Whatcom Museum — Attraction in Bellingham

Always a great place to learn new things from the history of Bellingham. Birds from the region ( permanent collection) from Hummingbirds to Eagles,Owls, Marine species and more all perfectly preserved by taxidermist to document the species for their studies.Their photo archive containing more than 150,000 photographs of Bellingham,Fairhaven, Sehome and New Whatcom and the county ( Whatcom County) full of fascinating glass plates negative's collection of Darius Kinsey and Huntoon ( photographers of the late 1800's all the way to collection of photo journalist of the oldest newspaper The Bellingham Herald's Jack Carver collection of images and the previous photographers mentioned above just amazing, the more you dig in history the more you want to continue. Art exhibits rotating and lectures of Outstanding people like Jane Goodall and local natives history of the Pacific Northwest tribes art , culture and some even documented with photographs from the Darius Kinsey, Huntoon collection and other photographers alike. Highly recommended for 12.00 a ticket entrance near to nothing for a museum of that kind. The Children's Museum is only a block away and the Wall of Light and Eco building is an icon of modern and green roofs as an environment education. Also exhibits the beautiful art , masks, totems canoes and other pieces of local native tribes such as Nooksack and Lummi nations....never ending history for you in a set of...

On our first visit to the museum, we visited the Lightcatcher Building to see the temporary exhibition "Fluid Formations: The Legacy of Glass in the Pacific Northwest". Later we saw the exhibit "Un/Natural Selections". Since then we have seen several others. WOW. We are so impressed! Kudos to the curators for creating such impressive exhibits with truly high-caliber artworks. We're so happy to have a nice museum space in Bellingham. The Old City Hall building was interesting too, particularly the "bird room" on the 3rd floor. Really well laid out, with identification cards (rather than having the names right next to the birds) so you can quiz yourself as you learn the names of the birds you're viewing. There's a small free parking lot right next to the City Hall building; our habit is to park there and walk to Lightcatcher first, then back to the City Hall building. There's also street parking. We also were happy to see that the cafe Bar Ciccoti inside the Lightcatcher building has some good vegetarian options on their modest menu. We joined the...

Exploring this building -- Bellingham's Old City Hall -- is reason enough to visit this magnificent 19th Century landmark overlooking Bellingham Bay which now houses the museum.

In addition to their regular collection which is worthy of exploring, the museum regularly rotates the collection and attracts a variety of excellent speakers, lecturers, historians and artist.

Today, Sonoma-based painter and curator of “The Intimate Diebenkorn” (currently on exhibit at the Lightcatcher through August 19th) Chester Arnold, noted that mid-century painter, Richard Diebenkorn’s artworks “are the works of a modern master.”

Arnold shared insight and depth into the life and work of Diebenkorn at a lecture in the Museum’s Rotunda Room this afternoon (Saturday, June 23). Diebenkorn’s personal experiences, especially the Bay Area landscape surrounding him, clearly shaped his style, perspective, and career. Next stop: the nearby Lightcatcher Museum (250 Flora Street -- two...