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Introducing A Community-Centered Road Map Towards an Equitable and Inclusive Creative Economy in Seattle

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The City envisions an equitable, inclusive creative economy in Seattle. And today we are excited to introduce a road map to help us get there.

Participants in the Focus Group hosted by Wa Na Wari in Seattle’s Central Area.
Photo credit: Vivian Phillips.

Authored by community engagement and research consultants Vivian Phillips and Aline Moch Islas, A Community-Centered Road Map Towards an Equitable and Inclusive Creative Economy in Seattle presents nine overarching goals that address the question of how the City can grow, support, and retain creatives while reducing disparities and inequities within the creative economy.

The City of Seattle in recent years has explored how our creative community and industries have been and continue to be impacted by the city’s continuing growth, as well as the ever-evolving economic realities that affect creative work. Using the most recent studies, There’s Something About Seattle: 2019 Creative Economy Report (City of Seattle, 2019), and Assessing the Creative Economy of Seattle through a Race and Equity Lens (UW Evans School of Policy and Governance, 2019), as primary springboards, the Office of Arts & Culture, together as partners with the Office of Film + Music, the Office of Economic Development, the Seattle Arts Commission and the Seattle Music Commission, engaged in a community outreach strategy to invite members of the arts and creative community to participate in focus group conversations, mixers, surveys, and interviews. Overall, our year-long process of research and community engagement has led to ARTS, OFM, and partners to reach over 850 individuals.

The Road Map report focuses on information gathered from focus groups and interviews with 151 creatives in the Seattle area, most of whom are people of color. The findings from these conversations were then synthesized to offer the following goals and accompanying action plans on how the City can work to better the conditions under which all creatives in Seattle, especially creatives of color, pursue their careers:

Summary of Goals

1. Improve Quality of Life for Artists and Creatives

2. Engage Harder to Reach Populations

3. Enhance Existing Initiatives and Create New Initiatives

4. Bridge Artists, Technology, and Creativity

5. Access to Artistic and Creative Work Space

6. Strategically Align the Work of the Commissions

7. Build More Strategic Collaborations Across City Departments

8. Stimulate Innovative Thinking

9. Integrate Existing Research and Data into Decision-making

Read about the findings and proposed action plans in the report, and please let us know your thoughts in the comments of the blog post

The American War exhibition opening at ARTS at King Street Station

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February 6 – March 21, 2020 at
ARTS at King Street Station

Opening reception
Thursday, February 6, 2020, 5 – 7 p.m.

The American War will be on view at ARTS at King Street Station February 6 through March 21, 2020. Artists Pao Houa Her and Sadie Wechsler designed the exhibition taking inspiration from  layout of an archives’ research room. It features photographic and video works, both created and found by the artists, that expose the legacy and residue that remains in Southeast Asia and the United States in the aftermath of what is known stateside as the Vietnam War.

man in field
Pao Houa Her, Guy cousin in Thailand, 2017; Inkjet print. 8”x10”

The American War, which is the common name used for the Vietnam War (1955 – 1975) in Southeast Asia, caused more than 3 million casualties and a legacy of lasting trauma for the people and the lands of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and the United States. The war also contained conflicts in countries outside of Vietnam, including The Secret War in Laos.

The Secret War, run by the CIA and executed by the US Air Force, ravaged over 30 percent of the countryside, contributed to nearly half-million Lao refugees. To this day, unexploded ordnance in Laos is still detonating, taking life and land from the folks in the countryside. Her and Wechsler look at the scar of these wars and how they continue to shape lives and land across the world.

prosthetic legs on chair with photo
Sadie Wechsler, Legs for Display, 2018; Inkjet print; 22.75” x 30”.

“We invite visitors to enter our place of research, to examine the complicated connections, and the rippling effects of war on the people and the countries that have been impacted,” says Pao Houa Her and Sadie Wechsler. “We also are addressing how openness, curiosity and dialogue are catalysts for new and deeper relationships and learning.”

