At a time when public sector budgets are strained and badly in need of re-booting, when every bit of public spending is under intense scrutiny, it is easy to weigh investment in health and human services, for example, against funding for arts and culture.  Over my long career in the arts, I’ve heard the mantra repeatedly, “How can we justify spending on the arts when people are homeless?”  Believe me, given the current levels of state, city and county spending on the arts, even if every culture dollar was reallocated for housing, we would not end homelessness.  One should not be pitted against the other.  A civil society is characterized by its ability to adopt policies and make investments that alleviate suffering, while at the same time encouraging activity that breeds increased creativity and economic growth.

The arts have long claimed to be an economic engine.  There is ample evidence that the arts, heritage and culture spur increased economic activity.  Economic impact studies conducted in our region over the past fifteen years quantify the jobs created and spending that results from attendance at festivals and theater, music and dance events, not to mention the inherent personal benefits to be gained by gathering with your friends and neighbors for a shared cultural experience.

Now we have further evidence of the unique role the arts play in community development. Storefronts Seattle, a collaboration between The Alliance for Pioneer Square, Chinatown-International District Business Improvement Area, the Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs and Department of Planning and Development, the Seattle Chinatown-International District Preservation and Development Authority, and Shunpike, will be launched on Thursday, September 2nd.  Note that this is a partnership of economic development, community development, businesses and the arts.   All public sector investments in the arts advance multiple community interests.  That’s why we should support the arts, no matter how serious our social problems.  (Disclaimer: I must confess, I also would advocate support for “the arts for arts sake”, but that’s another message.)

Storefronts Seattle is one of those simple, low-cost ideas that are good for artists, landlords and neighborhoods.  It is based on the obvious premise that occupied street level space is better than vacant space with brown paper covered windows, loudly announcing “no one wants this space in this neighborhood.”  It’s not unlike the rationale for the half price ticket booth in Times Square (TKTS): a seat filled by a patron paying 50% of the ticket price is better than an empty seat.

Initially, Storefronts Seattle is focused on the Chinatown-International District and Pioneer Square, two neighborhoods with their share of vacant retail space, emblematic of these difficult times.   It will modestly begin with ten storefronts, but it is easy to see the idea taking hold in additional spaces and in other neighborhoods such as Capitol Hill and Belltown and suburban cities.  The spaces are donated by property owners on a short-term basis, one to three months.  The artists know it’s not forever; if a space is leased to a paying tenant, the artists will have to vacate.  In the meantime, they have access to free space to display, sell and even create work.  The landlords showcase their properties and support creative businesses, which may evolve into long-term tenants. The look of the street is improved by activating vacant space.  The neighborhood experiences increased foot traffic and changes its identity from “distressed” to “cool.”

Why haven’t we done this before now?

With a little imagination and creativity, Storefronts Seattle attacks a vexing problem at very little cost to the city, artists or businesses.  It demonstrates once again the value of the arts in the civic environment.  September 2^nd is First Thursday in Pioneer Square and Jam Fest in the Chinatown-International District.  The artist storefront spaces will be open.  You can find a map to the various spaces at www.storefrontsseattle.com.   Just another great opportunity to get out, patronize local businesses and discover new places.

Artist John Fleming takes a first look at his new storefront space © 2010, Eliza S. Rankin

Per Susan Robb:

” My! You smell divine. What’s the scent you’re wearing?”
” Why thank you. It’s called Soos Creek”

I wanted to use smell to capture my experiences with the Regional Trails so  over the past six months I have been collecting materials (from plants and berries to horse manure and cocoa pods) found at various Regional Trails (or directly nearby) and distilling essential oils from them. I then mixed these oils into trail-specific fragrances. The process was alchemical and magical (similar to the trails themselves) – one whiff of pine scent can transport me back to the Preston Snoqualmie trail where I gather the needles.

Join me on the Burke Gilman trail on September 28 and from 12 – 2, come get spritzed and cloak yourself in the scent of the trails.

Per Paul Rucker:

After walking along a Regional Trail, I will present an hour-long musical suite inspired by the journey to lunchtime trail-goers.  I look forward to engaging with folks who happen upon me on Tuesday, September 21, noon time.  An interactive component will be featured.

Per Stokley Towles:

On September 27, Susan and I will be out on the Regional Trails.  I will interview people to ask them about their experience on the trails, and am especially curious to see how their relationship to that space has changed with the changing weather.

For more information on the Trails Project, please visit www.trailsproject.com.

