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Art Beat

Office of Arts & Culture news and events

Artists sought for temporary storefront installations

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Our office, in partnership with Shunpike, seeks up to 12 artists to develop temporary installations for 12 vacant storefronts in Seattle’s Pioneer Square and Chinatown/International District neighborhoods. The installation project, titled Storefronts Seattle, will be on display from September to November 2010.

The call is open to artists living within 100 miles of Seattle. Artwork may be in any two-dimensional, three-dimensional or new media. Artists may be selected for more than one installation and will receive $500 per installation. Application deadline is 11 p.m., Monday, July 26. Click here to link to the online application and review the call and guidelines for temporary installations.

Storefronts Seattle is a pilot program to make vacant storefront space available for creative uses in Pioneer Square and the Chinatown/International District with the possibility of future expansion to other Seattle neighborhoods. The installation project is part of a series of opportunities that include artist residencies in storefronts, where visual and performing artists can create work, rehearse and perform. For more information or to apply for an artist residency, visit Shunpike’s website.

Partner organizations for Storefronts Seattle are the Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, Seattle Chinatown/International District Preservation and Development Authority, Chinatown/International District Business Improvement Area, The Alliance for Pioneer Square and Shunpike.

Update: The number of vacant storefronts has yet to be determined.

Deadline extended for Civic Square fence art project

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The Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the Department of Finance and Administrative Services and Triad Development, Inc., seeks up to eight emerging artists to develop temporary large-scale, colorful panels for the fence surrounding the Civic Square construction site in downtown Seattle.

The application deadline has been extended to 11 p.m., June 28. To preview the call and link to the online application, click here.

Check out our June eNews

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In this issue:

Arts training an investment in our youth

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Posted by Director Michael Killoren

The arts are a powerful tool for inspiring our young people. Arts training encourages creative thinking and instills self-confidence – important ingredients for cultivating Seattle’s next generation of engaged citizens.

For this reason, I’m pleased to announce the City will invest $200,000 to help fund 31 diverse arts training projects for middle and high school youth. The grants are part of the Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs’ annual Youth Arts program, which provides training outside of school hours for Seattle’s middle and high school students. Priority is placed on serving youth and communities with little or no access to the arts.

With an average award of $6,452, it’s estimated the projects will engage nearly 5,000 young people in 24,000 hours of arts training throughout the city from September 2010 to September 2011.

The dollars will reach deep into our community. A group of youth will organize community participation in a summer mural project to revitalize their neighborhood, thanks in part to an $8,000 grant awarded to El Centro de La Raza. A $3,824 grant will help expose three dozen Native-American youth to Haida tribal traditions, including lessons in carving a canoe at the Center for Wooden Boats.

With a $4,800 award, Spectrum Dance Theater will engage teens in a dance residency linking Zimbabwean history and dance tradition to hip-hop choreography and spoken word. Arts Corps will receive $8,000 to engage hundreds of young people in a variety of art forms, including the performing, visual and literary arts. This is just a sampling of the funded projects, for a complete list click here.

The Youth Arts program speaks to the spirit of Mayor Mike McGinn’s Youth and Families Initiative, which aims to create pathways for all young people in Seattle to succeed. Art provides our youth with positive outlets, helps them excel in learning and life and offers them a vehicle to connect with their communities and other cultures in a creative way.

As May is Arts Education month, I’m especially pleased to announce the City’s investment in arts training. Recently, the Mayor issued a  proclamation observing the month and celebrating the contributions of arts educators.

Working together, we can ensure every student has access to a quality education and life experiences that include the arts.

April eNews

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Check out the April issue of the Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs eNews here.

In this Issue – April 2010

Image: Jaq Chartier, Color Chart (August) (detail), 2009, acrylic, stains, paint on wood panel, 24″ x 30″. Photo by Jaq Chartier.

