Our History:
The First Ten Years

It began with a bright vision of creating a space to showcase stunning erotic art. A place where art that was rarely seen in mainstream galleries and museums could be celebrated, discussed and supported. We envisioned beautiful people in a beautiful place looking at beautiful art. An event at which people were free to be as open and expressive as they wanted to be.

The first Seattle Erotic Art Festival was produced in 2002 by the Sex Positive Community Center (now the Foundation for Sex Positive Culture). A jury of local artists selected hundreds of pieces of art that were enjoyed by more than 1,000 art patrons.

The Seattle Erotic Art Festival supports a vibrant creative community, promotes freedom of expression, and fosters sex-positive culture through public celebration of the arts

By 2005, our audience had tripled and we were more than just a beautiful party of sensual delights. Our art sales were phenomenal, with many pieces sold for more than their retail value, and our Festival Store became a vital marketplace for artists selling what one patron dubbed “the very best in portable erotic art.”

In many ways 2008 was the year we came of age. With a move to the historic Seattle Center Exhibition Hall, under the shadow of the famous Space Needle, we hosted a lavish one-night gala. The exhibition featured the work of Festival favorites and award winners and was enjoyed by patrons of every imaginable persuasion.

In 2009, we returned for four full days of Indulging the Senses, which included 300 works of exhibition art; thousands of small works, prints and related merchandise in our museum-quality Festival Store; the premiere of our Literary Art Showcase; three nights of dazzling performance and installation art; and our first wildly successful (and free) Sunday Open House.

In 2010, we celebrated our last year at Seattle Center. The visual art exhibition continued to see high art sales and the Festival Store showcased more merchandise than ever before. We were proud to present our first-ever stage show production, sharing the glittering story of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Perhaps most exciting of all? Tickets sold out on Saturday night to thousands of excited guests.

In 2011, we moved to a fantastic new home: Fremont Studios. The visual art exhibition and Festival Store were more successful than ever before. We featured our first Erotic Short Film Exhibition, with two unique film screenings playing throughout the weekend in an on-site movie theater. The Literary Art Exhibition flourished with popular poetry art tours and our first ever Literary Art Anthology (which sold out in the Festival Store in less than four hours!)

Additionally, the Festival began expanding beyond its annual weekend of events, reaching more people, and celebrating art in bigger and more beautiful ways. We held our first ever annual fundraiser, An Intimate Soirée at Jensen Studios. We produced our second annual Launch Party, which grew from 300 to 900 attendees. We participated in Arts Crush, a month-long county-wide arts Festival. And we concluded 2011 by producing Seduction, Seattle’s sexiest Halloween party, with over 1,500 attendees.

This is the world we are continuing to build in 2012.

Come experience an all-new Festival with us this year.