Entering the City

After a couple of days denying the sickness creeping up on me, while also finding it utterly wonderful to take cold/flu medicine followed by unusually long mid-day naps, I was ready to get back at it. I was here to meet with people and figure this stuff out, so I was all to happy to have double booked meetings on Wednesday with people at Seattle's two cultural affairs organizations. I was meeting with Ruri Yampolsky and Kathy Hsieh at the Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs in the morning, and meeting with Tina Hoggart at 4Culture in the afternoon.

I set out mid morning down 2nd Ave, hopping every few blocks to the left as I made my way to 5th Ave. and headed deeper into the city I had barely explored. The buildings seemed to shoot up at brick and carved stone facades mingeled with mammoth pillars of glass and steel. Everywhere there seemed to be art, accents on buildings, images of the Salish Nation carved atop sewer caps, murals, sculptures, bus stops with elaborate designs(which I would find out about the next day), spray painted stencils on the sidewalks, and galleries on every block. My mouth was still agape as I found the soaring tower that would take me to Ruri and Kathy. Feeling a bit out of place, I made my way to the 17th floor and through the doors marked Arts & Cultural Affairs. Ruri was right there to meet me and immediately put me at ease, gesturing me into a conference room with a incredible view of the city expanding below.

Seated in the comfy chairs I explained what exactly it was I was doing there, and Ruri started with a general overview of Seattle's public arts initiatives and funding for projects. Kathy later joined us to flesh out exactly how projects get funded and what current funding sources there are for public arts. Together they explained that Seattle has more than 80 named neighborhoods and a lot of community activism happens within these neighborhoods. While Seattle has a flourishing arts community and provides funding from the city in relation to new development that supports commissions for public art throughout the city, community involved art projects are largely initiated by the community. There is some overlap however, as Ruri explained a partnership of the city with the library system that started with the central library and included some of the branch locations as well. In this project professional artist were paired with neighborhood community artist to create artworks throughout the city's library system. There has also been work done in new community centers being built throughout the city.

However there are a number of ways that communities can get funding for art projects, including a neighborhood matching fund program as well as through smArt ventures grants. With matching funds, communities apply for event or project money and the city requires that they also match some percentage of the funding. In this way the community needs to be fully on board and invested in the project, as it can not just be an individual who wants to see the project done. The smArt ventures grant was largely created on the initiative of Kathy and her team, who looked at barriers to certain groups or people getting funding, and came up with a program that would make funding of community art more accessible. Some of the barriers she found consistently come up were: individuals who were not professional artists or non-arts organizations/groups who wanted to do an arts-based project, language barriers, and organizations who would do arts events as opportunities came up but due to the nature of their programming were not able to plan ahead for grant deadlines. In order to address these three barriers to eligibility, smArt ventures accepts grant applications on a rolling basis and can be applied for by anybody who has an art project that is appropriate for the city to fund. Grants are generally for around one thousand dollars and are for projects doing something innovative and generally working with the under-served communities. These grants are designed to encourage non-professional or emerging artists and centers to use the arts as a strategy and tool to archive larger goals, such as engagements, participation, and education. smArt ventures also aims to make grant money more accessible to a more diverse applicant pool. As many people applying for smArt ventures money are new to the grant writing scene or may not speak English as their first language, each applicant is partnered with a project manager. The project manager helps them through the application and grant writing process step by step, and does a number of reviews before submission, basically ensuring their success in receiving the grant. About 50-65 grants of this kind are given a year throughout the many neighborhoods of Seattle.

Ruri went on to explain projects they had done with community centers, parks, some fire stations, projects in streetscapes and right of way, police precincts, utility facilities, as well as civic buildings – such as City Hall and the Seattle Justice Center. She also expressed interest in having art in the community gardens that are popping up throughout the city. I was glad to hear that some of my ideas were on track with what they had already done, or were hoping to implement in Seattle. I was impressed with these two womens' dedication to seeing the arts flourish in their city, on all levels, and throughout their many diverse neighborhoods. As it was time to say goodbye and be off down the 17 flights to my next meeting, I had the feeling that I’d gotten a glimpse of another level of how things all come together. Most importantly, I got to see how the money moves towards arts throughout a city for both professional and community artists. I was happy to see a model that encouraged communities to use art as a tool for their growth, and provided the support to make this achievable.

After grabbing a plate of beans and rice at a nearby deli I was off to find 4Culture and the lovely Tina Hoggart. Distracted by the increasing frequency of murals as I approached 3rd Ave and Yesler Way, I stopped frequently to take pictures, careening at awkward angles to capture fish spray-painted into a fantastical reality, and hands that etched the history of the Salish People along brick walls. Taking the long way around a highly decorated block, I arrived at 4Culure. 4Culture is a 'Cultural Development Agency' which means it is not a government organization, although that is where it had its birth, and it is not a non-profit either. It is an organization that serves King County, and therefore Seattle, focusing on Grants for other programs, heritage, Preservation, and arts programing for organization, individuals, and groups. They are involved in large scale city wide projects, as well as community based projects, and work with individuals and community artists. Tina actually explained all of this well into our meeting though, as soon after I told her what my project was she immediately mobilized her thoughts towards helping me create a how-to plan. So appreciated!

Her quick and experienced mind started tackling how the heck I could go about doing this. First it would be helpful to have by-in from the city, this would allow for leverage of larger donations and partnerships. Framing the funding ask with the city as an already on board partner could prove to be very powerful. She also encouraged me to look for organization partnerships looking to government agencies, the university, anybody who is focusing on sustainability, and businesses large and small, and then offered suggestions of possible projects with these partners. She encouraged me to start thinking about developing these partnerships, keeping in mind that it is nice for partners to also get something in return whether that is a mural, some money, or recognition for their community participation. Ultimately the deeper the partnerships go, the more solid the funding and participation is. This was resonating deeply with my years of builders development at my previous job, I might actually know how to pull that off, great.

She recommended that I create a project methodology, thinking about a design model for the organization/project and then transferring it to scale, bringing vision to reality step by step. I could start with projects with achievable success and build from there. I should have a website, 4Culture's is an excellent model which is easy to access and visual, this way funders and partners can easily check out what the program is all about. Thinking about space, how about a floating space to start out with at partnering community centers or neighborhood partners, again building from there. A mission or vision statement would also be important, something to focus the purpose and objective of the organization, something concise yet capturing a full and easy explanation of the program. Yes! This is exactly what I need, the framework for a PLAN, and knowing it is possible to accomplish it!

We went on to talk about more ideas for projects, and some of the projects 4Culture had been a part of throughout the years. Throughout it all, the importance of strong partnerships was a reoccurring theme. While these partnerships could take months, years, decades to build, they have proved to be a cornerstone of successful for community development, and the possibly success of the program I am envisioning. With the clarity of Tina's grounded and poignant advice, I felt I was walking out the doors of 4Culture with the blueprints for success. Somewhat baffled and amazed at Tina's swift ability to cut a path through the thicket of vision seeking fog, it started to really sink in that practical means could achieve this lofty goal I am after. Along with the newly cut path towards clear action, there was the much needed reminder to plan out the steps and then take them one by one. Now I just need to start working on some of these new tasks, and continue doing others I have been doing for years, one day at a time.

A new fog was overtaking me...congestion. It was time to head towards my hostel twin bed, and continue my new tradition of an extended afternoon nap, letting the information of the day filter through drowsy brainwaves. Thursday would bring my meeting with Dale Cummings at the City Transit office to learn about those spectacular bus stops. Until then, thanks for reading.