Showing 1-17 of 17 results
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Burke Museum
This museum of natural history and anthropology is on the University of Washington's campus. There's a good collection of dinosaur skeletons, but the real treasures here are the North Coast Indian artifacts, especially the collection of cedar canoes and totem poles. If you pay a dollar extra for your ticket, you can get into the nearby Henry Art Gallery the same day for free, a special deal that also works the other way around.
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Center for Wooden Boats
This museum offers sailboat lessons and rentals on Lake Union. One person in your party has to know how to sail and must do a checkout for a small fee before you'll be permitted to rent. It's pretty straightforward; you need to demonstrate tacking, jibing and docking. The center also offers sailing lessons, including an excellent beginner course. Seasoned sailors who are a little rusty can take a one-on-one lesson to get back into it.
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Center on Contemporary Art
This gallery space has been a strong force in Seattle's contemporary art scene for two decades. After floundering for a few years and moving around a lot, it has recently opened a new branch in Belltown (at 2721 1st Ave) as well as this primary space in the Shilshole Bay Beach Club.
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Children's Museum
The Children's Museum is a learning center that offers a number of imaginative activities and displays, many focusing on cross-cultural awareness and hands-on art sessions. The play area includes a child-size neighborhood, a play center and an area dedicated to blowing soap bubbles. Also nearby is the Seattle Children's Theater, a separate entity with summer performances in the Charlotte Martin and Eve Alvord Theaters.
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Experience Music Project
The Experience Music Project (EMP) is worth a look for the architecture alone. The shimmering, abstract building - designed by Frank Gehry - was inspired by Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen's passion for Jimi Hendrix's music and was initially intended as a tribute to Hendrix alone. It now houses 80,000 music artifacts, including handwritten lyrics by Nirvana's Kurt Cobain and a Fender Stratocaster that Hendrix demolished.
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Henry Art Gallery
The university's sleek fine-art gallery mounts some of the most intelligent exhibits and installations in Seattle. There are dedicated spaces for video and digital art, and a small permanent collection, as well as rotating show. Part of the permanent collection is Skyspace , by James Turrell, an artist whose medium is light. Turrell's installation over the sculpture garden will alter the way you look at the ever-changing Seattle sky.
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History House
The History House contains rotating exhibits focused on the history of Seattle neighborhoods. It's a good place to see photos of early Seattle. The building's colorful metal fence is another piece of public art, built by blacksmith and welder Christopher Pauley. The fence features brightly colored houses with open doors, a reflection of Fremont's welcoming attitude.
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Museum of Flight
Aviation buffs wholeheartedly enjoy the Museum of Flight, while others traipse through suppressing yawns, so be choosy about who you come with. The museum presents the entire history of flight, from da Vinci to the Wright Brothers to the NASA space program. More than 50 historic aircraft are displayed, including a British Airways Concorde. There's also a hands-on area where visitors get to work the controls and sit in the driver's seat.
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Museum of History & Industry
This museum at the northwest corner of the arboretum documents the history of Seattle and the Puget Sound in terms of its lumber, fishing and shipping industries. There's also a big Boeing presence, including a 1920s mail plane. Usually called by its acronym, Mohai has an entertaining collection of historic photos, old planes, memorabilia from the Great Fire and artifacts and lore from Seattle's great seafaring era.
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Nordic Heritage Museum
This museum preserves the history of the northern Europeans who settled in Ballard and the Pacific Northwest, as well as bringing in special exhibits of new work by contemporary Scandinavian artists. It's the only museum in the USA that commemorates the history of settlers from all five Scandinavian countries. A permanent exhibit features costumes, photographs and maritime equipment, while a second gallery is devoted to changing exhibitions.
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Odyssey Maritime Discovery Center
This unique museum in Waterfront Park is part of the Bell Street Pier, a huge complex that also houses convention space, restaurants and a marina. A haven for boat enthusiasts, the Discovery Center is also a wonderful place for families. The four galleries and more than 40 hands-on exhibits include a simulated kayak trip around Puget Sound, a chance to navigate a virtual ship and a visual re-creation of the cruise up to southeast Alaska.
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Pacific Science Center
This interactive museum of science and industry once housed the science pavilion of the World's Fair. Today, the center features virtual-reality exhibits, a tropical butterfly house, laser shows, holograms and other wonders of science, many with hands-on demonstrations. Also on the premises is the vaulted-screen Imax Theater, a laserium and a planetarium.
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Roq La Rue
This Belltown gallery has secured its reputation by taking risks: the work on view here skates along the edge of urban pop-culture. Since opening in 1998, the gallery, owned and curated by Kirsten Anderson, has been a significant force in the Pop Surrealism field, frequently featured in Juxtapoz magazine. It also has an entertaining blog about the undercurrents of Northwest art, at thataintart.blogspot.com.
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Science Fiction Museum
Barnacled onto the hull of the EMP is this nerd paradise, a collection of costumes, props and models from various sci-fi movies and TV shows. Highlights include the actual alien queen from the movie Aliens (1986) - never fear, she's behind Plexiglas in the cargo bay - and the only 3D model of the Death Star made for Star Wars: Episode 4 . Lowlights include a bedraggled Twiki costume from the Buck Rogers TV series.
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Seattle Art Museum
One of downtown's most talked-about developments was the expansion and 2007 reopening of the Seattle Art Museum. More than twice as much gallery space has allowed the museum to display its eclectic collections in a more cohesive way rather than being, as it used to call itself, 'a collection of collections.' There's also a lot of new art to show off - to the tune of about one billion dollars' worth of gifts and 1000 new acquisitions.
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Seattle Asian Art Museum
In stately Volunteer Park, the Seattle Asian Art Museum houses the extensive art collection of Dr Richard Fuller, who donated this severe art moderne-style gallery to the city in 1932. Admission is free on the first Thursday and first Saturday of each month.
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Seattle Museum of the Mysteries
More a cache of obscure and alternative knowledge than a museum in the traditional sense, this odd but fascinating den in Capitol Hill has a number of treasures that reveal themselves to those with the patience to explore. It's kitschy, but it's fun. There's also an oxygen bar (around US$5 for a five-minute treatment).
Showing 1-17 of 17 results
