Artists here aren’t afraid to get a little weird, to take risks, to forgo the formal process of getting their work in museums and instead wheatpaste it right onto the city’s walls, spray paint it under freeway overpasses, or stick it to the back of No Parking signs. (Graffiti and stickers are art!) Which isn’t to say we don’t have contemporary fine artists. We do! But much of Seattle’s art scene is rich with wit, humor, playfulness, and schadenfreude (we love to dunk on billionaires as often as possible). Many of our contemporary galleries have embraced a less stuffy way of operating, too—our art spaces, and the work they show, are often immersive and interactive. They invite you to join in—to explore, touch, contemplate, laugh, and, in at least two instances, scream your face off.

Teleport to Tariqa Waters’s World at Seattle Art Museum

Downtown

Tariqa Waters is a Seattle-based contemporary artist—painter, sculptor, and glass-blower—and the founding owner of the Martyr Sauce Pop Art Museum and Gallery in Pioneer Square. For Venus Is Missing, her first-ever solo exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum (on view through January 5, 2026), she combines all her talents to take on a “high-stakes mission,” plumbing depths of vulnerability with a sleek pink rocket ship and a larger-than-life, technicolor aesthetic. The 2023 Betty Bowen Award winner journeys “through the cosmic void, traversing the realms of what once existed and what will forever remain out of reach,” wielding blown-glass ball barrettes. Hop aboard. (Read our interview with Tariqa Waters at thestranger.com!) LINDSAY COSTELLO

Bask in the Radical Beauty of Ai Weiwei’s ‘Water Lilies’ at Seattle Asian Art Museum

Capitol Hill

Ai Weiwei’s work thinks big—big politics, big history, big issues, big materials—and the Seattle Art Museum retrospective, which shows through September 7, is the largest the United States has ever seen, occupying not only the downtown museum, but also the Seattle Asian Art Museum and the Olympic Sculpture Park. At the SAAM (through March 15, 2026), you’ll find Ai’s largest Lego piece to date, Water Lilies, which is a larger-than-life interpretation of Claude Monet’s Water Lilies #1 consisting of 650,000 Lego studs. (This will be the first time it’s displayed in the US.) In Water Lilies, we have the meeting point of several elements that appear to be unrelated. One is the Lego itself, a construction toy made by the Danish industrial corporation the Lego Group. Then there is the reference to the French artist Monet. But where is the Chinese in all of this? It’s actually found in a strange opening on the right side of the 50-foot-long work. This, according to the Smithsonian, “is a door to an underground dugout [that the Ai] family lived in” during an exile imposed by Mao Zedong’s party. This is how Ai remixes our globalized culture. CHARLES MUDEDE

Choose Your Own Seattle Bookstore Adventure

Various locations

Seattle is a UNESCO City of Literature and, according to the latest report, there are more than 50 bookstores in the region. That’s too many to name here, and honestly, it would be an insult to try. But to help narrow it down at least a little bit, here are a few Stranger faves: Elliott Bay Book Company has been around, in some form or another, since 1973. Their current space on Capitol Hill feels like a warm, creaky treehouse, and they have a cafe and author events almost every day of the week. Fantagraphics Bookstore and Gallery in Georgetown is a must-visit if you love alternative comics and graphic novels. Newer indie shops on the scene include Charlie’s Queer Books in Fremont, where 98 percent of the books are written by queer-identifying authors, and Mam’s Books in the Chinatown-International District, which stocks books by Asian American authors. Looking for anarchist literature? Left Bank. Rare books? Arundel. Poetry? Open Books. Cookbooks? Book Larder. Love cats? Twice Sold Tales—they have several. And we’d be remiss not to mention the University Book Store, Third Place Books, and Phoenix Comics. Get out there and find your favorite. MEGAN SELING

Geek Out Over Physical Media at Scarecrow Video

University District 

Scarecrow Video is fighting the good fight in this nightmare world of streaming, where movies can be erased from the cloud at the touch of a button because some rich executive wanted a tax write-off to further fill their pockets. Since 1988, the beloved video store has been celebrating and preserving physical media so the works we love aren’t lost to time. Their library of movies—the title count at press time was 151,539 (up 3k from last year!)—is truly unlike anywhere else in the world. Just wandering through the many sections, both upstairs and down, is like being taken into a utopia of cinema preservation where you can find just about anything ever made, and it’s all available to rent or buy. Don’t live nearby? They also have a rent-by-mail service, allowing US residents to borrow up to six discs for 14 days at a time. CHASE HUTCHINSON

Don’t Kick the Pigeons at Pioneer Square’s First Thursday Art Walk

Pioneer Square

Once a month, Seattleites flock to the streets in Pioneer Square for a chance to stroll, sip on booze, and attend as many art openings as possible at First Thursday. It’s the city’s central and oldest art walk and takes place in a historic neighborhood known for its abundance of galleries. Free wine, cheese, and hobnobbing steal the scene for some, but at its core, it’s an impressive communal unveiling of new artwork. A few favorites include Greg Kucera Gallery, J. Rinehart Gallery, Stonington Gallery, SOIL, Koplin Del Rio, and RailSpur, a “micro-district” specializing in contemporary pop art. A warning to first-timers: Pioneer Square’s pigeons DO NOT GIVE A FUCK. Those dummies prioritize whatever garbage they’re pecking at over their safety, and they have, through generations of pigeon evolution, adapted to humans walking around them. Watch where you step. STRANGER STAFF

