At 100, Seattle’s Henry Art Gallery Is Reopening the Future

When the Henry Art Gallery opened on the University of Washington campus on February 10, 1927, its founding collection consisted of 172 works donated by Seattle businessman and philanthropist Horace C. Henry. A century later, the museum holds nearly 30,000 objects, has established an international reputation for contemporary art, and is preparing a yearlong anniversary celebration that looks as much toward the future as it does toward its past.

The Henry will close from January 5 through February 19, 2027, to prepare for its centennial, then reopen to the public on Saturday, February 20. Major anniversary celebrations are scheduled for Friday, March 5, and Saturday, March 6, with exhibitions, installations, and additional programming continuing through the year. The museum has also announced plans for a new name and visual identity and, later in 2027, a new website.

The anniversary is a milestone for Washington cultural history. The Henry was the state’s first public art museum, and it established a willingness to challenge artistic conventions almost immediately. During its opening year, it introduced audiences to works by the Blue Four, Lyonel Feininger, Alexej von Jawlensky, Wassily Kandinsky, and Paul Klee, when European Expressionism was still considered daring in the region.

A hundred years later, experimentation remains the governing idea. Its centennial program places nineteenth-century landscapes beside early electronic media, considers how today’s technologies reshape bodies and identities, transforms a stairwell into a work about belonging, and prepares to bring a celebrated light installation back into use.

February 20: A Reopening Built Around Two Centuries

The public reopening on February 20 will introduce three major centennial projects at once: The Henry Collection at 100, Invention into Existence, and Amir H. Fallah: A Declaration. Together, they turn the museum into a conversation between a century of artistic history and questions the next century may have to answer.

The Henry Collection at 100, on view in the upper-level galleries through August 2027, returns to the institution’s original 1927 building for a fresh look at the permanent collection. Rather than arrange the objects as a simple chronological march through art history, the exhibition draws connections across subjects including representation, national mythology, image culture, cross-cultural exchange, technological change, and queer and feminist embodiment.

Visitors will encounter Winslow Homer’s 1870 painting An Adirondack Lake, a work from the founding collection, in conversation with nineteenth-century landscape photography. Robert Rauschenberg’s monumental 1967 lithograph Booster will be paired with early computer and video work by Seattle artist Doris Totten Chase. 

Other selections include Indian-subcontinent textiles connected to Elizabeth Bayley Willis, archival photographs from Fred Lonidier’s Draft Resistance Seattle, and Isaac Julien’s three-channel video installation The Long Road to Mazatlán (1999), presented at the Henry for the first time.

On the lower level, Invention into Existence is scheduled to remain on view through February 2028. Bringing together nearly 20 artists and approximately 30 works, including new commissions, it examines the hopes and unease surrounding the technologies through which people increasingly understand themselves and the world. 

The exhibition takes its title from Frantz Fanon’s writing and considers three interconnected areas: the systems that define knowledge, the body as a site of technological construction, and the extraction of resources that supports technological development.

Its announced artist roster includes Morehshin Allahyari, American Artist, Stephanie Dinkins, Jes Fan, Matthew Angelo Harrison, Tishan Hsu, Maya Jeffereis, Kite, Amor Muñoz, Rashaad Newsome, Berenice Olmedo, Mimi Ọnụọha, Sondra Perry, Sarah Rosalena, Bogosi Sekhukhuni, Stephanie Syjuco, and Paul Vanouse. Several participants will make their Pacific Northwest exhibition debuts.

The opening also introduces A Declaration, an immersive installation by Los Angeles-based artist Amir H. Fallah. The commission will occupy the central stairwell connecting the museum’s three levels, beginning a new series of artworks conceived specifically for that architectural space. 

Fallah combines an enveloping mural of layered images with sculptural presentations and video collages. In the videos, people silently mouth the words “I am an American,” turning a simple declaration into a consideration of memory, inheritance, mythology, and who gets to claim belonging.

The result is a reopening in which the passages between exhibitions carry meaning of their own. Visitors will encounter art not just on the walls but within the connective spaces of the museum.

