The Frieze art fair has turned 20 this week, and is only growing in its ambitions, having acquired the Armory Show fair in New York and Expo Chicago.

So what should we make of Frieze’s continuing expansion and what’s the mood at Frieze London and Frieze Masters this year? We talk to Tim Schneider, The Art Newspaper’s acting art market editor.

In Reykjavik, Iceland, the artist-run Sequences Biennial opens on Friday. A former curator of the event is Hildigunnur Birgisdóttir, who will represent Iceland at the Venice Biennale in 2024. Tom Seymour went to the Icelandic capital to talk to her about Venice, Sequences and the Icelandic scene.

And this episode’s Work of the Week is Open Window, Collioure (1905) by Henri Matisse. The painting is a highlight of the exhibition Vertigo of Colour: Matisse, Derain, and the Origins of Fauvism at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. We speak to Dita Amory, the co-curator of the show, about this landmark painting in Matisse’s career.

• Frieze London and Frieze Masters, Regent’s Park, London, until 15 October

• The Sequences Biennial, entitled Can’t See, begins on 13 October and continues until 22 October 2023

• Vertigo of Color: Matisse, Derain, and the Origins of Fauvism, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 13 October-21 January 2024; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 25 February-27 May 2024

Ever since the U.K. officially left the European Union in January 2020, the London economy seems to have lost its mojo. Its stock market succumbed its leading European position to Paris last year, and local tourist shopping is said to be on the verge of dwindling below that of Paris and Milan. Doubts of the prospect of the city’s art market are also on the horizon, particularly after last year’s buzzy launch of Paris+ by Art Basel. Some galleries have left London for new spaces in the French capital; meanwhile, two London fairs, Masterpiece and Art and Antiques Fair Olympia, canceled their events, citing Brexit.

But while Brexit—plus inflation and rising costs of living—has undoubtedly damaged the country’s art market, that reality masks another, more encouraging picture. The U.K.’s art market remains the world’s second largest, with an 18 percent share by value after the U.S., which dominates with 45 percent, according to this year’s Art Basel UBS Art Market Report.

“I believe London will remain Europe’s most important city for the art trade,” said Thomas Stauffer, art advisor and co-founder of the Zurich-based Gerber & Stauffer Fine Arts, which has long done business with the London art market. “Keep in mind that London is somehow the only ‘megacity’ or ‘global city’ in Europe.”

London has a population of 14 million including the metropolitan area, and it is also the most ethnically diverse city in the country. Its history and world-class cultural institutions provide “‘soft power’ at its best,” according to Stauffer.

Opening night of Stephen Friedman Gallery’s new London space on October 6, 2023, featuring ‘Free The Wind, The Spirit, and The Sun,’ a new exhibition by British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare. Photo credit: Mark Blower. Courtesy Stephen Friedman Gallery.

Faith in London

There’s also been a number of new galleries opening in London over the past two years, while others are expanding. Just during this Frieze week alone Alison Jacques opened a new 6,000-square-foot space on Cork Street, Stephen Friedman inaugurated its new space (also on Cork Street), London gallerist Pilar Corrias opened a new flagship in Mayfai, Tiwani Contemporary is opening its new space on Cork Street today, and Lehmann Maupin announced this week that the gallery will be opening a new pop-up location in London in 2024, in addition to its current space in South Kensington.

“London has been a cornerstone of the art market since the 18th century. Brexit has undoubtedly had an impact, but to established commercial galleries with global artists, there is minimal disruption,” said dealer Stephen Friedman, whose gallery has been in London for 28 yeare. “London goes from strength to strength and I don’t see that changing. It attracts great artists, gallerists, and collectors throughout the years and has done so historically.”

“If we look at history, London is resilient, physically and metaphorically,” said Maria Varnava, who founded Tiwani Contemporary in London in 2011. “It has one of the most established art ecosystems. Collectors always return to London to engage with galleries.” One reason, she noted, is the country’s official English language, which is the global art world’s lingua franca.

