Art Museum Experience

Located in Seattle Washington, the Frye Art Museum opened in 1952. The creators, Charles and Emma Frye, were early-twentieth century Seattle business leaders and art collectors who made the museum what it is today. The 18,000 square foot space contains pieces from the Frye Founding collection as well as different exhibitions hosted at various times. Upon visiting the museum, there was an exhibit called 36 Chambers, the title of James Joyce’s first series of poems. This particular exhibit helps to continue the Frye Museums commitment to the “citizen curator” by inviting staff members to choose works of art from the Founding Collection based on James Joyce’s poems in 36 Chambers.

            The overall design of this museum is simple. Walking into the museums lobby, you immediately pass a gift store and enter the gallery portion of the space. This gallery space is divided into massive rooms with very tall ceilings. The expansiveness of the gallery’s rooms allows the visitors to enjoy the pieces from different angles and distances. Benches were placed in the center of these rooms, seating up to 8 people, and were the only form of seating offered in the space. This encouraged people to continue to move through the rooms and also provided a space to rest your feet and take in the art. Each exhibit usually has a description of what the exhibit is displaying, helping guests understand the shows. The paintings are spaced out nicely; far enough for guests who are viewing one piece wont bother another guest viewing another piece. The art is hung at an average eye level. The design of the space encourages the best possible viewing experience of the artwork. The walls on which the art is hung were mostly white throughout the museum although in the 36 Chambers exhibit, the walls were painted lilac and the lighting was dimmer than in the other spaces. The spaces with white walls had track lighting on the ceiling, which was the only source of light in the space. They were placed to prevent glare and made the viewing very pleasant. The white walls, light hardwood floors and soft light made the space calming and neutral. In the 36 Chambers exhibit with lilac walls, the art was mounted in thick frames to separate them from the colored walls, emphasizing the artwork.

            My visit to the Frye Art Museum was enjoyable in that I was able to see some incredible pieces of art as well as learn about the layout and structure of a popular, public museum. This will help me in my design for my next project and in future projects.