March 5–6: The Centennial Celebration

The institution’s actual 100th birthday falls on February 10, but its two-day centennial celebration is scheduled for March 5 and 6, 2027. The Henry has confirmed those dates, although individual activities, start times, performers, and reservation arrangements for the anniversary weekend have not yet been announced. Additional centennial programming is planned throughout the year.

The separation between anniversary date, reopening, and celebration creates several opportunities to experience the milestone: the February 20 opening of the major installations, the March gathering, and subsequent visits as special exhibitions and public programs develop.

The Return of a Skyspace

Among the centennial projects is the conservation and return of Light Reign, the permanent Skyspace installation by James Turrell. Unveiled in July 2003, the work uses architecture, atmosphere, and changing light to alter the experience of looking at the sky. The museum says the restored installation will again illuminate the sky at sunrise and sunset, returning a defining work to the University of Washington campus.

Light Reign has also served as a setting for meditation, performances, and quiet gathering. Its restoration is significant because the museum is not simply commissioning new work for the anniversary; it is renewing an experience already woven into the cultural life of Seattle. The Henry has not yet announced a specific public reopening date for the Skyspace, which remains listed as temporarily closed during conservation.

More Exhibitions and Events Across 2027

Beyond the newly commissioned centennial presentations, exhibitions that opened in 2025 and 2026 are scheduled to carry into the anniversary year, broadening the range of works visitors can encounter once the building reopens.

“Every Picture Somewhat of an Experiment”: Helen Frankenthaler Prints runs through April 25, 2027. Drawing on prints and proofs acquired through the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation’s Prints Initiative, the exhibition follows the painter’s decades of experimentation with etching, lithography, silkscreen, and woodcut. Two works by contemporary artist Analia Saban extend the discussion of material, process, and technological possibility.

Joiri Minaya: To Hell with Hibiscus continues through May 2, 2027. Using textiles, imagery, and installations, Minaya challenges exoticized representations of tropical places and people and explores connections between colonial histories, the Caribbean, and the Pacific.

Charlene Liu: Scallion, a mural in the Sculpture Court, is scheduled through July 2027. Liu combines food-inspired imagery, decorative pattern, and cultural references to explore migration, memory, and belonging. The museum currently notes maintenance-related access limitations for the court; 2027 access should be checked before visiting.

Outside the museum, Tishan Hsu’s screen-skin field: Seattle (Henry Art Gallery) will remain on the exterior façade through January 2028. Its imagery merges biological and digital forms, making the museum’s outer surface another site for asking how technology changes human experience.

The Henry’s reach also extends to Volunteer Park, where Chloë Bass: Soft Services is scheduled through August 2027. The off-site commission comprises fourteen inscribed stone benches across the park and two additional sculptures outside the Henry. The public artwork considers attention, care, memorials, and the uses of shared space.

One already scheduled public program brings Analia Saban to the Henry auditorium on Thursday, April 22, 2027, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Part of the museum’s Art Fwd lecture series, her talk will examine unconventional approaches to artmaking, including unweaving paintings, laser-burning materials, and using digital tools to reimagine established media. The program is co-presented with the University of Washington School of Art + Art History + Design and includes an audience question-and-answer session. The Henry says reservations will open in early March 2027.

A New Identity for a Second Century

The institution also plans a new name, brand identity, and website as part of its centennial transformation. Specific details of the identity change have not yet been published. The announcement nevertheless points toward a broader institutional ambition: to present the Henry not only as a place to see contemporary artwork, but as a museum where art, science, technology, history, and public conversation meet.

There is a fitting tension in that vision. A museum founded to preserve a private collection is celebrating its first century by asking how collections should be reinterpreted, who controls the stories they contain, and what new artistic forms may still emerge. The Henry has spent a hundred years making room for ideas that did not always have an obvious place. Its next chapter starts by making room for more.

The Henry Centennial: 2027 Dates to Know

Planning a Visit

The Henry is on the University of Washington campus near 15th Avenue NE and NE 41st Street in Seattle. General admission is free. Its posted regular hours are Thursday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Friday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; it is normally closed Monday through Wednesday. The museum is reachable from the U District light-rail station and the University of Washington station. Hours, access to individual installations, and arrangements for the March centennial weekend may change during the anniversary season.

Official information: Centennial announcement • Exhibitions • Programs & events • Hours and admission