A new generation of younger gallerists are also taking their chances on London in recent years. These include East London’s Sherbet Green and Guts Gallery; Angelica Jopling, daughter of White Cube founder Jay Jopling, opened her gallery Incubator in Marylebone in April. Sim Smith, which opened doors in 2019, moved to a new space last month. The Artist Room, founded in 2021, just welcomed visitors to its new two-floor premise on Soho’s Great Chapel Street with a solo show of U.K.-based artist William Brickel. Milo Astaire, founder of The Artist Room, said the new space, also home to Plaster magazine, “will allow for ambitious presentations of works by international contemporary artists in addition to carefully curated thematic exhibitions and special projects.”

Pilar Corrias attends the Pilar Corrias Gallery Dinner in Celebration of New Flagship Gallery, Frieze London 2023 and in honor of artists Christina Quarles and Sophie Von Hellerman at Two Temple Place on October 9, 2023 in London, England. Photo by Dave Benett/Getty Images for Pilar Corrias Gallery.

Cromwell case study

A look at the statistics coming out of Cromwell Place, the art complex in South Kensington, may offer some interesting insights on the London art market. Opened in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, Cromwell Place has quickly established itself as a home base for numerous art galleries and businesses (including Artnet’s London office).

Member galleries can either rent a space for pop-up shows or operate on a long-term basis. The complex has hosted exhibitions by around 150 member galleries and partner events, such as the London Design Festival’s Brompton Design District, London Craft Week, and London Art Week. Some 62 percent of the member galleries are based in the U.K., 6.6 percent from Europe, and more than 31 percent are based internationally.

Since its inception, Cromwell Place has hosted 62 member galleries who never had a space in London before. These include the New York-based Sundaram Tagore Gallery, which opened its first London space at the complex in May with a presentation of Hiroshi Senju works. This Frieze week, the gallery is hosting a retrospective of the 1930-born American artist Susan Weil.

Artist Susan Weil (in white shirt) attends the opening of her solo exhibition at Sundaram Tagore Gallery at Cromwell Place, London, October 10, 2023. Photo credit: Harry Pseftoudis, courtesy Sundaram Tagore Gallery

“There is a two-fold perception problem reinforced by media headlines that doesn’t reflect the true health of the art market,” said Elizabeth Dellert, Cromwell Place’s chief business development officer. “The difficulties surrounding the London art market have remained focused on the financial impact after Brexit. There is indeed an added layer of paperwork and costs involved in dealing with imports and exports. However, import taxes are… the lowest in Europe.”

Dellert added that if items are brought into the country under temporary admission licenses, import duties can be deferred for up to two years, or until the items are sold. Leaving the European Union has certainly hurt London, but the city remains competitive on a global scale, especially when taking the Americas and Asia into account.

A hot spot for Asian gallerists

For Asian art dealers hoping to venture into the global market, London is still one of the best places to go. For many, a lingering familiarity with London stems from Britain’s colonial rule of Hong Kong, which was culturally influential in the region throughout the 1980s and ’90s. It has also remained as a main art trading hub in the Asia-Pacific since the 1997 handover to China. As Asia’s art scene and market continue to expand, gallerists from the continent are keen to explorie opportunities beyond the region, and London, where 20 percent of its population identifies as Asian, becomes a top choice.

Asian gallerists who have recently established footholds in the U.K. capital include A.I. Gallery, which has a space in East London and also operates as a member gallery at Cromwell Place, and 3812 Gallery from Hong Kong. Beijing’s Tabula Rasa Gallery opened its London space in Hoxton in 2021.

Bluerider Art, originally from Taipei, opened its Mayfair space just last month after three years of planning. The gallery promotes primarily Western contemporary artists in its Taipei and Shanghai spaces, but in London, it aims to foster an East-West dialogue.

Bluerider Art Gallery celebrates the opening of its Mayfair space, September 2023. Courtesy of Bluerider Art Gallery.

Elsa Wang, founder of Bluerider Art, said that London’s acceptance of Chinese and Asian cultures has made it more comfortable for Asians to do business in the U.K. capital. She added that the use of the English language was also key to her decision to choose London over Paris or other European cities, and has since committed a 10-year lease for her gallery’s Mayfair space.

“Every city has its advantages and disadvantages. And because we are just a gallery, it’s sort of an affordable investment. It’s not a manufacturing factory,” Wang said. “My philosophy is, if we can afford it and plan it carefully, anytime is the right time for a long-term investment.”

