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| Seattle Apartment Locator Services : Seattle Apartments |  | Contents | |
| Arts and Culture |
| Annual cultural events and fairs |
| Among Seattle's best-known annual cultural events and fairs
are the 24-day Seattle International Film Festival, Northwest
Folklife over the Memorial Day weekend, numerous Seafair events
throughout the summer months (ranging from a Bon Odori celebration
to hydroplane races), the Bite of Seattle, and Bumbershoot over
the Labor Day weekend. All are typically attended by over 100,000
people annually, as are Hempfest and two separate Independence
Day celebrations. |
| Several dozen Seattle neighborhoods have one or more annual
street fairs, and many have an annual parade or foot race. The
largest of the street fairs feature hundreds of craft and food
booths and multiple stages with live entertainment, and draw
more than 100,000 people over the course of a weekend; the smallest
are strictly neighborhood affairs with a few dozen craft and
food booths, barely distinguishable from more prominent neighborhoods'
weekly farmers' markets. |
| Other significant events include numerous Native American
powwows, a Greek Festival hosted by St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox
Church in Montlake, and numerous ethnic festivals associated
with Festal at Seattle Center. |
| As in most large cities, there are numerous other annual events
of more limited interest, ranging from book fairs and specialized
film festivals to a two-day, 8,000-rider Seattle-to-Portland
bicycle ride. |
| Performing arts |
| Seattle is a significant center of the performing arts. The
century-old Seattle Symphony Orchestra is among the world's
most-recorded orchestras. The Seattle Opera and Pacific Northwest
Ballet are comparably distinguished, with the Opera being particularly
known for its performances of the works of Richard Wagner and
the PNB School (founded in 1974) ranking as one of the top three
ballet training institutions in the United States. |
| In addition, Seattle has about twenty live theater venues,
a slim majority of them being associated with fringe theater.
It has a strong local scene for poetry slams and other performance
poetry, and several venues that routinely present public lectures
or readings. The largest of these is Seattle's 900-seat, Roman
Revival Town Hall on First Hill. |
| In popular music, Seattle is often thought of mainly as the
home of grunge rock and musicians like Kurt Cobain, but it is
also home to such varied musicians as avant-garde jazz musicians
Bill Frisell and Wayne Horvitz, rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot, smooth
jazz saxophonist Kenny G, and such poppier rock bands as Goodness
and the Presidents of the United States of America. Seattle
was also the hometown of Jimi Hendrix. (Ann and Nancy Wilson
of the band Heart, often attributed to Seattle, were actually
from the neighboring suburb of Bellevue.) In the past ten years,
the Seattle area has hosted a diverse and influential alternative
music scene, centered near Capitol Hill. The Seattle-based record
label Sub Pop was the first to sign Nirvana, and also signed
such non-grunge bands as The Postal Service and The Shins. |
| The explosion of the Seattle indy music scene was also paralleled
by its spoken word and poetry scenes. In fact both music and
poetry (writing) scenes are long-standing (four decades worth
of culture) with each comprised of numerous communities, "schools",
and sub-cultural groups. Seattle's performance poetry scene
blossomed in the early 1990's with the importation of The Poetry
Slam fom Chicago (its origin) by Chicago transplant Paul Granert.
This and the proliferation of weekly readings/open mics and
poetry-friendly club venues like The Weathered Wall and the
OK Hotel (now defunct), allowed spoken word/performance poetry
to take off in a big way. The mid 1990's saw a major trend in
collaborative performance as musicians/bands starting teaming
up with poets and spoken word artists. 1995 saw an "explosion"
of poets and musicians producing spoken word CDs. Performers
such as Christian Storm, Harry Pierce, Todd Davis, Christina
Black, Michael Ricciardi, and others began performaing with
ensembles of musicians and creating a diverse fusion of words
and sounds. The Seattle Poetry Festival (launched first as the
"Poetry Circus" in 1997) has featured local, regional,
national, and international names in Poetry such as Michael
McClure, Anne Waldeman, Ted Jones, Gwendolyn Brooks, Ismael
Reed, Seku Sundiata, and many others. Regionally famed poets
like Bart Baxter, Tess Gallagher, Rebecca Brown, have also been
featured at the Poetry Festival as well as numerous other events
such as the world famous "Bumbershoot" Arts Festival
(annual labor day weekend Seattle Center Arts Festival). Today
(2005), slam poetry takes most of the headlines, with its current
stars, such as Buddy Wakefield (two-time national individual
slam champ), Laura "Piece" Kelly, Christa Bell, and
Jeremy Richards, achieving some national recognition. |
| Museums and art collections |
Prominent Seattle buildings circa 1893
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| The Henry Art Gallery opened in 1927, making it the first
museum in Washington. The main Seattle Art Museum opened in
1933. Art collections are also housed at the Frye Art Museum
and the Seattle Asian Art Museum. |
| Regional history collections are at the Museum of History
and Industry and the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture.
Industry-specific collections are housed at the Center for Wooden
Boats, Seattle Metropolitan Police Museum, and Museum of Flight.
Regional ethnic collections include Nordic Heritage Museum and
the Wing Luke Asian Museum. |
| Other cultural institutions |
| The Woodland Park Zoo, opened as a private zoo in 1889, is
one of the oldest on the West Coast, and has been a leader in
innovations in naturalistic zoo exhibits. The Seattle Aquarium
has been open on the downtown waterfront since 1977. The Seattle
Underground Tour, visiting many of the places that existed mostly
before the great fire, is also popular. |
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