Safeco Insurance donates 840 pieces of NW art

I believe the first time I saw Chihuly's art was in the lobby of the Safeco Insurance building in Seattle's University District. The company's 37 year-old collection of Northwest art also includes glass by Joey Kirkpatrick and Flora Mace, Dante Marioni, and Sonja Blomdahl. The Seattle Times today is reporting that Safeco has donated 840 out of 2,200 pieces of its collection to the Washingon Art Consortium. "180 three-dimensional objects including glassworks, ceramic pieces, and bronze sculptures" are a part of the collection. Artwork featured in the Times includes Mark Tobey's "Les Signes," Guy Anderson's "Summer Wing I," Roger Shimomura's "Diary," and Fay Jones' "Lotus-Eaters."

The Washington Art Consortium is made up of the Henry Art Gallery (Seattle), Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture (Spokane), Seattle Art Museum, Tacoma Art Museum, Washington State University's Museum of Art (Pullman), Whatcom Museum of History and Art (Bellingham), and Western Washington University's Western Gallery (Bellingham).

Safeco Insurance was bought by the Boston company Liberty Mutual, but the tradition of community support will continue. The paper reports, "...some Safeco employees--seeking creative ways the company could give to the community without constraining the budget--came up with the idea to donate a sizable portion of the company's 2,200 pieces of art... Plus, several years ago, the company had decided it would no longer buy new art to build its collection--a decision it said was not budget-driven but came from a change in direction in how it wanted to spend its philanthropic dollars."



When the company moved from its University District location to a building downtown, the University of Washington moved into the old place. The University of Washington News reported in 2007 that Safeco donated an estimated $10 million dollars in furnishing and also a Roger Sperry sculpture to the school.



Among many charitable gifts, Safeco Insurance donated at least $20,000 to Pratt Fine Arts, in 2008, and continued support in 2009 at the Pratt Art Auction. Mark Dederer, director of the Safeco Insurance Foundation, was on the 2009 King County Allocations Committee for the ArtsFund, also including representatives of Starbucks, and Microsoft, which granted $ 2.2 million dollars to local non profit arts groups last year. The Museum of Glass in Tacoma received a grant of $6,450 in 2009. But Seattle's ACT Theater was the largest beneficiary: It was granted $109,318.

As for the 800 pieces of donated NW art, a selection will be on view starting in April at the Wright Space on South Lake Union.

As reported in The Seattle Times: Tu, Janet L. "The gift of Northwest art." The Seattle Times. February 12, 2010. Pages A1-A6.