The exhibition will consist of over 40 objects including contemporary photography by Her and Wechsler, historical images, poetry and video for visitors to explore. Her and Wechsler created and collected materials, including works from the National Archive in Washington, D.C., that reflect the life altering effects the war continues to have on the people who lived in the region – especially the Hmong people from Laos. Accompanying the exhibition, the artists have produced a double-sided poster featuring artwork by both artists, alongside a commissioned poem by Hmong American poet May Lee Yang. This publication is free for all who attend the show.

Pao Houa Her works across multiple genres and technologies of photography to address Hmong identity and related notions of desire and belonging within the Hmong American community. Her was born in the northern jungles of Laos in 1982. With her family she fled the conflict resulting from the American War in Vietnam – like many others, by crossing the Mekong River on her mother’s back. After living in refugee camps within Thailand’s borders, Pao and her family were sent to the United States in 1986.

In conversation with Her’s images are Wechsler’s photographs. They are evidence of Wechsler’s attempts to understand and ultimately take responsibility for the continued bloodshed of the United Sates. She visits museums, sites of death, and locations of memorial in Laos and Southeast Asia to have a glimpse into how the United State’s wars are felt after they are “finished.” Wechsler also engages in military archives in the US to visualize state sanctioned impacts of these wars. Friends and collaborators, Her and Wechsler met through the MFA photography program at Yale. Together Her and Wechsler visited Laos, where they initiated a conversation that both dissected and complicated their different relationships to the global impact of the war. This show is the first physical manifestation of their ongoing dialogue.

Pao Houa Her was born in 1982 in Laos, and was raised in Saint Paul, MN. She currently lives in the Twin Cities region. She received a MFA in Photography from the Yale University School of Art, New Haven, CT in 2012 and a BFA in Photography from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2009. Her received a Jerome Fellowship for Emerging Artists in 2013 and was awarded Initiative Grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board in 2009 and 2012. She also received an Alice Kimball Fellowship in 2012.

Sadie Wechsler (born in Seattle) received a BA from Bard College in 2007 and an MFA from Yale School of Art in 2013. Her work has been show nationally and internationally and was included in Format Festival England and Beijing. She has been included in group shows at Aperture Gallery, Belfast School of Art, Photoville, and Newspace Center for Photography, and has had solo shows at DeSoto Gallery and Gallery 4Culture. Wechsler has received the Delivan grant from Bard College and the smArt Ventures Grant from the City of Seattle. She has been an artist in residence at Anderson Ranch Art Center and the Arctic Circle Expedition. In 2016, she self-published her first monograph Part I: Redo and her work can be found in the collections of the Yale University Library, the Hammer Art Museum, the Getty Research Institute and the King County Portable Collection.

ARTS at King Street Station is a new kind of cultural space where communities of color have increased opportunities to present their work and be seen and heard. Grounded in community leadership, the public programming and cultural space on the third floor of King Street Station are incubators for artists and communities, experimenting with the best ways to respond to the cultural needs of an ever-changing city. A cohort of King Street Station Advisors select and respond to community exhibition and programming ideas. ARTS’ goal for King Street Station is to be a resource for the city and the embodiment of the Office’s commitment to racial equity. Admission is free, Tuesday through Saturday, 10 am – 6 pm, First Thursdays, 10 am – 8 pm.

New Arts Integration Professional Development Series

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The Creative Advantage is excited to announce a new Arts Integration Professional Development Series.

These workshops highlight integrating various arts disciplines into a variety of content areas and are open to all SPS staff. There are spaces reserved for arts partners on a first come first served basis.

The series kicks off on January 14th at Franklin High School:

  • Visual Arts + STEM for K-5 Educators with Arts Impact (Jan 14th)
  • Ethnic Studies + Theatre of the Oppressed for 6-12 with Rachel Atkins + Jennifer Dunn (Jan 14)
  • PK-3 Literacy & Theater with Book-It (TBD Feb)
  • Language Arts/Social Studies + Radio/Podcasting with KUOW RadioActive (TBD Feb)
  • Language Arts/Social Studies + Film with SIFF (TBD Mar)
  • Cultural Representation and Appropriation with Naho Shioya (TBD April)
  • PK-3 Literacy + Visual Arts: Visual Thinking strategies with Seattle Asian Art Museum (May 9)

Below are more details on the January workshops. Please contact Tina LaPadula to inquire about space and reserve a spot.