Other galleries that aren’t yet committing to a permanent space are also exploring London’s art market in different ways. South Korea’s Hyundai Gallery is collaborating with Michael Werner to showcase American artist James Lee Byars and Korean artist Seung-Taek Lee, while South Korea’s Kukje Gallery is teaming up with London’s Mazzoleni to present work by Lee Seung Jio alongside Italian artist Agostino Bonalumi in London during Frieze week.

Wu Yin, Golden Time. Courtesy of Ming Gu Gallery.

London-based emerging art dealer Guming Song staged his first pop-up show under the banner of Ming Gu Gallery last month, with a mission to bring under-represented East Asian aesthetics to the Western art world. Song, who relocated from his native China and has been living in the U.K. for 14 years, opted for a pop-up model for its flexibility, with an initial plan to stage exhibitions every five months for the first two years and then scale up. “London is a well-established center for art, which has a strong ‘gravitational pull’ for a wide range of people, from the general public to serious collectors,” he said.

Meanwhile, Seoul-based gallerist Jason Haam will return to London in November for a second pop-up show titled “Karma,” featuring Jungwook Kim, Minjung Kim, Mike Lee, and Moka Lee, four Korean artists across four decades, from the 1960s to 1990s.

“London is still a top city for the arts and a center for the European art market,” Haam said. “The English-language media is also much more impactful than other languages and London is a media hub, so it’s not all just London’s art market.”

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Frieze week contemporary art sales got off to an uncertain start this evening (October 12) with two sales at Sotheby’s that told two different stories.

The more positive outcome was at The Now sale, the auction house’s fifth in the series, which was conceived to reflect demand for recent contemporary art. Estimated at £9.4 million- £13.6 million for 21 lots, it realized £15.5 million ($19 million) with 15 lots sold within or above estimates and three artists’ records set.

The relevant trajectory for this is that there were 4 more lots with a slightly higher presale estimate than last October when it was £8.9 to £11.5 million. The total was 75% up on last June, but still a long way down from the first London Now sale in March 2022 when 22 lots with a low estimate of £18 million realised £30 million.

After some criticism last year about the “nowness” of the work on offer, Sotheby’s this year offered journalists a breakdown on recent prices for the artists, highlighting that their highest prices had been achieved in the last three to five years, thus qualifying for the sobriquet, at least as far as the market was concerned. The question became whether that demand was holding up.

Despite the sale title’s implications, two works were from the 20^th century and had been at auction before. Marlene Dumas’s Spread (1999) was bought in 2003 for $141,900 (£85,200) and sold tonight for £483,000, without competition, to a third-party guarantor. While Elizabeth Peyton’s painting of the Beckhams, David, Victoria and Brooklyn (1999)—bought in 2001 for $94,000 (£65,700)—came to auction with a £1.2 million low estimate and sold for £1.7 million, realising a phenomenal 26.7% average annual growth in value over the period.

Elizabeth Peyton’s David, Victoria and Brooklyn (1999). Courtesy Sotheby’s.

Adding to the work’s appeal was surely David Beckham’s growing popularity in the U.S., where he now plays, although Sotheby’s also pointed out that seven of Peyton’s top ten auction prices have been set in the last five years. That includes her record of $2.5 million set last November at Sotheby’s New York for Nick With His Eyes Shut (2003), according to Artnet’s Price Database.

Another good return among the top lots was for Cecily Brown’s Tricky (2001), which was bought for £228,500 in 2007 by a British collector. Now, it yielded £2.6 million. Brown is currently enjoying a prestigious solo show at the Met.

The top lot was to have been Peter Doig’s contemplative By a River (2004) with an estimate of £3million/£4 million, but it was withdrawn for lack of presale interest.

Notable records did tumble, however. Those included for Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s six-and-a-half-foot portrait Six Birds in the Bush (2015) with her highest estimate yet at £1.2 million- £1.8 million, which cruised past that to hit £2.9 million ($3.6 million) which Sotheby’s proudly announced as a record for any Black British woman artist; and Mohammed Sami, an Iraqi refugee to Britain who only made his auction debut in March when he achieved £355,600 at Sotheby’s. The latest offering, Poor Folk 1 (2019) had likewise been bought from the Patrick Heide Gallery in London for around £15,000 and, estimated at £50,000- £80,000, sold for £558,500 ($686,570). Sami is represented by Lehmann Maupin in New York and Modern Art in London.

