Museum in profile: Frye Art Museum
Once you have waited in the long lines to climb the Space Needle and weaved your way through the various food and handmade good stalls at Seattle’s famous Pike Place Market, head over to the First Hill neighborhood for a cultural excursion few tourists will experience on their first time in the city. The Frye Art Museum is a small art museum that packs a huge punch. Opened in 1952 and showcasing the collection of prominent business people and art collectors Charles and Emma Frye, The Frye Art Museum is home to a large permanent collection of nineteenth-century European art, as well as various rotating exhibitions.
The permanent collection is set up salon style, a nod to the art exhibitions held at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris between 1748 and 1890. These exhibits featured paintings hung directly alongside one another lining the walls all the way to the ceiling. In the Frye, the large space is punctured by a few small couches for observation, but otherwise feels vast. The museum provides a large book of wall plates with photographic reproductions to allow a self-guided tour through the collection.
Current exhibitions include New York based conceptual artist Tavares Strachan as well as Seattle-based artist Ko Kirk Tamahira, who works on deconstructing canvases thread-by- thread.
The Frye offers a number of talks and classes surrounding its collection and contemporary exhibitions. These events are open to the public. If you happen to be in the Pacific Northwest and need an afternoon activity out of the rain be sure to visit the Frye free of charge Tue.-Sun. 11a.m.-5p.m., and Thursdays 11a.m.-7p.m.