Arts-Integration: Visual Arts + STEM for K-5 Classrooms

Tuesday, Jan 14, 4:30-7:30 pm Franklin High School

This session is for K-5 classrooms integrating Visual Arts, Science, and Engineering and is led by Arts Impact, a professional development program that trains teachers to integrate the arts into classroom content such as math, literacy, and science.

In this workshop, teachers learn foundations for arts integration and a lesson called, “Sculpture in Balance”. In the lesson, students analyze sculpture and role of sculptor as engineer. They explore paper construction techniques and design, construct, test, and optimize a standing mobile sculpture. Students revise engineering through use of a wind, drop, and earthquake tests. Last, students reflect on sculptures in a class sculpture park, and write about how their artistic engineering process reflects a growth mindset.

Ethnic Studies + Theatre of the Oppressed for Middle and High School

Tuesday, Jan 14, 4:30-7:30 pm Franklin High School

This session showcases examples of new, hyper-relevant Ethnic Studies high school curriculum related to gentrification, redlining and displacement, and is led by Theatre of the Oppressed teaching artist Rachel Atkins and Jennifer Dunn, SPS Humanities teacher and facilitator for the Center for Racial Equity.

In this workshop, teachers will step into the role of students and experience first-hand the transformative power of exploring content through Theatre of the Oppressed activities. In the lesson, students research history and current issues around gentrification, redlining, and school/ neighborhood segregation in Seattle, through text, video and discussion. They then explore their own ideas and learn about other perspectives through the theatre technique of machines: Students choose words and physical gestures to express an aspect of the policies or impact of gentrification. Students collaborate by connecting their words and gestures with others to create a machine to represent their concepts. Students use the same process to imagine potential alternatives, resistance and solutions, to transform the machine into a machine of change, and consider their own role in transformation.

Apply for the Artists Up Mentorly Scholarship 2020

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Opens Wednesday, February 12, 2020
Closes Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Artists Up has partnered with Mentorly to launch a mentorship program for Washington artists and they have opened applications for the Artists Up Mentorly Scholarship. This scholarship is for artists living in Washington State who are looking to elevate their practice through mentorship.

If you do receive a scholarship, you will receive four one-hour-long mentor sessions. This scholarship will cover the online mentoring fee for Artists Up participants ONLY. There are several Artists Up recommended mentors available or you’re welcome to choose a mentor from Mentorly.

Artists Up is a collaborative effort between 4Culture, ArtsWA, and the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture. The goal of this program is to serve historically marginalized or underrepresented artists in Washington State, including artists of color, LGBTQ+ artists, artists with disabilities, artists who are new to the U.S. and Washington, mature artists, and low-income artists.

Mentorly is an online arts mentorship platform that provides opportunities to connect with emerging and professional artists from around the world. These mentors are experienced artists, representing all creative disciplines, vetted by Mentorly or Artists Up. Mentors can offer invaluable information gained from their own experiences that can help advance an artist’s career. If you would like to elevate your practice through mentorship, learn new skills, or explore a new field by receiving one-to-one coaching from another artist, then sign up now. Anyone is welcome to create a Mentorly profile and sign up for these mentorship sessions. But this scholarship application is only for those in need of financial assistance to afford this opportunity.

Ashraf Hasham joins the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture as Youth Arts Manager

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Ashraf Hasham will join the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture (ARTS) as the Youth Arts Manager, providing visionary, strategic leadership for ARTS Creative Youth Program team. The goals of the Creative Youth Arts program are to incorporate racially equitable approaches and outcomes in public arts education and Creative Youth Development.

