Mind Games Opening Reception

Traver Gallery is pleased to present Mind Games, a special exhibition examining the life, work, and ideas of Don Scott (1932-1985). Curated by Bill Traver and Sheila Farr, the exhibition will be celebrated with an opening reception on Saturday, February 7, from 3 to 5pm, in Traver Gallery’s temporary second-floor exhibition space.

Don Scott was a formative figure in the Seattle arts community from the early 1960s until his death in 1985. A gallery owner, teacher, artist, and independent thinker, Scott helped push the city toward a more experimental, idea-driven art culture.

The exhibition brings together graphic design projects, neon, limited-edition boxed books of visual and verbal poetry, exhibition posters, paintings, and key works from Scott’s benchmark series. The show features work from the artist’s collection, with additional loans from Anne Focke, Pennie Pickering, and Richard Hines.

While an undergraduate at the University of Washington, Scott organized Seattle’s first “happening” at the Seattle Center and worked as a curatorial assistant at the Seattle Art Museum. After graduating in 1963, he opened Scott Gallery, which quickly became the most progressive gallery in the region. Alongside exhibitions of artists such as Leo Kenney, Frank Okada, Margaret Tompkins, and Spencer Moseley, Scott staged interdisciplinary events that combined experimental film, jazz, chamber music, theater, poetry, and performance. Though the gallery lasted only two years, its influence was outsized.

Scott went on to teach design and art history at Cornish College of the Arts, where his unconventional assignments and insistence on critical thinking left a deep impression on his students. When Scott resigned following a dispute with the administration, several students, including Bill Traver, paid Scott’s tuition so he could enroll as a student and continue