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Office of Arts & Culture news and events

The Creative Advantage Strives for Educational Justice

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First grade students sit in a circle, holding their hands up

Photo by KUOW/Marcie Sillman

Equitable access to arts learning is essential for all students. The Creative Advantage, a citywide initiative to establish equitable access to arts education for every student Seattle Public Schools, works to systemically address inequities in access to art education and provide a comprehensive, high-quality arts education for all students, across the city, especially those who have been historically underserved.

Comprehensive arts education cultivates:

  • 21st Century skills for students
  • Communication
  • Creative and critical thinking
  • Collaboration
  • Growth mindset

Through arts learning, young people experience the transformative power of creativity and gain a deepened belief in their own capacity to learn, take risks, persist, and achieve. The Creative Advantage is more than just a strategy for arts equity. Rather, it is step towards true educational justice.

Through a collective partnership between Seattle Public Schools, Seattle’s Office of Arts & Culture, The Seattle Foundation, Seattle Art Museum, Arts Corps, ArtsEd Washington, and up to 100 community-based arts organizations, The Creative Advantage has enhanced arts access through increased certified arts staff, culturally responsive teaching practices, arts partnerships, professional development opportunities for the community, and connected students with career opportunities in creative industries.

Since 2013, the number of elementary schools with regular visual art and music classes has more than doubled and thousands of students are receiving arts instruction from Seattle’s diverse corps of professional teaching artists and cultural organizations on The Creative Advantage Partner Roster.

Check out this recent media highlight from KUOW, featuring The Creative Advantage in action at Concord International Elementary School: How the arts can be Seattle schools’ stealth weapons in the fight for racial equity.

ARTS is moving to King Street Station!

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ARTS is busily preparing for the move at the beginning of January 2019 to our new location at King Street Station.

ARTS at King Street Station will officially open to the public on March 23, 2019 with the indigenous-centered inaugural exhibition yəhaw̓. An indigenous-centered showcase in recognition of the Coast Salish peoples who first inhabited the land on which the City of Seattle was built, yəhaw̓ will run until August 3, 2019.

ARTS at King Street Station’s public hours will be Tuesday-Saturday 10 A.M. – 6 P.M. with extended hours until 8:00 P.M. on the first Thursday of each month. Shaped by community feedback through a City-wide public outreach process, ARTS’ goal is for King Street Station to be a community and cultural space for the Seattle community to access exhibition and creative opportunities, ARTS staff and resources, professional development, meeting space, and other services.

Seattle’s newest Tiny Cultural Space is an expansion of Estelita’s Library

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The Office of Arts & Culture (ARTS) in partnership with Sawhorse Revolution selected Estelita’s Library to be the first ever recipient of a Tiny Cultural Space design and construction project. ARTS and Sawhorse Revolution invited local cultural and community organizations to submit proposals for a new (tiny) cultural structure. Estelita’s Library, a social justice community library and bookstore, brings books, art, culture and community together to heal, uplift and serve communities of color, Queer and LGBT folks, and other oppressed communities of Seattle. The project will be designed and built by Sawhorse Revolution’s all-womxn design/build program for youth.

Estelita’s Library is currently located at 2533 16th Ave South. They are a membership driven organization that has over 250 members. They have a catalog of over 1,500 books, ranging from out-of-print books written by Black authors in the 1800s, to books that provide depth and critical analysis on the topics of race, slavery, indigenous/native languages, sexual identity and gender, politics, history, and law. The new Tiny Cultural Space created by this City program will be an extension of their current library, serving as a dynamic, multi-use space that builds culture, community, and knowledge, focused on the most historically marginalized. A feature of the extension is space to publicly display their collection of Black Panther Party Newspapers, one of the largest collections in the country that speaks to the history of justice and resistance of the Black Panther Party.

“Estelita’s is a space where culture thrives and lives,” says Edwin Lindo, Curator of Estelita’s Library. “We believe that our community’s power resides in our ability to build community and knowledge in a collective way. We are thankful and thrilled for the opportunity to expand this vision and for the community to have a space they can call as their own. To be able to have a dedicated space to exhibit the Black Panther Party Newspapers will foster a connection to our community’s past of resilience and beauty. We welcome the community to our current and future space.”

