Seattle, Washington is home to four major art museums and galleries: the Frye Art Museum, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle Art Museum, [1] and the Seattle Asian Art Museum. Several Seattle museums and cultural institutions that are not specifically art museums also have excellent art collections, most notably the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, which has an excellent collection of Native American artwork.
Seattle is also home to well over 100 commercial art galleries, at least a dozen non-profit art galleries, and perhaps a hundred artists' studios that are open to the public at least once a month. About half of these galleries and studios are concentrated in one neighborhood, Pioneer Square.
Name | Neighborhood | Type | Summary |
---|---|---|---|
Ballard Locks Museum/Visitor Center | Ballard | History | Artifacts and exhibits of Hiram M. Chittenden Locks dedicated in 1917 website http://ballardlocks.org/visitor-center-museum.html |
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Visitor Center | Lower Queen Anne | History | website, innovations and inventions around the world to make life better [ needs update ] |
Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture | University District | Natural history | Part of the University of Washington, includes fossils, natural history dioramas, Native American artifacts, Pacific Rim cultures exhibit, gems and minerals |
Center for Wooden Boats | South Lake Union | Maritime | Historic wooden sailboats, rowboats and other boats, locations in Lake Union Park and Cama Beach State Park |
Center on Contemporary Art | Seattle | Art | website, contemporary exhibitions at various locations |
Chihuly Garden and Glass | Lower Queen Anne | Art | Studio glass of Dale Chihuly, located in the Seattle Center |
Coast Guard Museum Northwest | SoDo | Military | Includes U.S. Coast Guard ship models, uniforms, photos and artifacts |
Connections Museum | Georgetown | Technology | website Working telephone switching systems, old telephones and payphones, teletypes |
Daybreak Star Cultural Center | Magnolia | Art | Native American art gallery and cultural center operated by United Indians of All Tribes |
Museum of Pop Culture | Lower Queen Anne | Media | Popular culture, includes rock & roll and popular music memorabilia, interactive exhibits, Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame |
Frye Art Museum | First Hill | Art | website, Painting and sculpture from the nineteenth century to the present |
Georgetown Steam Plant | Georgetown | Technology | Steam engines in the former power plant |
Giant Shoe Museum | Downtown | Commodity | Located in Pike Place Market, collection of giant shoes [2] |
Henry Art Gallery | University District | Art | The art museum of the University of Washington, includes rotating exhibitions of contemporary art |
History House of Greater Seattle | Fremont | History - Local | History and heritage of Seattle and its neighborhoods |
Jack Straw New Media Gallery | University District | Art | website, non-profit multidisciplinary audio arts center |
Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park | Pioneer Square | History | Seattle's role in the Klondike Gold Rush |
Last Resort Fire Department Museum | Downtown | Firefighting | website, vintage fire trucks, equipment, uniforms, located at the HQ for the Seattle Fire Department |
Living Computer Museum | SoDo | Computer | History of the development of computers with vintage computers displayed for interactive public use |
Log House Museum | West Seattle | Local history | website, operated by the Southwest Seattle Historical Society |
Museum of Flight | South | Aerospace | Incorporates Boeing's original manufacturing plant, the largest private air and space museum in the world includes private and military aircraft |
Museum of History and Industry | South Lake Union | History | Washington's history and culture. Largest heritage organization in the State of Washington, with a collection of over 4 million artifacts, photographs, and archival materials, primarily related to the history of Seattle and the greater Puget Sound region. |
Museum of Museums | Capitol Hill | Contemporary Art | Three floors of visual art and installations, with a gift shop, movie theater, and classroom space. website |
National Nordic Museum; formerly known as Nordic Heritage Museum | Ballard | Ethnic - Nordic | Heritage of Seattle's Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish immigrants; expanded in 2018 with a new building and permanent exhibition focused on a broader understanding of Nordic life and culture as it has evolved over the last twelve thousand years. |
Northwest African American Museum | Central District | Ethnic - African American | African American heritage in the Northwest |
Northwest Nikkei Museum | Central District | Ethnic | Operated by the Japanese Cultural Community Center, heritage and history of the Pacific Northwest’s Nikkei community |
Northwest Seaport | South Lake Union | Maritime | Includes the Arthur Foss tugboat, Lightship 83 |
Olympic Sculpture Park | Downtown | Art | 9-acre sculpture park |
Pacific Science Center | Lower Queen Anne | Science | Exhibits include health, dinosaurs, space, human body, Puget Sound, technology |
Photographic Center Northwest | Capitol Hill | Art | website, includes a contemporary photography gallery |
Pioneer Association of the State of Washington | Madison Park | History, Genealogy, Library | https://wapioneers.com/, Oldest history organization in the State of Washington, meeting since 1871, incorporated 1895; headquarters at historic 1910 Washington Pioneer Hall on the shores of Lake Washington; Pioneer Hall is on the United States National Park Service register of Historic Places. |
Seattle Art Museum | Downtown | Art | 3 facilities: main museum with diverse collections, Seattle Asian Art Museum and the Olympic Sculpture Park |
Seattle Asian Art Museum | Capitol Hill | Art | Asian art, facility of the Seattle Art Museum |
Seattle Central College M. Rosetta Hunter Art Gallery | Capitol Hill | Art | website |
Seattle Children's Museum | Lower Queen Anne | Children's | Located in the Seattle Center |
Seattle Mariners Hall of Fame | SoDo | Sports | Located at T-Mobile Park |
Seattle Metropolitan Police Museum | Downtown | Law enforcement | History of policing in the Pacific Northwest |
Seattle Pinball Museum | Chinatown-International District | Amusement | website, vintage pinball machines |
Seattle University Galleries | First Hill | Art | Hedreen Gallery at the Lee Center for the Arts, [3] Kinsey Gallery, [4] Vachon Gallery [5] |
Steamship Virginia V | South Lake Union | Maritime | 1922 steamship |
The Unity Museum | University District | Envisioning One Humanity | website |
Wing Luke Museum | Chinatown-International District | Ethnic - Pan Asian Pacific American | Culture, art and history of Asian Pacific Americans |
Dale Chihuly is an American glass artist and entrepreneur. He is well known in the field of blown glass, "moving it into the realm of large-scale sculpture".
