percent increase over the previous year's circulation.

The Seattle Public Library, so long struggling with disinterest in a shabby headquarters, found itself confronting a different problem in its new home. So many people were using the new library, especially young people, that the collection was often left in a shambles, with entire subject areas depleted. The new library was in danger of being loved to tatters.

Completion of the Central Library reaped benefits well beyond downtown. There was $500,000 remaining from the 1956 bond issue and that allowed The Seattle Public Library to build three new branches and buy land for a fourth.

The Southwest Branch opened in 1961, followed by a new Ballard Branch in 1963. In 1964, the Magnolia Branch opened and became perhaps the most distinctive branch in the library system. Designed by noted Seattle architect Paul Hayden Kirk, the quintessential Northwest design, with distinct Japanese influences, won a top national honor award for architecture. The fourth new branch was many years and many frustrations in coming. The Broadview Branch was finally dedicated on Jan. 25, 1976, a testament to the unstinting efforts of neighborhood activists who called themselves the "world's greatest naggers."

Another triumph by neighborhood activists led to the 1975 renaming of the Yesler Branch to the Douglass-Truth Branch to honor two of the country's most prominent black leaders from the 19th century - Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth. The Yesler Branch had been rescued from likely closure in the 1960s by its own neighborhood, the increasing prominence of the branch's African-American collection, and the tireless efforts of a branch librarian named James Welsh.

Difficult days descended again on The Seattle Public Library in the 1970s and 1980s, with tight budgets, constricted services and several bitter controversies. Among the rare bright spots were:

Renovation of the Central Library in 1979, courtesy of a $2.3 million federal grant, which refurbished and expanded public areas; Construction of the new Rainier Beach Branch in 1981, the result of another federal grant, this one for $1.2 million; The establishment of The Seattle Public Library Foundation in 1980 to increase outside financial support of the institution, capstone to the public-spirited career of Virginia Burnside, then president of the Library Board.

The Seattle Public Library celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1991, only two years after completion of a remarkable $4.6 million restoration project to assure the long-term luster of the Library's six Carnegie branches; the project received a prestigious honor from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The focus soon turned to the Library's physical needs in the upcoming new century and these ambitions were formalized at the best possible time. Circulation had soared past 5 million items by the mid-1990s, the Library's annual donations topped $1 million, and the dot-com frenzy was fueling an economy that seemed to promise a limitless future.

Seattle voters in 1998 approved the largest library bond issue then ever submitted in the United States. The landmark "Libraries for All" bond measure, which proposed a $196.4 million makeover of the Library system, garnered an unprecedented 69 percent approval rate at the polls. The massive measure doubled the square footage in the Library system and resulted in four new libraries in communities without library service, the replacement, expansion or renovation of 22 existing branches and a spectacular new Central Library.

Twenty-nine major national, international and local firms sought the opportunity to design the new Central Library. The Library Board's architectural choice for the project was as bold as "Libraries for All" itself. The surprise winner was Rem Koolhaas and his Office for Metropolitan Architecture in Rotterdam, in partnership with the Seattle firm of LMN Architects. The iconoclastic Dutch architect had no major buildings built in America when the Library Board selected him over two other finalists, but the board's choice seemed insightful a year later when Koolhaas was awarded architecture's highest international honor, the Pritzker Prize.

This 11-floor, 362,987-square-foot library, a dazzling avant-garde symphony of glass and form, has many innovative features, including:

A "Books Spiral" that displays the entire nonfiction collection in a continuous run; A towering "living room" along Fifth Avenue that reaches 50 feet in height; A distinctive diamond-shaped exterior skin of glass and steel.

The new Central Library's unorthodox shape, unlike any other building in Seattle, is the result of its use of five platform areas to reflect different aspects of the library's program; its form indeed follows its function. It includes a 275-seat auditorium and parking for 143 vehicles. The Library for more than two years provided services in a temporary 130,000-square-foot library in the Washington State Convention and Trade Center at 800 Pike St., while the new Central Library was being built.

The new Central Library opened May 23, 2004, and immediately prompted international interest.

"Libraries for All" was completed in 2008. The final price tag for the project, including donations and other gifts, totaled $290.7 million.

The public was invited to a daylong celebration on Sept. 13, 2008. The Library distributed free commemorative Library Passports and invited people to tour all 26 new and remodeled branches and the Central Library for prizes. The passports featured beautiful color photographs and highlights of each building project. By the Jan. 2, 2009, deadline for the prize drawing, 356 people had visited every Library location and completed a "Library Passport."

The Seattle Public Library was remade on a scale unmatched by any other public library system in the country in order to meet the changed demands of the 21st century. "Libraries for All" cemented The Seattle Public Library's reputation as a national treasure, shared and appreciated by all.

The Library Board adopted a new strategic plan in February 2011. The Strategic Plan will guide the Library's efforts and is intended to set an ambitious course for the future of the Library and the enrichment of Seattle's residents.

On Aug. 7, 2012, Seattle voters approved a $122 million Library levy to supplement city funding and preserve the investment in the 1998 "Libraries for All" bond measure. The levy will provide $17 million annually to stabilize funding and address the four areas identified by the community: keep libraries open, more books and materials, improve computer and online services, and maintain buildings.

Source: http://www.spl.org/about-the-library/library-operations/brief-history-of-the-seattle-public-library

Library Use in 2013

Statistical and Financial Summaries

Facilities

Staffing

2013 Circulation

2013 Collection Size

2013 Patron Visits

2013 Service Levels and Programs

2013 Operating Budget

Source: http://www.spl.org/about-the-library/library-operations/library-use-in-2013