“The Coast Guard Art Program (COGAP) uses fine art as an outreach tool for educating diverse audiences about the United States Coast Guard. Through displays at museums, libraries and patriotic events, Coast Guard art tells the story of the service's missions, heroes and history to the public. Art is also displayed in offices of members of Congress, senior officials of the executive branch of government and other military services and at Coast Guard locations throughout the country.

Coast Guard artists—most of whom are professional artists—volunteer their time and talents to help COGAP fulfill its missions. Today, the collection comprises nearly 2,000 works which are primarily paintings. These capture the daily missions the 40,400 men and women on active duty in the Coast Guard perform, including homeland security, search and rescue, marine environmental protection, drug interdiction, military readiness and natural resource management. Other works depict sea and air assets.”

The works of art curated for this exhibition focus on the missions and lifesaving actions of the U.S. Coast Guard in the Pacific Northwest; though while viewing, visitors may notice paintings depicting Coast Guard scenes from all over the globe!