The board of Estelita’s Library will work closely with Sawhorse Revolution’s all-womxn design/build team. Design mentors from Olson Kundig Architects and LMN Architects will facilitate the youth designing the structure. Then, youth will build the space under the tutelage of professional carpenters. The space will be located on an unused city-owned property suitable for this type of project. Estelita’s Library will have a free five-year lease on the property, after which ownership may be transferred to the organization. After a final design is approved construction will begin in Spring 2019, with a grand opening planned for Summer 2019 depending on construction.

The Tiny Cultural Space construction project was developed through a community process at the Square Feet Seattle 2017 event. This is the first year that this Tiny Cultural Space construction project is being piloted. 

Sawhorse Revolution is a Seattle-based non-profit serving high-school students primarily from Central and South Seattle. Their mission is to foster confident, community-oriented youth through the power of carpentry and craft. They teach teens carpentry and architecture through inspiring community projects.

Images courtesy of Edwin Lindo, Curator of Estelita’s Library.

Mayor Durkan Announces Seattle Will Invest in 91 New Affordable Homes and art space on City-Owned Property in Uptown Adjacent to Seattle Center

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Investment Will Support 91 New Permanent Homes for Our Neighbors Experiencing Homelessness, A Community Art Space, and A Community Workforce Agreement Pilot 

Seattle (November 20, 2018) – Mayor Jenny A. Durkan was joined today by Uptown community members, housing advocates, labor leaders, and arts and cultural district representatives as she announced the City of Seattle will invest approximately $6.9 million to build 91 new affordable homes for people experiencing long-term homelessness at a City-owned site adjacent to Seattle Center.  

The building will be developed by Plymouth Housing following the permanent supportive housing model and providing 91 affordable apartments for men and women experiencing long-term homelessness. All residents will have a housing case manager to help provide tailored on-site services that may include nursing and medical care, connections to behavioral health treatment, hospice care, veterans counseling, and money management.   

In 2018, the City of Seattle has invested approximately $90 million in affordable housing. By 2021, the City expects to have more than 2,500 new affordable homes.  

“As we address our region’s homelessness crisis, we must build more affordable housing as quickly as we can and help our neighbors experiencing homelessness access the services they need and move into safer places. Seattle will continue to invest in affordable housing to ensure those experiencing homelessness have permanent, safe, stable places to live. We will also continue working with our partners in the region and state to ensure we have a truly regional response to this regional challenge,” said Mayor Durkan. “At this moment, the Seattle Center is transforming. The City is creating an arts and cultural space that compliments Uptown and the Seattle Center as an economic, arts, and cultural engine for decades to come.”  

The building will pilot a Community Workforce Agreement, which help provide true economic opportunity into underserved communities by working with labor unions, local governments can establish hiring standards to bring people from low-income areas, people of color, and women – populations that are historically underrepresented in the building trades – into the construction industry, providing access to apprenticeships, high-wage jobs, and benefits.   

The building will also include a ground floor arts and cultural space. Path with Art will manage the ground floor area of the building as an arts space available to residents and Path with Art students, as well as a community arts resource for other community-based arts organizations. Path with Art uses creative engagement to bring dignity, awareness, and healing to the complexities of the issues surrounding homelessness and recovery from trauma. The City’s Office of Housing and the Office of Arts and Culture worked with the Uptown Arts and Culture Coalition and the Uptown Community Alliance to engage community members and stakeholders on creating a building that would both maximize affordable housing outcomes and create opportunities for arts and cultural uses. This project is the first time the City has made a joint housing and arts investment as part of the same funding award.  

“Plymouth Housing’s mission is to provide the most vulnerable people in our community with permanent homes and the support they need to attain stability in their lives. We’re grateful to the Seattle Office of Housing for this opportunity to provide permanent housing for people experiencing homelessness,” said Paul Lambros, Executive Director of Plymouth Housing. “This site will provide two highly needed public benefits: housing and arts access. We look forward to working with our partners, Path With Art, as well as the Uptown Alliance and the Uptown Arts & Culture Coalition to construct a welcoming building that contributes to this vibrant neighborhood.”  

“When we build affordable housing with active ground floor space, we enhance the opportunity and wellbeing of both residents and neighborhoods,” according to Steve Walker, the Director of the Seattle Office of Housing. “The Office of Housing collaborated with our partners at the City Office of Arts and Culture and in the Uptown neighborhood to achieve arts and cultural goals prioritized by the community at a site where we are making a housing investment.”   