Images:

Burke Gilman Trail by Stokley Towles

Paul Rucker and cello at “Water Pieces”, a concert at Rattlesnake Lake, the southernmost point of Snoqualmie Valley Trail by Heather Dwyer.

Susan and Stokley’s feet at the first rest stop on the Long Walk from Seattle to Snoqualmie Falls by Stokley Towles.

aLIVe artist Dominic Muren will be sewing and bartering at two Madrona spots this afternoon and Saturday. This afternoon he will be at the Madrona Market (Union and Martin Luther King way)  from 4:00-7:00. Hustle your bustle on over  and barter for a shopping bag made from recycled materials. A wine tasting at Bottlehouse wine bar is tomorrow’s visit – sip and sew. Are we having fun yet? Enjoy the weekend!

If you haven’t made it down to Occidental Park this summer, this is your last week for a number of great projects, but never fear there will be more projects happening until October!  Below is a preview of Michelle Arab’s Wind Map of Occidental Park.  Imagine this in every tree in the park!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s what’s happening this month:

Michelle Arab’s Wind Map of Occidental Park – Up now through September
Mila’s Prismatic Lightscape – Last Day is Wednesday, September 1
Celeste Cooning’s Celebration and Fanfare – Last Day is Wednesday, Sept. 1
Sol Hashemi’s Driving a Sculpture – Final Drive is Thursday, Sept. 2 5-8pm
Britta Johnson’s Heat Transfer – Thursday through Sunday 6-11pm from Sept. 2 to Sept. 26
Stimulate Dance Open Air Performance Series – Sept. 8-10 at Noon & Sept. 11 at 1pm
Joan Laage’s Red – September 20 11:30am-1:30pm

Exciting Things Happening in Issaquah!
Pickering Barn, Issaquah
1730 10th Ave. N.W.

Toy Boats Music for Waiting at the Pickering Barn in Issaquah during the Issaquah Farmer’s Market on Saturday, September 4 11:30am-1:30pm.

Mandy Greer’s Mater Matrix Mother and Medium has finished installation near the Pickering Barn in Issaquah.  The river will be up through September.

Want to hear more about what’s happening with Site-Specific?  Click here to join our email list!

Ben Waterman: The Grand Rooms

Opening: Thursday, September 2, 6-8 p.m.
Exhibition running: September 2 – 30, 2010

In September, 4Culture is delighted to present an exhibition of brand new work by Seattle-based artist Ben Waterman. The Grand Rooms consists primarily of sculpture composed of divergent materials: clay (both raw and fired), paint, drywall, and wood. Waterman, still early in his career, has exhibited extensively with projects noteworthy in scale and scope. He recently created Risking to Care for a Place in Occidental Park as part of ArtSparks through 4Culture’s Site Specific Program.  Having spent many years studying wood fire ceramics in Japan and the US, Waterman’s material conscious installations maintain a profound connection to his roots in ceramics.

Check out his website here

Please join us for Ben’s opening on Thursday, September 2nd at 6pm. Make a night of it by checking out dozens of our local neighborhood galleries during Pioneer Square’s First Thursday Art Walk.

Photo: Clay, Blood Orange Peel /Umbria, 2010, Courtesy of the artist

ArtWalk
Friday, September 3rd, 2010, 5:00pm – 9:00 pm
Front Street and Gilman Village, Issaquah
Issaquah’s last ArtWalk of the season. Bring the family down to historic Issaquah for what is sure to be one of the best shows of the year. For more information visit www.downtownissaquah.com.

Memory Quilts Lecture
Saturday, September 11th,2010, 1:00pm – 3 pm
White River Valley Museum, 918 H Street SE, Auburn
Join guest curator Anita Sheneberger for a slide show and lecture on the tradition of memory quilts, one of the oldest mourning arts traditions. Sheneberger will show examples from throughout history, including modern day memory quilt movements. Free with regular Museum admission. Visit www.wrvmuseum.org for additional information.

Music on the Streets
Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights through September 17th, 2010
Pedestrian Park on the corner of Front Street and Sunset Way, Issaquah
Listen to Blues, Jazz, Rock, Pop, Ambient, Interlocking Guitar and more! Local favorite Kris Orlowski will close the show on the 17th. For complete schedule and band web site links visit www.downtownissaquah.com.

