Food & Drink
Art Off The Chart
Two cities stand out for their art purchases
By Rob Smith October 21, 2022
This article originally appeared in the July/August 2022 issue of Seattle magazine.
Bellevue art lovers gravitate toward oil paintings. Those in Seattle tend to favor sea and sky landscapes.
Regardless of taste, Bellevue and Seattle residents both rank in the top 10 nationwide for their art-buying proclivities, based on the number of artworks sold per 100,000 residents. Bellevue is No. 4 and Seattle No. 10, according to Artfinder, which calls itself the world’s largest online art marketplace.
In Bellevue, 90 pieces of art are sold for every 100,000 people. The number is 45 in Seattle.
“While the two cities have similar tastes – with landscape, sea and sky-focused, and impressionist art being favorites – people in Bellevue are more passionate about these genres,” the Artfinder report says. “Seattle seems to invest in more of a variety.”
Only Savannah, Georgia; Alexandria, Virginia; and Huntington Beach, California; ranked ahead of Bellevue. Artfinder says the arts economy accounts for $920 billion in economic activity in the U.S.
Follow Us
Cascadia Art Museum Lands a Game-Changing Gift of Timeless Treasures
More than 75 rare Northwest paintings join the museum’s collection
What did the Aurora Bridge or South Lake Union look like in the 1930s? Probably not the way you picture it. Before tech campuses and traffic jams, Seattle’s waterfront and cityscapes had a different kind of energy — one captured in some of the paintings now headed to Cascadia Art Museum. Thanks to a major…
Fifth Avenue’s Waitress Delivers
The musical is uplifting, even whimsical at times
I loved the movie Waitress when it came out almost two decades ago. I also loved The Fifth Avenue Theatre’s rendition of the musical of the same name. An almost sold-out crowd last week was boisterous and raucous, with many booing the abusive husband (“Earl,” played by Dane Stokinger) and cheering the relationships between the…
Ai Weiwei’s Biggest U.S. Show Opens at SAM
The retrospective covers 40 years of the conceptual artist’s career
This week, the Seattle Art Museum opened the largest-ever U.S. exhibition featuring the work of Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei. Spanning four decades of the artist’s career, Ai, Rebel: The Art and Activism of Ai Weiwei (March 12–Sept. 7) includes 130 works — a mix of sculpture, video, painting, wallpaper, furniture, and installation —…
Emerald City Comic Con: The Definition of Geek Chic
Paint. Armor. Glitter. Stilts. Wings. It’s a masquerade ball of super fandom.
A growing crowd of characters creates a palpable hum of geeky energy at Emerald City Comic Con, where “too out there” doesn’t exist. It’s a heightened world combining all things comics, video games, books, TV and movies, as tens of thousands of attendees come together to revel, admire and celebrate all things nerdy. It’s truly…