Other records in The Now sale fell for Pace Gallery’s William Monk (a double estimate £266,700) and Matt Connors, whose colourful untitled abstract composition from 2015, which had last sold in 2016 in New York for $112,000, traded hands this time to Sotheby’s Hong Kong-based director Alex Branczik for a slightly improved $156,000.

Asian competition throughout the evening was more restrained than usual and accounted for 20% of registrants, Sotheby’s said.

Making her auction debut was Stefanie Heinze, who shows with Pippy Houldsworth and Capitain Petzel, and whose surreal concoction Voyeurs’ Interfere (2016) had an eye opening £120,000- £180,000 estimate and sold for £279,400 to the same Asian phone bidder who bought the William Monk. The other debutant was Chinese artist Jiang Cheng, who has shown recently with Perrotin in Paris and Gagosian in Hong Kong, but whose portrait, Michael, was guaranteed by Sotheby’s and sold at the low estimate of £31,750.

Also guaranteed by Sotheby’s but not sold was Jordan Casteel’s painting of fellow Yale student Jonathan. Its last time out in 2019, it sold for $326,000 at Christie’s, but this time, with a covering estimate of £300,000- £400,000, there were no bids at £220,000—so now it belongs to Sotheby’s.

The market held back on Jade Fadojutumi’s large 2018 painting, Cradled, perhaps because of the estimate which was equal to highest yet for the rising artist at £400,000- £600,000, and while it sold, no one was prepared to compete with an in-room bidder who claimed it with a £390,000 offer.

An unusual loss was anticipated for a work by another rising artist, Issy Wood, whose 2020 Kinkstarter—a close-up oil on velvet of black and red leatherware—had returned to the block as part of a larger consignment from Asia, after selling at Christie’s New York in May 2022 for $478,000. But several bidders took it back to its previous level, offering £419,100 ($514,927) on a £150,000 low estimate, and maintaining a sense of equilibrium to finish out The Now sale.

The mood then shifted for Sotheby’s main contemporary sale, with its more forgiving chronological span. The auction was well-attended, attracting a crowd of U.S. dealers, advisors, and collectors who had been perusing the Frieze fair—Don and Mera Rubell, Christophe van der Weghe, Stellan Holme, and Kim Heirston among them. But they were largely inactive. The sale contained just 21 lots after five were withdrawn, and had a £39,950 million- £57,950 million presale estimate, a steep drop from last year’s £81.4 million- £106.5 million (albeit for 34 lots).

The sale total of £30.2 million ($37 million) will not lend confidence to the market. Of the lots that sold, over half (11) did so either on the low estimate or below.

The highest estimate of the sale was the £16 million to £24 million for Gerhard Richter’s 1986 red Abstraktes Bild, which the house identified as “from a distinguished European collection,” which Artnet News understands is that of the Swiss billionaire financier Urs Schwarzenbach.

The painting was bought at Sotheby’s London in February 2003 near the top estimate for £766,600. Subsequently, Richter’s 1980s abstracts—executed with squeegee and exuding luxury and wealth—became highly sought after by the likes of Roman Abramovich, who drove prices up into the eight-figure bracket.

Gerhard Richter’s Abstraktes Bild (1986). Courtesy Sotheby’s.

But Schwarzenbach’s work had perhaps the wrong association to attract bids. Last year, the financier was ordered to pay CHF160 million (£144 million) to Swiss tax authorities for avoiding import tariffs on artworks. Alex Branczik was the only staff member on the phone for the Richter in question, but did not bid. Branczik had sold the last major Richter abstract at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong to a Chinese buyer.

The second-place lot by high estimate was a small Francis Bacon, Study for a Portrait (1979). It had been on the block as recently October 2020, when it was sold by Sotheby’s in Hong Kong for the equivalent of £3.95 million. Then it changed hands again before arriving in London with a £3.5 million low estimate and a third-party guarantee. This time Branczik did buy for his client, presumably the guarantor, on the low estimate for £4.3 million ($5.3 million), the highest price of the evening.

Another swift turn-around that defied expectations was for a Yayoi Kusama pumpkin sculpture that was acquired by an Asian buyer in New York in 2020 for $2.2 million (£1.8 million). It was up again with a £2.4 million low estimate and a third-party guarantee, which it just surpassed, selling to an in-room bidder for £3 million.

