A Year of Stabilization at the Office of Arts & Culture
2024 was all about stabilization for us at the Office of Arts & Culture. We added 12 new staff and the membership of both the Seattle Arts Commission and the ARTS at King Street Station Advisors were filled, helping us shape arts policy and curate an exciting lineup of exhibitions for our Pioneer Square gallery.
We also made some important upgrades at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute, investing in new state-of-the-art equipment in the space to improve the experience for both artists and audiences. Plus, we kept artists busy through our Hope Corps program, which continues to bring more vibrancy to our downtown and communities across the city.
A big part of our year was focused on strategic planning for the next five years. Staff spent time looking at how we can improve our internal systems, stay true to our values, and lay the groundwork for a citywide cultural plan. I’m excited to share more about this with you in the next couple of months.
Stabilization wasn’t just our focus internally—it was our key priority for the arts ecosystem too. We’re looking forward to announcing new investments in 2025, with programming designed to help organizations transform their work, support artists in activating downtown, and amplify BIPOC-led creative organizations. Stay tuned!
Gülgün Kayim
Seattle Office of Arts & Culture Director
Creative Youth
- 15,539 Seattle Public Schools (SPS) students received arts education through The Creative Advantage in the 23/24 school year, and we provided $380,635 to arts partners to make this possible.
- 95 SPS schools hosted arts educators in school day residencies, representing 61% of all eligible schools.
- Over 210 educators received professional development training in music, visual arts, and theater from 17 Seattle arts and cultural institutions.
Downtown Activation
- We directly supported over 50 events and activations all across the Downtown Activation Plan map, including producing 8 events at ARTS at King Street Station.
- We granted $382,500 to 51 community partners for Cultural Facilities projects, $127,500 of which went to spaces in the Downtown area.
Facilities
ARTS at King Street Station
- ARTS at King Street Station held 12 gallery exhibitions.
- 12,365 visitors came through the gallery.
- We partnered with Seattle Channel to make 360° videos of 3 exhibitions: COMPLEXITY, Luminous Being, and Please Touch: Together, Breaking Barriers.
Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute (LHPAI)
- LHPAI welcomed over 18,146 visitors into the space.
- LHPAI held 430 events and programs.
- We invested over $300,000 on technical upgrades to LHPAI.
- Musical production and stage show capabilities increased 100%.
- Streaming and hybrid capabilities increased 100%.
Grants
- We put thousands of artists to work by awarding $5,095,909 in grant funding to 638 artists and organizations.
- We received a combined 1,019 applications for our 9 open grant opportunities in 2024.
- We’re seeing a significant year-over-year increase in the number of applicants to our grant programs; for example, Arts in Parks had a 50% increase in the number of applicants in 2024 compared to 2023.
- We relied on over 115 panelists to make community-led grant and public art selections.
- Our staff and panelists put in over 200 hours of training and deliberation in 19 separate panel processes.
Public Art
- We added 13 permanent art works to the City of Seattle Civic Art Collection and commissioned 6 temporary public art projects.
- Our conservation of the Civic Art Collection included maintaining 30 public art works.
- Our Public Art Artist Roster grew from 110 to 411.
