African American Museum Seattle

Through ongoing collaboration with the communities it serves, NAAM creates exhibitions that are relevant, inclusive, engaging, and entertaining. Our exhibitions explore the connections between our region and the history, art, and culture of people of African descent.

Now on View in the Northwest Gallery

Debora Moore: Glass Orchidarium

Orchids are complex, varied, mysterious, and seductive flowers that are frequently found in lush tropical forests. They are associated with fertility, luxurious beauty, and exotic places. An Orchidarium is a greenhouse or garden that is devoted to their collection and study. It celebrates the natural world but does not mimic it.

Debora Moore creates sculpted glass orchids that are inspired by her distant travels and immersion in nature. She has been captivated by tropical Jamaican blooms, Olympic forest nurse logs, Thai bamboo, and Antarctic lichen. Her glass orchids are sometimes treated as isolated specimens, pinned to the wall, suspended in air, or arranged as in Japanese ikebana—a stem or two gracefully emerging from shallow bowl. At other times, Moore attaches orchids to mossy branches or bamboo—pairings that make aesthetic, rather than botanical, sense. They are celebrations of nature’s splendor and cycles of regeneration.

PACCAR Gallery

The Atomic Frontier: Black Life in Hanford, WA

While many people know of the scientific research and discovery of nuclear weapons under the government code name of the Manhattan Project, few know how the contributions of African Americans helped realize this vision right here in Washington State. The Atomic Frontier: Black Life at Hanford uncovers what it was like to work in secrecy on an undisclosed “war project” in the early 1940s, an experience complicated by discrimination, segregation, and the unfamiliar geographic landscape of eastern Washington.