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Office of Arts & Culture news and events

Listen up: we talked arts ed with school board candidates

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We sat down with the five candidates for Seattle School Board and asked them a series of questions about arts education. Hear what they have to say about the role of the arts in closing the achievement gap and boosting graduation rates, their arts experiences as kids and their views on the value of arts in the classroom.

Listen to the full interview (they run about 15 minutes) with each candidate or hear the candidates’ responses to specific questions.

We recorded the interviews at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center on Sept. 24 and 25. Special thanks to the Youth Media Institute headed by Seattle Arts Commissioner Estevan Muñoz-Howard and to student recording engineer Cham Ba.

Image: Beacon Hill Elementary students delight at an Imani Winds performance. The quintet was in residence at the school as part of the UW World Series Community Connections program. Photo by Lee Talner.

Meet Mayor’s Arts Award winners

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055Watch Miss Melba tap her way into kids’ hearts at her South Seattle dance studio. Learn about the man who helped make Seattle Opera an international sensation. See how one organization helps artists succeed at the business of art. Hear breathtaking music by the country’s largest youth symphony, and meet a painter whose outlook on life is as inspiring as his artwork.

Nearly 400 people joined Mayor Greg Nickels at Seattle Center on Sept. 4 to honor the recipients of the 2009 Mayor’s Arts Awards. If you missed the party, you can  meet this year’s winners on Seattle Channel.

Image: Nancy Guppy, host of Seattle Channel’s Art Zone In Studio, presided over the Mayor’s Arts Awards ceremony at Seattle Center, Sept. 4. Photo by Randy Nichols.

Mayor’s budget: dedicated funding for arts

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image_fundingMayor Greg Nickels today presented to the City Council his proposed 2010 budget, which maintains funding for arts grants and sends 75 percent of city-admission-tax revenues to Seattle’s Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs. For complete details on Mayor Nickels’ 2010 Proposed Budget, visit his homepage.

This is very good news in the wake of a major national recession and underscores the importance of arts and culture in a healthy city.

Read more…

Fremont Bridge to ‘talk back,’ hear it on KPLU

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front-POSTCARDSeattle artist Kristen Ramirez will wrap up her summer artist residency at the Fremont Bridge with a temporary audio installation, Bridge Talks Back. A short version will be broadcast from the bridge’s speakers during daytime bridge openings through April. To hear the full sound composition, including clips of people’s bridge stories, call 1-800-761-9941.

Ramirez talked to KPLU about her time in one of the bridge towers and the sound composition that emerged from her residency there.

The installation opens Saturday, Sept. 26 with a celebratory performance at the bridge from 1 to 4 p.m.

Image: Kristen Ramirez, Bridge Talks Back postcard, 2009. Illustration by Jacques Moitoret.

Meet the Central District signal box decal artist, Sept. 23

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BRUHMANArtist Troy R. Miles will create designs for reflective decals the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) will place on traffic signal control boxes in the Central District neighborhood. Come meet Troy and share with him your ideas of the kinds of images you’d like to represent the Central District. The event is 6 to 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 23 at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center, West Room, 104 17th Ave. S.

The Central District signal box project is part of the SDOT Art Plan and is funded by SDOT 1% for Art dollars. Learn more about the project here.

Image: Troy Miles, Bruhman (detail), 2003, graphic illustration.

Seeking artist for Rainier Beach Community Center project

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Untitled-2Seattle’s Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, in partnership with Seattle Parks and Recreation, seeks one artist or artist team to develop a three-dimensional, site-specific or site-integrated artwork for the new Rainier Beach Community Center and Pool. Applicants will ideally have skills in designing, fabricating and installing artwork in one or more of the following media: metal, glass, stone, concrete, ceramic, wood, light, new media, surface treatment, sustainable design and environmental design.

Click here to learn more.

Image: Nikki McClure, The Eddy, 2006, Northgate Community Center, Seattle Parks and Recreation Community Centers Levy 1% for Art.

Updated: SuttonBeresCuller set sidewalk aglow

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Untitled-1Commuters crossing the platform at the Seattle Streetcar’s Westlake Hub station are likely to do a double take. SuttonBeresCuller just put the finishing touches on a new public artwork that’s embedded in the sidewalk at the stop at Westlake and Olive Way.

The neon sculpture – titled Sequence/Consequence – is twisted into the form of a double helix and sits just below the sidewalk’s surface. If you look down through the etched glass hatch cover, the animated light sculpture appears to spiral downward into the ground.

The double helix is a befitting symbol for the cluster of biotech and medical research centers in the nearby South Lake Union neighborhood. The artist team of John Sutton, Ben Beres, and Zac Culler—collectively known as SuttonBeresCuller—designed the artwork so that mirrors would “skew the perceptions of depth and size, creating a seemingly endless field of light.” Watch a time-lapse video of the installation in progress.

The artwork was commissioned with Seattle Department of Transportation 1% for Art funds.

Update: We listed the wrong neighborhood for the artwork. It’s  located on the South Lake Union Streetcar line in the downtown retail core.

Volunteers needed to help Fremont Bridge talk back

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CALLINGvolunteersSeattle artist Kristen Ramirez is wrapping up her summer residency at the Fremont Bridge with a temporary art project celebrating the daily rhythms and sounds of the bridge. Bridge Talks Back, a sound artwork, opens Saturday, Sept. 26 with a celebratory performance at the bridge from 1 to 4 p.m.

Ramirez is recruiting volunteers to be part of the fanfare at the opening event. If you want to lend a helping hand, literally (sign waving is involved), contact Kristen Ramirez, or visit her blog to learn more.

Pedestrians, bicyclists, boaters and motorists will hear Ramirez’s three-minute audio composition while stopped during daytime bridge openings. The sound collage includes clips of boat horns, bird songs, bridge bells and more. A version of the soundscape – including residents’ recorded musings about the bridge – will also be available via cell phone to people waiting for the bridge to close. And it’s a busy bridge indeed, opening an average of 35 times a day!

The temporary project, which was funded with Seattle Department of Transportation 1% for Art funds, will run through April 2010. Read more about Ramirez and her bridge residency in this month’s issue of Seattle Magazine, which christened Ramirez a Spotlight Award winner. The annual award is bestowed on a handful of up-and-coming artists to watch.

Join us for Mayor’s Arts Awards celebration tomorrow

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Don’t miss THE arts celebration of the summer. Join Mayor Greg Nickels tomorrow to honor the 2009 Mayor’s Arts Award recipients and preview the Bumbershoot Visual Arts Exhibits.

Nancy Guppy, host of Seattle Channel’s Art Zone In Studio, will emcee the outdoor ceremony, noon, Friday, Sept. 4 at Seattle Center’s Northwest Court. The weather forecast is calling for a slight chance of showers, so you might want to bring your bumbershoot.

The 2009 recipients are: Artist Trust, visual artist Jesse Higman, Seattle Opera General Director Speight Jenkins, Northwest Tap Connection and Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras.

Bumbershoot’s visual arts exhibits will open one day early with a free public preview from noon to 7 p.m. in the Northwest Rooms.

The Mayor’s Arts Awards are presented in partnership with Bumbershoot®: Seattle’s Music & Arts Festival. Media sponsor is City Arts Seattle.