LISTEN to featured talks from Randy Engstrom, Rahwa Habte, DK Pan & NKO, Jen Zeyl, Mimi Allin, Michelle Scoleri, Andy Fife, Matthew Richter, Pol Rosenthal, Sandra Jackson-Dumont and Henry Luke.

PARTICIPATE in community-driven workshops and discussions. Got something to say? WHERE THE ART IS will provide a forum for candid insight by allowing participants to define the scope of conversation.

ACT! The “Non-ference” is an opportunity for the Seattle arts community to generate unexpected conversations, questions and collaborations across sector.

Come be a part of this important conversation about how art will define, create and shape space within our city.

WE NEED YOUR VOICE TO MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Register Now.

WHERE THE ART IS
Sat, 6/4 | 9am-4pm
Youngstown Cultural Arts Center | 4408 Delridge Way SW, Seattle
$30 Shunpike members | $40 non-members

Arts Leadership Lab Seattle and the Washington State Arts Alliance join together to explore the role, accessibility and utilization of your arts commissions on a city, county and state level. With current leadership and budgetary shifts, learn how to access your arts commissioners, get on their radar and learn about their interaction in the bigger picture of state and local governments.

This free Accountability and the Arts workshop will include commissioners and arts agency representation. We will engage in an interactive panel discussion and Q & A regarding each respective commission’s role and current state. The workshop will also include a mock meeting segment and opportunity to connect with a commissioner one-on-one regarding some of your specific issues. Light refreshments available.

Come join Arts Leadership Lab this Wednesday!

When: November 17th 6:30-8:30PM

Where: Seattle University, Pigott Building, Room 109

Reshaping Seattle’s Central Waterfront: Presentations by Firms Shortlisted for the Role of Lead Designer

With the removal of the Alaskan Way Viaduct, Seattle is poised to reclaim its Central Waterfront and reconnect our city to Elliott Bay. The City is now in the process of selecting a design and engineering team to engage the public in developing a dynamic and forward-looking design for the waterfront. As the first step, a range of local, national and international designers have submitted qualifications.

This presentation will be the public’s opportunity to hear the shortlisted designers present their skills, experience and approach to the project. Designers will answer questions from the public. A lead designer will be selected in part based on the quality of their presentation and ability to engage the public. The City will start the design process in October 2010.

The presentations will take place on:
Wednesday September 15th, 2010
7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
*Please note time change

No RSVP required.

This event is being sponsored by the Seattle Parks Foundation.
To learn more about the project: www.seattle.gov/dpd/centralwaterfront

Before the conversation got underway, we were treated to a candid short video made by ALL Core Members, which we highly recommend you view:

Arts Leadership Lab Presents: How Would You Spend $1 MIL on Arts?

An interesting cross-section of Seattle’s arts leaders along Garrett, including Cassie Chinn of Wing Luke Asian Museum, Sara Edwards of 4Culture (liaison for Washington Hall), Randy Engstrom of Youngstown Cultural Arts Center and Cathryn Vandenbrink of Artspace, convened around the idea of equity and its specific challenges in arts and community development. Facilitated by KUOW veteran Marcie Sillman, the discussion was prompted by the following questions:

·    In your role, how do you support the arts and community development in Seattle?

·    What does a creative or arts-driven community mean to you? What does it look like?

·    How have the arts spurred neighborhood or community development? What are some specific initiatives that improved community through the arts? 

·    In your experience, has arts-driven development prevented or accelerated social equity in terms of access to cultural resources and high-quality community spaces? How and why?

·    What are the major cultural opportunities for Seattle in community development? What steps have to be taken in order to seize these opportunities?

The answers and dialogue that emerged from these questions touched on two large themes: the need for and purpose of building arts and community development work around culture, and the process to which arts leaders ascribe to achieve equity and excellence within their respective communities.

Building Around Culture

“Culture is the immune system of a community,” said Wyking Garrett. Garrett pointed to the P.E.A.C.E. Center—which resides in “converted crackhouses”—as an example of how the arts inspire renewed infrastructure, strengthen a neighborhood’s identity and make a community more resilient against gentrification and other forms of cultural attack. Garrett also defined true community development as something that supports new neighborhood people to commingle with the cultures that are “indigenous” to the neighborhood, rather creating a new separate culture.

Sara Edwards of 4Culture spoke of her role on the other side: stewarding the initial visioning process for Washington Hall, a historic hall in the Central District that was close to being demolished before being rescued by 4Culture and Historic Seattle. The completion of significant restorative work—and a capital campaign—will take several years before Washington Hall reaches its optimal use. Equally important to physical restoration, says Edwards, is building relationships with organizations, community collectives and potential tenants of the building that will respect and reflect the Central District’s African-American legacy and multicultural present.

Speaking on neighborhood-determined cultural spaces, Wing Luke Asian Museum veteran Cassie Chin (now The Wing’s Executive Deputy Director to the nationally-recognized Smithsonian affiliate) has seen the museum from its beginnings in a modest, one- room space (coincidentally, the space where the Canoe Social Club now inhabits) to a full museum and cultural arts facility that prioritizes a community-informed exhibition. Located in the Seattle neighborhood containing the highest number of abandoned buildings (usually hotels above restaurants), The Wing seized an opportunity to renovate an abandoned hotel sustainably and has served as a neighborhood beacon and facilitator for traditionally marginalized voices.