”The Uptown Arts and Culture Coalition was delighted to be a part of the evolution of this project aligned with and advancing the Uptown neighborhood arts and cultural priorities,” said Cyrus Despres, Director of Planning and Business Intelligence at KEXP and the President of the Uptown Arts and Cultural District. “We are growing an Uptown creative space for existing arts organizations and helping our neighbors in need at the same time.”  

The Office of Housing also worked in close partnership with the Labor Equity Team at the Department of Finance and Administrative Services and the Seattle Building Trades to pilot a Community Workforce Agreement at the site.  

“This pilot sustains Seattle’s track record of ensuring strong labor equity outcomes through labor agreements,” said Monty Anderson, Executive Secretary of the Seattle Building Trades. “The Community Workforce Agreement is the main tool to implement the City’s Priority Hire Ordinance, aimed at prioritizing local workers living in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods and supporting women and people of color to take part in apprenticeships and become part of the trained construction workforce.” 

 

ARTS partner Creative Equity Fund’s Inaugural Grant infuse $200,000 into 14 organizations

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Building racial justice through arts and culture

 

Seattle Foundation and its partners are fueling the power of arts and culture to dismantle racism through the new Creative Equity Fund, which is announcing a total of $200,000 in grants to 14 King County organizations.

The grants will provide either project-based or general operating support to nonprofits with a wide array of approaches to addressing structural racism through their programming. This includes nonprofits working in the areas of housing and homelessness, criminal justice, arts education, reproductive health, public policy and food security. All are using arts and culture strategies to create empathy, transcend divisions, inspire innovations and engage the community in collective change.

“This grant program is designed to harness the power of arts and culture to not only influence systems and policy change but also to fund organizations using creative solutions to counter the impacts of structural racism in their communities. The 14 organizations these grants support are igniting civil discourse, inspiring action and helping create a more just world for people of color in King County,” said Jonathan Cunningham, Program Officer at Seattle Foundation.

A cross sector group of community members, all people of color from the Greater Seattle region with arts and culture experience, co-designed the Creative Equity Fund and all of its facets with the support of funders. 

The 2018 Creative Equity Fund grantees are:

21 Progress

Arts Corps

Central District Forum for Arts & Ideas

Chief Seattle Club

Creative Justice

Hip Hop is Green

Indigenous Showcase

International Capoeira Angola Foundation (ICAF Seattle)

Northwest African American Museum

Northwest Tap Connection

Surge Reproductive Justice

Studio Lazo

Totem Star

Wing Luke Memorial Foundation

A few organizations’ plans for the grants include:

  • Totem Star will help fund its music recording program, which empowers youth of color through music production and performance that in turn teaches life skills, leadership and civic engagement. The program provides critical arts access and entrepreneurship to youth from under-served communities.
  • Hip Hop is Green, which connects hip hop to the environment, will use its grant to increase connections for youth and families of color to healthy food, fitness, gardening and nature. The group produces cultural and educational events and programming that increases health and wellness in communities with less access to healthy food.
  • Surge Reproductive Justice will use the funds to support their open-mic nights, which lift up the experiences of black and brown women who are addressing the systemic barriers communities of color often face related to reproductive health care. Through this storytelling, Surge will strengthen its policy change initiatives aimed to improve reproductive health within communities of color.

The grantees were selected from 75 applicants, and were decided by an intergenerational panel of community members of color with professional experience in the arts and culture field. In an effort to lessen the power imbalances that often exist in philanthropy, funders did not have a vote.

The Creative Equity Fund is administered by Seattle Foundation and was developed initially through a collaboration with ArtsFund and the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, with support from Macklemore. Additional leadership and financial support comes from The Boeing Company, Microsoft and the Nesholm Family Foundation.

ARTS Publishes “Capacity Building for Racial Equity in Public Art”

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Public Art Boot Camp, the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture’s award-winning program, is the subject of the publication Capacity Building for Racial Equity in Public Art (pdf).

ARTS’ Public Art Program specifies that 1% of eligible city capital improvement project funds be set aside for the commission, purchase, and installation of artworks, integrating artworks and the ideas of artists into a variety of public arenas. A goal of the public art program is to address historic and current institutional racism and one way we do that is capacity building for public artists through our Public Art Boot Camp program, that received an Americans for the Arts Public Art Network Award in 2017.

