The final program in the three-part Ripple Effect series, this presentation will revisit the recent history of contemporary art in our region, as told by those who helped shape it in the 1980s and 90s. 

Inspired by Mary Ann Peters: the edge becomes the center, join us for a discussion featuring Peters, curator Larry Reid, artist Norie Sato, and museum director Laura Millin, as they cover treasured stories of the early days of some of Seattle’s most beloved art spaces and people, and reflect on how they have shaped the present. 

Following the talk, head to The Hideout afterparty for drink specials, music, and more! (21+)

This talk is part of Ripple Effect: Northwest Contemporary Art Then and Now, a larger series of conversations centering artists practicing in the Pacific Northwest and the history of the art community that has shaped today's contemporary arts scene. Register for the full series.

About the Panelists

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Mary Ann Peters is a second-generation Arab American multimedia artist based in Seattle. Her work acts as a social and conceptual response to issues and histories in the Middle East. Through a distant but personal filter, she seeks to understand, interpret, and highlight dismissed or undermined diasporic narratives. Her work is research driven and employs painting, drawing, sculpture, and installation. She has been a practicing artist and an artist-activist for four decades. Her awards include a McLaughlin Foundation Fellowship at Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA (2022), an Artist Trust Visual Art Fellowship (2021), the Camargo Fellowship in Cassis, France (2017), the Beirut Art Residency, Lebanon (2016), the Stranger Genius Award in Visual Art (2015), an Art Matters Foundation Research Grant (2013), and a MacDowell Colony Pollock/Krasner Fellowship (2011). She is a current board member of the performance venue On the Boards and a former board member and president of NCFE (National Campaign for Freedom of Expression), a decade-long commitment focused on First Amendment rights for artists.

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Laura Millin is the Executive Director of the Missoula Art Museum (MAM) in Missoula Montana. For 35 years, Laura has dedicated herself to the museum and its vision, doing everything from steering the direction of the institution, raising money, and maintaining and expanding the museum facilities, to making soup for crowds of guests. As Executive Director, Laura has taken MAM from a small county agency living in a converted Carnegie library to an independent, thriving nonprofit in a beautiful, renovated and expanded facility. Laura moved to Missoula after spending a decade in contemporary art in Seattle, where she co-founded On the Boards, the International Festival of Films by Women, Art in Form bookstore, and the Center on Contemporary Art. She has served on the board of directors or advisors for at least a dozen nonprofits, and has received several awards for her leadership, fundraising, and community service achievements. MAM is a labor of love for Laura and represents her life’s work. She is continually rewarded by the staff and board members who make it all possible, and by the artists who enrich our lives, and says she still has more to do at MAM. Laura graduated from Evergreen State College with a bachelor’s in interdisciplinary studies.

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Larry Reid has been an advocate for visual and performing arts in the Pacific Northwest and beyond since co-founding Rosco Louie Gallery in Seattle’s Pioneer Square in 1978. He served as director of Graven Image Gallery and the Center on Contemporary Art (CoCA) and has been a curator for Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP). 

Over the course of his career, Larry has promoted countless musical, visual, and performance artists including Nirvana, Mudhoney, Sonic Youth, Einsturzende Neubauten, William S. Burroughs, Lydia Lunch, Henry Rollins, Robert Mapplethorpe, Andy Warhol, Robert Crumb, Charles Peterson, and many more. He has contributed to several books, including Pop Surrealism: The Rise of Underground Art, Edward Colver: Blight at the End of the Funnel, Tiki Art Now!, Jini Dellaccio: Rock & Roll, and Sub Pop USA: 1980 – 1987. Reid currently works as curator and events coordinator at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery in Seattle’s historic Georgetown arts community.

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Norie Sato, based in Seattle, has worked in printmaking, video, sculpture, and glass. Her long career includes many site-specific installations that strive to add meaning and human touch to the built environment. Many of her public art projects involve urban planning and design, and collaboration with architects. She has worked in universities, airports, libraries, transit, city halls, convention centers, infrastructure, and parks all over the country including Seattle, Scottsdale, AZ; Ames, IA; Madison, WI: Portland, OR; San Francisco; Miami; San Diego; for example. Her public artwork has been recognized five times by the Public Art Network’s Year in Review.