The How – Development and Cultural Agencies Facilitating & Advocating for Authentic Community Space

In the larger scope of Seattle, and in a time where budget cuts have affected arts development particularly hard, Randy Engstrom, Founding Director of Youngstown Cultural Arts Center in the Delridge neighborhood, cited that the arts generate more than $330 million in economic activity annually, and argued that the potential of arts investment to address and overcome the financial crisis has been sorely overlooked. He said the city should hire a Cultural Facilities Manager to advocate for affordable arts space in Seattle.

Cathryn Vandenbrink, the Regional Director of  Artspace, conveyed her experience as someone who has guided an arts housing development to completion—the Hiawatha Artist Lofts on Rainer Avenue—and is now project managing a new artist housing project in the Mount Baker neighborhood in conjunction with the LightRail station. She stated that Seattle is the only major U.S. city to have more than one significant affordable housing site entirely dedicated to artist live/work spaces, and that such housing has the opportunity to craft a community’s identity in otherwise vacant and in-between spaces. Vandenbrink explained the process in which Artspace work as facilitators that are brought in at the request of communities, taking stock of a neighborhood’s ecosystem as opposed to identifying the best “real estate.”

Overall, the breadth of the speakers’ experience gave the audience a complex portrait of the current state of Seattle’s arts and community development, one with great achievement under its belt but that still needs considerable support, particularly in neighborhoods that gentrification and the economic recession have impacted most.

To watch live footage of the event, visit the Arts Leadership Lab Youtube channel (yes, we’re fancy like that.)

Many thanks to Arts Leadership Lab Core Members Christina Twu, Alberto Mejia, Keely Isaak Meehan, Jenny Asarnow and Kristen Hoskins for coordinating the Creative Conversations and ensuring a great night out!

It’s on her blog – check it out!

http://gracewillard.wordpress.com/2010/08/28/professional-artist-engaging-audiences-forum/

Apparently our community has not made enough noise about about preserving and protecting Seattle arts and culture. Please understand that significant cuts are imminent by tomorrow (which will be too late to act) - and this alleged  “silence” has put arts in the crosshairs.

Please take a moment NOW to sign off and/or add to the letter below and asking McGinn and the city to 1)honor  their commitment to the arts by not cutting arts and culture beyond it’s fair share and 2) designate a staff position focused on preserving and expanding affordable cultural space.

Copy and paste your letter and email Mayor McGinn : mike.mcginn@seattle.gov

make some noise on Mayor McGinns facebook!: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Mayor-Mike-McGinn/224859138615?ref=ts

Thank you!

Alberto Mejia II,  ALL Core Team Member

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RE:  Keeping  Arts and Culture in Seattle

Mayor McGinn-

I want to thank you for  supporting arts and culture in Seattle’s neighborhoods, and I urge you to  keep cultural life  strong in our communities.

Fare Share of Cuts

First, please keep your campaign promise to  “Protect the Office of Arts and Culture.”  Due to the current budget realities, it is understandable that the office is taking a budget cut.  However, the office is partially funded from admission tax and should not be required to take more than its fair share of cuts.  As you stated of this department during the campaign “it would be counter productive to cut the budget any further.”

Affordable Cultural Space

Second, I urge you to designate a staff position focused on preserving and expanding affordable cultural space. Doing so would help preserve the cultural way of life that makes our neighborhoods livable and special. It would also be a wise investment that supports creativity—the key to Seattle’s current and future success in jobs and economic development. Connecting business, arts groups, city departments, artists and neighborhood groups, this position will be effective in leveraging support for new and existing projects.  From the Taproot Theatre in Greenwood to Washington Hall in the Central District and the ArtSpace site in Rainier Valley, there is a unique chance to expand cultural space in this down economy as a way to prepare for future growth.  This position will have a return many times beyond its investment, bringing resources and jobs to Seattle. Supported by the Seattle Arts Commission and numerous city council members, and the time to fund it is now.

The arts generate more than $330 million in economic activity annually.  As you are faced with difficult budget decisions this summer, support these programs that leverage outside funds, strengthen our communities, and improve the quality of life in Seattle.

Signed,

Name:

Address:

*email:

Seattle is lucky to welcome Alan Brown from Wolfbrown in town for  Engaging Audiences, an arts participation forum this Thursday, August 26. Arts Leadership Lab (ALL) Seattle and ALL Tacoma will be in the house supporting the event and inviting folks to join us for ALL Out at McMenamin’s for Happy Hour and continued conversation.

Engaging Audiences is designed for arts managers, board members, artists and volunteers and will join together forces Brown, Daniel Windham, Arts Program Director of the Wallace Foundation and the Seattle Art Museum’s Sandra Jackson-Dumont. Participants will delve into the questions of how audiences like to engage with different art forms, and how arts organizations can respond to the changing expectations and demands of audiences.

Details: Engaging Audiences is this Thursday, August 26th from 3:30-6:30 in the SIFF/Nesholm Lecture Hall, McCaw Hall, Seattle. To RSVP, please click here. ALL Out will immediately follow the forum.

Engaging Audiences is an Arts Participation Leadership Initiative learning opportunity, brought to you by the Washington State Arts Commission and The Wallace Foundation.  ALL Out is brought to you by ALL Seattle and ALL Tacoma under the auspices of Shunpike.