Capacity Building for Racial Equity in Public Art illustrates how public art administrators can shift the field to be more inclusive and affect change by creating a program that intentionally serves artists from under-represented and under-invested communities. While systemic changes take time, capacity building is something that can show almost immediate results.

From 2015-18, ARTS’ Public Art Boot Camp centered artists of color and provided them with the information and experience they needed to enter the niche world of public art. Public art reflects our history, society and defines the space and community it resides in. When diverse artists work in the public realm, people see themselves reflected in public space in a way that only commissioning artists of color can do. Cities benefit from a richer visual environment by including everyone’s narrative. Art becomes more culturally relevant and meaningful to everyone.

ARTS published Capacity Building for Racial Equity in Public Art (pdf) to share our experience and to encourage other cultural organizations and municipalities to change their programs to create opportunities for artists of color.

For more information contact us at (206) 684.7171 or email us at arts.culture@seattle.gov

Arts in Parks returns to Seattle Parks this summer

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Events and art installations June through November 2018

Now in its third year, Arts in Parks, a partnership between Seattle Parks and Recreation and the Office of Arts & Culture, is offering a number of free events and temporary art projects that will activate community parks this summer. From June through November 2018 Seattleites and visitors will be treated to events for the whole family, from Shakespeare In The Park to Paint and Smoothies. There is something for everyone this summer! For more information and a calendar guide about the events visit here. Check out the Arts in Parks 2018 brochure for events and art installations at a park near you.

Arts in Parks supports 38 events through $205,000 invested in the community through grants and temporary public art projects. The Arts in Parks program invests in new and established community festivals, art happenings and music concerts that enliven Seattle parks by promoting arts and culture, celebrating our diversity, building community connections and energizing parks while connecting with underserved communities.

Programs include events, series, public art installations, and family-friendly kid centered activities in neighborhood parks throughout the northeast, northwest, central, southeast and southwest regions.

Highlights include: 

Six Walls at Pritchard Park: An art installation at Pritchard Island Beach made of six freestanding gallery walls that will display the work of local Black artists. Participants are asked to bring one piece of their own artwork to drop-off points across the city; the first 25 artists will have their work shown. This project hopes to provide a welcoming space for Black artists to show their work. Created by artist Khadija Tarver. 

TUFFEST: This annual festival presented by TUF is a celebration of visual art and music with the addition of educational workshops. The event centers marginalized communities, including people of color, women, and trans and gender-nonconforming folks. 

ANiMA: a cultural event celebrating ancestry and heritage through interactive, multimedia performances and storytelling. Artists perform original music with live projected animation, shadow dancing and puppetry with an invocation led by Korean drumming group Olleam, community activist group Sahngnoksoo and LQ Lion Dance. This event will occur during the Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival, a time of paying homage to ancestors that are believed to visit the living during this time.

Theater for Young Children: Performances and music from Latin America, written for ages 3-9 and fun for all.

National Endowment for the Arts Art Works grant of $100,000 awarded to Seattle Public Schools for The Creative Advantage

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Grant to support The Creative Advantage, a citywide initiative to establish equitable access to arts education 

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $80 million in grants as part of the National Endowment for the ARTS (NEA) second major funding announcement for fiscal year 2018.  Included in this announcement is an Art Works grant of $100,000 to Seattle Public Schools to support implementation of The Creative Advantage.

The Art Works category is the NEA’s largest funding category and supports projects that focus on the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and/or the strengthening of communities through the arts.

The Creative Advantage is a citywide initiative to establish equitable access to arts education for every student Seattle Public Schools. It is a collective partnership between Seattle Public Schools, the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, The Seattle Foundation, Seattle Art Museum, Arts Corps, ArtsEd Washington, and up to 100 community-based arts organizations.

Since 2008, the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture (ARTS) and SPS have collaborated to increase high-quality arts learning in high-need schools. The Seattle K-12 Arts Plan was created to address inequities in access to art education and provide a comprehensive, sequential and predictable arts education for all students. To realize the plan, The Creative Advantage was born. It solidifies the collective impact partnership between SPS and ARTS as the “backbone” management structure with The Seattle Foundation as the fiscal agent and high leverage partners to support essential goals of the arts plan.

