Henry Art Gallery, Contemporary art museum at University of Washington, Seattle, United States
The Henry Art Gallery is a museum located on the University of Washington campus featuring rotating exhibitions of contemporary art across multiple mediums. The building displays paintings, photographs, sculptures, and digital installations throughout its bright, spacious galleries.
The museum was established in 1927 when a businessman donated his private art collection to the university. This founding gift created the institution's core collection and set its direction toward contemporary artistic practice.
The museum is named for Horace C. Henry, a Seattle businessman who began collecting paintings after the 1890 Chicago World's Fair and donated 178 works with his late wife Susan. From 1917 he ran a wing of his Capitol Hill home as a free public museum ten hours a week. He disavowed any control over the gallery's future, unlike Charles and Emma Frye of Seattle's Frye Art Museum.
The museum is open several days a week, with some evenings offering extended hours for visitors. Check ahead to confirm current opening times and to see what exhibitions are currently on display before planning your visit.
James Turrell's Light Reign, finished in 2003, is a Skyspace whose retractable roof opens to the sky, and at night coloured LEDs glow behind frosted glass. The Henry also holds over 28,000 objects, including the Joseph and Elaine Monsen photography collection and textiles inherited in 1982 from the university's Costume and Textile Study Center.
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