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Seahawks Madness: Mask to be Displayed at Burke Museum

The Northwest Coast mask that inspired the team logo comes home to roost

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This article originally appeared in the November 2014 issue of Seattle magazine.

In the days leading up to the Super Bowl last year, a class of University of Washington art history students took their own slant on the citywide fan frenzy—by seeking out the origins of the Seahawks logo. They soon learned that the distinctive bird face, created for the team in the mid-1970s, was very likely based on an indigenous eagle mask made by the Kwakwaka’wakw tribe in the Vancouver Island area. A blog post about the research somehow reached the University of Maine’s Hudson Museum—which had the mask in its collection. Thanks to a Kickstarter campaign, the mask has been shipped to Seattle and will be displayed this month at UW’s Burke Museum as part of Here and Now: Native Artists Inspired. The Burke is also providing travel for Kwakwaka’wakw community members to participate and share historical knowledge. As for how the mask ended up across the country, exhibit curator Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse is still researching its path. (She has learned that at some point, it was in the collection of surrealist artist Max Ernst, who was inspired by Native American art.) And while the Seahawks connection is exciting, Bunn-Marcuse says what’s more important is how this new opportunity can increase our understanding of the cultural origins behind the mask, and underline the lasting impact of indigenous art all around us. 11/22–7/27/2015. $7.50–$10. Burke Museum, UW campus; 206.543.5590; burkemuseum.org

 

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…