The Seattle Asian Art Museum (often abbreviated to SAAM) is a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make th ...

of Asian art at Volunteer Park in the

Capitol Hill Capitol Hill, in addition to being a metonym for the United States Congress, is the largest historic residential neighborhood in Washington, D.C., stretching easterly in front of the United States Capitol along wide avenues. It is one of the ...

neighborhood of

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, United States. Part of the

Seattle Art Museum The Seattle Art Museum (commonly known as SAM) is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington, United States. It operates three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM) in Volunteer Park on Cap ...

, the SAAM exhibits historic and

contemporary Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it is o ...

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 Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...

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.

About

The SAAM is organized thematically, with art and objects grouped by their relationship to themes including "spirituality, worship, celebration, visual arts, literature, clothing, nature and the power of birth and death." The museum's permanent collection spans thirteen galleries. There is one large gallery reserved for special exhibitions which changes every six months.

History

The Seattle Art Museum was founded in 1933 by Richard E. Fuller, a collector of Asian art. Sixty years later, in 1993, the main Seattle Art Museum announced that it would open an Asian art museum at its original Volunteer Park location. A reception, held November 1993 as part of the

APEC The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC ) is an inter-governmental forum for 21 member economies in the Pacific Rim that promotes free trade throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

Summit, was attended by the leaders of East Asian nations and 400 guests. The SAAM officially opened to the public on August 13, 1994, during a ceremony attended by 6,000 visitors. The museum houses an Asian Paintings Conservation Center.

Architecture

The Seattle Asian Art Museum is housed in a historic

building designed in 1933 by

Carl F. Gould Carl Frelinghuysen Gould (24 November 1873 – 4 January 1939) also spelled Carl Freylinghausen Gould, was an architect in the Pacific Northwest, and founder and first chair of the architecture program at the University of Washington. As the lea ...

of the architectural firm Bebb and Gould. From 1933 to 1991, the building served as the home of the

and its main collection. After the main collection moved to a new museum in

Downtown Seattle Downtown is the central business district of Seattle, Washington. It is fairly compact compared with other city centers on the U.S. West Coast due to its geographical situation, being hemmed in on the north and east by hills, on the west by ...

, the building underwent an early renovation in the 1990s at a cost of $5.2 million. The Gould building was designated a

Seattle landmark The City of Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board, part of the Department of Neighborhoods of the city of Seattle, Washington, United States, designates city landmarks. According to the department's official website, the following are designated ...

in 1989, and officially added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 2016.Landmarks Alphabetical Listing for S
, Individual Landmarks, Department of Neighborhoods, City of Seattle. Accessed December 28, 2007. The museum underwent a major expansion project, starting in 2017, that was spurred by the need to upgrade the building's

HVAC Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) is the use of various technologies to control the temperature, humidity, and purity of the air in an enclosed space. Its goal is to provide thermal comfort and acceptable indoor air quality. ...

system, freight elevator, and seismic resistance. The project was funded by a mixture of public and private donations and included preservation of the museum's historic Art Deco facade, infrastructure upgrades, climate control and seismic system improvements, as well as the addition of new gallery and education spaces. Seattle-based firm

LMN Architects LMN is an American architecture firm based in Seattle, Washington. The company was founded in 1979, and provides planning and design services to create convention centers, cultural arts venues, higher education facilities, commercial and mixed ...

was responsible for design of a US$56 million renovation and expansion of the building. Construction on the renovation project began with a ceremonial groundbreaking on March 13, 2018. The museum closed for three years for the major renovation, from February 2017 until February 2020. The new three-story wing is constructed principally out of glass and sandstone in a minimalist style.

Collection

The Seattle Asian Art Museum holds a permanent collection of Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Indian, Himalayan, and Southeast Asian art. The museum continues to grow its collection of art "centered around historic, modern, and contemporary Asian Pacific Islander as well as Southeast Asian art, specifically collecting different works created by local Asian Pacific Islander artists within the Seattle area." The collection holds the artwork entitled ''Some/One'' by South Korean sculptor

Do-Ho Suh Do Ho Suh (hangul: 서도호, born 1962) is a Korean sculptor and installation artist. He also works across various media, including paintings and film which explore the concept of space and home. His work is particularly well known in relation ...

in the form of a suit of armor made of thousands of military IDs, or dog-tags. South Korean ceramic artist Yoon Kwang-cho is also represented in the collection.

Gallery

File:Risabha Seattle.JPG, Rishabhanatha sculpture, 10th Century Mahavira Seattle 01.JPG, Mahavira sculpture, 11th Century Furisode ca. 1800.JPG, Furisode, Japan, 1800 Indra Nepal s. XIII.JPG, Indra, Nepal, 13th century Dragones Seattle 01.JPG, Nine dragons Summer Robe, China

Notes

External links

Seattle Asian Art Museum official webpage
{{Authority control Seattle Art Museum Asian-American culture in Seattle Museums in Seattle Art museums and galleries in Washington (state) Asian art museums in the United States Ethnic museums in Washington (state) Landmarks in Seattle Art museums established in 1991 1991 establishments in Washington (state) Art Deco architecture in Washington (state) Capitol Hill, Seattle National Register of Historic Places in King County, Washington