Eric Fredericksen (foreground, with Vancouver, B.C. artist/curator Jonathan Middleton) inside Julian Hoebers installation Demon Hill, shown at Western Bridge last year.
  • Courtesy Eric Fredericksen
  • Eric Fredericksen (foreground, with Vancouver, B.C. artist/curator Jonathan Middleton) inside Julian Hoeber's installation Demon Hill, shown at Western Bridge last year.
The team that's envisioning a renewed downtown Seattle waterfront now officially includes Eric Fredericksen, director of Seattle contemporary art space Western Bridge and, before that, writer for The Stranger and Architecture magazine. Fredericksen will work with lead artist Mark Dion, creator of the Neukom Vivarium in the Olympic Sculpture Park (as well as installations around the world) in conjunction with leading public art nonprofit Creative Time, based in New York.

This is great news. Fredericksen's perspective joins contemporary art, architecture, and design, and he's widely respected for being knowledgeable but never stiff. (A recent exhibition he organized in Vancouver, B.C., during the Olympics, played along with the competitive nature of the Games by emphasizing the competitive nature of group art exhibitions. It was called An Invitation to an Infiltration, and artists tried to one-up each other throughout the run, with hilarious and mischievous results.)

The only down side is that Fredericksen has to resign his position on the Seattle Arts Commission.

There's a meeting Monday (March 5) at 5:30 pm at Town Hall to talk about arts, culture, and the waterfront. Ask Fredericksen questions and hear his ideas then.