Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre launches "Connecting the Dots," a celebration of visual art in conjunction with Sunday in the Park with George

The 5th Avenue Theatre, Seattle's premier home of musical theater, is pleased to announce the Connecting the Dots program, a unique effort to highlight the work of Seattle's visual artists through commissioned work, public forums, gallery receptions, museum partnerships and artists-in-schools programs, all focused on the Georges Seurat masterpiece "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte."

Seurat's painting was the inspiration for SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE, the Pulitzer-prize winning musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, which explores what it takes to create a masterpiece-and what it costs to love an artist. This production opens April 21 and is helmed by Olivier- and Tony-nominated director Sam Buntrock, who brings his design team to the stage of The 5th to recreate the astonishing computer animated projections that stunned audiences and critics in London and New York.

With Connecting the Dots, The 5th reaches out to the artists and patrons of the visual art community to explore how contemporary Seattle artists deal with the cost-in time, money, and personal life-of creating art.

In 2008, the Theatre commissioned six local artists, Michiko Tanaka, Leslie Stoner, Eric Olson, Deborah Bell, Amy Johnson and Sheryl Westergreen to create original works inspired by Seurat's masterpiece. The canvases and sculpture of these six artists are featured at Seattle's Benham Gallery through the run of the show and during the upcoming Gala- A Night at the 5th-the pieces will be auctioned off, with half of the money raised going to the artists.

In addition, Connecting the Dots is sponsoring a series of pre-show receptions at various galleries within walking distance of the Theatre. These events take place every Tuesday-Saturday through the run of the show from 5:30 to 6:30, and offer our audiences the relaxed experience of viewing contemporary art over wine and light snacks, as well as learning about how Seattle's galleries interact with the larger artistic community.

The 5th Avenue also has partnerships with several Puget Sound museums, including SAM, Bellevue Art Museum, Tacoma Art Museum, Museum of Glass, and the Henry Art Gallery, to provide museum patrons an opportunity to purchase tickets to the show, with a portion of each ticket going back to the museum. Other programs include artist-in-school classes focused on the Seurat painting, a "Color and Light" exhibition featuring student art pieces, a Town Hall public forum on the state of Seattle art, a book club led by the 5th's Producing Artistic Director David Armstrong, and a tour through the Olympic Sculpture Park with Armstrong and Marisa Sanchez, Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art.