Personally, I’m really excited about this project because I believe that our office is doing great, fantastic work in our community – we’re working to make Seattle a better place to be an artist, work at a cultural organization and enjoy the abundance of art offerings our city produces. But when I started here, I didn’t feel like we were telling that story well enough. Our logo had (admittedly) been designed without much process and our name was clunky and so hard to say that most people shorted it to the acronym “OACA” (pronounced something like “o-walk-a”), which if you hear without reference sounds a bit like somebody sneezing.  

How we got to this point was confusing as well: originally we started out as the Seattle Arts Commission in 1971. In the 2000s we moved to Mayor’s Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, and then several years later Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs.  And here we are changing it again – but this time I believe we’re acting on a more strategic decision. We’re getting rid of “affairs” (no need to sound pretentious) and presenting a logo that takes it down to the basics – A & C for Arts and Culture.  We also have a new tagline, “Making Art Work,” that encompasses both what we do as well as our attitude.

While I’m incredibly proud of this new brand system for our office, at the end of the day a logo is just a stand-in for the product and service that it represents. So we’re going to get back to work supporting the artists and organizations that make Seattle a special place. I hope you keep an eye out for the new mark and if you do, let us know where you saw it and how it looks.

And if you’re talking about us in the community, I beg of you: please call us the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, or if you have to shorten it, Seattle’s Arts Office. If I never again hear “OACA,” this project will be a success.  

- Calandra Childers, Communications Manager

P.S. If  you are a partner organization looking to update your materials, you can find every possible size/color combo/file type of the new logo here.

18 artists, $137,500: The 2013 Artist Trust awards
The Seattle Times, Melissa Davis

Artist Trust, which supports Washington artists through grants, professional development and other resources, announces the recipients of the 2013 Irving and Yvonne Twining Humber Award, as well as fellowships in a variety of disciplines.

Photo: Norie Sato/Photo by Ellen M. Banner, The Seattle Times

The Stranger’s Guide to SIFF 2013
The Stranger, David Schmader

They don’t call SIFF America’s biggest film festival just for kicks. Besides corralling 273 films (plus multiple shorts packages) from all over the globe, the 2013 Seattle International Film Festival is three and a half weeks long, which means you have almost an entire month to dive into SIFF, get sick of it and ignore it for a while, then dive back in all over again.

The Full Monte
The Stranger, Melody Datz

Raffaele Morra does not shave his chest, even though his professional wardrobe includes pointe shoes, a golden tiara, and yards of fluffy white tulle. For someone used to the traditional staging of classical ballets, it may be jolting to see a hairy, um, décolletage nestled into a frilly white Swan Lake costume, or to watch the uniquely defined musculature of male quadriceps peeking out from under a tutu while whipping through 32 fouettés. But the all-male company Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo makes it work.

Photo: Sascha Vaughn

Seattle Art Museum Offers Free General Admission on Saturday May 18, 2013
Seattle PI

The Seattle Art Museum (SAM) offers free general admission to SAM Downtown and the Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM) on Saturday, May 18 as part of the Association of Art Museum Directors’ (AAMD) Art Museum Day, coinciding with International Museum Day, on May 18. This year, SAM—along with more than 120 other AAMD member museums across North America will participate in Art Museum Day.  General admission includes all of the galleries except for admission to the special exhibition, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Gainsborough: The Treasures of Kenwood House, London.

“Imagine hearing your grandfather’s voice for the first time in 30 years telling you what it was like to take a boat from the old country,” said Lisa Kranseler, executive director of the Washington State Jewish Historical Society. “Or maybe listening to your cousin talk about borrowing money to open a store…You can experience these moving moments during a live performance that will take you into the lives of early Jewish pioneers in the state of Washington.” Tickets can be purchased here.

And on Tuesday, June 11, Budo Dance Theater from Osaka, Japan take you on a magical journey with Tabi Tama-Snaky Spirit. Written and directed by Majinhunter Mitsurugi and choreographed by Niranjan, Tabi Tama is short for “tabisuru tamashi” or “traveling soul.” The performance is at Langston Institute. Tickets can be purchased here.

Join us at 7:30 p.m., this coming Thursday, April 4, at Olympic Sculpture Park for the next conversation in Seattle Art Museum’s Art & the Environment series. Sow, Harvest, and Eat: Seattle Grows Sustainable Agriculture brings together figures working across the landscape of agriculture, art and food, including artist Nicole Kistler, Cristina Orbé of Food Empowerment Education and Sustainability Team, Native foods educator Valerie Segrest, and Robert Servine of Seattle Youth Garden Works. The panel will be moderated by Randy Engstrom, with opening remarks by Seattle Tilth Executive Director Andrea Platt Dwyer. The group will consider how their work fosters community, advances environmental justice, and helps local residents forge connections to our regional environment.

Click here to register and for more information.

Register now for the event.