Oliver Scott Van Olinda Exhibit
Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays through September 19, 2010, 1:00pm – 4:00pm
Vashon Maury Island Heritage Museum, 10105 Bank Road, Vashon
Born Dec 25, 1865 Oliver arrived on Vashon-Maury Islands in his mid twenties. His keen observation in photography has become a window to the history unfolded on the islands. With assistance from The University of Washington, the Museum is pleased to exhibit Island Home: The Photographs of Oliver S. Van Olinda through September 19. Visit www.vashonhistory.org.

13th Annual Bungalow Fair
Saturday and Sunday, September 25th-26th, 2010, 10:00am – 4:00pm
Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Avenue at Seneca Street, Seattle.
The largest Arts & Crafts Event in the Pacific Northwest will feature new lectures on Artistic Leather, Color Prints of Frances Gearhart and Building Portland’s Classic Arts & Crafts Neighborhoods. New exhibitors, alongside longstanding favorites, will offer their best examples of antique and contemporary designed furniture and decorative arts. Don’t miss this annual favorite. For more information visit www.historicseattle.org.

Opening days at Mary Olson Farm, Lake Union Park and Dockton Interpretive Trail. Check out our September Preservation feature story celebrating three grand openings in september for more information.

Harvest Celebration Farm Tour
Saturday and Sunday, September 25th and 26th, 2010, 10:00am – 4:30pm
Celebrate the vitality of local agriculture, learn about the importance of supporting farmers and realize the value and joy of eating locally-grown produce. The 2010 Harvest Celebration Farm Tour in King County will take place in the Snoqualmie Valley on Saturday and Vashon Island on Sunday. All participating farms are free and open to the general public, but donations are appreciated. Visit king.wsu.edu/foodandfarms/HarvestCelebration.html for more information.

Hands-on days
Fourth Saturday of each month, 2010, 11:00am – 3:00pm
Drop in for fun, free projects for children ages 4 to 12. September is Duck on a Rock! Learn how to play the game – and learn how to make the bean bag used to play the game! Children always get to take home what they make. Visit www.shorelinehistoricalmuseum.org for more information.

4Culture, Artist Trust and the Estate of Su Job have just announced local artist, Kelly Lyles as the recipient of the 2010 Conductive Garboil Grant, a yearly, non-restricted award of $3,000.

The Conductive Garboil Grant was developed by artist Su Job just before her passing in December 2008 and acknowledges Seattle artists with a connection to Pioneer Square who have “demonstrated a profound ability to challenge the limits of conductive creative discourse and its effects on our society, pushing the creative act beyond the accepted limits, definitions, or purposes of art while engaging audiences outside the aesthetic industrial complex.”

Even if you don’t know Kelly personally, you probably recognize her photo. She had her first Seattle exhibition in Pioneer Square in 1982, at The Prints and The Pauper and has since planted deep-roots in the community. Her representational (and often humorous) paintings are regularly on view – ranging from punny views of animals crossed with ‘all-American’ products like Mice-A-Roni, Benson & Hedgehogs, and Star-Ducks Coffee, to watercolors of historical and mythological figures.

Kelly’s flamboyant persona and attention-getting ArtCars are staples at First Thursday and art events around the city. She considers her embellished vehicles “rolling canvases, the ultimate public art”. Perhaps you have seen the Excessories Odd-yssey, a Honda van covered with women’s fashion accessories (jewelry, purses, shoes, belts, sunglasses and more) on the road or at the Seattle ArtCar Blowout, which she founded and has produced for the past 11 years.

And yes, there is more…Lyles also extends her considerable talents and adventurous spirit to organizations such as the Fremont Arts Council, SIFF, multiple local theaters, and as an art instructor at Bellevue College. But perhaps she is best known for her massive email list, to which she forwards visual arts information and opportunities – keeping us all in the loop.

Come and celebrate with Kelly as she is honored on Wednesday, October 13, 2010, 6 – 8pm, at 4Culture, 101 Prefontaine Place South, Seattle, WA 98104.

Photo Credit: Paul McRae

Check out these amazing events supported through 4Culture’s Individual Artist Projects program.

Arun Sharma
(de)composition: Human
Bellevue Arts Museum Biennial
August 28, 2010 – January 16, 2011
Free Opening Reception: August 27th – 5-9pm

BAM Biennial 2010: Clay Throwdown! is the inaugural edition of BAM’s new, juried exhibition competition. With over 30 participating artists, it provides a panoramic survey of ceramic art created in the Pacific Northwest and a glimpse into the many directions in which this dynamic medium is moving. Clay Throwdown! features a select blend of both emerging and established artists with an emphasis on new and site-specific works.

