ArtSEA: Bellevue Arts Museum closes its doors indefinitely

The museum raised the alarm back in February, with an emergency fundraising campaign intended to “Save BAM: Keep Bellevue Alive.” BAM raised more than $350,000 with the effort, exceeding its goal.

But as the press release stated, “Despite our best efforts to navigate financial instability, we have reached a point where we can no longer sustain our operations.” 

ArtSEA: Notes on Northwest Culture is a weekly arts newsletter from Cascade PBS.

What started in 1947 as an arts and crafts fair eventually became the BAM facility — designed by architect Steven Holl — which opened to fanfare in 2001. For almost 25 years it served as one of the only venues in Bellevue with year-round arts programming. But as The Seattle Times reported in May, BAM’s financial troubles are nothing new. 

Now the museum’s board has resigned and only a “small transitional staff” remains in place to facilitate the 2025 Bellevue Arts Fair. That’s according to a notice on the BAM website, which also states that the museum has filed for “receivership,” legal status in which a court-appointed custodian manages the organizational assets.

BAM says this is the “best path” toward “restructuring the institution,” one that “opens a chance of much needed reinvention and partnership.”

If a reinvention should materialize, it’s going to take some time. Which is a shame for the Northwest arts ecosystem, as BAM had established itself as a place where promising local artists could build their first big shows and local arts elders earned retrospectives.

I saw many wonderful exhibits there (of work by Preston Wadley, Joey Veltkamp, Tariqa Waters, Michelle Kumata, Alden Mason, Julie Green and others), and will miss crossing the lake to see more.

Let’s move on to some good news, starting with the fact that the Seattle Symphony today named a new music director: Xian Zhang, who will officially pick up the baton in the fall of 2025.

(The organization has relied on visiting conductors since Thomas Dausgaard made a tumultuous exit in January 2022, one year before his contract was up.)

A popular guest conductor on the national stage, Zhang has conducted concerts for the Seattle Symphony since 2008, and was one of the first conductors to appear on stage at Benaroya for streaming performances during the pandemic. In a press release, she said Benaroya is “one of my all-time favorite performance halls to conduct in.” She is currently director of the New Jersey Symphony.

In her new role, Zhang will be the first woman to lead a major West Coast orchestra, and one of just two women leading a top-tier American orchestra. She’s also the first woman and person of color to lead the Seattle Symphony.

Zhang’s appointment is especially notable due to the statistics regarding women and people of color in music director positions at professional orchestras.

The League of American Orchestras reports that in 2024, women represented 12.7% of music directors nationally (a modest uptick from 9% in 2014), and Asian and Asian American music directors represented 9.2% of directors in 2024. (Zhang was born in China and made her professional debut in Beijing.) 

In a press release, Seattle Symphony president and CEO Krishna Thiagarajan noted, “Today we are witnessing history being made.”

You can get a glimpse of Zhang’s style this spring, when she’ll conduct Holst: The Planets (in March) and Hilary Hahn Plays Beethoven (in June) as music director designate. 

Also joining the Seattle cultural roster: James Robinson, who started his new job as general and artistic director of Seattle Opera yesterday (Sept. 4). He replaces Christina Scheppelmann, who is departing for Brussels having completed her contract.

Robinson previously led Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, where he was director for 16 years. During that time he was noted for bringing new productions to the repertoire. He commissioned 11 world premieres for St. Louis’s summer opera festival, and as a stage director has led more than 30 world premieres. 

Back in 2004, he directed a production of Georges Bizet’s Carmen at Seattle Opera, which the organization says “sold more tickets than any production in company history.” 

In addition to bringing new stories — and new takes on ages-old stories — to the stage, Robinson is known for his emphasis on involving the community in programming.

“Like politics, all arts are local,” he said in a press release. “It’s vital to include the community in the decision-making processes, working with them to identify stories they want to see on stage.” 

And there’s more good news for arts aficionados. This week kicks off a brand-new citywide festival called Arts & Culture Week (Sept. 8-14).

Granted, for some of us, every week is arts & culture week! But this marks a concerted effort to unite arts groups — across genres — for an annual series of special events. 

It’s the brainchild of a small group of Seattle curators: Elisheba Johnson of Wa Na Wari; Phen Huang of Foster/White Gallery; Judith Rinehart of J. Rinehart Gallery; A. McLean Emenegger of AMcE Creative Arts; and Laura Zeck of Zinc Contemporary.

This talented assembly was looking for a way to boost our creative economy — and encourage people who aren’t already involved in Seattle arts to experience the wealth of experiences available.

Arts & Culture Week now has nonprofit status (through Shunpike), and has hired Tanya Miller as director. (You may have seen Miller at the Seattle Art Fair in July, encouraging passersby to draw directly onto the A&C Week booth.)

Some 40 venues are participating this first year, hosting special talks, workshops, live music and, in the case of J. Rinehart Gallery, a raptor encounter with an owl featured in a painting by Meggan Joy (Sept. 12). 

Seattle Opera’s contribution is several Black Excellence in Music recitals (Sept. 11 - 14), featuring cast members of the forthcoming Jubilee; Pottery Northwest offers a Make a Mug class; Greg Kucera Gallery asks visitors to fill in the blank for “Art is…” and will hand-print your answer on a colorful poster (Sept. 14). For more, click the “program” tab on the website and select each day to view events happening on that date.

It all starts with the Arts & Culture Week opening party this Sunday in Pioneer Square (Sept. 8, 4 - 8 p.m. 311½ Occidental Ave. S), in the same building that formerly housed the longstanding Davidson Galleries, which suffered a fire in January.

Coincidentally (more good news!), Davidson Galleries reopened this week in a sleek new space on Yesler, next to Cafe Paloma. 

At a preview event yesterday evening, founder Sam Davidson told me the plan is to host small exhibits of contemporary, modern and antique prints in regular rotation. Head in on first Thursday (tonight, Sept. 5) to see the inaugural show in the new space, featuring Humio Tomita’s electric 1930s serigraphs juxtaposed with dreamy landscape aquatints by Northwest artist Stephan McMillan.

Finally, one last snippet from this week’s barrage of local arts news: The Washington Center for the Book released its list of finalists for the 2024 Washington State Book Award.

Congrats to all the contenders, including: Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City, by Jane Wong; Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma, by Claire Dederer; The Liberators, by E.J. Koh; The Laughter, by Sonora Jha; and I Sing the Salmon Home, a poetry anthology edited by Rena Priest. Winners will be announced Sept. 24, but as they say at the Oscars, it’s an honor just to be nominated.