Norie Sato (born July 19, 1949) is an artist living in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

. She works in the field of

public art Public art is art in any Media (arts), media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and phy ...

using sculpture and various media–including glass, terrazzo, plastic film, stone, and metal–and often incorporating lighting effects, landscaping, mosaics, prints, and video. She frequently collaborates with architects, city planners, and other artists and specializes in integrating artwork and site specific design.Norie Sato at historylink.org
/ref>

Life

Sato was born in

Sendai, Japan is the capital city of Miyagi Prefecture, the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,091,407 in 525,828 households, and is one of Japan's 20 designated cities. The city was founded in 1600 by the ''daimyō'' Date ...

and moved to the United States with her family when she was 4. After spending some years in Michigan she graduated from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

with a

Bachelor of Fine Arts A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students for pursuing a professional education in the visual, fine or performing arts. It is also called Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA) in some cases. Background The Bachelor ...

Printmaking Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed techniq ...

in 1971. She moved to Seattle in 1972 and received her

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

degree in Printmaking and Video from the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

in 1974.Iowa State University: Art on Campus Program: Norie Sato, About the Artist
/ref> Since that time she has lived and worked in Seattle and has been involved with public art.

Work

Sato has managed, designed, and contributed artwork to urban infrastructure projects, parks, universities, aquatic centers, galleries, museums, transportation systems, airports, libraries, and other civic structures. She has worked extensively in light-rail public-art projects in Phoenix, Portland, Tempe, Salt Lake City, and particularly her native Seattle where she was hired by

Sound Transit Sound Transit (ST), officially the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority, is a public transit agency serving the Seattle metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Washington. It operates the Link light rail system in Seattle and Tacoma, r ...

for its Link Light Rail project in 1998 as a system artist collaborating with fellow artists

Dan Corson Dan Corson (born 1964) is an artist living in Hawaii and is a former member of the Seattle Arts Commission. He works in the field of public art, creating large-scale, concept-driven works installed in urban environments including in parks, railway ...

Sheila Klein Sheila Klein is a sculptor and public artist living and working in Bow, Washington and Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her practice straddles the worlds of architecture, sculpture, installation and traditional women's crafts. She is particularly noted for ...

, and

Roger Shimomura Roger Shimomura (born Roger Yutaka Shimomura in 1939 in Seattle) is an American artist and a retired professor at the University of Kansas, having taught there from 1969 to 2004. His art, showcased across the United States, Japan, Canada, Mexico, ...

.''Longtime light-rail artist Norie Sato is ‘curator’ of Link station art''; Seattle Times, July 11, 2009
/ref> ;Selected works * Seattle Light Rail system at

Columbia City station Columbia City station is a light rail Metro station, station located in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington. It is situated between the Othello station, Othello and Mount Baker station, Mount Baker stations on the 1 Line (Sound Transit), 1& ...

* The Reflection Room at San Diego Airport * Romare Bearden Park in Charlotte, NC *

San Francisco International Airport San Francisco International Airport is an international airport in an unincorporated area of San Mateo County, south of Downtown San Francisco. It has flights to points throughout North America and is a major gateway to Europe, the Middle E ...

* Port of Portland headquarters in Oregon * Palmer Human Development and Family Studies Building at

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the n ...

* Spirit of Inquiry sculpture at University Drive and Rural Road Metro Station - Tempe AZ * Artwork for

Chisholm Trail Parkway The Chisholm Trail Parkway is a toll road operated by the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) in Tarrant and Johnson counties connecting the central business district of the city of Fort Worth at Interstate 30 to US 67 in Cleburne. The par ...

in Fort Worth * Artwork for Waterfront Seattle's Union Street East-West Connector (in progress)

Awards

Shortly after moving to Seattle, one of Sato's prints won a first prize at the 1973 Pacific Northwest Arts and Crafts Fair. She was awarded

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

Fellowships in 1979 and 1981. She received the 1983 Betty Bowen award, the 199
The National Terrazzo and Mosaic Association
Honor Award, the 2013 Twining Humber Award from Washington State

Artist Trust Artist Trust is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to supporting Washington artists working in all creative disciplines. Artist Trust provides artists the time and resources necessary to prosper. Since 1987 it has invested over ten million dol ...

, the 2014 Public Art Network Leadership Award from

Americans for the Arts Americans for the Arts is a nonprofit organization whose primary focus is advancing the arts in the United States. With offices in Washington, D.C., and New York City, with more than 50 years of service. Americans for the Arts is dedicated to rep ...

,Americans for the Arts: Norie Sato
/ref> and the 2014 Washington State Governor's Arts and Heritage Individual Artist Award.University of Michigan Stamp School of Art & Design: Norie Sato Awarded
Sep 27, 2014 Sato served on the Visual Arts Advisory Panel for the NEA in 1983.Annual Report of the NEA 1983
/ref> She is a former member of the

Public Art Network Council and a former commissioner of the Seattle Design Commission. Americans for the Arts: Recipients Named in the 2014 Annual Local Arts Leadership Awards
May 1, 2014

References

External links

Official web site
for Norie Sato
Museum Without Walls: List and location of works by Norie Sato
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sato, Norie People from Sendai Artists from Seattle University of Washington School of Art + Art History + Design alumni Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design alumni American artists of Japanese descent 1949 births Living people Japanese emigrants to the United States 20th-century American women artists 21st-century American women