The Creative Advantage has completed research, planning and mission alignment to develop the Seattle K-12 Arts Plan, which includes regional and school-based planning, increased certified arts staff, 21st century arts learning that is culturally responsive, arts partnerships, professional development for arts and non-arts teachers and arts partners and a comprehensive evaluation.

The Creative Advantage has restored arts access to the Central Arts Pathway (CAP), which includes 13 schools with 6,475 students; the South-southwest Arts Pathway (SWAP), which includes 10 schools with 4,552 students; and launched in the entire Southeast Arts Region (SEAR), which includes 21 schools with 10,208 students.

ARTS announces the inaugural exhibition at King Street Station, yəhaw’, opening winter 2018

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Call for Indigenous Creatives, open March 5 – April 20, 2018

 

SEATTLE – In recognition of the Coast Salish peoples on whose land the City of Seattle is built, the Office of Arts & Culture is honored to open a new arts and cultural hub on the third floor of King Street Station this winter with the inaugural Indigenous-centered exhibition yəhaw̓. The title of the exhibition, yəhaw̓, is drawn from the Coast Salish story of Native people from all tribes uniting around a common cause and lifting up the sky together. In the spirit of the story, this exhibition will celebrate the depth and diversity of Indigenous art made in the Pacific Northwest.

King Street Station. Seattle, Washington.
ZGF Architects
© Benjamin Benschneider All rights Reserved. Usage rights may be arranged by contacting Benjamin Benschneider Photography. Email: bbenschneider@comcast.net or phone 206-789-5973

Reflecting on the Lifting the Sky story and the use of Indigenous language in the exhibition title, Puyallup tribal member Tami Hohn shared, “Our ancestors left us the gift of our traditional knowledge and beliefs by preserving our language. Using our language throughout our communities and projects, such as this, honors what our ancestors have done and keeps our language alive.” Tami is a Southern Lushootseed curriculum developer for the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe and has worked with the language for 25 years. Vi Hilbert’s telling of the Lifting the Sky story as part of the Spring Revels, can be viewed at http://bela.music.washington.edu/ethno/hilbert/voicesVideo.html

In preparation for the exhibition, curators Tracy Rector (Seminole/Choctaw), Asia Tail (Cherokee Nation), and Satpreet Kahlon opened a call for artwork in any media by Indigenous creatives living in the Pacific Northwest. All Indigenous creatives who apply will be included in the exhibition. The exhibition will be a collective portrait of Native America, including creatives of all ages and stages in their careers, from many tribal affiliations, working in a variety of creative mediums. yəhaw̓ celebrates all Native makers, and actively challenges the false divides between fine art and craft, Urban and Reservation, contemporary and traditional. For more information, including guidelines, eligibility, and the application please visit yehawshow.com

“When we open this winter, King Street Station will reflect our unique city, and hopefully become a national model for how arts and culture can support a truly equitable society, empowering individuals, artists, and organizations,” says Randy Engstrom, ARTS Director. “Opening the space with an exhibition that centers and celebrates Indigenous voices is an honor for our office and the first of many exhibitions and programs that will reflect our diverse Seattle community.”

The arts hub at King Street Station will be a new kind of space in which communities of color have increased opportunities to present their work, and be seen and heard. Grounded in community feedback, the programming and cultural space of King Street Station will be an incubator for artists and communities, experimenting with the best ways to respond to community needs in an ever-changing city. 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.

Wanted: Arts Permitting Specialist

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One of the CAP Report: 30 Ideas for the Creation, Activation, and Preservation of Cultural Space recommendations from earlier this year was the creation of a liaison role, embedded in the Department of Construction and Inspections, that would work with arts and cultural projects as a point of connection between the culturally rich world of the arts and the complex world of various building and use codes. The City is acting on that recommendation, and is today launching the search for a culturally savvy code expert.

Rolls of blueprints held down by a compass, a house model and a slide rule.Are you someone who sees what is and imagines what could be? Someone who is curious about alternatives? Someone who understands the intricacies and specifics of building code, and can also see the broader forest through the trees? If so, the Office and Arts & Culture and the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections, working together, are looking for you.

You will get to work with colleagues in both departments to develop policy recommendations and code changes to make Seattle a more supportive partner to cultural spaces. Dive deep into code and develop alternative paths to compliance for complicated and atypical cultural projects. Be a part of a citywide effort, unique in the country, to support cultural spaces in a city where affordability and displacement are daily concerns.

Be a part of the solution, apply today.