Seattle Center Sculpture Walk

Throughout the year, Seattle Center hosts temporary art installations across our campus, enlivening the grounds and offering the public a unique and suprising engagement with art. Currently, we have two art installation initiatives, The Monorail Column Mural Project, and Seattle Center Sculpture Walk. Read more about both below!

Seattle Monorail Services has partnered with Seattle Center and the City of Seattle’s Office of Economic Development to showcase local art on the historic Seattle Center Monorail guideway columns. The Monorail Column Mural Project is part of the City’s efforts to support the economic and cultural recovery of downtown Seattle by activating the 5th Avenue corridor. Artwork is located on 14 monorail columns along 5th Avenue between Broad Street and Pine Street. The monorail column murals were created by local linocut artist and instructor, Leslie Nan Moon. Moon’s murals highlight cultural activities, community organizations, festivals, and attractions at Seattle Center and around the city. To create learning opportunities for local youth, Moon built community partnerships and worked with Pratt Fine Arts Center, Seattle Print Arts, and YouthCare, conducting workshops for over 40 young people teaching them the process of making linocut art. Three of the monorail column murals feature collages of their work representing Seattle Center festival themes such as Bite of Seattle, Winterfest, and Bumbershoot.

More info at Seattle Monorail website

Monorail Column Mural Gallery | Photos by Rachael Jones

Seattle Monorail

International Fountain

Artist at Play Playground

Youth Generated Mural

Mural Amphitheatre

Northwest Folklife Festival

Seattle PrideFest

Seattle Center is pleased to collaborate with Seattle Office of Arts & Culture to bring Seattle Center Sculpture Walk to campus as part of our Temporary Art Program. Yearly funding is provided by Climate Pledge Arena and Seattle Kraken. Enjoy Seattle Center Sculpture Walk on our grounds, mid-August through end of 2023. These four artworks were developed through Seattle Office of Arts & Culture Art Interruptions program. A cohort of artists attended a year-long Public Art Bootcamp training program, which resulted in four artists receiving commissions at Seattle Center. Stay tuned for a new round of artworks in August of 2024.

OBLIGATE by Renee Adams

Location: Fisher Pavilion Roof, westside

Mistletoe has a long folkloric history with ties to the Christmas tradition. It is also a parasitic plant with over 1,500 species worldwide and a food source for birds. This stylized version of the plant welcomes you to kiss below it.

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Bird Catcher by Sara Dobbs

Location: Founders Court

The Bird Catcher is a series of wooden sculptures located in the Seattle Center’s Founders Court. The series uses goldfinches and reoccurring frame shapes to visually explore an attempt to capture nature. The pieces are two-sided, divided between painted and unpainted areas, showing the tension between the natural world and constructed imitations.

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Zuihitsu: Memories and Stories of Migration by Amiko Matsuo

Location: Exhibition Hall Lawn Covered Walkway

The handmade fuurin windchimes are an offering – , a visual and sonic space for reflection about the places we come from and where we come together. Through our migrations and inward journeys, the red thread connects our chance encounters and dreams.
(A zuihitsu is a Japanese contemplative literary form characterized by loosely associated fragments of text.)

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Medicinal: A Public Art Offering by Io Palmer

Location: Fisher Pavilion Roof, eastside

Medicinal: A Public Art Offering is made up of hundreds of laser cut plexiglass forms. Inspired by the medicinal herb garden on the University of Washington campus, this hanging installation references nature’s innate ability to heal, restore, and thrive.
Materials: Plexiglass, braided metal thread.

More info on artist