Our office and the Seattle Arts Commission invite you to the Cultural Space Seattle public forum, an event to help shape policies to keep and create affordable space for artists and arts organizations to work, rehearse and perform in Seattle. The event will be 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 6 at Town Hall Seattle. The forum is free and open to the public.

Artist and cultural planner Theaster Gates will deliver the keynote address. The forum will also feature a panel discussion with Jacqueline Gijssen, senior cultural planner, city of Vancouver, B.C.; Cathryn Vandenbrink, regional director, Artspace; and Susan Seifert, director, Social Impact of the Arts Project, University of Pennsylvania. A question-and-answer session and reception will follow.

Gates is the 2011-2012 recipient of the Seattle Art Museum’s (SAM) Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence Fellowship. His solo show Theaster Gates: The Listening Room will open at SAM on Dec. 9 and run through July 1.

Cultural Space Seattle is supported by JPMorgan Chase, 4Culture, Seattle Art Museum, Town Hall Seattle and is presented in partnership with University of Washington College of Built Environments and ARCADE.