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Plans for a Seattle art exhibit run by Amazon and Microsoft employees have been scrapped amid protests from members of the city’s art community and others on social media.
The museum, located in Seattle’s First Hill neighborhood, hosted an exhibit last week titled “Amazon vs. Microsoft.” An image posted on Instagram for the call shows Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos wearing boxing gloves.
“In total, Amazon and Microsoft employ more than 1.5 million people,” an Instagram post from MoM read. “Besides the great wealth that often characterizes these two companies, we believe that there is another alternative and equally amazing wealth of artistic talent in their ranks. As an exhibition, Amazon vs Microsoft plans to highlight and beautify the artists who work in big technology and to reshape the narrative of what a tech worker is.”
‘I believe the strongest arts ecosystem is also the most inclusive. Tech bros included.’
The museum said the call for submissions is open to employees regardless of their position at the two tech giants or wherever they work in the world. The submission deadline was August 7, and the exhibition was scheduled for October 7.
The response to the idea has not been swift and supportive, as many have seized on the idea that art is a struggling endeavor in Seattle, largely because of what tech companies like Amazon and Microsoft have done in recent years to address accessibility and affordability. Comments on Instagram include:
- “This is difficult and the responses are strange. If we give them a platform, maybe they will help us and we can start a conversation. The conversation is already there and these corporations are not interested.”
- “Big flop idea, yikes! In the year Imagine being an art museum in 2022 and promoting anyone and… do we prefer tech workers?
- “I understand there are blue-collar workers at both companies, but I’m not sure if it’s to give another platform for some of the highest earners in the city to do this.”
After three days, the idea was broken.
MOM director Greg Lundgren said in a new Instagram post on Monday that the museum is listening, the call for submissions has been canceled and “Amazon vs Microsoft” will not return.
“I believe the strongest arts ecosystem is also the most inclusive. Tech Bros included,” Lundgren wrote. “Poor, rich, common-minded and strange-minded people. Everyone.
“Seattle is becoming more expensive by the day and a healthy arts ecosystem in this city needs funding and more,” he continued. “So yeah, I tried one more time to connect the dots, the only way I knew how to make our art economy work.”
Lundgren said he heard the exhibition “isn’t a way to have a conversation about art, wealth and the cultural future of our city” and that “big tech shouldn’t be seen as the main authors of our future.” Health and vitality. “
Museum of Museums It opened in 2020 in a renovated medical building at 900 Boylston Ave. There are regular exhibition spaces, rotating installations, theatres, weekly art classes, pop-ups and a gift shop.
The museum’s mission, as stated on its website, is to “increase the number of Seattle artists and inspire our local arts ecosystem through exhibitions, education and discussion about the role of the artist, philanthropist and collector.”
Like other tech companies, Microsoft and Amazon aren’t shy about displaying artwork or displaying rooms and murals for office buildings. First launched in 1987, Microsoft’s strong art collection is managed by a team of fine art consultants.
Amazon hosts an “Artist in Residence” program designed to support the arts community by giving local and emerging artists additional exposure. The residency gives artists a resource and space to “think big, inspire and create ambitious projects.”
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