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The Burke Museum
Rating Details »
Categories: Museums, Party & Event Planning
Neighborhood: University DistrictUniversity of Washington
17th Ave NE & NE 45th St
Seattle, WA 98105
(206) 543-5590
- Hours:
Mon-Sun. 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
18 reviews for The Burke Museum
They had some neat exhibits and I really enjoyed the "free with a Husky card" aspect. Over-all, though, I found it to be a bit small and was disappointed about that. I might return when they get a new exhibit up.
What stood out: The beautiful pictures of Polar Bears and a space that was set up as a small dark room with a television at the end that was playing footage of Polar Bears being adorable. I am contemplating going back sometime when I'm bored and having that be my world for 30-60 minutes.
I went on the first Thursday of the month to enjoy the free admission to the Burke Museum. It is educational and well time spent. Today, it is not as hot (70F) but inside the museum is hot and muggy. It is quite unpleasant and I don't feel much air circulation. I don't understand why.
Parking: Expensive even it is prorated $15. If you go on a weekend day, you should be able to find a parking spot within a timely manner.
Achievement: I've learn something new today about Seattle.
Observation: On the Memorial street to the museum, I walked by a lot of Sorority housing. The exterior of the houses are trashy. So much about college life in these historical buildings. What a waste! Sigh!
My nine year old nephew loves dinosaurs. Once when he was about five be brought a rock into the house, convinced he'd found a velociraptor nest and terrified that he'd now disturbed the nest and that the momma raptor was now going to come and eat our whole family. My nephew would love the Burke Museum because it's got all sorts of fun prehistoric stuff!
Neslted cozily just inside the UW grounds it features the perfect amount of Washington state history to entertain a kid and an adult just long enough before the child starts to get restless and whiny. I would know, I was the whiny kid on my trip there with my parents this past weekend.
It has some great activity areas for the kids to play and learn in, and downstairs in a hoard of information and stuff from all sorts of native American and pacific islander tribes. $8 admission is a little steep considering the whole deal takes you about an hour, but you'll probably learn something you didn't know before about our great state and it's great people, so that might be worth it to you.
Downstairs hosts a small cafe with beverages and baked treats, nothing too serious but enough to hold you over until you can get somewhere with real food.
I likely won't be back until I have kids in the 6-10 range, any older or younger than that and they're apt to get restless, I sure did ;)
My wife signed us up as members so it is free when we want to come and visit. I have seen the permanent exhibits many times and the last few visits have been for special weekend only exhibits - the last one was on BUGS. We usually bring our 12 year old granddaughter along and come on a sunday when the parking is free.
Let me start off by saying on the first Thursday of each month it's FREE!!! And who doesn't like free?
If you're not a Paleontologist like Ross from Friends, and like me; if you've seen one set of dinosaur fossils somewhere you've seen them all. I did however see a giant sloth fossil which I'd never seen before so that was cool If I was a rule breaker I would have taken a picture for my nephew who loves sloths but I a good and didn't.
The Burke has an excellent exhibit going on right now called "The Last Polar Bear: Facing the Truth of a Warming World" which, shows how the polar bears are struggling against the change in climate. The poor polar bears are dying because of us and to help get the point across of global warming the AC was not working in the museum the day I went. So while learning about the drama that is unfolding in the Arctic I got to experience a nice case of swamp ass, it hit me just a little harder. If you have time between now and December 31 I highly recommend checking this exhibit out and you have three days left this year when it's free to see.
If you like Native American art and artifacts they have some, I don't care for it so I just walked in and walked out, I think the heat was really getting to me at this point. I'm sure it's a nice collection so you should probably check it out too.
I'm in from out of town and stopped by specifically for the coffee exhibit. It's super tiny and somewhat poorly framed -- photos and a few replicas but not much in the way of origin-stories or producer/consumer relationships. Perhaps it's a good start and something to get people thinking about their cup of coffee but I expected more from this city! The other exhibits are okay -- a brief and somewhat jumbled perspective of voices from the Pacific and a few skeletons from local fauna...but that's about it. $6 for non-UW students.
I really enjoy going to museums and the Burke is no different. You can go for a few hours and see everything in depth. It doesn't take several trips to take it all in.
I do think that the price to size ratio is a little high, but I'm a UW grad student, so my admission is free. When I went last time with my six year old, he cost more than me!
The Burke has great exhibits on the Natural History of the PNW covering artifacts, dinosaurs and the geologic formation of the area.
The Polar Bear photography exhibit is now on. I went for 20 minutes before class two weeks ago and did a speed tour. I'm planning on going back.
Love it!
I remember going to MoMa in New York and feeling so overwhelmed by the size of the museum and feeling very disappointed that I didn't get to see everything.
