Climate Pledge Arena and the Kraken honor Seattle’s colorful artistic history with Art ‘at the Arena,’ a public art program featuring installations crafted by a diverse group of Pacific Northwest artists.
By: Hannah Taheri
In addition to hosting the NHL’s 32nd franchise, a four-time WNBA championship team, and the biggest names in live entertainment, Climate Pledge arena will be home to a privately funded collection of public art installations created by local artists.
Since the World’s Fair in 1962, Seattle Center has been the region’s cultural hub. More than 30 cultural, educational, sports, and entertainment organizations reside on the 74-acre campus, including two art galleries and dozens of public art installations. Climate Pledge Arena is committed to honoring this deep-rooted tradition with “Art at the Arena,” a program the Seattle Center’s and the arena’s historic past, dynamic present, and exciting future.
In the fall 2020, the Arena Art Review Committee spent four months carefully selecting nine local artists of diverse backgrounds and skillsets to create eight one-of-a-kind pieces. The art installations will live in various locations surrounding the arena and are sure to become hot meeting spots for sports fans and eventgoers. Though the pieces vary in media, form, and ways of experiencing them, they share a common goal of evoking wonder, joy, reflection, curiosity, remembrance, and belonging in all who come across them.
In anticipation of in-person reveals this fall, Climate Pledge Arena will begin sharing in-depth looks at the nine artists and the stories behind their compelling projects across its social media platforms. Here’s a sneak at what you can expect from “Art at the Arena”:
Gerard Tsutakawa | “Sea Wave” | East Greeter
This interactive sculpture is intended to symbolize Seattle’s waters—particularly the movement of those waters.
Laura Haddad & Tom Drugan | “North Light” & “Axis Lounge” | North Truss & Uptown Plaza
North Light: Also visible from inside the arena, the North Light will be a dynamic light installation projected onto the northern truss of the arena.
Axis Lounge: Offering immersive visual, interactive and collective experiences, this place-based artwork, with its colors and forms inspired by the lyrics of “Bold as Love” by Jimi Hendrix, will create an iconic backdrop for daily lounging or plaza gatherings.
Lole Alessandrini | “The Raven and the Light” | Green Room
Standing or sitting among The Raven and the Light’s illuminated benches and paving, the art will invite us to stand on the threshold between earth and sky, myth, and reality—to play the drama and witness the spectacle of human life.
Megan Kelso | “Crow Commute” | Memory Rail
The Crow Commute will be made up of a mural of panels that add up to a portrait of the city and work as both timeline and map.
Jeffrey Veregge | “Legacy” | Vestibule
Culminating a prominent arena exit sequence, Legacy will be a large, immersive mural depicting Our Trees as witness to stories spanning from Indigenous to Futurist.
Preston Singletary & David Franklin | “La Diab Pish” | Southwest Greeter
The Pacific Giant Octopus is one of the legendary creatures of our Salish Sea. This sculpture’s otherworldly design echoes from around the ring of fire with dynamic and cutting-edge construction.
Norie Sato | “Chikara no Hikari” | Uptown Portal
An abstraction based on science, this mosaic wall evokes the idea of bodies in motion, the energy of sports, the beauty of the attraction, and the movement within a city.
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