Arts & Culture

15 SIFF Movies to Put on Your List

15 SIFF Movies to Put on Your List

From Boots Riley’s opening-night film to a local documentary about human composting and one very talked-about chicken.

The Seattle International Film Festival is back for its 52nd year, which means your moviegoing ambitions are about to get a little unruly. It runs May 7-17 with 203 films from 71 countries and regions, including 18 world premieres and 10 U.S. premieres. The fun, and the problem, is figuring out where to begin. I’ve…

The May/June Issue is Out! Score Your Copy Today.

The May/June Issue is Out! Score Your Copy Today.

We’ve got you covered from World Cup to art openings, to this spring’s sun-soaked, must-visit destinations. 

Summer is just around the corner—we can feel it as the mercury rises and the days grow longer. This year, that means we’re getting closer to the kick-off of FIFA World Cup 2026, which runs between June 15 and July 6, with matches happening at Lumen Field. In honor of Seattle hosting six games, we…

Chihuly Returns to Venice

Chihuly Returns to Venice

The Tacoma-born artist marks 30 years since ‘Chihuly Over Venice’ with three new glass works along the Grand Canal.

We’re standing on the Accademia Bridge in Venice, watching massive cardboard boxes marked “FRAGILE” craned up from a barge. It’s a few weeks before the opening of Dale Chihuly’s new exhibit, and from this vantage point, we can see all three monumental works on the Grand Canal being assembled. “It really did start here,” says…

Rearview Mirror: New at the Zoo, Waterfront Coffee, and Alaska Goes to Rome

Rearview Mirror: New at the Zoo, Waterfront Coffee, and Alaska Goes to Rome

Things I did, saw, ate, learned, or read in the past week (or so).

New Digs for Furry (and Feathered) Friends Last week, Woodland Park Zoo held the press preview for its Forest Trailhead exhibit, and I nearly lost my mind watching one of the zoo’s tree kangaroos, a 12-year-old named Rocket, eat his second breakfast of fresh veggies. It was seriously adorable. Rocket is housed in a modern habitat adjacent…

Photo Essay: Ferry Therapy

Photo Essay: Ferry Therapy

Words and photographs by Anna Starr.

Riding the ferry is my favorite Seattle pastime. At any given time on a Washington State Ferry you will find a group of tourists with too  many suitcases, someone in work clothes peacefully napping, a jigsaw puzzle diligently being completed, lovers having a Titanic-esque moment on a balcony (fun fact: those balconies are called pickleforks),…

AANHPI Month: Where to Celebrate, Eat, and Learn Around Seattle

AANHPI Month: Where to Celebrate, Eat, and Learn Around Seattle

From festivals and museum exhibits to food tours and historic neighborhoods, here are a few ways to mark the month across the region.

Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month—known as AANHPI Month—is observed in the U.S. each May. It began as a weeklong observance in 1978 and expanded to the full month in 1992. Asian, Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities in the United States extend back much further, including to the late 16th century, when…

Black Panther Park in Skyway Becomes First Black Panther Park in the World

Black Panther Park in Skyway Becomes First Black Panther Park in the World

The new community garden honors the Black Panther Party’s legacy of food justice and the Skyway neighbors who helped bring it to life. 

On a sunny Sunday earlier this month, at the corner of 75th Avenue and Renton Avenue South, the community gathered for the opening of Skyway’s Black Panther Park. Inspired by the Black Panther’s Free Breakfast for School Children program that compelled the federal government to provide breakfast in schools, Black Panther Park is a community…

Rearview Mirror: A Family Coming Apart, SIFF, and My First Fashion Show

Rearview Mirror: A Family Coming Apart, SIFF, and My First Fashion Show

Things I did, saw, ate, learned, or read in the past week (or so).

The Family House A house can hold a lot, and Seattle Rep’s Appropriate knows that. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Tony-winning play, directed here by Timothy McCuen Piggee, drops the Lafayette siblings into their late father’s hoarded, falling-apart Arkansas plantation home for an estate sale, and lets the whole thing crack open from there. The sibling dynamics are…

Studio Sessions: Raili Jänese

Studio Sessions: Raili Jänese

The Kirkland painter brings a playful eye to daily life and the little rituals of being human.

Artist Raili Jänese pays close attention to the small stuff. It might be a goose on the move, a rabbit in the yard, or a person lost in the rituals of coffee or cooking. The Estonian-born artist, now based in Kirkland, makes colorful acrylic works that turn everyday behavior—human and animal alike—into something funny and…

Getting Ghosted: A New Northwest Novel Tackles Alienation in the Face of Loss

Getting Ghosted: A New Northwest Novel Tackles Alienation in the Face of Loss

Kim Fu’s latest novel turns a rain-soaked Pacific Northwest winter into the backdrop for a story about grief and loneliness.

In their latest novel, Seattle-based author Kim Fu gets one thing right about the Pacific Northwest: the rain. Set during a particularly bleak winter, The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts tells the story of Eleanor Fan, an online therapist grappling with the recent loss of her mother, Lele. After Lele’s passing, Eleanor inherits money to put…

Go See Diné Artist Eric-Paul Riege’s Largest Show to Date at the Henry Art Gallery

Go See Diné Artist Eric-Paul Riege’s Largest Show to Date at the Henry Art Gallery

With a mix of mediums, ojo|-|ólǫ́ examines questions surrounding the authenticity and ownership of Indigenous work.

It’s a phrase that’s been drilled into most of us since we were young children: When you’re visiting a gallery, please, do not touch the art. In many cases, it’s with good reason: the pieces on display are fragile, one-of-a-kind, or historic works that cannot be reproduced. It’s such an ingrained approach to the museum-going…

Rearview Mirror: Ballet’s Saddest Story, New Art in the Sculpture Park, and a Home-Grown Wine Label Promoting Social Justice

Rearview Mirror: Ballet’s Saddest Story, New Art in the Sculpture Park, and a Home-Grown Wine Label Promoting Social Justice

Things I did, saw, ate, learned, or read in the past week (or so).

Circular Thinking I am very lucky to live just a 12-minute walk away from Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park. It’s a regular destination for my weekly walks and, aside from the world-class art, has one of the city’s best views of Puget Sound. Earlier this week, I went on a wet, windy walk and discovered…

Studio Sessions: Gabriel Stromberg 

Studio Sessions: Gabriel Stromberg 

For his current show at studio e gallery, Gabriel Stromberg explores the challenges of working with clay. 

Gabriel Stromberg has been a name about town for nearly two decades. As one of the cofounders of design firm Civilization (where he was the creative director and lead designer from 2008 to 2022), Stromberg worked on many award-winning projects, helped produce the wildly popular and always packed Design Lecture Series, and co-created and moderated…

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