Hasham comes to ARTS from The Vera Project (VERA), a nonprofit, all-ages music venue and youth-led arts space where he served as executive director. Prior to VERA, Hasham worked at Urban Gateways, (Chicago, IL) an arts education organization helping to establish new youth engagement programs including a city-wide arts access initiative; and TeenTix, an organization dedicated to empowering young people to take an active role in shaping their arts community as audience members, critics, influencers, advocates, patrons, and leaders.

“Arts education, racial equity, and youth-centered work are all deep passions of mine,” says Ashraf Hasham. “I’m excited to join ARTS and advocate for equitable access to arts education for every single public school student. The arts are a fundamental pillar for success, providing skills and pathways to young Seattleites to be able to stay in this beautiful city and thrive in the creative workforce.”

As the Youth Arts Manager, Hasham will oversee the ARTS Creative Youth Program, which includes The Creative Advantage, a city-wide initiative to establish equitable access to arts education for each and every student in Seattle Public Schools; ARTS creative industries sector research; partnerships and projects focused on career-connected learning for youth; and Creative Youth Development initiatives aimed at addressing social issues (e.g. youth homelessness) through arts and creative engagement. ARTS Creative Youth Programs also prioritize funding for Creative Youth Development through out-of-school time arts engagement, creative careers events and learning opportunities, and teaching artist professional development.

Seattle’s Creative Industries Are Our Future. That’s Why The City Is Expanding Our Creative Work

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Seattle has a rich history of cultural innovation and creative risk taking. Our arts and culture are recognized around the world, and a robust creative workforce nourishes our entrepreneurial spirit. Seattle’s creative industries are one vital source of fuel that will drive our economy into the future. To ensure that racial and economic disparities don’t continue to grow, we need to build a creative economy that is inclusive of everyone.

Since its inception in 1991, Seattle’s Office of Film + Music, which operates within the Office of Economic Development (OED), has supported the heart of our city’s creative industries. With new challenges and disparities facing Seattle’s creatives, it is time to reconfigure, realign and reimagine the Office’s work and the role of government in our city’s economic health.

That’s why Mayor Durkan’s 2020 Proposed Budget includes investments to expand the City’s creative industry work by dedicating three new full-time employees. Two of those positions, including one newly funded position, will be in the creative industry program in OED, and one will be in the Office of Arts & Culture. All three positions will support the City’s creative industry work, which encompasses film, music, and media/graphic design.

“Our City has seen incredible growth and change over the past decade, and with that growth came many big city challenges, including displacement,” says Mayor Jenny A. Durkan. “We’ve seen many artists and creative industry workers, particularly artists and workers of color, pushed out because they simply cannot afford to live in Seattle. That has hurts their ability to create, and present their work. We must invest in and prioritize filmmaking, arts, music, and culture in Seattle. That is why I’m making the Inclusive Creative Industry Program an economic priority for the City.”

For Seattle to thrive, we need to deepen, align, and expand our department partnerships and programs to better prepare our workforce, businesses, and infrastructure. We ground this work in a commitment to race and social justice, economic data, and deep community and industry listening.

To achieve those goals, the Office of Film + Music and its current staff will lead the new “Inclusive Creative Industry Program” as the citywide economic development priority. As part of OED, this team will leverage the resources and investments of other OED programs to further its work supporting creative industries. This new prioritization of the creative industries is reflected in the Mayor’s proposed budget. As part of this strategy, here is what we are proposing:

  • The OFM director position will become the Inclusive Creative Industry Program Director and will report to OED’s Director. A national search will be conducted after budget approval.
  • We will add three new staff positions to increase support and advocacy for the film and creative industries.
  • Aligning with OED’s new Inclusive Creative Industry Program, the Creative Economy Advocate will become a full-time member of Office of Arts & Culture (ARTS) in partnership with OED’s Workforce Development Team and Inclusive Creative Industry Team.
  • We will increase music industry advocacy and support through the combined efforts of the Music Commission’s work, the Inclusive Creative Industry Team, and OED and ARTS staff.
  • The Nightlife Advocate position will remain with OED in the Inclusive Creative Industry Program.
  • We will launch a new internship and career connected learning initiative in partnership between OED, ARTS, Department of Education and Early Learning (DEEL) and others

By building upon OED/OFM, DEEL, and ARTS’s connection between creative, art, technology, education, workforce, industry, and other related fields, we can prepare Seattle’s students and workforce to thrive now and in the future. We are deeply excited for this new body of work and look forward to collaborating with Washington Filmworks and King County to build an inclusive economy grounded in our creative communities and industries.