Heading for a record and without a guarantee, was Frank Bowling’s sizeable Moby Dick (1981) with an unprecedented £700,000 to £1 million estimate. In line with asking prices for his best works at Hauser & Wirth since they took over management of his affairs from Hales gallery, it sold, but did not take off. A bidder paid £762,000—a record, nonetheless.

The most positive results in this sale were a double estimate £3.3 million for Andy Warhol’s pink-and-black Diamond Dust Shoes (1980) and a wall hanging, Dexterity (2021) by African artist El Anatsui, which flew over estimate to an in-room bidder for £1 million.

Martin Kippenberger, Untitled (1989-90). Courtesy Sotheby’s.

The bargain of the sale was probably an untitled streetlamp sculpture by Martin Kippenberger, which was estimated at £600,000- £800,000 and sold to a director at Per Skarstedt, Martin Klosterfelde, for £495,500.

Identifiable pricing gains were made for older generation artists such as Georg Baselitz, Donald Judd, and Philip Guston, but not huge amounts considering the seven- to 13-year periods. Other American stalwarts such as Pat Steir and Robert Ryman were selling at a loss compared to previous prices at auction, underscoring that this is a market in the throes of adjustment.

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To a backdrop of war in Gaza, Sotheby’s kicked off its Frieze Week sales with two auctions on Thursday evening (12 October) in London: the 21-lot The Now sale featuring ultra-contemporary art, followed by a 21-lot evening sale of contemporary art. While the first sale performed slightly better than expectations, the second was extremely weak.

To start with the good news. A striking portrait by Lynette Yiadome-Boakye set a new auction record in The Now sale. Six Birds in the Bush (2015) leapfrogged its estimate of £1.2m to £1.8m to make £2.95m (estimates do not include fees, results do).It was not the top lot: that was George Condo’s Multicolored Female Composition (2016), a painting that sold for a price just £7,000 shy of its £3m high estimate. One lot, Peter Doig’s By a River (est. £3m-£4m) was withdrawn and a Jordan Casteel portrait, Jonathan (est £300,000-£400,000) failed to sell. The 21 lots just topped their pre-sale target of £9.3m to £13.6m, making £15.5m (with fees).

Yiadome-Boakye’s canvas was not the only one to outperform Sotheby’s expectations: Cecily Brown’s Tricky (2001) made £2.5m, well over its estimate of £1.2m to £1.8m. More disappointing was Elizabeth Peyton’s portrait of the Beckhams, David, Victoria and Brooklyn (1999), which sold for a within-estimate £1.6m. A painting by Mohammed Sami, Poor Folk 1 (2019), vaulted past its pre-sale estimate of £60,000 to £80,000 to make £558,800. The Iraqi artist was the subject of a very well-received solo show at the Camden Art Centre earlier this year.

American buyers were active in The Now sale: a Sotheby’s spokesperson said one third of the lots went to the US, with another 20% of buyers from Asia. Despite the pound sterling having weakened against the US dollar in the last three months, the exchange rate was not a deciding factor, said specialist Alex Rotter, although this might have helped a little. However, it is difficult to draw many broad conclusions from such a small sale.

Things rapidly turned bleak after auctioneer Oliver Barker took the rostrum for the second auction of the evening on New Bond Street. The pre-sale estimate had been revised shortly before the start from an upper figure of £63.3m, a sign that some lots had been withdrawn before the auction started.In fact there were five withdrawals—works by Blinky Palermo, Mark Grotjahn, Christopher Wool, Jeff Koons and Luc Tuymans with a collective high estimate of £6.6m—leaving just 21 lots in the auction.

The real disaster was the failure of the star lot, Gerhard Richter’s Abstraktes Bild (1986), which carried the night’s highest estimate (£16m-£24m) and no guarantee. The auctioneer called for bids but it stalled at £14.5m, with none apparently visible. That took a sizeable chunk out of the sale total, which crept in at £30.1m (including fees), well under the revised target of £39.9m to £57.9m. One other lot was bought in.

After the sale, Rotter defended the Richter, saying that it was one of the best of the Abstraktes Bild series and “we had offers, but they didn’t meet the vendor’s expectations”.