Soak in Seattle’s History at the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center

North Delridge

The history of the Duwamish people is the history of Seattle, and it’s an essential one. Duwamish Tribal Services, which has fought for the Duwamish people to be recognized as a tribe at both federal and state levels for decades, runs the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center at the mouth of the Duwamish River in South Seattle. The space was a collaboration between the Duwamish and architect Byron Barnes of Montana’s Blackfeet tribe in the style of a traditional Puget Salish longhouse. A gathering space, cultural center, and gallery, the Longhouse serves as a hub for the Indigenous community that does incredible work for its members and for the Duwamish River Valley, where Duwamish Tribal Services lead environmental restoration, education initiatives, and so much more. KATHLEEN TARRANT

Spend a Whole Day Exploring the Central Library

Downtown

There’s a free museum downtown boasting works by George Tsutakawa, Ann Hamilton, Tony Oursler, Lynne Yamamoto, and Frank Okada, and you can explore it floor by floor with a self-guided tour map. Thing is, the museum is actually Central Library, which is better, in my opinion, because you can leave with free books. Culture!!! If I were you, I’d make a day of it—start on level 1 to scope Tsutakawa and Hamilton’s works, then move up to level 4 for a truly eerie experience on the Red Floor, which is bloodied with 13 shades of red paint on the walls, ceiling, floors, and stairs. Jump up to level 10, the highest public viewpoint in the library, to spot Yamamoto and Okada pieces among collections of local Seattle history. LINDSAY COSTELLO

Investigate Neukom Vivarium with a Magnifying Glass at Olympic Sculpture Park

Belltown

At the corner of Broad Street and Elliott Avenue in Belltown, a low-lit glass greenhouse shelters a living installation. Mark Dion’s biosystem Neukom Vivarium is built on the foundation of a Western hemlock “nurse log,” a fallen tree from the Green River watershed that now serves as a growing site for young native plants. Sword ferns, deciduous huckleberry, and even spruce trees have sprouted from the log, creating an intricate ecosphere. The entire project emphasizes just how complicated it is to support natural life, and it’s not necessarily meant to evoke warm fuzzies. It’s more of a memento mori work. (Dion told Art21, “This piece is in some way perverse. It shows that, despite all of our technology and money, when we destroy a natural system, it’s virtually impossible to get it back.”) LINDSAY COSTELLO

Release Your Demons at the Museum of Pop Culture

Seattle Center

There are several treasures to see at the Museum of Pop Culture (aka MoPOP). The 14,000-square-foot nerd mecca, designed by Frank Gehry, looks like a pile of Kurt Cobain’s dirty laundry sitting under the Space Needle, and is home to some pretty great music and pop-culture memorabilia including Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses, which is the world’s most extensive Nirvana exhibit, and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. But my favorite spot? The scream booth. Just follow the wall of horror-filled faces to step into Scared to Death, the museum’s long-running horror exhibit. It’s packed with iconic movie props like Freddy’s finger blades, Michael Myers’s mask and rusty knife, Candyman’s hook, and a life-size Xenomorph from Alien. It’s actually very cool! But through the maze of bloody corpses and past the Walking Dead zombie heads sits the perfect opportunity to scream your fucking face off in the privacy of a soundproof booth. It’s free (with museum admission) to scream as much as you’d like for as long as you’d like. Just shut the door, have a seat, and let out that pent-up frustration. MEGAN SELING

Pay Respects to a Pop Surrealism Landmark

Belltown

Kirsten Anderson opened Roq La Rue in 1998 in a rundown Belltown storefront that was slated for demolition. It was right around the time pop surrealism was starting to become popular, and it was the place to see artists such as Femke Hiemstra, Todd Schorr, Mark Ryden, and Jim Woodring. Twenty-seven years later, after setting up shop in Capitol Hill, Pioneer Square, and, most recently, Madison Valley, Anderson has returned to her Belltown roots. The newest incarnation of Roq La Rue opened in March 2025 in a 2,500-square-foot space inside the Northwest Work Lofts on Denny Way, and Anderson continues to fill the walls with modern work from some of the world’s most intriguing pop surrealists. (She literally wrote the book on the subject, fwiw.) I’m especially excited for the 2025 Hi-Fructose Invitational, which hangs from June 13 through August 2. The gallery is open every Friday and Saturday, but the best time to visit is during Belltown’s art walk on the second Friday of every month. MEGAN SELING