Stokley Towles
Trash Talk: the Social Life of Garbage
The Shoebox Theatre
PERFORMANCE DATES: Thurs, Fri & Sat, September 9-11; Thurs & Fri, September 16-17; Fri, Sat & Sun, September 24-26. 7 pm (Sunday, Sept 26 performance is at noon)
Cost: $12 General, $5 Student/Senior

Trash Talk: the Social Life of Garbage, digs into the human side of garbage: garbage men on vacation who can’t keep themselves from photographing trash cans; transfer station attendants who gather throw-away flags so they can be disposed of “properly”; suburbanites who leave plates of cookies or flowers for their garbage collectors.

John Grade
Circuit
Davidson Galleries
September 2 – October 2, 2010
Free Opening Reception: September 2, 2010
Free Lectures: September 10th – 6pm @ Downtown Seattle Library | September 18, 2010 – noon @ Davidson Galleries

Grade’s work overtly engages with its surrounding environments, both architectural and natural. When indoors, his work references built space. Circuit will literally engage with the gallery’s walls. When presented outdoors, the work evolves materially. Weather patterns affect the work, and the exposed surfaces, evolve, disintegrate and morph into something new.

Kate Lebo, Martha Silano, Kary Wayson, Jason Dodson & Tomo Nakayama
72 Days of Summer
Fremont Abbey
September 22, 2010 – 7:30pm
Pay-what-you-can

72 Days of Summer, a reading by Kate Lebo of poems written the summer of 2010. Also featuring performances of new poems from Kary Wayson and Martha Silano, plus new songs from Jason Dodson and Tomo Nakayama. Kate Lebo spent the summer of 2010 composing the poems that will round out her first collection of poetry, Supper So Clean. On the last day of summer, she’ll celebrate this bounty of time and creativity by reading from the manuscript. She’ll share the stage with award-winning poets Kary Wayson and Martha Silano, both of whom also received grants from 4Culture this year. Jason Dodson of the Maldives and Tomo Nakayama of Grand Hallway will round out the evening with solo sets of music.

Photo: © 2010 John Grade, Circuit, Glazed ceramic bonded with gypsum polymer to corn-based resin embedded with marine netting, 9×24x24′, Courtesy of the Artist

Saturday, September 25th will be a busy day around the county as three different grand openings will offer unique opportunities to celebrate local culture.

7:00 am – 7:00 pm: Grand Opening of Lake Union Park, with viewings of no less than four National Historic Landmark vessels. The free festivities will kick off with a Family Fun Run and Sunrise Yoga on the Fitness Field, and continue all day with family activities on land and water, including: musical performances on two stages, model boat races, Native American canoe displays, paddle songs and traditional salmon barbeque, environmental learning and history trail tours. Visit www.seattleparksfoundation.org or www.seattle.gov/parks.htm for more information.

2:00pm: Official opening ceremony of the first Dockton Historic Trail, commemorating the unique history of this quaint ship-building community on Maury Island. Drive along the Dockton Road Heritage Corridor down to Dockton Park, where the first of ten interpretive signs lead visitors on a half mile trail. Be sure to stop by Dockton’s First School on Windmill Street following the opening ceremony for refreshments. For additional information call 206-463-1462.

1:00pm – 6:00pm: Long-awaited grand opening of Mary Olson Farm with a Hops & Crops Harvest Festival. The farm is a unique 60-acre farmstead dating from 1879 nestled on a sloped and wooded site along the Green River. It includes an assembly of recently restored rural buildings, indigenous salmon runs and natural wildlife. The festival will offer craft beer, music, food, marketplace and kids’ activities. Visit www.wrvmuseum.org for more information.

© 2006 Center for Wooden Boats

Click here to view the embedded video.

Seattle 100: Portrait of a City is the culmination of a two-year personal project by renowned photographer, filmmaker, and activist Chase Jarvis. Seattle 100 shares more than 300 black and white portraits and biographies of each subject. It is a curated collection of artists, musicians, writers, scientists, restaurateurs, DJs, developers, activists, entrepreneurs, filmmakers, all of whom are defining and driving culture in region.

Jarvis has created a snapshot of a city’s culture through its people. It’s a 100, not the 100, and it invites each of us to survey our own surroundings, our lives, our friends — and those not yet our friends — that make up the place we live. The place we call home.

Chase Jarvis, in collaboration with Small Lot Co-Op, Terra Blanca Winery, and Theo Chocolate will release a Seattle 100 book, collection of Seattle 100 wines and a Seattle 100 Theo Chocolate bar. All proceeds will benefit 4Culture! Wha? That’s right. All sales will support 4Culture’s programs.  We feel loved.

