WWU to share and host major art donation by Safeco

Safeco Insurance Co. recently donated more than 800 works of art to the Washington Art Consortium (WAC), of which Western Washington University’s Western Gallery is a charter member.

“This unprecedented donation from Safeco Insurance is both significant and impressive,” said Sarah Clark-Langager, director of the Western Gallery and a WAC board member. “This recent partnership with Safeco Insurance gives the Consortium the real opportunity to further one of its missions – to foster the appreciation of Northwest Art.”

The Consortium’s main office is at Western Gallery where the collections are managed and stored. To help preserve this collection at Western, Safeco has granted the Consortium funding for new storage racks in the Western Gallery.
The donation includes works of art from internationally known Northwest artists such as Jacob Lawrence, Fay Jones, Morris Graves, Barbara Thomas and George Tsutakawa.

The donated artwork includes nearly 500 works on paper, 130 works on canvas and panel and more than 180 three-dimensional objects including glass, ceramic, bronze and mixed media.

A portion of the donated artwork will first be exhibited at the Wright Exhibition Space in Seattle this April. In the coming year, the seven WAC member museums – including the WWU Western Gallery ¬ – will display artwork from the Safeco Art Collection to celebrate and share the gift.

“This donation is unparalleled in its size, its importance and its impact on Northwest culture. The Washington Art Consortium is proud to accept the donation and keep the collection available to the community for generations to come,” said Stephanie A. Stebich, president, Washington Art Consortium, and director, Tacoma Art Museum.
The Washington Art Consortium is a unique non-profit cooperative comprised of the seven major art museums located in four main urban centers and three primary universities in Washington State.

“While many people know that Western’s Outdoor Sculpture Collection is considered one of the top 10 university collections in the nation, they may not be aware that the Western Gallery is a leader in the Washington Art Consortium. As one of five founding members in the mid-1970s, Western helped form a collaboration among the major art institutions in the state, a consortium which is still unique today at the national level,” Clark-Langager said.
The first organization of its type in the nation, the WAC began in 1975 when its founder, Seattle philanthropist and modern art collector Virginia Wright, worked with five Washington State museums to apply for separate grants to the National Endowment for the Arts for funds to purchase art. The idea was novel and ambitious: an art collection that would not belong to one museum, but would be jointly held and tour continuously throughout Washington State.

Together the Washington Art Consortium owns three works on paper collections representing American artists and photographers who have excelled in the last half of the 20thh century. These works are shared not only among the consortium members but also loaned to major exhibitions in the United States and Europe.

The donation of the Safeco Art Collection will be the Consortium’s fourth collection adding to the current holdings of artworks on paper from 1945 - 1992. The Western Gallery (chair of the collections committee) will be assisting in the formation of a Northwest Works on Paper Collection, which will be added to the other three works on paper collections.

“Once the WAC/Safeco Northwest Works on Paper Collection has been selected, the Western Gallery will work with the other six consortium members to find the best fit at each institution for the rest of the art works – paintings, sculpture, ceramics, glass, etc. Western will again share in this extraordinary partnership,” Clark-Langager said.
In addition to the Western Gallery, other WAC members include: Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle; Museum of Art, Washington State University, Pullman; Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, Spokane; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle; Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma; and Whatcom Museum of History and Art, Bellingham. For more information please visit the Washington Art Consortium Web site at http://www.wwu.edu/depts/wac/.