January 2007
Out & About:
A Walk in the Park with Art
Sculpture is the most accessible type of visual art for children – something they can walk or dance around, view from different angles and, in many cases, interpret any way they want to. Starting this month, you can take your kids for a run in Seattle’s newest park and expose them to culture at the same time. Seattle Art Museum’s nine-acre Olympic Sculpture Park opens Jan. 20 on the north end of the downtown waterfront. Admission is free.
Take a virtual tour with me, beginning with the gleaming white and glass Paccar Pavilion at the Western Avenue and Broad Street entrance. (It has parking underneath, and houses the Taste Café, Museum Store, restrooms and an art studio.) The first rotating exhibit, by Pedro Reyes, features two giant vinyl basket-like structures – are they bird cages, space capsules, seed pods? His “Evolving City Mural” on the wall is a combination of graphic design, technical drawing and perspective diagrams, and will fascinate kids who like to explore details.
Look over the wall outside the Pavilion and do a double-take at “Split,” Roxy Paine’s silvery stainless-steel tree. Watch for a while: Do you think birds would ever land on it or stay to build their nests?
Just outside the building, Anthony Caro’s “Riviera” shoots vertical bands of rusted and varnished steel toward the sky. Do your children see them as grass blades or maybe swords or the skeleton of a roofless building?
Giant grassy “steps” next to the Pavilion invite children to play, and the area will be used for performances and outdoor events. In the design by New York’s Weiss/Manfredi Architecture, a path zigzags through a temperate forest zone, a grove of quaking aspens and meadows of grasses and wildflowers down to the waterfront. Sculptures are set into the natural landscape, surrounded by vistas of downtown buildings, the Olympic Mountains and the Puget Sound. As you go down, join your children in twirling around to look at the artwork from different surprising angles.
At the bottom of the steps find Richard Serra’s “Wake” – 10 monumental curving pieces of rust-colored, weatherproof steel set in pairs in the gravel. Children can run around them and touch them and make their voices echo between the towering shapes. They were made with machines used to manufacture the ship’s hulls they resemble. Although these pieces were not originally planned for a marine setting, many people see them as solidified tidal waves.
After passing several sculptures on the main path, take a side trip through the upper meadow to the corner of Elliott Way and Broad Street. You’ll come to one of the most unusual exhibits, which truly stretches the definition of “art.” In “Neukom Vivarium,” artist Mark Dion has encased a 60-foot decaying nurse log from the Green River watershed in an 80-foot greenhouse. Children can examine all of the things growing on and around the log, using microscopes, magnifying glasses and field guides.
Returning to the main zigzag path, you can’t miss Alexander Calder’s bright red “Eagle,” appearing from above as though alighting on a ledge above the Sound. Walk alongside and below it and see it as a frame for the Space Needle. Can your children make out an eagle’s wings and pointed beak, or does it look like something else entirely?
Look down over the ledge to one of the most representational pieces in the park, Claes Oldenburg’s and Coosje van Bruggen’s exuberant “Typewriter Eraser, Scale X,” on loan from Paul Allen. (You’ll have to explain what a typewriter eraser is.)
The aspen grove will be a work of art in itself as the leaves of hundreds of trees rustle in the spring breeze. Among them find Tony Smith’s angular black steel “Wandering Rocks,” inspired by the shapes of crystals and molecules. His “Stinger” is a monumental, three-sided figure, but appears to float above the ground on narrow supports. You can walk inside the shape: Is it a fortress? A UFO? A crab?
The main path crosses the railway on a bridge with a canopy wall created by Teresita Fernández and entitled “Seattle Cloud Cover.” She sandwiched saturated color photographs between laminated glass to produce clouds of blue, gold, pink and amber. The colors vary at different angles and at different times of the day.
At press time, the lower area wasn’t open and most of the sculptures were not fully installed. We could see the outlines of Louise Bourgeois’ “Father and Son” fountain sculpture. A bronze bell will sound on the hour, and the father figure, and then the son, will be engulfed in rising water and separated from each other. Visitors will be able to sit on Bourgeois’ six “Eye Benches” – hooded, disembodied eyes carved in black Zimbabwe granite.
The form of Mark di Suvero’s huge stainless steel and wood “Bunyon’s Chess” was being lowered into place by helicopter. Again, although the artist didn’t contemplate the waterfront setting, the piece will fit right in, looking like the massive logs that used to encircle and float on Puget Sound.
The whole park, built on the formerly contaminated site of a fuel storage and transfer facility, was saved from planned condominium and office development by the Seattle Art Museum and its generous patrons. Visit in winter and come back in the warmer months, when you can buy a picnic lunch from the Taste Café and take it to the pocket beach, the only place on the Seattle waterfront where you can actually touch the water. This park is indeed a place for all seasons, and each season will be different.
Wenda Reed is editor of Seattle’s Child and Puget Sound Parent, and loved introducing her children to art.
Olympic Sculpture Park
Location: 9-acre site with several accessible entry points, bounded by Western Avenue, Broad Street, Bay Street and the Elliott Bay shoreline. Pavilion at Western and Broad.
Grand Opening: Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 20 and 21, beginning with a kickoff at 11 a.m. Saturday and continuing with music and dance performances, family programming, art activities, park tours and artistic demonstrations both days until 6 p.m. Teen night in the Pavilion for ages 15-18 Saturday, 6 - 9 p.m., with break dancing and a DJ. Free.
Hours: Park open daily 7 a.m. - 6 p.m., October through April; 6 a.m. - 9 p.m. May though September. Closed five days of the year for maintenance: dates to be announced. Pavilion and Café open 10 a.m. - 4 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday, October through April; 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday and until 9 p.m. Fridays, May through September. Closed Mondays.
Admission: FREE. Paid parking in Pavilion Garage at Western and Broad.
Guided Tours: “Site, Sculpture, Shoreline” tours will be held Saturdays, 11 a.m. - noon, and Sundays, 2 - 3 p.m., leaving from the Pavilion.
Family Fun: Create works of art, check out sculpture and take home some SAM goodies the third Saturday of every month in the PACCAR Pavilion, for kids ages 5-11 and their parents/guardians. First program Feb. 17, 9 - 11:30 a.m. Check the Seattle’s Child monthly calendar or the Seattle Art Museum’s online calendar for family and teen events, themed walking tours, films, forums and performances beginning in February.
SAM Passport for Kids: Follow the footprints of Sammy the Camel to discover the sculpture, plants and animals you’ll find in the Park, as well as games and activities you can play. Get your free passport at the Olympic Sculpture Park or Seattle Asian Art Museum admissions desk; get it stamped at both locations to win a prize.
For more information: Call 206-654-3100 or visit www.seattleartmuseum.org.
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