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Larry May (#1) chats with Nancy Rignel
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Nancy Rignel, Executive Director of the Bellevue Art Museum was energized over the prospect of a new facility to house its
activities and displays. From a meager beginning in 1946, when the Crabapple Restaurant provided display of art by local artists and helped sponsor the first Arts and
Crafts Fair in 1947, the Bellevue Art Museum has grown along with the Fair. And now, in the year 2000, the former Pacific Northwest Arts Fair will become known as the Bellevue Art Museum
Fair and be the Museum’s largest public program and fundraiser.
In a building formerly occupied by Reed’s Funeral Home, the Bellevue Art Museum opened in the early 1960’s and was then offered space in a newly
remodeled Bellevue Square in 1980, it’s home until now, as plans take shape for a new, modern facility to house its many programs. Located on Bellevue
Way, nestled next to the N.E. 6th Pedestrian Corridor, the building will open in January 2001. With 36,000 square feet, the BAM will boast three main
galleries, four classrooms, five outdoor terraces, and auditorium seating for up to 100 people, an expanded Museum store, a café and two levels of
underground parking. The project cost $23 million and the campaign to fully fund the construction continues.
“This will be Bellevue’s community gathering place,” said Rignel. The groundbreaking happened in September of 1999. BAM will make quite an impact on downtown Bellevue and throughout the Eastside.
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