SAM's Busy, Busy 2010 Schedule

The Seattle Art Museum laid out its exhibit plans for the next couple of years, beginning with its October blockbuster, "Picasso Masterpieces." The national Picasso museum in Paris is undergoing renovations so they're sending much of the collection--Picasso's private stash, mostly--on a worldwide tour: Madrid, Moscow, Helsinki, Seattle. Seattle? Yes, indeed. "This is what we built the museum to do," director Derrick Cartwright told a press luncheon. An extremely ambitioius undertaking, 150 pieces, that requires a couple of "Presenting Sponsors" (Microsoft and JP Moran Chase) not to mention a "major sponsor" (Sotheby's) and a hotel sponsor (the Four Seasons, duh, right across First Avenue).

Cultural tourism is expected to be a windfall for the local economy. The last really big show at SAM (Van Gogh to Mondrian, in 2004) drew nearly 300,000 visitors, a third of them from out of state. The Picasso exhibition is expected to be even more of a visitor magnet.

Even before Picasso arrives, however, Kurt Cobain gets his own show. For those who remember the days of grunge and roses, it's an altogether fitting notion that Seattle's most mainstream museum would bring together works that comemorate Cobain's life, music and suffering.

There's more, much more, on SAM's schedule. Read the whole lineup here.