Students, researchers, educators, artists, and the general public will find the online archives a valuable resource for current and historic source material, and will glean knowledge of the APA community from the newspaper’s personality profiles, coverage of news stories, and even the advertising sections. Access the International Examiner online archives at www.iexaminer.org.

Image: Copyright International Examiner

From Crosscut:

Up at Stevens Pass on the Iron Goat trail lie old-growth railroad history and one of the finest hiking trails you’ll ever find. Among the many great stories are the sagas of John Stevens, heroic engineer of tunnels, and Ruth Ittner, who brought the rail-trail back to life.

Join Volunteers for Outdoor Washington (VOW) this Saturday as they say goodbye to Ruth by the trail she devoted her retirement years to creating. Ruth died in June at age 92.

To learn more about Ruth, the Iron Goat Trail, and the celebration of her life, read the Crosscut article, visit the VOW website, and check out this June Blog4Culture piece.

Photo: Courtesy Volunteers for Outdoor Washington

aLIVe artist Dominic Muren will be at the University District Farmer’s Market on Saturday morning, August 21st with Production Cycle, a mobile, micro-factory in the form of a pedal-powered sewing machine.  Muren will make reusable cloth shopping bags to be given away at the market. The currency for the bags will be information about other waste stream products that can be recycled into goods. Muren, who recently presented his Humblefacture project in a Ted talk, will be working the market beginning at 8:30.

Graphic by Dominic Muren: Humble Factory

Sunday, Aug 22, 2pm
Rattlesnake Lake Recreation Area, North Bend
RSVP requested

Trails Project artist Paul Rucker looks forward to seeing you on the banks of Rattlesnake Lake, for a concert at the southernmost point of the Snoqualmie Valley Trail. Join Paul where the trail meets the water for an opportunity to interact with his work, and to create some of your own.

Paul will be playing original compositions written using water from the lake and invites you to compose your own watercolor images as you listen.  Paul will provide music, watercolors and paper, the trail will provide your twig/paintbrush or feather/stylus and the lake your water.

Picnic blankets (and picnics!) are encouraged, as are camping chairs and swimming gear should you desire a post-concert dip.

Directions:  from the Snoqualmie Valley Trail – follow signs to the lake.
Driving directions – from I-90, take Exit 32, 436^th Ave SE.  Go South on 436^th Ave SE/Cedar Falls Road SE for 2.7 miles and follow the balloons to Rattlesnake Lake Recreation Area.  Look for the Trails Project directional signs.

For more information on the Trails Project, please visit the Project website. To learn more about King County’s Snoqualmie Valley Trail, please visit the Parks website.

image © Paul Rucker

WONDERLAND: ALICE ADVENTURES
3015 NW 54th St., Ballard Seattle, Washington
August 21, 2010 and August 22, 2010 at 5:00pm     
FREE!

Join theater simple and 4Culture Site-Specific in a fanciful journey through WONDERLAND: ALICE ADVENTURES, theater simple’s newest fun-in-progress experience.  A free theatrical park adventure, WONDERLAND is inspired by and adapted from Charles Dodgson’s (Lewis Carroll) Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass stories, as well as Dodgson’s wordplay, math games and puzzles.

An all-ages adventure, theater and visual arts weave whimsically together throughout the Carl S. English Botanical Gardens, the Hiram Chittenden Locks and in Commodore Park, playing with the creative perspectives of imaginations of all sizes.  Come see the wonder!

Photo courtesy of theater simple

Opening tonight, August 12, 2010 – 6-11 pm and continuing through September 4, 2010, Zack Bent’s new mixed-media installation at Vermillion Art Gallery, Fort Branch.

This project is supported by 4Culture’s Individual Artist Projects and continues the tradition of his previous series at Gallery4Culture, Buffalo Trace, where he and his family “appropriated scouting as a tribal play frame.” Whereas his previous exhibition centered on social responsibility toward the conservation and preservation of nature while referencing the Boy Scouts of America, Zack describes Fort Branch as “less occupied with human figures in relationship to one another and more with the trace of their presence.”

“In this series,” Zack says, “many of the works walk the line between play and catastrophe in the face of an unwieldy natural order. The exhibit is filled with a series of artifacts, including a full-scale dilapidated Lincoln Log cabin, drawing on the nearly 100-year-old toy designed by Frank Lloyd Wright’s son John during the Progressive Era.”