The Griffin Museum of Science and Industry(MSI), formerly known as the Museum of Science and Industry, is a science museum located in Chicago, Illinois, in Jackson Park, in the Hyde Park neighborhood between Lake Michigan and The University of Chicago. It is housed in the Palace of Fine Arts from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Initially endowed by Sears, Roebuck and Company president and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald and supported by the Commercial Club of Chicago, it opened in 1933 during the Century of Progress Exposition. It was renamed for benefactor and financier Kenneth C. Griffin on May 19, 2024.
Broken Obelisk is a sculpture designed by Barnett Newman between 1963 and 1967. Fabricated from three tons of Cor-Ten steel, which acquires a rust-colored patina, it is the largest and best known of his six sculptures.
The Seattle Art Museum is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington, United States. The museum operates three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park, Capitol Hill; and Olympic Sculpture Park on the central Seattle waterfront, which opened in 2007.
The Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) is a history museum in the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the largest private heritage organization in Washington state, maintaining a collection of nearly four million artifacts, photographs, and archival materials primarily focusing on Seattle and the greater Puget Sound region. A portion of this collection is on display in the museum's galleries at the historic Naval Reserve Armory in Lake Union Park.
The Smithsonian American Art Museum is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds one of the world's largest and most inclusive collections of art, from the colonial period to the present, made in the United States. More than 7,000 artists are represented in the museum's collection. Most exhibitions are held in the museum's main building, the Old Patent Office Building, while craft-focused exhibitions are shown in the Renwick Gallery.
The California Science Center is a state agency and science museum located in Exposition Park, Los Angeles, next to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the University of Southern California. The museum includes many exhibits of aircraft and spacecraft, including Space Shuttle Endeavor, multiple hands-on galleries, special exhibitions, and IMAX movies.
The Western Australian Museum is a statutory authority within the Culture and the Arts Portfolio, established under the Museum Act 1969.
Heather T. Hart is an American visual artist who works in a variety of media including interactive and participatory Installation art, drawing, collage, and painting. She is a co-founder of the Black Lunch Table Project, which includes a Wikipedia initiative focused on addressing diversity representation in the arts on Wikipedia.
Smithsonian Affiliations is a division of the Smithsonian Institution that establishes long-term partnerships with non-Smithsonian museums and educational and cultural organizations in order to share collections, exhibitions and educational strategies and conduct joint research. Partner organizations are known as "Smithsonian Affiliates".
Joyce J. Scott is an African-American artist, sculptor, quilter, performance artist, installation artist, print-maker, lecturer and educator. Named a MacArthur Fellow in 2016, and a Smithsonian Visionary Artist in 2019, Scott is best known for her figurative sculptures and jewelry using free form, off-loom beadweaving techniques, similar to a peyote stitch. Each piece is often constructed using thousands of glass seed beads or pony beads, and sometimes other found objects or materials such as glass, quilting and leather. In 2018, she was hailed for working in new medium — a mixture of soil, clay, straw, and cement — for a sculpture meant to disintegrate and return to the earth. Scott is influenced by a variety of diverse cultures, including Native American and African traditions, Mexican, Czech, and Russian beadwork, illustration and comic books, and pop culture.
Robert Bruce Inverarity was an American artist, art educator, museum director, author, and anthropologist. He was the Washington State Director of the Federal Arts Project from 1936 to 1939 and the Washington Arts Project from 1939 to 1941, working with many noted Pacific Northwest artists. Fascinated with the Indian tribes of the Northwest from early youth, he amassed a major collection of North Pacific Coast Native art and authored several works on the subject.
Virginia "Jinny" Wright, also known as Virginia Bloedel Wright, was an American art collector and philanthropist. She was considered one of the top art collectors in America for having created the largest collection of modern and contemporary art of the Pacific Northwest with her husband Bagley Wright and was credited for having played a pivotal role in the cultural development of Seattle and the Pacific Northwest.