Bellevue Arts Museum—which has no permanent collection and grew out of Bellevue’s summer arts and crafts fair—is quickly becoming a hub for amazing, weird, really cool exhibitions by mostly local artists.
It’s an unlikely turn of events. In 2001, BAM moved into its current building, designed by Steven Holl. In 2003, facing a lack of attendance and running out of money, the museum closed for 18 months. There was also a brief shutdown scare in 2016 after losing donors and key staff.
But in September of 2017, BAM hired executive director and chief curator Benedict Heywood. His background as founder of an alternative arts space in Minneapolis called The Soap Factory and his two-year stint as director of Paul Allen’s short-lived art gallery Pivot Art + Culture make the British curator uniquely qualified for his role.
