On June 3, Puget Sound Business Journal broke the unwelcome news that Digital Realty, a global data center, colocation, and interconnection company based in Texas, is looking to purchase the Bed Bath & Beyond building downtown, with the intent to install a data center expansion (the company currently has a data center running out of the Westin Building Exchange). It’s unclear whether the city’s freshly minted yearlong moratorium on new large data centers would apply to a data center of this scale.
This is art news because this building in question is the home of Cannonball Arts, a two-story, immersive art venue that opened less than a year ago. No one currently employed at Cannonball Arts has responded to my request for comment about this or the organization’s upcoming arts programming.
The possibility of a purchase such as this was probably an inherent risk from the beginning, as Cannonball’s “generous” seven-year lease agreement likely came with conditions and strings attached. (The details of the agreement were left intentionally shrouded at the time of my interview last year.) All the same—of all the empty buildings in all of downtown, why set your sights on one already occupied by art, Digital Realty?
In happier news, the C Concourse expansion at Seattle Airport opened last week, after two years of sitting under literal wraps. The space is airy and vast and exceedingly Pacific Northwest-coded in its design—the work of the Miller Hull Partnership and Woods Bagot Design Team—which includes a giant, radial “tree” structure sprouting from a mound of benches. Thanks to Seattle’s “One Percent for Art” ordinance passed in 1973 (which sets aside 1 percent of money spent on the city’s capital improvement projects to purchase art), the C Concourse welcomes 11 new artworks to its permanent collection. Previously the collection hovered at 431 works, according to Tommy Gregory, Senior Project Manager at Port of Seattle.
The new art itself is also PNW-coded—an efflorescence of foliage, nature, and glass. The forest motif is echoed in a towering tree of green glass rondels by Fumi Amano (who is getting her flowers; she was named an Artist Trust Arts Innovator Award recipient last week). Peppered among the mound of seats are a smattering of shadowboxes containing works by Jaq Chartier, June Sekiguchi, and Beccy Feather: backlit crystalline sculptures and paintings that light- and color-shift as the viewer moves. (Feather’s luminescent bouquets are particularly intoxicating.) Crystal Worl’s wall of formline bears rendered in glass look like frosted gummies in the best possible way. Baso Fibonacci and Alex Sandvoss collaborated on a spectacular mosaic mounted amid felted, stripy, green-tone walls in the Sensory Room. A magnificent, massive video wall loops videos by Rebecca Bird, Dan Mirer, and Anna Mlasowsky (the latter two of which are glass artists).
A moment of appreciation is in order for the unwavering efforts of Gregory, who has ushered the Seattle Airport into its art era. We’re not just about Michael Fajans’s High Wire anymore.
Now, for some things to put on your calendar:
June 17
The latest Shunpike Artist Salon, hosted at Integrus Architecture, is about queer joy and creative resilience, and the featured artists are three people with whom I am secretly obsessed: Kit Wyatt (burlesque artist, movement guide, and one half of burlesque duo ATM, with Hannah Simmons), Jo Cosme (Native Boricua lesbian multimedia artist from Puerto Rico), and Imani Sims (alchemist and author of The Deck of NONE). Join them for an intimate discussion about their creative processes, sustaining creative resilience, and the role queer joy plays in their artistic practices. Light food and beverage served.
June 18 (& 28)
xispa is finally coming online! Thursday is the grand opening party and showcase at MadArt Studio. ICYMI, I wrote about xispa back in April. Even if you feel icky about AI, this hybrid art-tech space is doing some unprecedented things you should be excited about—bridging the sectors and putting real money and technologist muscle behind artist ideas. They are hosting a series of inaugural workshops next week as well, taught by artist Susan Robb. As of the time of publishing, the only available spots (free) are on Sunday, June 28, so snag them while you can.
June 19 & 20
Seattle Art Museum and Northwest African American Museum are both hosting special programming to celebrate Juneteenth. NAAM’s The Sound of Connection, on June 19, features programs across the museum and Judkins Park, including the Skate to Freedom Party, Living Voices performances, a FIFA World Cup watch party, workshops, art, and more. SAM’s Juneteenth Community Celebration, on June 20, includes a fabric collage workshop with artist Moët McClain, food and drink, a photo booth, a Sa Sa Ye Steel Performance, and a host of DJ sets.
June 20
It’s the closing event for Once Wild River at Mini Mart City Park. Read about Timothy White Eagle and the exhibit in my piece from the June print issue. This is your last chance to see the exhibit, as well as celebrate the launch of White Eagle’s The Path to Water, a guided soundscape created in collaboration with Crystal Cortez that weaves the sounds of the Duwamish River with oral histories recounted by Native elders. (You can listen to the soundscapes here). 3–5 p.m.
June 20 and 21
Enchantingly obscure, disarmingly wacky, and sneakily brilliant is the baseline for anything Dawn Cerny (and company) does. Pond in a Bowl (Midsummer) promises nothing less. Hosted by Veronica and located somewhere south of Lincoln Park in West Seattle (email info@veronica-projectspace.com for the address), this pop-up exhibit-cum-Solstice-celebration includes an assortment of sculptures that function as bird feeders, fountains, pollinator rest stops, and poetry kiosks designed by Cerny and Bristol Hayward-Hughes, with free printed poems by Pittsburgh-based writer Ed Steck. On Saturday, there’s a gathering in the garden from 6 p.m. until sundown with potluck + BYOB + drawing + readings hosted by Eva Derksen. A Midsummer celebration on Sunday (also 6 p.m. until sunset) features: “food, napping, birdsong music, more flower crown making, and ‘woo woo’ while watching birds.”
June 23
The intersection of art and tech… at literal intersections! In conjunction with the World Cup, Future Arts Way: Other Way has created a 2.5-mile interactive “Arches to Clock Tower” path from Pacific Science Center to King Street Station filled with augmented reality and interactive digital art made by 18 artists at over 30 stops. No download needed to experience the art; just chase the QR code “launch pads” located on the ground along the route. June 23 is the opening ceremony at Pacific Science Center (details here), starting at 6 p.m., with guided group tours starting at 8 p.m.
June 25
The Space in Columbia City is hosting Breakfast for Dinner, a show of food-themed artworks curated by Carson Thomas and food-themed-art connoisseur Jeremy Buben. (Buben spent seven years amassing a nearly 200-piece collection of paintings and objects d’art featuring hot dogs, oysters, eggs, and more!) This group exhibit includes work by over 40 artists, plus vendors, music by DJs Ash and Diego, and food (of course) provided by Club Sandwich. The artist line-up is so yummy, it’s worth a link dump: Lauren Bayer Echevarria, Lane Bestold, Half Cat Half Pizza, Dani Kaes, Mel Kagerer, Eriko Kobayashi, Olivia Montoya, Megan Stelljes, Laura Stevenson, Sanoe Stevenson-Egeland, Ursula Beatrice Stuart, and Jane Wong.
June 29
VENT! at Georgetown Steam Plant is about collective catharsis: “40 Artists have been invited to blow off a little steam in the face of the constant socio-political onslaught of news and layoffs and inflation and tariffs and human rights violations and housing markets and and and and and…” Georgetown Steam Plant is a treasure (read about Marcellus Bonow-Manier’s art residency here), and VENT! is an opportunity to go kick it in a wonderland of industrial urban decay. The eVENT is free (but give them a little donation if you can—this operation is run on a literal shoestring and a prayer, and it would suck to have it disappear). 2–6 p.m.
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Amanda Manitach
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