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New Art Installation at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

An art installation hanging above the Foundation campus comes alive at night

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This article originally appeared in the June 2015 issue of Seattle magazine.

Seen in Daylight, the new art installation at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation might easily be mistaken for an oddly placed safety net. But when night falls, it becomes an immense, iridescent jellyfish hovering above the campus and shifting in the breeze. Unveiled in February, “Impatient Optimist” is an aerial net sculpture (120 feet long, 80 feet wide, 40 feet deep) created by Massachusetts-based artist Janet Echelman, who knows her way around a giant net—she’s installed similarly stunning works across the globe, including at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, B.C.

The ephemeral artwork is suspended between two buildings and composed of ultra-lightweight polyester fibers, which in the evening capture colored LED lighting projected from below. “The sculpture is a physical manifestation of connectedness,” Echelman says. It has particular relevance to the setting, she says, because “the number of knots alludes to the notion that the work of a single foundation member can affect a million lives.” Free and open to the public at all times. 500 Fifth Ave.

 

Rearview Mirror: Spinasse at Home, a New Spa Experience, and Seattle Mag’s Reader’s Choice Awards 

Rearview Mirror: Spinasse at Home, a New Spa Experience, and Seattle Mag’s Reader’s Choice Awards 

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

YOUR VOTE MATTERS Everyone has a favorite restaurant, coffee shop, or local boutique. Call me old-school, but I will die on the hill that Caffe Vita has the best coffee in town. Disagree with me? Now’s your moment to speak up. Each year, we survey Seattle magazine readers, asking them to weigh in on everything…

Studio Sessions: Ling Chun

Studio Sessions: Ling Chun

The Seattle-based artist brings playful color to ceramics and neon while exploring memory, transformation, and life between cultures.

For Ling Chun, creating begins with something sensed before it can be named. Working with clay, glass, light, and sometimes synthetic hair, the Hong Kong-born artist gives physical form to things that words cannot always hold. “For me, the magnitude of making goes far beyond the object that is eventually produced,” Chun says. “The object…

The Magic of PAX Is Stronger Than Ever

The Magic of PAX Is Stronger Than Ever

PAX West draws more than 100,000 people to Seattle each year. Co-founder Jerry Holkins reflects on what the gaming convention set out to change, how its community has grown and why gathering face to face still matters.

Access to game news as it was happening was difficult back in the day. Even with the advent of the internet, communication between game publishers and journalists was still a very elite affair.  I used to fake credentials—via fax machine!—to attend the Electronic Entertainment Expo, mostly just known as E3. It was simultaneously as loud…

Your Guide to Bumbershoot 2026

Your Guide to Bumbershoot 2026

Navigate Seattle’s wildest end-of-summer weekend with 20 picks spanning Death Cab for Cutie, Blood Orange, wrestling, skateboarding and—obviously—movies made in 48 hours.

Four years after Bumbershoot returned with its quirkiness revivified, Seattleites broadly acknowledge the two-day multimedia extravaganza as a welcome finale to the summer festival season. Fests like Bumbershoot are designed around a choose-your-own-adventure model, but if you’re the kind of person who looked at this year’s sprawling lineup—featuring multiple bands, artists, and exhibits happening at…