Frye Art Museum
FIRST HILL
Founded in 1952 to house the painting collection of longtime Seattle residents Charles and Emma Frye, the Frye Art Museum has evolved into one of the city’s most innovative venues, featuring exhibitions of cutting-edge contemporary art alongside historical surveys of early graphic design, obscure 19th-century symbolists, and other smart, unexpected shows you won’t see anywhere else. The Frye also consistently champions the work of outstanding local artists—many Stranger Genius Award winners have exhibited at the museum. It’s Seattle’s only private museum of its kind, and it’s always free, making it a great place to take families and out-of-town visitors who want a taste of local culture. (EMILY POTHAST)
Henry Art Gallery
UNIVERSITY DISTRICT
Here, though this is the oldest public art museum in the state (founded in 1927), you can expect to see new art, or at least art made since around 1960. There are typically several exhibitions at once, in all mediums, from video to performance to painting to printmaking. The Henry’s located on campus at the University of Washington, and also houses a cafe and the permanent exhibit Skyspace by James Turrell, which Emily Pothast describes as “a wooden room for contemplation and reflection that opens onto the sky.” Neat!
Museum of Museums
FIRST HILL
Museum of Museums is full of fascinating nooks and crannies, all bursting with vibrant, experimental, and contemporary art. It really is like a museum full of little museums! See enormous exhibits—like Sea of Vapors by local ceramicist Emily Counts, which features life-sized sculptures of witchy, fantastical female figures—in the True Space and peek in on itty-bitty miniature art in the Supperfield Museum of Contemporary Art. And don’t miss the Soft Touch show in the Malone Gallery—there through August, it’s a tactile art show you really can touch, pet, and sit on. Access to the first floor of the museum is always free.
Olympic Sculpture Park
BELLTOWN
It’s hard to keep Seattleites inside on a sunny day, so fortunately there are places to see art outdoors. Before this nine-acre waterfront sculpture park was downtown Seattle’s largest green space, it spent several decades as an industrial fuel storage facility. Now fully rehabilitated into an ecosystem of native plants and sustainable design, Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park is currently home to more than 20 pieces of monumental sculpture, bike paths, and an amphitheater for outdoor events. Iconic works include Eagle, the bright-red Alexander Calder sculpture visible in many photographs of Seattle’s skyline, and Richard Serra’s Wake, a towering array of curved steel forms created using a machine that once produced nuclear submarines. (EMILY POTHAST)
Pioneer Square’s First Thursday Art Walk
PIONEER SQUARE
Once a month, Seattleites flock to the streets in Pioneer Square for a chance to stroll, sip on booze, and attend as many art openings as possible at First Thursday. It’s the city’s central and oldest art walk, and takes place in a historic neighborhood known for its abundance of galleries. Wine and hobnobbing steal the scene for some, but at its core, it’s an impressive communal unveiling of new artwork. A few favorites include Greg Kucera Gallery, J. Rinehart Gallery, Stonington Gallery, and Koplin Del Rio.
Roq La Rue
MADISON VALLEY
Happy anniversary to Roq La Rue! Kirsten Anderson opened this beloved local art gallery in 1998 and it has survived several different iterations over the years, from the scrappy dive space in Belltown to its current slick digs in Madison Valley. The gallery has hosted literally hundreds of artists, with a special focus on contemporary underground pop art and anything that leans a little to the strange, spooky, and experimental side of things. Peep
their Instagram (@roqlarue) to learn more about current exhibits. (MEGAN SELING)
Seattle Art Museum
DOWNTOWN
No list of local art venues would be complete without a mention of the region’s largest institution devoted to art in all its forms. Compared with older, wealthier museums, Seattle Art Museum might not have the most famous works from art history textbooks, but it has work by a whole lot of artists whose names you’re likely to recognize, and many more you’ll be excited to learn. It also has whole rooms devoted to First Nations art, African art, the ancient Mediterranean, and a handful of contemporary aboriginal Australian paintings that are a must-see. A compelling program of temporary exhibitions and ongoing roster of community events—many of them kid-friendly—gives you reasons to keep coming back long after you’ve exhausted the permanent collection. SAM’s sister museum, the Asian Art Museum in the gorgeous Art Deco building in Volunteer Park, reopened in 2020 after a $49 million renovation project. It’s also worth a look! (EMILY POTHAST)
WNDR Museum
WATERFRONT
The Seattle outpost of the WNDR Museum features more than 20 interactive, technology-as-art installations including Yayoi Kusama’s oversized and sparkly yellow and black Starry Pumpkin, an immersive light and sound exhibit by Leigh Sachwitz that uses light and sound to replicate a passing thunderstorm, and an interactive infinity room called Hyper Mirror. There’s also a new piece from Seattle’s own Andy Arkley titled You Can Do Most Anything, which visitors can make flash and dance to music via a control panel. (MEGAN SELING)
Immerse yourself in the local art world at thestranger.com! Every Monday we share a new digital cover and an interview with our Artist of the Week.