Photo: © 2010 Zack Bent, On Location

Installation begins August 16
Pickering Barn, Issaquah
1730 10th Ave. N.W.

Mater Matrix Mother Medium is a process-based temporary art installation by Seattle Artist, Mandy Greer.  The installation is a 300-foot long fiber river made of recycled yarns and fabrics crocheted by the community into the trees of that community.   MMMM celebrates our creeks and watersheds and the communities that protect them.  It invites you to slow down and talk with your neighbors while you work with your hands.

One element of this piece that makes it so unique is that it is not made solely behind studio doors.  Artist Mandy Greer feels very strongly that this piece be made in and by the community where it is installed.  This summer Mandy has already done a number of Crochet Workshops within the Issaquah community.  You can become part of the river by joining Mandy on August 21 at the Issaquah Farmers Market for Community Crocheting from 10am – 2pm at the Pickering Barn.  Crocheting experience is not necessary.

Photo courtesy of artist

Exhibition Opening Celebration Event
August 14, 2010, 1-3pm
www.seattleartmuseum.org

Join the Quileute Nation Drum Circle in celebrating the opening of the exhibition Behind the Scenes: The Real Story of the Quileute Wolves. Organized in conjunction with the Quileute Nation, the Seattle Art Museum exhibition brings together rare, never-before exhibited art works and creates a public forum for the Quileute people to introduce their culture beyond what is depicted in the Twilight books and films.

The wolf plays a major role in the cultural beliefs of the Quileute Native Peoples of coastal Washington. According to oral traditions, the first Quileute people were changed from a pair of wolves into human form by the Transformer, Kwati. This creation legend is central to the Quileute world view, and wolf imagery can be viewed throughout the exhibition.

© Quileute wolf headdress, Seattle Art Museum

Northwest Seaport is requesting proposals for rehabilitation of the Lightship No. 83, an exciting effort to re-open the vessel to the public for events and programs. Built in 1904, the Lightship No. 83 was one of hundreds of floating lighthouses that guided ships and boats safely along American Coasts. During World War II, the vessel was painted grey, deck guns were added, as well as fold-out bunks for up to 50 crewmen, and was used to patrol the San Francisco Bay on the lookout for enemy submarines.

After the war, the Lightship No. 83 was transferred to the Coast Guard District 13 in the Pacific Northwest as a “relief” vessel. Servicing the Columbia River, Umatilla Reef, and Swiftwure Banks stations, No. 83 relieved the regular vessels at these posts for their yearly maintenance and resupply. The vessel was decommissioned from the Coast Guard in 1961 and purchased by Northwest Seaport seven years later. Northwest Seaport is in the beginning phases of a two-year restoration project designed to open the vessel to visitors for tours, programs, and more.

The first phase of the rehabilitation will stabilize and service the Lightship, removing asbestos-bearing material, stabilize the overhead rigging, and service the ship’s electrical and plumbing systems. This will prepare the vessel for the complete deck replacement planned for the second phase. All work will take place at the selected shipyard. Those interested should contact Northwest Seaport at (206) 898-7012 for more information. The full bid is also available at www.nwseaport.org. Proposals are due August 12, 2010.

Image: © 2010, 4Culture Staff

Still Lives video portraits exhibit by media artist Susie J Lee

Monday, August 9, 2 – 4pm
Washington Care Center
2821 S. Walden St. Seattle, 98118.
Free to general public

A unique collaboration between a visual artist and a nursing home has resulted in an innovative series of video portraits about aging, time, image, memory, and relationships. Still Lives, a project by Seattle-based media artist Susie J Lee, explores questions about what we hold on to and what we let go over the passage of time.

The project is the result of more than three months of weekly visits to the Washington Care Center, a nursing and long-term care facility in Southeast Seattle.
In each visit, Lee conversed, listened to stories, played music and helped out, and sought to ground each resident’s portrait in their personality with a particular focus on where they are now and how they view their past.

Cinematographer and photography director RK Adams was later brought in to film each resident. The Still Lives video portraits are composed of moments that are inherently still, such as waiting, watching, and daydreaming. The work is not slowed down or frozen, but rather, is realized as an unfolding of real time.

Lee used the paintings of Spanish artist Francisco Goya as a model for each portrait. According to Lee, Goya’s interpretation of age, time and myth were conveyed in private, personal portraits, and these images resonated and inspired her body of work.

Still Lives is sponsored by SEEDArts and 4Culture’s Site-Specific and Individual Artist Projects programs.

Photo courtesy of RK Adams