Watch “Water Calling” films on Seattle Channel starting this Thursday

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In case you missed the free screenings of our Water Calling short films last summer, Seattle Channel will broadcast the films on its cable channel in a two-part series beginning this Thursday, Feb. 25. Featuring works by Seattle filmmakers SJ Chiro, Britta Johnson, Susan Robb, Luke Sieczek and Rick Stevenson, Water Calling films explore the city’s water and water resources in varying formats from a fairy-tale to Sci-fi.

Water Calling – Part 1 will air at 9 p.m. on Feb. 25 and 26, and at 11 p.m. on Feb. 27. Part I features Waterway (Britta Johnson), Water Lab (Susan Robb) and Displaced (Rick Stevenson).

Seattle Channel Video can be played in Flash Player 9 and up

Johnson’s stop-animation film follows the journey of large drops of water. Robb’s sci-fi-like images investigate the interface that tap water creates with nature and our homes. Stevenson portrays water as a healing, symbolic, life-giving and redemptive force.

Water Calling – Part 2 will air at 11 p.m. on March 4, at 10 p.m. on March 5, and at 9 p.m. on March 6. Part 2 features A Water Tale (SJ Chiro), and Space, the air, the river, the leaf (Luke Sieczek).

Seattle Channel Video can be played in Flash Player 9 and up

Chiro’s fairy-tale style film follows a young girl who is transported to an underwater kingdom. Sieczek’s film marks the passage of water from sky to soil to stream to waterway.

If you miss the TV broadcast of the films, watch the films online here.

Read more about each of the films here.

The films are part of the series Water Calling, intended to raise public awareness of environmental stewardship and Seattle Public Utilities’ (SPU) work. The projects are commissioned by the Office with SPU 1% for Art funds.

The director goes to the other Washington

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In late January, I wrapped up my tenure as president of the United States Urban Arts Federation (USUAF) at its annual meeting in Washington, D.C., which ran concurrently with the United States Conference of Mayor’s meeting. Events included annual awards for public leadership in the arts and a special award presented by the nation’s mayors to Americans for the Arts in recognition of its 50 years of service and the essential contributions that arts and culture make to the health and vitality of American cities. As part of its action agenda on arts and tourism, the U.S. Conference of Mayor’s also reaffirmed its call on the White House to establish a cabinet-level position for arts and tourism.

The first National Arts Index was released at the National Press Club. Using 76 indicators, the report collected a wide range of data over an 11-year period to track activity and chart trends in our field. The report covers both nonprofit and for-profit arts and cultural data. Not surprisingly, the arts follow the nation’s business cycle. The index fell 4.2 percentage points in 2008, reflecting losses in charitable giving and declining attendance at larger cultural institutions—even as the number of arts organizations grew. Nonprofit organizations have grown dramatically, from 73,000 in 1998 to more than 104,000 today. Yet due to declining philanthropic support, the nonprofit arts model is struggling.

The report shows demand for arts education is up, particularly among college-bound high school students. Another piece of encouraging news is the way the public participates in and consumes the arts is expanding. Personal arts creation is growing steadily (making art, playing music), yet attendance at mainstream nonprofit arts organizations is in decline.

The report also formed the foundation for a meeting of USUAF members with key House Appropriations Committee leadership, including our own arts champion Congressman Norm Dicks. I reported on the impacts of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding in Seattle and thanked the congressman for making a strong case to ensure arts jobs were included in the final stimulus package. We are hopeful that a second round of stimulus funding will also include arts jobs.

I am pleased to report Seattle will be among a list of cities that will develop a local profile of the National Arts Index in the coming year. The localized data will allow us to meaningfully compare local trends and performance against national trends. A Seattle arts index will serve as a valuable advocacy tool in addition to our own Creative Vitality Index , Arts & Economic Prosperity Report (which we have committed to update in 2011) and Creative Industries Report. All of these studies contribute to a better understanding of our cultural ecosystem and will help us better serve the field.

Sincerely,

Michael Killoren

Director

Office’s February eNews now available online

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