01
Seattle means Seattle.
The first edition covers physical destinations inside the legal limits of the City of Seattle. It excludes Bellevue, Mercer Island, Shoreline, Burien, White Center locations outside the city line, islands, and ferry-dependent trips.
Neighborhood names are visitor vocabulary, not legal boundaries. They help people group an outing; the municipal boundary controls inclusion.
02
Different spaces, clearly labeled.
We include art museums, commercial galleries, nonprofit and artist-run spaces, public and university galleries, meaningfully visitable studios, and dated temporary exhibitions.
Frame shops, incidental restaurant displays, private studios without public access, online-only dealers, permanently closed spaces, and auction houses as gallery results are outside the initial directory.
03
Official sources first.
Addresses, typical hours, appointment requirements, admission, and official links are checked against first-party venue or parent-institution pages whenever possible. Each profile displays when those visit-critical facts were checked.
When official sources disagree, the conflict is kept in the operator record. The public wording becomes conservative—never falsely precise.
04
Inclusion is not a ranking.
A listing means that a space appears relevant, visitable in some clearly stated way, and supported by current evidence. It is not an endorsement of quality, price, inventory, authenticity, accessibility, availability, or a particular exhibition.
Paid relationships will never purchase organic rank or factual inclusion. Any future sponsorship must be plainly labeled and kept separate from directory order.
05
Measurement without visitor profiles.
Art of Seattle counts site arrivals and practical actions such as searches, filters, profile opens, official-site clicks, and directions. These counts help improve the directory without pretending they represent unique people.
Arrival sources are kept only as broad categories such as Google, Bing, other search, other websites, a dedicated founder-shared link, or direct/unknown. Untagged links from email, text messages, and private messaging often belong in direct/unknown because those services may hide where the visit came from.
The application does not store IP addresses, browser fingerprints, advertising identifiers, full referring URLs, search terms, or persistent visitor IDs. Raw analytics events expire after 90 days.