Front and Centered

Professional goalie Kim Sass wants fans to put themselves in her skates and pads this weekend at Kraken Community Iceplex. Not literally but, more importantly, emotionally.
Invited by the Kraken and Starbucks, Sass is in town this week with an 11-piece "Behind the Front" exhibit of paintings, art installations and video intended to raise awareness about the positive and negative experiences for female players at the professional level of hockey. It's a must-see advocacy art show for Seattle's hockey community to inform all of us about the state of women's professional hockey and what we as fans and citizens of the sport can do with that knowledge.

"The whole show aims to spark a needed conversation about what it takes for true equity in the sport," says Sass, who won a National Women's Hockey League (NWHL) championship in 2018 and currently is part of the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA). "The exhibit uses art to question what women players go through. One example is we had to pay for our championship rings. No one knows that."
The four-day exhibit opens Friday and runs through Monday at Kraken Community Iceplex. Hours are 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., admission is free and will be easily accessible. The don't-miss, take-your-team-or-loved-ones-through exhibit is part of the Kraken's month-long programming in March to mark Women's Equity Month.
Sass' paintings include one focusing on the aforementioned championship ring among other striking pieces. As an architect who specializes in interior architectural design - yes, women's pro hockey players hold second jobs to make a livable wage - the physical layout of the space at the Kraken's training center in the Northgate neighbor will be equally striking. It features both a "front" entry to celebrate the "positive images of playing pro hockey that is portrayed to the public" and a "back" section to explore the inequities.
"As female athletes, we often hear the criticism, 'Just be grateful for the opportunity to play,'" Sass said. "I would often question if those critics knew the extent of our opportunity to play. The reality in the locker room was that my teammates would laugh off our negative playing conditions, because the alternative was to cry."
When Sass refers to "true equity," she means female pro hockey players are "afforded the same opportunities as male counterparts related to facilities, training, staff, equipment and a living wage so we don't have to hold down other jobs."
She says the PWHPA is not asking to match men's NHL salaries but salaries that equate to a full-time job that doesn't require second jobs nor compromise training year-round. The access to resources is a gap critical to establishing gender equity in professional hockey.
Sass says she hopes to prompt "honest conversations" about true equity while fostering public, corporate and private support for and interest in the sport to directly improve resources for female pro players.
There will be an auction for an original Kim Sass painting and print artwork sales. Ten percent of all sales will be donated to the Women's Sports Foundation, which was started by tennis legend Billie Jean King, who serves as advisor to the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association.
As a fine arts and geography major at Colgate, Sass says she "always wanted to my own full art show" but deferred the dream in part because her parents encouraged her to pursue a more "stable career" and, second part, her stellar play as a Division I goalie attracted the interest of NWHL teams. While playing pro hockey, she earned a master's degree in architecture at the University of Buffalo and, not surprisingly, found a way to blend art and architecture in her thesis project.
Playing in the NWHL, Sass says her emotions were "boiling over" at the inequity between the men's and women's pro hockey. She started thinking about ways to raise awareness about the inequities, but was determined to find "a positive approach that can convey our experiences [in women's pro hockey] to spark a social discussion."
In a genius move, Sass turned to her art as the method. Visitors to the exhibit will view a painting depicting the joy of winning a pro hockey champions alongside an installation that compares the typical lockers of an NHL player and female pros (one case in which Sass is trying to put you in her hockey physical parameters). There's lots more to see, enjoy and think twice about.
"I wanted to include installation pieces in which people can picture themselves in space and situation, such as comparing locker room facilities," says Sass. "I am thankful for my architecture background to create three-dimensional space."
Sass says she is looking forward to meeting Seattleites during the week of installation and exhibit.
"The Kraken have opened up everyone's eyes to inclusion," she says. I'm happy for the opportunity to install the exhibit at their training complex.
On the first night of the exhibit, the Kraken will host "Power Panel: Women of Hockey," presented by Starbucks on Friday, March 18 at 7 p.m. at Kraken Community Iceplex on the Starbucks Rink. Panelists include Alex Mandrycky, director of strategy and research for Kraken Hockey Operations; Renee Hess, Black Girl Hockey Club founder; Fiona McKenna, business intelligence analyst; and Kendall Tyson, vice president of strategy and business intelligence for the Kraken.
Fans can extend the hockey gender equity conversation and the upcoming exhibit by following Sass Studio on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, and using the hashtags #sassstudio #behindthefront #btf.