Location

Level 3 Concourse
Seattle Municipal Tower
700 Fifth Ave.
Seattle, WA 98104

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Gallery Hours

Monday - Friday
5 a.m. - 7 p.m.

Information

(206) 684-7132

Work in Progress

Oct. 28 to Dec. 31

Work in Progress, on display at the Seattle Municipal Tower Gallery, features paintings, drawings and photography that depict men and women performing various jobs in their work-a-day world.

The exhibition features works by more than 25 artists. Included in the exhibition are documentary photographs by Lyn McCracken and Peter de Lory highlighting the work of Seattle City Light and Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) employees, whose activities are critical to the daily life of Seattle. These artists each participated in photographer-in-residence programs at City Light and SPU respectively, capturing images of workers, their tasks and their workplace.

Photographer John Stewart captures the artist Henk Pander working on a large painting, while Dan Webb illustrates in his drawings the warm-up routine of a ballet dancer. Karen Ganz's large painting, Rudimental, gives us a 1940's cartoon rendering of "the everyday man" who represents the workforce.

Curator Deborah Paine selected the pieces for Work in Progress from the city's Portable Works Collection managed by the Office. "As Americans, we honor our workforce. Laws restrict the number of hours we can work and dictate the minimum wage we must earn. Our country celebrates Labor Day, the holiday specifically named to honor the hard work of all employees," notes Paine. "This exhibition showcases many of the utilities workers, the diversity of their manual tasks, and how integral they are to the functioning of our city."