Rush a Show at On the Boards

Uptown

Going to the city’s home for all things contemporary performance is basically never a bad idea—forward thinkers like Nia-Amina Minor, Anna Luisa Petrisko, Jaha Koo, Will Rawls, and Takahiro Yamamoto have woven liminal narratives there in recent years, and the performance roster is always stacked. With modest beginnings renting space at Washington Hall from then-owners the Sons of Haiti, OtB has expanded into the Behnke Center for Contemporary Performance, its current Uptown location, with consistently sold-out spectacles of improvisational dance, experimental drag, and more. Is a show sold out? All is not lost! OtB always offers rush tickets—just show up an hour early to get your name on the rush list and they’ll fit in as many folks as they can come showtime. Head there to stretch your perceptions. LINDSAY COSTELLO

Prioritize the Chocolate Popcorn at SIFF Cinema Downtown

Downtown

Seattle’s Cinerama theater—one of the only Cinerama theaters left in the country—finally reopened its doors in December after abruptly closing in February 2020. Late billionaire Paul Allen famously saved the theater from demolition in the late ’90s and spent millions of bucks restoring it to its mid-century glory. Local film org SIFF bought the theater from Allen’s estate in 2023, and while rights to the Cinerama name were not a part of the sale—hence the new basic bitch moniker—SIFF was at least able to bring back the famous chocolate popcorn, for which Cinerama was loved. It makes the whole theater smell like hot Cocoa Puffs! Get a 50/50 mix of chocolate and buttered popcorn and swear off seeing movies in any other chocolate-popcornless theater again. MEGAN SELING

Get Smarter at Town Hall

First Hill

I’ve lost count of how many events I’ve seen at Town Hall over the years, but one thing I do know: Every time I leave, I leave smarter than when I arrived. Just in April, I heard the brilliant Hanif Abdurraqib discuss poetry, grief, family, and community with beloved Seattle writer Robert Lashley and honestly, I think it made me a better person. Abdurraqib spoke about the importance of having grace for ourselves, for forgiving our former selves for whatever it is we had to do to simply get through. I think about those words often. Town Hall’s spring calendar is stacked with intellectual superstars, too, including Alison Bechdel in May and Ocean Vuong in June. MEGAN SELING

Find Your Inner Pinball Wizard at the Seattle Pinball Museum

Chinatown–International District

Twenty-three bucks gets you unlimited play at the Seattle Pinball Museum, and its 50-plus pins spread the wealth between historical relics, flashy ’80s tables, and the modern-day pinball resurgence. I recommend the rock ‘n’ roll table playlist: Guns N’ Roses, KISS, Wizard! (featuring the Who), and not one but two Elton John tables. The membership-based Northwest Pinball Collective also offers all-ages freeplay nights, so check their calendar for upcoming events. If you’re over 21, you have additional options with arcade bars: Jupiter Bar (Belltown), Shorty’s (Belltown), Corner Pocket (West Seattle), Add-a-Ball (Fremont), and Time Warp (Capitol Hill). SAM MACHKOVECH

Bliss Out (Or Have an Existential Crisis) in the James Turrell Skyspace at the Henry Art Gallery

University District

Light Reign was unveiled to the public more than 20 years ago, so if you haven’t spent a few moments meditating in the Henry’s permanent illuminated work, you’re long overdue. Everyone from Quakers to artists and performers have made use of the space, which the light-loving artist James Turrell designed with minimalist bench seating and an aperture-like oculus in the ceiling, revealing a hint of sky. (Though, at the moment, the dome isn’t operational and remains closed.) The Skyspace’s frosted glass perimeter is also programmed with LED lights that shift in color throughout the day. For heightened effect, Light Reign is a piece to form a relationship with—I recommend visiting once a season to see how your experience shifts. LINDSAY COSTELLO

Catch an Indie Flick at One of Seattle’s Many Art House Theaters

Various locations

Seattle is truly a bounty of riches if you’re wanting to go see a film that you likely wouldn’t be able to find anywhere else. The Northwest Film Forum (NWFF) has a whole bunch of thoughtful programming, films both old and new, and some lovely little theaters in which to experience these exciting cinematic visions. The historic Grand Illusion is currently between locations—they were forced to move from the space they held for more than 50 years after their lease ended in 2024—but they’re hosting pop-up film nights at theaters all over town as they hunt for a new home. Here-After, the smaller theater at the Crocodile complex regularly shows old favorites and the occasional new indie flick, and then there is the Beacon, which also operates with a single screen and boundless imagination, often showing films that fit week- or month-long themes. You truly can’t go wrong with any of these distinct gems. CHASE HUTCHINSON

Hunt for Happy Hot Dogs All Over the City

Various locations

His name is Yo Dawg. Or Blink-Dawg. Or Hot Dog Man, Graffiti Weenie, Highway Hot Dog, or Welcome Weiner. Whatever you call him, you’ve likely seen the smiling, dancing, waving banger in a bun throughout the Puget Sound region. He pops up on trains, behind abandoned buildings, and in the shadows of freeway overpasses. Everyone loves Blink’s friendly hot dog graffiti, and I know this because when I started mentioning to friends that I was dedicating my summer to seeking out as many hot dogs as I could, they all enthusiastically exclaimed, “I love that guy!” before offering up their favorite spots. So keep your eyes peeled as you traverse Seattle’s terrain—you never know when the Welcome Weiner will wave hello. MEGAN SELING