You know, until we decided
to film our entire show here,
I'd actually never been to the museum.
So when the deputy director of ,
Jose Carlos Diaz offered to show us around,
we jumped at the chance.
Wow.
This is incredible.
I'm joined by Jose Carlos Diaz,
the deputy director for art,
and we're standing in front of e
Australian Aboriginal galleries.
This is one of the most beloved
spaces in the museum, right? Ye.
I'm glad you're here.
Today, this is actually honorin0
years of Papunya Tulip painting,
and it's one of our galleries
within the third floor here at .
This gallery is amazing.
You walk and sign and the paint,
they just seem like they glow.
How does one put this together?
Well, thankfully here at Sam wee
lots of like, specialist curato.
And so this entire gallery just right
behind us has almost two dozen paintings
by Aboriginal contemporary arti.
And here at the museum we actually have
a curator of African and Oceanic art,
and she's put this show together specifically
with a phenomenal collection based here
in Seattle of Aboriginal contemporary.
It really is amazing because in
Seattle you would never be ableo
get to see this if you never le.
How does how does the
gallery get art like this?
Well, we have lots of access
to collections and we also have
lots of scholars who come to us.
And so this body of work is reay
important because it's around a
collective that started in the 70s and
focused on Aboriginal contempor,
but the. Focus.
You can look at aesthetically.
It's full of dots, it's full of vibrancy.
And what you can't see is theres
actually a lot of narratives and folklore
based in these particular paint.
I'm so grateful for,
for this museum that provides
this kind of gallery space for
us to see this incredible art.
I understand you also have an
amazing American art exhibit. We
do. It's the American art,
the stories we carry.
And that's a full brand new rehg
that I'm going to show you. OK,
say no more. Let's go sing it.
Come on, let's go.
So here we are in the American
Art galleries portion of Sam.
What is this incredible
piece that greets you as
you walk into the area? This
is actually a new Commission by
an artist named Wendy Red Star.
She's an artist based in Portla,
and it's called People of the E,
and it's actually a Commission.
And everyone you see in this photograph,
they're actually women and chil,
indigenous women and children who came to
Sam for a photo shoot and contributed the,
contributed to the piece.
Of a representation of Seattle.
You'll notice a Space Needle in
the background, Mount Rainier.
And it's a work that's actuallyn
acquired as part of the museum collection.
It's so beautiful.
There's so many layers to it.
The women are coming out at you
and it's it's really beautiful,
as is this entire gallery,
which I understand.
Is a relatively new installatio.
How was it reimagined?
Because some of these pieces are from,
you know, the 1800s.
Yeah. This is sort of a
new collection strategy.
This whole rehanging is called American Art,
the stories we carry.
And it was really a collaborative effort
with our curator of American ar,
our curator of Native American ,
local advisors, artists.
We had guest curators.
And so we we talked about what is America?
What is America?
What is American art?
Who is America?
And so for the first time,
you walk through these galleries and it's
historical work, as you've mentioned.
It's also contemporary living artists.
It's artists of color,
it's women artists.
It's a broad representation
of what America can be.
And I think it really,
truly embodies that no similar
art is hung next to each other.
Everything is different and beautiful.
What else is on view here?
I understand there's a social
media interactive display.
Yeah, well, part of visiting Sas
you get to also be part of the .
And so there's actually a photo booth.
You can sit and have your photo taken,
but also enter your American st.
That is so fun. All right, next
we're going into the porcelain .
Let's check it out. This place
is really a feast for the eyes.
What are we looking at in here? We're
in Sam's porcelain room.
This was installed in 2007,
and what you're looking
at is 1000 porcelains.
From Asia all the way to Europe,
covering several time spans,
but starting in the 17th century
all the way to the present.
When I love here is it's not
organized by where it's from,
but just kind of what goes toge,
what looks nice together.
And I think that's a really unique way
of displaying this porcelain. Y,
the room is really unique.
We're sort of in this enclosed environment.
It's atmospheric, but you could
actually walk through through e.
Surface and find little discoves
of animals or figurative elemens
or painting on the porcelain.
But this is also stuff that peoe
would have had in their house.
Yeah, So it's kind of
interesting to see in a museum,
at least as historical objects.
Our friend
Rachel said one of her favorite things
to do is go through the porcelan
gallery and find your favorite piece,
and then once you do.
There's actually a digital compt
to the porcelain room, right?
Yeah. You don't see any
labels on these walls.
But however, we have two touch
panels and you can walk up,
identify the the object on the l
and actually know where it comes from.
It's really fun.
This is such a unique place.
This whole tour has been
such a visual delight.
We are so honored for this prive
tour from New Day Northwest.
This has been so much fun.
There's so much more to come at,
I'm assuming.
Yeah, we actively have
new gallery installations,
new exhibitions, programming.
Please check out our website
and come visit us again.
And thanks again to Jose for
taking the time to show us
around this incredible place.