Get an inside perspective on the retrospective exhibition on view at Seattle Art Museum (SAM) Seattle as Collector: Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs Turns 40. City Curator and Collections Manager Deborah Paine will present a talk at 11 a.m., Friday, Oct. 7, at SAM’s Plestcheeff Auditorium. The talk is free to seniors and SAM members; others pay museum admission.

Seattle as Collector celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs and showcases artworks spanning four decades from the city’s Portable Works Collection. Featured are 112 artists, including Northwest luminaries Jacob Lawrence and Guy Anderson, and artworks in a variety of media, including paintings, photographs, sculptures and textiles. Paine will discuss the artworks in the exhibition, tell some humorous back-stories, and talk about how the city purchases and collects works. She will also highlight some of the permanently sited artworks in the city’s public art collection.