SEATTLE, WASHINGTON.- The Frye Art Museum, Seattle’s "Jewel on the Hill," today set an annual attendance record. Buoyed by enthusiastic public interest in the only West Coast showing of An Imperial Collection: Women Artists from the State Hermitage, on loan from the Hermitage’s art collection in St. Petersburg, the Frye saw its 102,538th visitor pass through its rotunda doors. The previous mark was set in 2001. 

The record-setting visitor is seven-year-old Anna Crabtree of Bellevue, who accompanied her Russian-born mother Svetlana and younger sister to see the Imperial Collection. Lorea Sather of Bellevue, a long-time Frye Art Museum member and Crabtree family friend, brought them to the museum.  

Board of Trustees President Richard Cleveland presented a gift basket and gift certificates to Anna and her family. "I think it’s wonderful that the record-breaking visitor is accompanied by a long-time supporter of the Frye," said Debra Byrne, Interim Executive Director and Director for Curatorial

Affairs and Exhibitions at the Museum. 

The record attendance mark arrives on the heels of another major milestone for the museum. In August the Frye received word that it had been accredited by the Association of Art Museums, an important distinction granted to only 750 of the nation’s 16,000 museums.

The Frye Art Museum, "The Jewel on the Hill," acquires, preserves, exhibits, and interprets visual art of the highest quality, celebrating the grand tradition and contemporary practice of representational art, with an emphasis on painting and sculpture from the nineteenth century to the present. Recognizing that art is not limited by geographical boundaries, the museum will include works by regional, national, and international artists in its collections and present them in exhibitions. As a visual arts institution, the museum is committed to stimulate, challenge, and educate the community in all that it does. In the belief that art should be accessible to all who wish to enjoy it, admission to the museum shall be free to the public at all times. The Frye Art Museum is accredited by the Association of Art Museums.