For more information about OED’s inclusive economy vision or reports from our community listening sessions, please sign up for our e-newsletter or email us at: oed@seattle.gov, arts.culture@seattle.gov.

By Bobby Lee, director Office of Economic Development and Randy Engstrom, director of the office of Arts & Culture

Creative Youth Development: Arts Strategies for Engaging Unstably Housed and Homeless Youth

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Cover for the report has a photo of a zine shaped like a house. On the left side, a window above a futon is drawn: "Feeling more at home on a friends futon than my current space." On the right side: "I am not sure where I will live in the spring."

Written by Hannah E. Curtis

With support from the City’s Innovation & Performance team, Human Services Department, and Seattle Public Schools, the Office of Arts & Culture has initiated the Creative Youth Development (CYD) Secondary Arts Project.

The CYD Secondary Arts Project invests in high quality, culturally responsive arts programs at schools that have a disproportionate number of students experiencing homelessness and housing instability, to promote creative learning and educational engagement. To begin this process, a field scan of existing materials and literature was conducted to:

  1. Examine best practices of CYD,
  2. Identify effective and culturally responsive impact and assessment strategies and tools,
  3. Determine which types of data collection and research methods best fit with the goals of the project,
  4. Provide empirical evidence that CYD positively impacts factors associated with student success, and
  5. Provides overview information about homeless and unstably housed youth in Seattle/King County.

Creative Youth Development: Arts Strategies for Engaging Unstably Housed and Homeless Youth makes the case that arts education in schools, alongside the many other benefits, can potentially provide a radical space of intervention where students experiencing unstable housing and homelessness have a safe space to belong, learn new skills, explore their identity, and make connections to their teachers, peers, schools, and larger community.

Artist Trust Annual Artist Survey

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During the summer of 2019, 1,283 artists from across Washington State participated in the Artist Trust Annual Survey. The results of this annual survey allow us to better understand the artists we serve and share information from responding artists with other artist-serving organizations.

Artists who took the 2019 Annual Artist Survey indicated the major challenges in their careers are marketing, building new audiences for their work and finding financial stability. With two thirds of responding artists working out of their homes or home studios, they shared perspectives on accessing space and space affordability in Washington State.

This year, a number of new topics also emerged, including concerns about the climate, LGBTQ and gender equality, and access to continuing education. The 2019 Annual Artist Survey provides information that will continue to inform our programming and artist support services at Artist Trust. They make their findings and this report available publicly with the hope that other artist-serving organizations, artists, and arts advocates can learn from and utilize the results. Through this research, they continually work to gain a deeper understanding Washington State’s artists and better meet their needs.

Artist Trust is a nonprofit organization whose sole mission is to support and encourage individual artists working in all disciplines in order to enrich community life throughout Washington State. Since its founding in 1986, Artist Trust has invested over $10 million in individual artists through grant programs and provides a comprehensive suite of professional development training and resources to help artists achieve their career goals.

