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Contact: Cara Egan,
SAM Public Relations
(206) 748-9285;
email: PR@SeattleArtMuseum.org
SAM Celebrates Seventy Years
with a Series of Events for All
SEATTLE, June 6, 2003 – This summer the Seattle Art Museum will celebrate its 70th anniversary with a weekend long extravaganza Thursday, July 10 through Sunday, July 13. SAM will offer a host of events for everyone including a commissioned installation by Seattle artist Nicola Vruwink, live music, movies, performances, and birthday cake for all! In addition SAM is offering FREE admission to the Seattle Asian Art Museum Wednesday, July 9th through Sunday July 13th.
The focus of the celebration is the Seattle Asian Art Museum, SAM’s original facilities for nearly 60 years. Founded by Dr. Richard Fuller and designed by architect Carl F. Gould in 1933 in Volunteer Park, the museum has grown into three location: Seattle Art Museum, downtown, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Volunteer Park and the future Olympic Sculpture Park.
70th Anniversary Events
A Feast for Your Eyes: Seventy Years at SAM
July 10 - August 24, 2003
This summer, Seattle-based sculptor and video artist Nicola Vruwink will create a special installation for SAM’s 70th birthday. A Feast for Your Eyes: Seventy Years at SAM will use the form of the birthday cake, recreated in painted plaster, but every bit as luscious as the real thing. Seventy cakes, each using an object from the museum’s collection as the inspiration for its design, will be installed throughout the Seattle Asian Art Museum at Volunteer Park as well as the Seattle Art Museum, downtown.
As a second component of this project, Vruwink will make a video in which she will film 70 individuals, ranging in age from one to 70 years old. Her subjects will all have a connection to the museum, from staff members to artists to museum visitors. By filming these individuals in age order,Vruwink’s video will seem to condense the aging process, thus making a usually imperceptible process immediately visible.
Seattle Asian Art Museum Architecture Tour Thursday, July 10
Planned in conjunction with the 70th anniversary celebration, the Seattle Architectural Foundation sponsors this architectural tour of SAAM, the centerpiece of Olmsted-designed Volunteer Park. Designed by Seattle architect Carl F. Gould, the tour will highlight the architectural components of this 1933 art moderne museum space and explain how the architecture of a museum influences art, and how art influences architecture. To register, contact the Seattle Architectural Foundation at (206) 667-9184. 2 p.m., SAAM, Volunteer Park.
Seventy Years at SAM Thursday, July 10
An evening dedicated to celebrating seven decades of art at SAM. The evening’s festivities will include live music, food and fun. Admission is $10 for nonmembers and $5 for SAM members. For tickets call (206) 654-3121. 9 p.m. – midnight SAAM Volunteer Park.
Seventieth Anniversary Celebration Saturday, July 12 and Sunday, July 13
Come spend a fun-filled weekend celebrating our 70th birthday in Volunteer Park! Don’t miss the fun activities in the museum and in the park. Pictures on the camels, drop-in art making activities, movies, performances, and, of course, birthday cake for all! 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. SAAM, Volunteer Park
Discovering Buddhist Art - Seeking the Sublime
July 10, 2003 – Ongoing
Masterpieces of sculpture, painting, and more trace the development of Buddhist arts from China, Tibet, Korea and Japan from the 4th to the 18th centuries. From the monasteries of India, Buddhist beliefs and arts flowed in several streams through Asia. The elaboration of Buddha images and pantheon of related beings in Mahayana Buddhist traditions produced a rich variety of objects from China, Korea and Japan. Colorful mandala paintings and intricate metalwork ritual implements of Vajrayana Buddhism from Tibet and Japan form another branch of Buddhist art tradition. One gallery features an installation suggesting a Japanese temple interior, with an Amida Buddha sculpture displayed on an altar-like platform, surrounded by paintings, sculptures of attendant and guardian figures, temple banners and ritual objects. Approximately 70 objects including sutra texts, reliquaries, figures of human and divine intermediaries and more, display numerous ways that arts were used to enhance connections to the teachings and other realms of the historical Buddha and cosmic Buddhas. Curator: Yukiko Shirahara, The John A. McCone Foundation Associate Curator of Asian Art.
Reflections on Water: Japanese Modern Prints and Paintings
July 10, 2003 – February 2004
Reflections on Water features early 20th century Japanese prints and paintings that focus on the beauty of water and waterfront imagery. Selected from SAM’s permanent and private collections in Seattle by Curator Yukiko Shirahara, Reflections on Water includes approximately 20 prints produced by artists including Yoshida Hiroshi (1876-1950), Kawase Hasui (1883-1957), and a screen and several hanging scrolls by Nihonga artist Tsuji Kako (1870-1931). The exhibition explores the Japanese artist’s spirit of individualism and sense of beauty in the modern era. Reflections on Water is part of a reinstallation of the Japanese galleries at SAAM. Two additional exhibits opening July 12, 2003, Discovering Buddist Art—from the Ordinary to the Sublime and Textures of Daily Life: Art from Japan will run simultaneously at SAAM. Curator: Yukiko Shirahara, The John A. McCone Foundation Associate Curator of Asian Art.
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