Henry Art Gallery

The Henry Art Gallery ("The Henry") is the art museum of the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, USA. Located on the west edge of campus along 15th Avenue N.E. in the University District, it was founded in 1927 and was the first public art museum in the state of Washington. The original building was designed by Bebb and Gould. It was expanded in 1997 to convert|40000|sqft|m2, at which time the 154-seat auditorium was added. The addition/expansion was designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects.

The Henry's exhibition program is largely devoted to contemporary art and the history of photography. Recent exhibitions include solo exhibitions by Maya Lin (2006), Lynn Hershman Leeson (2005-06), Doug Aitken (2005), Axel Lieber (2004-05), and James Turrell (2003), and group exhibitions such as "W.O.W. - The Work of the Work", 2004-05, which explored contemporary art's appeal to non-visual senses and the body of the viewer.

The museum was named for Horace C. Henry, the local businessman who donated money for its founding, as well as a collection of paintings. Some years prior, Henry had added gallery space to his own home on Capitol Hill, and from 1917 until the foundation of the Henry Gallery, he effectively operated a wing of his home as a free museum, open to the public 10 hours a week. In contrast to Charles and Emma Frye of Seattle's Frye Art Museum, Henry made no effort to control the future of the museum he financed; indeed, he specifically disavowed any such intention.cite news|author=Jen Graves|url=http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=445293|title=The Pepsi Challenge: The Henry's and the Frye's Original Collections Together for the First Time: Can You Guess Who Collected What?|publisher="The Stranger"|date=November 22, 2007|page=29|accessdate=2007-12-06]

The Henry's collection includes over 18,000 objects. The collection includes strong holdings in photography, both historical and contemporary, due to the partial gift and purchase of the Joseph and Elaine Monsen collection. The Henry also holds a James Turrell skyspace, "Light Reign", which is illuminated at night by color-shifting LEDs behind frosted glass. Like the Seattle baseball stadium, the skyspace has a retractable roof.

References

External links

* [http://www.henryart.org/ Official site]