Arrive curious.
Leave inspired.

Imagine a world where all of us can live healthy and productive lives. Explore our exhibitions, learn about the work of the Gates Foundation and its partners, and be inspired to take action on causes you care about.

Plan your free visit

Hours and location

Open Wednesday – Saturday | 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Public tour @ 2 p.m. | Toilet tour @ 3:30 p.m., Wednesday – Saturday

440 Fifth Ave. N.
Seattle, WA 98109

Always free

Upcoming events and tours

Explore all

Saturday Partner Stories

Saturday, February 22, 2025 | 11:30 am – 12 pm PST
Discovery Center

Inclusive Financial Services | In honor of Seattle Museum Month, we will host Saturday Partner Stories each Saturday in February, a storytelling series highlighting individuals and organizations creating meaningful change and inspiring progress in their communities!

Tour guide points our objects to guests in the Discovery Center
Visitors enjoy a guided tour during the annual Giving Marketplace at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Discovery Center in Seattle, Washington, on December 1, 2023.

AI for Good: How can AI help our food systems?

Friday, February 28, 2025 | 5 – 7 pm PST
Discovery Center

Explore, create, and mingle with AI experts at this Discovery Center experience! Find out how AI tools are creating more inclusive systems for small holder farmers and see how AI can help us all become better food citizens.

Maria Mtele holds recently harvested orange-fleshed sweet potatoes in a field in Mwasonge, Tanzania. Maria is a mother of 5 and farmer in Tanzania who relies on farming for food and income. Through a local agricultural program, Maria learned about a new crop of orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, specifically bred to thrive in sub-Saharan Africa. They taught her about soil irrigation, crop multiplication, and how to get her crops to market. She is now a leader in her farming group and teaches others what she’s learned. Maria increased her families’ income and she is using this new income to build a new, sturdy home.

International Women’s Day: Stories of Strength

Wednesday, March 5, 2025 | 5 – 7:30 pm PST
Discovery Center, Online

Program in French with English translation | Join the Gates Foundation Discovery Center and Gates Foundation’s Employee Resource groups for an inspiring conversation with Djaïli Amadou Amal, a renowned Cameroonian writer, activist, and UNICEF Ambassador, moderated by Sybil Chidiac, Senior Program Officer for Women’s Economic Empowerment and Gender Equality at the Gates Foundation, to celebrate International Women’s Day.

Featured Exhibition

A Better Way to Go
Toilets and the Future of Sanitation

Explore innovations, powerful stories, toilets of the future, art installations, and visions of resilient and sustainable sanitation systems.

View the exhibition

Exhibition highlights

On view

Our work gallery

At the Discovery Center, you’ll see examples of how we work with partners around the world to fight disease, gender inequality, make agricultural innovations, and more.

A gallery shot of the "Our Work" gallery featuring visitors looking at exhibits on display in the Discovery Center.
On view

Get involved gallery

How would you change your community for the better? We share all sorts of ways you can make a difference.

Close up of the share your cause rack in the Discovery Center. Visitors can personalize a card and hang on the rack during their visit.

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