City Seen

Questions for Esther Luttikhuizen, newest member of 4Culture’s public art staff

Photo by Kyle Johnson

Is it an exaggeration to say Gallery4Culture is at the epicenter of local art? They definitely put themselves on the map. The public/private way they’re organized is pretty daring.

At the Washington State Arts Commission, did you do any Eastside public art? At Newport High we installed Roger Ralston’s Rhizomic Possibilities: a very colorful and very slow-moving sculpture.

Got any thoughts about Eastside arts? I’m excited by the direction Bellevue Arts Museum is going; I think they’re taking on an area others aren’t. I think of it as craft — though I’m not sure what they’re calling it. Material-conscious art?

What’s on your wall? Karen Ganz, Jacob Lawrence, John Stamets’s photo of the old Music Hall, Mark Mumford’s THERE OUGHT TO BE MORE DANCING.

How will you change 4Culture? I have a lot to learn. Ask me in a year.

Interview by Tim Appelo

A Tisket, A Tasket

Ferne Jacobs, Tides | photo courtesy of the artist

At Bellevue Arts Museum (Dec 17 – March 22), Intertwined: Contemporary Baskets from the Sara and David Lieberman Collection will feature over seventy works incorporating a wide range of materials (fish skins, for example). “It will be an eye-opener,” says Jan Hopkins, a Northwest artist shown in the exhibit. Kay Harradine, member of the Northwest Basket Weavers guild (hosting a series of programs at the museum through February) agrees the exhibit will shed light on this essential art: “Each piece has links to humankind’s first art form: the practical and elegant employment of indigenous fibers to create vessels that solve life’s problems.” —Bond Huberman

Fantastic Flora

Photo by Kyle Johnson

Over three hundred volunteers work all year, constructing flowers, shrubs and vines out of string lights and wire. These illuminate the Bellevue Botanical Gardens during Garden d’Lights (through January 3). Director Udell Fresk has been supervising the display design for ten years. “Volunteers climb trees, walk on arbors and scare the parks people to death,” she says. “We have a good time!” A six-foot-tall poinsettia takes center stage this year, incorporating 15,500 lights. Then there is Willie. He is shiny. He is never in the same place twice; he is the Garden slug. —Christina Buchman

Handcrafted with Care

Photo by Kyle Johnson

Three days a week, jewelry artist Chau Phan designs items in-store at Gilt, a boutique at Bellevue Square. Having made jewelry since childhood (her family had a shop in Vietnam), she works with freshwater pearls, Swarovski crystals and pyrite. Phan enjoys imagining her customers “cheered up on a busy Monday morning” when putting on her jewelry. Owner Jenny Corry says she helps set Gilt apart: “Chau doesn’t limit herself to one style, and she genuinely cares about customers’ happiness.” —Paullette Gaudet