On Jan. 5, the downtown location of the Seattle Art Museum will close its doors. It's only a temporary closure (the original 1991 museum structure needs to be connected to its new, much larger annex space) and SAM's original space in Volunteer Park (now the Seattle Asian Art Museum) will act as the museum's main space until the downtown location re-opens in the spring of 2007.

Still, even with the knowledge that SAM will come back bigger and better, it's hard not to feel a tinge of loss, and perhaps even entertain an abbreviated and urbane riff on the Five Stages of Grief. ("SAM can't be closing. Someone would have told me, dammit. Maybe if I sent them my membership check ... aw, forget it. It's too late. Guess I'll just watch more TV.")

SAM feels your pain, man. And on that note, the museum is holding a "Last Bash" on Wednesday, Jan. 4, just to ease your suffering. There'll be live music by Central Services, Math and Physics Club, and Plan B, a DJ set by Queen Lucky, and a midnight toast to the glory that was SAM and the greater glory promised by the new SAM. If you have any kind of feelings for the old space — or if you enjoy watching rich art patrons gamely attempting to boogie down — the Seattle Art Museum would love to host you one last time before it goes into hibernation.

See you around, SAM.

Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company