APRIL 2007

IN THIS ISSUE
Art Museum Expands, Re-opens
Maritime Festival in Downtown Seattle
Opening Day of Boating Season
Nation's Biggest Film Festival Rolls
Out-Of-This-World Value
Post Script: The Price of Onions

Seattle Art Museum to Unveil Major New Addition
On May 5, the Seattle Art Museum will unveil a 118,000-square-foot addition to its downtown Seattle campus, allowing greater display of the museum's permanent collections of contemporary, African, Oceanic, Northwest Coast, American, European and other art. Designed by Allied Works Architecture, the expanded museum offers 70 percent more gallery space, new public space, a new restaurant, expanded museum store and infrastructure for future growth. The addition will also feature two floors of free public space which will include a major installation of Cai-Guo Qiang's Inopportune: Stage I and Illusion, featuring nine actual-size cars suspended from the museum's ceiling. The expanded museum's opening exhibition will be SAM at 75: Building a Collection for Seattle, which will run through Sept. 9, 2007. The exhibition will showcase gifts made in honor of the museum's 75th anniversary in 2008.

The Seattle Art Museum was founded in 1933 and features three locations throughout Seattle. In addition to its downtown campus, the museum operates the Seattle Asian Art Museum and the Olympic Sculpture Park. The sculpture park, an 8.5-acre public sculpture garden, opened in January on the city's central waterfront in downtown Seattle. For more public information, visit www.seattleartmuseum.org

Seattle Celebrates its Maritime Heritage
The nation's largest tug boat race is the main event at the annual Seattle Maritime Festival on the city's central waterfront, May 10-12. Some 40 tugs will compete in three heats on Elliott Bay at 2 p.m. on May 12. The festival will feature other competitions, including the Stories of the Sea Poetry Competition, World Invitational Survival Suit Races, Quick and Dirty Boat Building and the annual Chowder Cook-Off. Festivities will also include U.S. Coastguard sea-air rescue demonstrations, vessel tours and free Seattle harbor tours. Call the festival hotline at (206) 728-3163 for further event information. The Seattle Maritime Festival is sponsored by the Seattle Propeller Club and the Port of Seattle. One in four jobs in Washington State is related to maritime or foreign trade, which contribute more than $35 billion annually to the Seattle area's economy.

Boating Season Opens with "Musical Memories"
A city infused with lakes and containing more than 200 miles of shoreline, Seattle is home to a large community of boat owners, to whom the water is a way of life. Many of them will motor, sail or paddle their way to the nation's largest parade of boats on May 5. The city's annual Opening Day of Boating Season, at Seattle's Montlake Cut, draws 250 yachts, power boats, spinnakers, Coast Guard vessels and myriad commercial and recreational watercraft. More than 1,000 boats line the northern entrance of the cut along a 4,000-foot log boom to cheer and sound their horns for the elaborately-decorated parade entries. An estimated 20,000 landlubbers watch the parade from the shores of the cut. The Seattle Yacht Club, which has sponsored the event since 1920, will dispatch a trio of admirals to judge the parading watercraft. Categories of competition include spirit, use of costumes, originality, use of sound, fleet spacing, maneuvering, crews at attention, proper salutes and consistency with this year's theme, which is "Musical Memories." Call the yacht club at (206) 325-1000 or visit www.seattleyachtclub.org for more information.

Nation's Largest Film Fest Rolls
Celebrating its 33rd anniversary in 2007, the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) is the largest film festival in the United States, presenting nearly 400 films from more than 50 countries. Known as a launch pad for independent films, SIFF attracts directors, actors and critics from all over the world, who participate in special events, question-and-answer sessions and discussion forums throughout the festival. This year's festival runs May 24 - June 17 at several cinemas throughout Seattle. The box office opens May 10 with schedule, film listing and location information available; call (206) 324-9996 or visit www.seattlefilm.org.

Experience Music and Science Fiction - For Less
Experience Music Project (EMP) and the Science Fiction Museum & Hall of Fame, popular sister museums co-located at the Seattle Center, have restructured their price and now offer admission to both attractions for $15. The new pricing, in effect since March 31, replaces the previous $19.99 EMP admission and $26.95 admission for both museums. The price drop coincides with the announcement of the Science Fiction Museum & Hall of Fame's upcoming exhibit, Out of this World: Extraordinary Costumes from Film and Television. Opening June 16 and running through Sept. 30, this exhibit allows visitors to view costumes and props used in science fiction films and television programs from the 1940s to present. For more information, visit EMP at www.emplive.org or the Science Fiction Museum & Hall of Fame at www.sfhomeworld.org.

POST SCRIPT: It All Started with an Onion
SEATTLE, 1907 - The price of onions surged from 10 cents to $1. Outraged by money-grubbing middlemen, downtown produce vendors gathered their wagons at the corner of First Avenue and Pike Street to sell directly to the consumer. They instantly attracted a crowd of 10,000, and a farmers market was born. The date was August 17. In summer 2007, the Pike Place Market, one of the oldest, continuously-operated farmers markets in the nation, celebrates its centennial with a season of community events that culminate on August 17. Visit www.pikeplacemarket.org for event information.

Journalists are encouraged to contact the following SCVB public relations staff for answers to questions or for more information:

David Blandford, (206) 461-5806
dblandford@visitseattle.org

Heather Bryant, (206) 461-5805
hbryant@visitseattle.org

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MEDIA CONTACTS

David Blandford
(206)461-5806
dblandford@visitseattle.org

Heather Bryant
(206) 461-5805
hbryant@visitseattle.org