ArtSEA: Seattle loses one of its most colorful artists

If you prefer your colors of the black-and-white variety, you’re in luck. The long-running and much-beloved Noir City Seattle film festival is back (at SIFF Cinema Egyptian, Feb. 16 – 22), and along with it plenty of suspicious dames, hard-boiled Brunos and bump-offs. 

Suspense is the name of the game, see? You’ll find it in flicks like 1942’s Street of Chance, featuring Burgess Meredith and with the first instance of amnesia as a plot device in classic noir. And Asphalt Jungle, John Huston’s groundbreaking heist film that daringly encouraged viewers to sympathize with the criminals. Plus many more kidnappers, embezzlers, adulterers, con artists and prison-breakers as portrayed in noir films from around the world.

Arts News Nuggets

This just in … Bellevue Arts Museum issued an urgent press release today (Feb. 15) with a plea to “Save BAM” and also “Keep Bellevue Alive.” Having officially hired Kate Casprowiak Scher as new executive director on Feb. 12, the museum says it is in “a state of financial crisis” and needs to raise $300,000 for immediate operating expenses. The press release points to decreased revenues (due to lower post-pandemic attendance, retail sales and donations) as the culprit of the current crisis. Stay tuned. 

The Seattle Office of Arts and Culture has a new director, Gülgün Kayim, sworn in on Feb. 13. (Learn more about her background in The Seattle Times.)

Seattle City of Literature has launched the Seattle Literary Calendar, an online community calendar tracking the many literary events happening on any given day in the region. 

Seattle Jazz Fellowship has a new live-music venue in Pioneer Square (in the old Cafe Nordo space) with a calendar already packed with local jazz luminaries (including trumpeter Jay Thomas, Feb. 16-17; and drummer D’Vonne Lewis’s ensemble, Feb. 23-24). The old-school and intimate hall is first-come, first-served seating with a $20 suggested donation. 

Finally, a personal note: I’d like to wish Crosscut newsletter editor Martina Pansze a fond farewell as she heads off to new endeavors. For the past two years she has been a vital and good-humored partner in getting this newsletter out the door weekly — with clever headlines, no less! Thank you, Martina.