ABOVE: detail from Richard Serra’s Wake (2002-2003), which will be the centrepiece of the new Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park. The SAM broke ground on the new outdoor exhibition space last week.

The Seattle Art Museum put their shovels in the ground last week to start construction of their new Olympic Sculpture Park, a big new outdoor public exhibit space on a former brownfields site. The planned park is a triple threat, do-gooder wise: it’ll put important works by important artists out in a free-to-the-public venue, supposedly revitalize the neighbourhood, and detoxify a polluted vacant lot.

The Olympic Sculpture Park (not named after the bloated and corrupt international quadrennial sporting monstrosity, it turns out, but after the Olympic Mountains, which can be seen from the site) will include works by Richard Serra (see above), Alexander Calder, Teresita Fernandez, and Tony Smith. The SAM is also planning two other expansions right now—an expansion for the main musuem in 2007 and renovations to the Seattle Asian Art Museum in 2008—and raising money for all three projects. You can gape at their plans and hand over your credit cards at their cutely-named campaign website.

LINK: Seattle Art Museum Breaks Ground on the 8.5 Acre Olympic Sculpture Park [via ArtDaily]