June 1, 2015, 1 – 6 p.m.
Mad Art, South Lake Union
325 Westlake Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109

A half-day exploration of cultural space issues: Where is Seattle’s Next Arts Neighborhood?

Seattle’s arts-rich neighborhoods are changing. New developments are increasing occupancy costs and decreasing the portfolio of older, smaller, more eccentric spaces. Multiple changes – in zoning, demographics, development potential, and the collective surfing of the largest, longest, broadest development wave this town has ever seen – have resulted in a potential for cultural displacement that will change the face of Seattle. Again.

Artists and arts organizations find affordable, hip, often forgotten creative new spaces in new neighborhoods, and when they do so in significant numbers The Next Arts Neighborhood is born. The City has an interest in assisting them in that search. Additionally, there is a desire to get out in front of the next arts neighborhood with tools that could assist those artists and groups, many years down the road, in resisting the displacement pressure that their own success could bring.

Where are the arts going next in Seattle? This half-day forum will attempt to find out. We’ll hear from planners, demographers, transit experts, and neighborhood representatives, in addition to commercial property brokers, artists, and arts organizations on the move. Yet again, the arts need a new neighborhood. It feels like in the past 30 years we’ve been through Pioneer Square, through Belltown, through South Lake Union, and through Capitol Hill. Where next? Come and be a part of the conversation, REGISTER HERE by Tuesday, May 26

From the creative workspace of Matthew Richter, Cultural Space Liason.