SEATTLE MAGAZINE
Bainbridge Island showcases local bounty with a new, eco-friendly museum dedicated to area artists
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Executive director Greg Robinson prepares for the June 14 grand opening of BIMA
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Creatively focused, eco-obsessed, possessing an urban
sensibility and locavore leanings, beautiful without being braggy—the
new Bainbridge Island Museum of Art (BIMA) might well be considered the
embodiment of the island community itself. And just as the residents
prefer the island’s laidback vibe to Seattle’s comparative bustle, BIMA
supporters and staff have no intention of trying to compete with
mainland art institutions, such as Seattle Art Museum. Instead, the
focus is on contemporary work by artists from the Kitsap and Olympic
peninsulas and the western Puget Sound region.
Founding board member Cynthia Sears, who moved to Bainbridge from Los
Angeles in the late 1980s and first began talking up the idea of
building an art museum there in the early ’90s, says BIMA is perfectly
content with being (as an actor friend of hers put it) “off Broadway.”
“Not just smaller, but more regional,” Sears explains. “Less about big
productions and famous work than about excellence of craft and helping
newcomers get a foot in the door.”
That door, by the way, is made from sustainable FSC-certified wood
(and the foot is likely shod in a Keen athletic sandal). The new
building, which came together thanks to a Bainbridge-based
collaboration—The Island Gateway developers, Coates Design architects
and PHC Construction—and a largely locally funded $15.6 million capital
campaign, is anticipating LEED Gold certification. When that status
becomes official, it will be the first art museum in the state (and one
of only a few nationwide) to achieve such green street cred.
The building is first and foremost inviting, thanks to a striking
curve of tall windows that sweeps visitors toward the entrance. This
translucency is intentional—people inside the museum can see their
community going about its business outside, and people outside can see
visitors going about the gallery within (and thereby feel a vicarious
connection with local art). Indeed, the emphasis of the structure is not
so much on the photovoltaic array, the geothermal heating and cooling
or the low-flow toilets (and waterless urinals!), but on showcasing the
thriving—but largely unsung—regional artist community.
Part of Sears’ initial motivation was the question “If this is such
an ‘artists’ haven’ (as the guide books told me), why wasn’t there a
place where local art was on exhibit for the public?” While
acknowledging the value of art shows at smaller, commercial galleries in
the area, she contends, “A community that cares about art needs an art
museum the same way a community that cares about literacy needs a public
library—no matter how many bookstores might be nearby.”
One of the opening exhibits is of work by Bainbridge Island artist
and children’s book illustrator Barbara Helen Berger, who agrees with
Sears, “Art doesn’t have to be remote.” As for the tone her inaugural
exhibit sets for the museum, she speculates, “My show may convey part of
the museum’s aim: to be inviting and welcoming for everyone, including
children and families.”
Greg Robinson, BIMA’s executive director and curator, points out that
one of the significant local benefits of the museum is serving kids in
the region—for whom taking a field trip to Seattle can be prohibitively
complicated and expensive. “Having an art museum here increases the
accessible and affordable options for schools in the Kitsap area,” he
says. Sears adds that one of the boons of not charging an entrance fee
is that it encourages people of all ages to stop by casually, making the
viewing of art a regular part of everyday life. “I want kids and their
families to feel comfortable just dropping in…to refresh their eyes and
recharge their batteries,” she says.
Port Townsend–based sculptor Margie McDonald also has work in the
first BIMA show, in the commanding Beacon Gallery, an aptly named space
fronted by a two-story bank of windows that faces the ferry terminal and
stands as a guidepost for disembarking passengers. Her “millipede-like”
piece—a 30-foot long underwater scene made with recycled copper, yacht
rigging wire and salmon trolling wire—will hang in the window. “Seattle
is tough for someone like me who doesn’t want to go to the big city very
much,” McDonald says. “I think there’s some excitement here in Port
Townsend that this is ‘our museum.’ BIMA feels like it’s on ‘our side’
of the water.”
Sears believes the regional focus will foster what she calls the “OMG
factor,” meaning the reaction, “OMG, that’s from here?” She hopes that,
as a result, hometown visitors will support “their own” with even more
vigor. “This is our art equivalent to the ‘eat locally’ movement,” she
says.
Robinson is “slowly and deliberately” expanding BIMA’s permanent
collection in line with the goal of being “an incubator and a launching
pad for emerging local artists.” (Sears notes, “We are on record as
having promised our donors that if most of the artists we exhibit have
not achieved national—or world!—recognition in 50 years, we will be
happy to give them their money back.”) But Robinson emphasizes that
rather than dictating a perspective, he and his team are looking to the
artists to reveal what it means to live in the region. “We’re not coming
in as the experts,” he says, “we’re coming in as discoverers. We’re
exploring stories that haven’t been told yet.”
Read article here:
http://www.seattlemag.com/article/bainbridge-island-gets-art-museum