“The market has changed,” he said. “We saw that last week in Hong Kong,” he added, pointing as well to the weakness of the Chinese yen, and the problems with its economy. “With everything happening in the world at the moment, it is inevitable there were some disappointments.”

The top lot in the contemporary art auction was Francis Bacon’s Study for a Portrait (1979). Estimated to bring between £3.5m and £4.5m, it had been sold in Hong Kong in 2020 for the equivalent of £4m but had changed hands twice since. Reinforced by a guarantee and an irrevocable bid, it made £4.2m.

Andy Warhol’s Diamond Dust Shoes (1980) danced to £3.3m, well over its pre-sale estimate of £1.2m to £1.8m. And a couple in the room happily carried off El Anatsui’s Dexterity (2021) for £1.07m against an estimate of £500,000 to £700,000. London’s Tate has just unveiled a huge installation in the Turbine Hall by the Ghana-born, Nigeria-based artist.

Despite these successes, the mood was downbeat as participants left the room, with one French dealer saying: “It really isn’t a surprise, this is the way things have been going for the last six months, the market is difficult.” As for guarantees, there were six in The Now sale and 12 in the contemporary evening sale, including a number for the withdrawn lots.

Compare Thursday’s night’s combined £45.6m result to last year, when the equivalent pair of sales made £97.1m. And even then, there were some last-minute jitters, with the withdrawal of eight out of 39 lots in the contemporary art sale. But the world is a very different place today than it was a year ago.

The Frieze Week auctions in London continue on Friday (13 October) with a contemporary art day sale at Sotheby’s, Phillips’s evening sale of 20th-century and contemporary art, and a double-header of evening auctions at Christie’s.

An authentic German Christmas market, cheery light displays, and holiday boat parades are just the start 

SEATTLE – It’s set to be the coziest Christmas season yet in Seattle, with the thrilling launch of the Seattle Christmas Market – sister to the Vancouver Christmas Market that’s been running annually since 2010 – as well as the return of beloved favorites like WildLanterns at the Woodland Park Zoo and a caroling competition at Pike Place Market. Find the whole lineup of events on seattleholidays.com.

 MERRIEST MARKETS 

The inaugural Seattle Christmas Market is coming to Seattle Center for a month-long celebration, November 24 – December 24. More than 60 local Seattle vendors will make up the Christmas village and marketplace at the Fisher Pavilion and South Fountain Lawn, offering an authentic European experience, from traditional food and mulled wine to handcrafted goods and live entertainment. Visitors of all ages will be delighted by the 50-foot walk-through Christmas tree with over 50,000 twinkling lights, plus complimentary rides on the Christmas Carousel and entertainment within the ski-chalet-inspired Alpen Haus. Tickets go on sale in mid-October.  

 On November 18 – 19, the National Nordic Museum will host its 46th annual Julefest: A Nordic Christmas Celebration. This event transforms the Museum grounds into a modern spin on the traditional Nordic holiday market with over 30 local artists, delicious holiday treats, and Nordic cultural performances.  

Find unique, authentic gifts from local indigenous tribes at both the United Indians Native Art Market, December 15 – 17, as well as the Duwamish Longhouse & Cultural Center Native Art Market, taking place November 24 – 26. Support local indigenous artists while crossing off Christmas gift lists with clothing, jewelry, woodworking, drums, art prints, and more. 

The 28th Annual Magic in the Market, Pike Place Market’s longest-running holiday tradition, returns Saturday, November 25 with Santa meet-and-greets, caroling, eggnog, and plenty of local goods for sale. Visitors won’t want to miss the famous Market lighting ceremony at 5:00 p.m.

JOLLY PERFORMANCES 

Rediscover Charles Dickens’ Yuletide classic “A Christmas Carol”, proudly returning for the 48th year at ACT Theatre beginning November 24

Another must-see holiday performance, George Balanchine’s “The Nutcracker” returns to McCaw Hall November 24 – December 27 to delight audiences once more, a sparkling classic for all ages

“The Nutcracker has become the most successful and beloved work in the history of ballet, and it has always been an entry point for many into this world,” said Peter Boal, Artistic Director of Pacific Northwest Ballet. “The care and commitment exhibited by our rehearsal directors, student and professional performers, and a massive team backstage, onstage, and in the orchestra pit, is part of a wondrous tradition of welcoming and introducing people of all ages and all cultures to the magic of ballet, classical music, and live performance.” 