This year’s keynote address will be presented by Bill Ivey, respected author and founding director of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University. Ivey has served as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in the Clinton-Gore administration and a team leader in the Barack Obama presidential transition. He was twice elected board chairman of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) and is a four-time Grammy Award nominee (Best Album Notes category).

On Monday, April 22, programming will feature a continuing dialogue from the Arts & Social Change symposium last October. Roberto Bedoya, executive director of the Tucson Pima Arts Council, will deliver the keynote address in a conversation facilitated by Huong Vu of The Boeing Company. A roster of cultural leaders will deliver “Lightning Talks” before and after the keynote, with facilitated “Round-Robin Responses” following each set of presentations. Bedoya is also a writer and arts consultant who has worked on projects for the Creative Capital Foundation and the Arizona Commission on the Arts, The Ford Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation and The Urban Institute.

Three years of professional level experience is required, including one year of lead experience administering projects related to cultural facilities, project management and program development.  Also required are experience with arts and cultural organizations, artists and community groups; arts administration; public speaking; and a baccalaureate degree in the arts or a related field (or a combination of education/training/experience that provides an equivalent background required to perform the duties of the job).

The deadline to apply is 4 p.m., Tuesday, April 2.

Read the full description and apply online here.

In November 2012, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) expanded the possibilities for hyper-local, community-based media outlets across the United States with new rules regarding low-power FM (LPFM) radio. This has the potential to vastly change the media landscape of Seattle by supporting new stations in your neighborhood focused on local arts and culture and issues relevant to your community.

We’re partnering with Brown Paper Tickets to host a free workshop on this new media opportunity at 1 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 24, at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute. This is the first of several workshops designed to help nonprofits determine whether running an LPFM station is a good fit for their organization.

Representatives from Brown Paper Tickets, the Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, Seattle Department of Information Technology and 4Culture will discuss the process of founding a LPFM station, including organizational development, fundraising, navigating the application process, finding and shaping a place within your community, and designing a curriculum for volunteers.

Go here for more information on the workshop series and to register.

Randy Engstrom

As our office begins the new year, we are excited about our work plan for 2013. In October we launched a survey for all of our constituents. With more than 600 responses, our areas of focus were clearly defined. One of the top issues was a desire for an increased concentration on arts education. We have been working with Seattle Public Schools and dozens of community partners on an arts plan funded by the Wallace Foundation. Building on our partnership of more than five years with the district, the K-12 Arts Plan seeks to ensure two hours of arts education instruction for every student in every school—all 48,000 of them. We’ll begin implementing part of the plan in 2013, with our office acting as the connector between schools and community-based organizations, making partnerships more streamlined for both. We’re excited to be expanding our work in arts education, an area so crucial to the future of our industry.

Another area of focus that emerged was the issue of affordable cultural space. From the sale of the Oddfellows building in 2008 to loss of 619 Western last winter, Seattle’s cultural community has long sought a program that could help to preserve affordable spaces for artists and arts organizations. In 2013 we will be hiring a cultural space liaison, and working with the Seattle Arts Commission and 4Culture, will develop a cultural facilities program that can meet the needs of our community. Two specific areas of focus will be on match-making between available spaces and those who need it and technical assistance around land use, code, zoning and incentive polices. Stay tuned for the job opening coming this spring.

A third area of focus will be on professional development and capacity building for the arts and culture community. While our funding programs will continue (check out our 2013 funding deadlines here), we are also seeking new ways to support our community beyond grant-making. This could include supporting emerging leadership, finding ways to help mid-sized organizations, reaching out to rising public artists, and offering workshops on race and social justice, among other things. We will focus on technical assistance in 2013. Do you have ideas on what would be most useful? We’d love to hear it. Please drop me a line.

We are also excited to welcome a new branch of our office—the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute (LHPAI). This new name (formerly the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center) and new home are the beginning of a new movement. We look forward to supporting and amplifying LHPAI’s important programming, and also look forward to partnering with Langston Hughes staff, Seattle Arts Commissioners, and community stakeholders to develop an action plan that will ensure long-term sustainability. In the near-term, look for LHPAI’s new website to launch later this month.

It is sure to be a busy and exciting 2013, and we look forward to working with all of you! Thank you for your continued support and please stay in touch.

Best,

Randy Engstrom
Interim Director

A bachelor’s degree in fine arts, arts administration or related field, or a combination of appropriate education and training is required. Also required are three years of professional level experience, including one year of lead experience, administering projects related to public art; and knowledge of contemporary art theory and history, artistic media, and arts program administration.

Applications are due 4 p.m., Wednesday, January 2, 2013 (Pacific Standard Time). Go here for more information or to apply.

Start the survey now.

Bonus: Three individuals who take the survey will be randomly selected to have lunch with Interim Director Randy Engstrom and Seattle Arts Commission Chair Jon Rosen. (You can opt out of this and we assure you that all answers will be anonymous no matter what you choose). So get in there and give us your thoughts. We appreciate your time.