Another great attraction in Seattle is the EMP Museum, which focuses on popular art and music.
The museum, housed in a building designed by Frank Gehry, covers topics spanning modern music and popular culture.
The photo above is in the first display in an exhibit on the emergence of punk and grunge, focusing on Nirvana. The guitar is a Mosrite Gospel, played by Kurt Cobain during the Seattle show in which the song Smells Like Teen Spirit was performed publicly for the first time.
Other parts of the exhibit include such seminal artifacts as Nirvana’s first demo tape and the original photo that would become the cover art for Nevermind.
It’s a fascinating journey through the first days of the Pacific Northwest punk/grunge scene, all the way through its popularization and its acceptance by mainstream media.
Nearby are a historical guitar gallery and an exhibit on Jimi Hendrix.
Elsewhere in the museum are exhibits on horror movies, science fiction and the art of video games, the museum’s newest installation, whose opening I missed due to timing, unfortunately.
If you’re in Seattle for a visit (and especially if you call Seattle home), do make time for this museum.