| The Mitt | |
|---|---|
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| Artist | Gerard Tsutakawa |
| Year | 1999 |
| Medium | Bronze sculpture |
| Subject | Baseball glove |
| Location | Seattle, Washington, U.S. |
| 47°35′32.0″N122°20′01.8″W / 47.592222°N 122.333833°W | |
The Mitt (stylized as The MITT) is an abstract bronze sculpture by Gerard Tsutakawa, [1] installed outside Seattle's T-Mobile Park, in the U.S. state of Washington.
The Mitt is installed outside T-Mobile Park (formerly Safeco Field) in Seattle's SoDo neighborhood. The bronze sculpture is 9 feet tall and approximately 12 feet wide. [2] It depicts a baseball glove with a hole (or "abstract circular opening") in the middle. [3] [4]
According to the Seattle Mariner's website, "Near the center of the glove an aperture appears as an abstract symbol representing a ball nestled in the leather, or a hole where a fastball burned through. The sculpture is placed outside the gates to allow fans to touch, lean on, or crawl through the work, giving the public a feeling of ownership of the piece." [5] The artwork has become a "beloved spot for selfies, family portraits and meet ups", according to KUOW-FM's Marcie Sillman.
The artwork was commissioned and created in 1999. [6] [7] It is washed and polished annually. [8]
The work has been described as "iconic". [6] [9] [10] In 2017, Marcie Sillman of KUOW-FM wrote, "Seattleites have indeed embraced this sculpture; its surface is worn away in the spots where people climb on it to have their pictures taken. The Mitt has become a city icon, like the Fremont Troll or the Pike Place Market pig [ Rachel ]." [3]
Tsutakawa has credited the work for boosting his career. [11] According to Sillman, "The sculpture's success helped propel Gerry Tsutakawa into the public eye, earning him more art commissions. But it also helped establish him on an equal artistic footing with another Tsutakawa: his late father George. It also revealed the differences between Gerry's often whimsical world view and his father's more contemplative artwork." [3]
The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The team joined the American League as an expansion team in 1977 playing their home games in the Kingdome. Since July 1999, the Mariners' home ballpark has been T-Mobile Park, located in the SoDo neighborhood of Seattle.
T-Mobile Park is a retractable roof stadium in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the ballpark of Major League Baseball's Seattle Mariners and has a seating capacity of 47,929. It is in Seattle's SoDo neighborhood, near the western terminus of Interstate 90. It is owned and operated by the Washington State Major League Baseball Stadium Public Facilities District. The first game at the stadium was played on July 15, 1999.
The Seattle Asian Art Museum is a museum of Asian art at Volunteer Park in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States. Part of the Seattle Art Museum, the SAAM exhibits historic and contemporary artworks from China, Korea, Japan, India, the Himalayas, and other Southeast Asian countries. It also features an education center, conservation center, and library. The museum is located in the 1933 Art Deco building which was originally home to the Seattle Art Museum's main collection. In 1991 the main collection moved to a newly constructed Seattle Art Museum building in the downtown area. The Seattle Asian Art Museum opened in 1994.
David Arnold Niehaus was an American sportscaster. He was the lead play-by-play announcer for the American League's Seattle Mariners from their inaugural season in 1977 until his death after the 2010 season. In 2008, the National Baseball Hall of Fame awarded Niehaus the Ford C. Frick Award, the highest honor for American baseball broadcasters. Among fans nationwide and his peers, Niehaus was considered to be one of the greatest sportscasters in history.
George Tsutakawa was an American painter and sculptor best known for his avant-garde bronze fountain designs.
Gerard "Gerry" Tsutakawa, son of artist George Tsutakawa, is an accomplished Pacific Northwest sculptor. A studio apprentice for his artist father for 20 years, Gerry created his own first commissioned work in 1976. In the same studio where his father worked, he continues to design and fabricate anything from small studio bronze pieces to large public art fountains and sculptures.
Marcus Tsutakawa is the former Orchestra director at Garfield High School, where he taught from 1985 to 2016.
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Safeco Plaza is a 50-story skyscraper in Downtown Seattle, Washington, United States. Designed by the Naramore, Bain, Brady, and Johanson (NBBJ) firm, it was completed in 1969 by the Howard S. Wright Construction Company for Seattle First National Bank, which relocated from its previous headquarters at the nearby Dexter Horton Building.
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The Seattle Mariners Hall of Fame is an American museum and hall of fame for the Seattle Mariners of Major League Baseball. It is located at T-Mobile Park in the SoDo district of downtown Seattle.
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Donnie Chin International Childrens Park, formerly known as the International District Childrens Park or International Children's Park, is a 0.2-acre (810 m2) public park for children in the Chinatown–International District (CID) neighborhood of downtown Seattle, Washington, United States. The park is at the northeast corner of the intersection of South Lane Street and 7th Avenue South, near the eastern edge of the CID. It was built in 1981, renovated in 2012, and features a bronze dragon play sculpture by Gerard Tsutakawa.
C. Davida Ingram is a conceptual artist specializing in gender, race and social practice. Her art explores desire, space, time and memory, while questioning 21st century black female subjectivity. She is also a public speaker and civic leader. She received the 2014 Stranger Genius Award in Visual Arts. In 2016 she was a Kennedy Center Citizen Art Fellow, a finalist for the 2016 Neddy Arts Award, and 2018 Jacob Lawrence Fellow. Ingram, along with Prometheus Brown of Blue Scholars, and Tony-nominated choreographer and director, Donald Byrd at the 2016 Crosscut Arts Salon: The Color of Race. In 2017 she was featured in Seattle Magazine's Most Influential Seattleites of 2017. In the same year she received the Mona Marita Dingus Award for Innovative Media.
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In 1999, Gerard created "The Mitt" for Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park), where it has since stood as a landmark, meeting point and photo...
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