Seattle Art Museum history

1948 Asian art scholar Sherman E. Lee arrives to serve as assistant director.

Lawrence’s 30-panel series “The American Struggle!” is reunited for the first time since 1958, and SAM will be its only West Coast venue.

Also, Jon and Mary Shirley donate Alexander Calder’s The Eagle (1971), a landmark art acquisition for the future Olympic Sculpture Park.

Exhibition activity at the Seattle Art Museum Pavilion ramps up after the founding of the modern art curatorial department in 1975.

In particular, the 1978 exhibit the “Treasures of Tutankhamun” at the Seattle Center Flag Pavilion expanded the museum’s profile.

In 1981, the SAM collection expands again with an unexpected gift of African art in an extraordinary combination of private philanthropy and corporate support.

On December 5, 1991, SAM reopened in a $62 million downtown facility designed by Robert Venturi.

Hammering Man was used in a guerrilla art installation on Labor Day in 1993 when Jason Sprinkle and other local artists attached a 700 lb (320 kg) ball and chain to the leg of the sculpture.

In 1994, the Volunteer Park facility reopened as the Seattle Asian Art Museum.

SAM was involved in the first lawsuit against a United States museum to return art stolen by the Nazis: The Matisse painting Odalisque was returned with overall approval by the museum board to the Rosenberg family after they filed suit in 1997.

In late 1999, the Seattle Art Museum and The Trust for Public Land (TPL) announced the successful purchase of the former UNOCAL fuel storage and distribution facility as the site of a future sculpture park.

2002 Weiss/Manfredi unveil the park's design and model on May 14.

2004 92,986 cubic yards of dirt is removed from the site of SAM's downtown museum expansion project, and is transported to the park for use as recycled fill.

2005 In the summer, construction of the Olympic Sculpture Park begins.

In 2007, the Olympic Sculpture Park opened to the public, culminating an 8-year process.

In conjunction with the opening of the expansion​ and SAM’s 75th anniversary in 2008, the museum has also received an unprecedented series of gifts from prominent museum patrons and collectors.

2009​​​After having overseen the inaugural year of the Seattle Asian Art Museum, the opening of the Olympic Sculpture Park, and the downtown museum expansion, accomplished director Mimi Gardner Gates retires.

2014 SAM acquires 85 works from the Virginia and Bagley Wright Collection that together raise the profile of the museum’s modern and contemporary art collection to an unprecedented level.

In 2017, the Seattle Asian Art Museum closed for a two year $54 million renovation and expansion project.

2018 SAM breaks ground on the renovation and expansion of the Seattle Asian Art Museum’s historic building.

The Seattle Asian Art Museum closes for necessary building renovations, with plans to reopen in 2019.

Hours: Re-opening weekend, March 5–7, 2021 (SAM members get access beginning February 27). Advance purchase tickets on sale beginning February 18.