Seattle Official Visitors Guide 2008-2009 - (Page 20) AT T R AC T I O N S & TO U R S SEATTLE’S ART SCENE Where Culture Unites With Fun rue, people buy tickets many months in advance to see Seattle Opera perform Wagner’s “Ring.” Yes, the city’s beloved INTIMAN Theatre counts a Pulitzer Prize-winning play and multiple Tony Awards among its associated honors. And there’s no doubt that the newly expanded Seattle Art Museum launched the city into a new era of arts and culture. But while Seattle can boast sophistication with the best of them, the city’s arts scene also reveals its quirky side. Consider this incident: When SAM unveiled its high-profile, $85 million Olympic Sculpture Park in 2007, critics and Seattleites applauded the waterfront park and the beautiful, modern sculptures. Soon after, a trio of local artists surreptitiously placed tiny replicas of the sculptures next to their towering counterparts. In other cities, this might have caused artistic uproar. In Seattle, critics, SAM and Seattleites were delighted by the addition of the renegade “baby” sculptures. It’s this kind of active participation from locals that makes the scene a little different. Seattle’s public art, for example, takes “public” to another level — and seems to be open game for Seattleites to add their own flair. T In the Fremont neighborhood, locals regularly adorn the six cast aluminum figures of “Waiting for the Interurban” with hats, scarves, ties and sunglasses. Near the University District, paper cranes often drape over a Peace Park statue memorializing a Japanese girl who survived the Hiroshima bombing. Art is integrated almost everywhere you look. Supported by awardwinning public art programs, artists design everything from building components to manhole covers. Comic artist David Lasky, quoted in 20 WWW.VISITSEATTLE.ORG http://WWW.VISITSEATTLE.ORG
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