Art Watch

Stonington Gallery Rudy Willingham

Pioneer Square has dozens of superb galleries along its appealing brick streets and hosts America’s longest-running monthly Art Walk, held on first Thursdays. Stop by Greg Kucera Gallery, which opened in 1983 and showcases a mix of museum-quality pieces from local and international artists, and Stonington Gallery for weavings, jewelry, and sculpture by Native American talents. More than 30 resident artists work from the studios inside the Tashiro Kaplan Artist Lofts, while Method Gallery shows compelling site-specific installations.

The Frye Art Museum is always free to visit and displays modern and contemporary art from the collection of Charles and Emma Frye as well as rotating temporary exhibits. Photographic Center Northwest stages innovative photo exhibitions, many that focus on social justice. During Capitol Hill Art Walks on the second Thursday of each month, bustling Chophouse Row marketplace joins in on the fun with art, food, drink, and live DJ sets. Georgetown abounds with places to engage with original art, especially during Georgetown Art Attack, held every second Saturday. Art talks take place at contemporary studio e. In a creatively transformed gas station, Mini Mart City Park serves as a community art space and pocket park. Also check out the thoughtful exhibitions at Koplin Del Rio and the colorful home of alternative comics publisher Fantagraphics Bookstore.

Cannonball Arts photo credit Luciano Ratto

Close to the downtown core in vibrant Belltown, Cannonball Arts, which opened August 20, is Seattle’s largest contemporary arts center. Occupying the 66,000 square feet of a former retail store, this dynamic creative hub celebrates artists working across multiple disciplines, mediums, and genres, from traditional Native American arts and crafts to generative AI and all points in between. Cannonball is a collaboration between the producers of the celebrated Bumbershoot arts and music festival, which takes place over Labor Day weekend at Seattle Center, and the Muckleshoot Tribe, which is based in the nearby city of Auburn.

In addition to presenting visual arts of every kind, the venue (described by organizers as “part museum, part carnival, and part nightclub”) offers a rich menu of interactive programming, with magicians, musicians, skateboarders, wrestlers, Native American canoe carvers, a virtual reality monster truck experience, audience-generated exhibits, and much more. Features include multiple galleries, dynamic exhibit spaces, an indoor sculpture park, a full bar, and performance spaces.