That doesn't happen here... I came here with my class and I was super excited because I had saw the ad of the Polar Bear exhibits. The pictures are beautiful and took my breath a way, I could spend the whole day here just in this exhibits. There's other exhibits like dinosaurs, volcanoes and Native American artifacts. Its totally worth spending your whole afternoon here and grab a bite on the ave afterwards.
The Pacific Voices Exhibit is fabulous. 17 different Pacific Rim cultures are represented through displays of costumes, art work, masks, videos, cultural scenes, music, photos, etc.
The Washington state natural history exhibit features models of dinosaurs that used to roam the Northwest.
The entrance fee seemed a little high considering the main special exhibit was still under construction.
http://www.washington....
An excellent museum for children and adults. It seems to have something to offer for both.
The life and times of Washington exhibit has all those cool things kids love like dinosaurs, volcanoes and bugs. The also currently have a small exhibit about the Giant Squid that is very interesting.
The price of admission is on the low side but the museum is also on the smaller side so don't expect to spend a whole day there.
Parking can be a pain as it's next to the university. If possible try to park on the street, its going to be much cheaper.
Some of the permanent exhibits may be awkwardly arranged within their physical space. Others are subject to some glaring examples of "value engineering", which every museum must face to some extent. However, the Burke excels in education and community outreach, two areas that are as crucial to successful museum operation as interesting and informative exhibits.
From a museological perspective, the Burke makes an outstanding effort to operate as a museum should. The curatorial and administrative staff go out of their way to reach out to diverse communities, especially among local tribal groups and seek to tell their stories and educate the public with the utmost respect.
I've spent a good portion of my life working in museums across the country and despite some issues that I won't bore you with here, the Burke Museum is pretty awesome.
Here's some little known facts about the behind the scenes research collections at the Burke Museum (note: these areas are not generally open to the public except on a few annual events...call the museum to find out when these events are taking place. Remember: less than 0.1% of a museum collection is hanging on the walls.).
http://www.washington....
1) Ornithology Collection is world famous: largest spread bird wing collection in the world, 2nd largest Tissue/DNA collection in the world.
2) Mammal Collection: the official state respository of Washington mammals. Where do the beached whale carcasses go...yes, here. Many cool conservation projects are on-going. I could go on...
3) Current temporary exhibits: REALLY COOL...the Yellowstone to the Yukon Conservation Initiative. Amazing photography. Check this out before it leaves!
http://www.washington....
http://www.y2y.net/ove...
4) Temporary exhibit: Contemporary PNW Indigenous Artists...great exhibit. Beautiful glass works, paintings, and other native crafts.
http://www.washington....
5) Permanent exhibit: Life and Times of WA: a geologic history of Washington, rocks, fossils (including Mammoths, Pleistocene Megafauna). I'm not a fan of this exhibit. Fine for the little kids, but it needs to be completely redone. A waste of precious museum space.
6) Permanent exhibit: Voices of the Pacific. A jam packed exhibit of ~20 different cultures...each culture gets one a small display. I think this ok because it's like using a postage stamp to describe a culture. No depth. There are some beautiful items in these displays.
One personal rants:
-there's an audio tape of native speakers saying 'welcome' in their various cultures. I've heard these calls soooooo many times that I fear that 50 years from now (when I have three marbles left rolling around in my head), this audio track will still be playing.
This great little museum is a real gem in the University District. We saw their exhibit on the globalization of coffee and had a great time. Admission was inexpensive and the natural history exhibits were specific to the Pacific Northwest. Plan a visit if you haven't checked it out yet.
Wow! For a small museum this exceeded my expectations. I thought it would only have a few Native American items, but it had some very amazing Native American items as well as dinosaur skeletons and other very cool stuff. I didn't even see everything, and was very impressed. I'll head back another time, for sure.
Stopped in this morning to check out the Yellowstone to Yukon exhibit and it was awesome - I have a soft spot for the Yellowstone area after living there for 3 summers. The rest of the museum proved interesting and manageable. You can see the whole thing in 2-3 hours, which is nice you don't feel like you're missing out on anything.
One of the first museums I remember visiting and I loved the history of the PNW that was displayed. Some nights the Storytellers Guild was there and would weave their magic words through the rooms. I love this place and it always has something new to see when I return.
Well, it's natural and cutlural history, and I did major in history in college, and the truth is that I love museums and this is no exception. There's nothing you can't learn here about the Pacific NW, Washington and the Pacific Rim. Plus, dinosaurs to keep the kids happy and interactive displays. Since it's on the campus go on a Sunday - the parking is free, otherwise you'll pay to park. Or, like most Seattle museums, go on the first Thursday of any month and admission is free. Free is good. So is this museum.
Really set up well, keeps the crowds moving. The Yellowstone-Yukon exhibit was amazing! It's a very casual setting and you feel like you can really take your time going through the exhibits.