Tagalog sa King Street

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A workshop production of one-act plays written and performed in Tagalog (with English surtitles), September 5 – October 5, 2019 at ARTS at King Street Station
Admission is free

September 5-October 5, 2019
Free to the public, all ages
ARTS at King Street Station
303 S. Jackson St, Top Floor
Seattle, WA 98104           

Intermittent open rehearsals in the gallery
Tuesdays-Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; First Thursday 10 a.m.-8 p.m.  
Performances: Thursday, October 3, 6:30 p.m.;
Saturday, October 5, 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.
RSVP button

ARTS at King Street Station will host the workshop production of Tagalog sa King Street, a collection of one-act plays written and performed in the national language of the Philippines. With creative use of live English surtitles and shadow puppetry, non-Tagalog speaking audience can enjoy the innovative, brave, new voices selected from the prestigious Virgin Labfest of the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

This is a workshop production that will be presented in two parts. The first are open rehearsals as the creative team comprised of Lorna Velasco, Joyce Juan Manalo, Ai Lalo, Alyza DelPan-Monley, Arlo Magpoc, Nina De Torres Ignacio, Leah Mitts, Manny Golez, and Pia Rivera will transform the space into a world of shadow and light. The open rehearsals will culminate with three performances of the completed work that are free to the public on Thursday October 3rd and Saturday, October 5th. Tickets are available here. The production was made possible through at grant by the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture. The performance is ADA accessible.

 Kung Paano Ako Naging Leading Lady (How I became the Leading Lady), by Carlo Vergara, is a story of two sisters, Mely and Viva, who turn a small grudge into a superhero battle between good and evil.

Hintayan ng Langit (Heaven’s Waiting Room), by Juan Miguel Severo is about 67-year-old protagonist Manolo meeting his unrequited love, 64-year-old Lisang in purgatory. Their spiritual ascent is delayed until they resolve a lifetime worth of heartaches and regrets.

 ARTS at King Street Station is a new kind of cultural space where communities of color have increased opportunities to present their work and be seen and heard. Grounded in community feedback, the programming and cultural space on the third floor of King Street Station will be an incubator for artists and communities, experimenting with the best ways to respond to the cultural needs of an ever-changing city. A new cohort of King Street Station Advisors will select and respond to community exhibition and programming ideas. ARTS’ goal for King Street Station is to be a resource for the city and the embodiment of the Office’s commitment to racial equity. Admission is free.

News: Lara Davis and six years with ARTS Creative Youth Programs

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“Differences must be not merely tolerated, but seen as a fund of necessary polarities between which our creativity can spark like a dialectic.”  

– Audre Lorde

After six incredible years leading the Office of Arts & Culture (ARTS) Creative Youth programs, I’m excited to announce that I am leaving to pursue an opportunity with the Visionary Justice StoryLab – a collective of interdisciplinary artists, media makers, and cultural workers evolving story, media, and performance based racial and healing justice practices for communities of color and the organizations that serve them – and take personal time for myself to reconnect with my own creativity and artistic practice.

Photo of Lara Davis against a rainbow flag background.
Lara Davis, Youth Arts Manager at ARTS

Youth Arts Manager position open at ARTS

ARTS Creative Youth programs have grown significantly in the past six years and continue to deepen our impact through school-based arts education investments and a continuum of Creative Youth Development and career-connected learning opportunities. I’ve been proud to be part of a fierce team of collaborators that includes teaching artists and community arts organizations, City and Seattle Public Schools staff who work in partnership to advance education justice and prioritize the arts as central to achieving racially equitable and justice-based outcomes. 

Now in over half of Seattle Public Schools, The Creative Advantage, our citywide initiative, is committed to realizing equity in arts education for all Seattle students.  Driven by a public-private partnership, this initiative works through a collective impact framework that includes the district, ARTS, Seattle Foundation, and the broader arts community. To learn more please check out this article on The Creative Advantage in Seattle Foundation’s Heart and Science Magazine spring 2019 issue by Naomi Ishisaka.

The leadership of our young people, Black and indigenous and POC communities is essential to these ongoing efforts – to fully realize local education equity initiatives like The Creative Advantage and to build a just future rooted in culture, collective power, the imagination, and love.

In an era of persistent and growing economic, climate and racial injustice, I’m continually inspired by the boldness and creativity of young organizers and activists – many of whom are artists – and the collective struggle for liberation that relies upon intergenerational and collaborative leadership. I’m grateful to have been a part of this effort with the Office of Arts & Culture, and excited for its continued work in and with community. 

With deep gratitude,

Lara Davis