Tell the story of the summer.

The Conru Art Foundation is opening three downtown Seattle buildings to the public this summer, simultaneously, for ten weeks. The 1916 Coliseum Theatre at Pike & 5th, sealed behind a retail-era drop ceiling for thirty years, will host The Coliseum of Art: fifty installations, a 30-foot LED wall, and museum-grade gallery walls programmed every night. The 1893 Lusty Lady building on 1st Avenue, locked since the club closed in 2010, is part of the loop tour. And the Occidental Fine Arts Center on Pioneer Square hosts both Beautiful Things, 1850–1950 (a century of paintings, photographs, and mechanical marvels upstairs) and The Occidental Sessions (twelve evenings of chamber music, ballet, jazz, opera, and spoken word downstairs).

Tying the buildings together is The Summer of Awe Tour: a 60-minute private CAF walking loop that starts at the Art Love Salon at 110 Union, walks down to the Lusty Lady for a behind-the-scenes look at the 1893 brick walls and original peep-show booths, then up Pine Street past Pike Place Market to the Coliseum, where guests climb an original spiral staircase to the upper balcony, gilded-plaster ornament at hand height. The tour ends inside the show.

This is, the foundation believes, the largest temporary opening of locked Seattle buildings in a generation. Pride opens the season; the FIFA World Cup brings the world. Public admission to all three exhibitions is free.