This past weekend was the 35-hour marathon opening of the Seattle Art Museum expansion. Though, I have to say that calling it an “expansion” is really an understatement. It’s almost like the city got an entirely new, real museum, with a real broad art collection housed in a building that I personally think rivals the MoMA. There’s plenty of natural light, high ceilings which make it feel really open yet there’s still warmth from the wood floors. Thankfully, they didn’t overdo it with the glass (something that seems to happen a lot in the NW). In fact, the museum took advantage of doing visual projection along some of the glass partitions, ceilings and walls which I thought was super cool.

So, the opening officially kicked off on Saturday, May 5th at 10am but I opted to go at 1am on Sunday thinking that it would be less crowded. And hey! when would I really get another chance to go through a museum in the middle of the night?

Much to my surprise, the museum was packed with people spilling out into the sidewalks/streets waiting to get inside. We waited an hour for our timed entry at 2:20am and were greeted with an atrium of museum goers dancing to pretty slick beats of a spinning DJ.

The music could be heard thumping throughout the entire museum and on this particular night, the audience skewed a bit younger but everyone was still super respectful to each other. Experiencing the museum like this without the hushed mumbles of people chatting to each other was actually really cool. People seemed to be more comfortable, less serious and generally more energetic than the typical slow plod through a museum. It made me wonder why don’t museums do this more often? I think it’s about time museums innovate the experience. Change up the hours, make it loud, let people dance!

I won’t go into the details of the collection (you’ll have to see for yourself :)) But let’s just say that I’m thrilled to be looking at art other than northwest tribal artifacts. Not that anything is wrong with that kind of art but I am a modern art kinda gal. Make sure to check out the Nara Yoshitomo on the second floor. It’s the one painting I would steal if I were a professional art thief!

I will confess that I might have over done it with the museum going this weekend. We stayed until around 5:30am on Sunday and I went back yet again on Sunday afternoon because I still hadn’t gone through the entire collection.

I wanted to see my coveted Yoshitomo again, the big, bold Motherwell painting, and the floating paint of Mark Rothko. Somehow, I missed all the Mark Tobey artwork that was super compelling and a new to me. Great detail, depth, dreamlike colors, dipped in a big coating of mood.

There’s an interesting thing that happens when I look at art at a museum. Some of it is super interesting from a technical or historical perspective. There’s always that presumptive question you ask yourself, “Would I want that hanging in my house?” Then there’s the stuff that really gets your heart pumping. The stuff that reminds you that we’re alive.

Welcome SAM! We’re happy you’ve finally arrived!