I enjoyed seeing the Seattle Art Museum at 1300 First Avenue. I particularly enjoyed seeing the works by the Native American artists of the Northwest and the Indigenous Aboriginal Art from Australia, with its amazing patterns, which I had heard of but never seen.
I started my visit to Capitol Hill at the Seattle Asian Art Museum, located in the attractive Volunteer Park at 1400 E Prospect Ave. It is a small but attractive museum in a 1933 Art-Moderne building with an emphasis on Japanese, Chinese and some Korean art. Don’t miss the the Frederick Law Olmsted designed park and the surrounding neighborhood.
Also in Bell Town, along the waterfront, is the Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park. It is open daily and has great views of Puget Sound. There are large pieces by Calder and others.
In nearby Tacoma, there are some wonderful gems to explore.
When I think of Tacoma, I think of glass. It is the home of famed glass artist Dale Chihuly. I took the express bus to and from Tacoma, from downtown Seattle, to see the Museum of Glass with its exhibitions and hot shop where you can watch the artists work and walk along the Chihuly Bridge of Glass which I had seen reports of since it opened. It is a 500 ft. pedestrian bridge that connects Pacific Avenue to the Glass Museum and contains a large number of his Seaform pieces in the ceiling and many of his Venetian pieces along the walls.
I also visited the Tacoma Art Museum which has the largest permanent collection of Chihuly’s work. In addition they were showing a special exhibition of his Pendleton Indian Blankets and his Native American Baskets which showed how these influences came to be in his glass pieces. I capped the day off seeing his massive Monarch Window at Union Station, nearby, along with several of his other works.