 Catch another holiday classic on the stage with Irving Berlin’s White Christmas at the 5th Ave Theatre, November 25 – December 27. This merry and bright musical is full of dancing, laughter, and yuletide songs, based on the 1954 film.  

 Enjoy a uniquely Seattle tradition at Pike Place Market, where The Great Figgy Pudding Caroling Competition hosts local caroling teams to raise money for the Pike Market Senior Center & Food Bank. The musical holiday fun takes place December 1, from 6 – 9 p.m.  

The holiday tradition of delightful music from Seattle Men’s Chorus is also back. Revel in the nostalgia, hilarity, a Christmas conga, and an unforgettable sing-along at three Puget Sound area locations December 2 – 23. 

 There’s no place like Benaroya Hall for the holidays! Join the Seattle Symphony for Holiday Pops, featuring conductor Stuart Chafetz and vocalist-trombonist Aubrey Logan. The dazzling program is full of holiday favorites, traditional carols, and plenty of yuletide cheer, with shows December 8 – 10. 

Another rich holiday performance not-to-be-missed is Black Nativity at INTIMAN Theatre, December 12 – 30. Langston Hughes’ Gospel Song-Play celebrates the Christmas story with actors, dancers, soaring vocalists, and a rousing city-wide gospel choir.

DAZZLING DISPLAYS 

Woodland Park Zoo’s larger-than-life festival WildLanterns returns November 10 – January 14. This interactive holiday experience is unlike any in the Pacific Northwest, featuring gorgeously lit animal lanterns from pandas in cherry trees to giant flowers and mythical creatures. 

“WildLanterns is a fully immersive and whimsical holiday experience that everyone can enjoy,” said Woodland Park Zoo President and CEO Alejandro Grajal. “If you’ve joined us in the past, you know the magic and can expect to see countless new lanterns this year.”   

Winter Brilliance also returns to Chihuly Garden and Glass this holiday season. The innovative light and music experience is back for its second year starting November 24 and running through February 29, 2024.

Seattle Center Winterfest returns November 24 – December 31 with sparkling lights, amusements and spirited entertainment, including live performances, a Winter Train & Village, and the annual campus lighting display. It all culminates with T-Mobile New Year’s At The Needle, where revelers can watch the largest structurally launched fireworks and light display in North America

Argosy Cruises Christmas Ship™ Festival is back starting November 24 – December 23, offering a classic Seattle holiday celebration that has been a Northwest tradition since 1949. Board a festive ship decorated with hundreds of shimmery white lights and sail to different Puget Sound waterfront communities – around 40 in all. A live choir and reading of “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” will warm the soul, or adult guests can opt for the 21+ ugly sweater party aboard a following boat. Those who would rather enjoy shoreside can catch a 20-minute choir performance broadcast from the ship, or join the Parade of Boats Viewing Party December 8. 

The glitter of ice may surprise sports fans this winter, at the 2024 Discover NHL Winter Classic on January 1. Taking place at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park, the Mariner’s home field will transform into an outdoor ice rink, where the Seattle Kraken and Las Vegas Golden Knights will battle it out, pitting the NHL’s two newest teams against one another. 

HOLIDAY HOTEL PACKAGES 

Hotel promotions and packages will be offered throughout the holiday season, with perks like complimentary bottles of wine, gift cards for holiday shopping, and spa credits.  

“W Seattle is the city’s leading luxury lifestyle hotel and the perfect escape for the holidays,” said Greg Campbell, Director of Sales and Marketing at W Seattle. “In collaboration with incredible local partners, such as Nordstrom, First Nature Tours, local liquor partners, and Picnic Party Seattle, we’re going all out this season to create incredible events for guests and the community to enjoy.”    

More details on hotel packages are to come. Visit seattleholidays.com for further details and updates. 

Images for media use can be found here. 

About Visit Seattle
Visit Seattle has served as the official destination marketing organization (DMO) for Seattle and King County for more than 50 years. A 501(c)(6) organization, Visit Seattle enhances the economic prosperity of the region through global destination branding along with competitive programs and campaigns in leisure travel marketing, convention sales and overseas tourism development. Visit visitseattle.org.