Putting Arts in the Mayor’s Mouth

The imaginary speech McGinn should give to the arts community, but never will.

Before I make my historic Mayor’s 2010 Promise to the Arts, I have a confession to make. I haven’t really been an arts guy at heart. The arts were second or third from the bottom of my campaign priorities. I mean, have you seen the way I dress? Aesthetics are not a priority. In fact, if you can’t eat it, ride it to work or make it eco-sustainable, I haven’t been very interested.

But I do understand that arts pay off, that they are not a charity case. Hard numbers show a return of three dollars in tax revenues to the city for every dollar invested through the Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs. And there are other payoffs: art education, for instance, improves academic performance in kids rich and poor alike – amazingly, it even boosts scores for kids not involved in arts education. The effect of artsy people positively rubs off on the entire society, in schools and great cities.

So I have some promises to make. All are actual ideas suggested to City Arts magazine by important Seattle arts people. Some are on my real desk at this very moment.

But right now, we’re broke. We need fifty million dollars fast. The arts must share the pain. So I’m directing Larry Reid to smash every Chihuly sculpture in town into pieces – tiny little Chihulies the city will auction off to fund the arts.

Kidding! I like Chihuly. And I like the tourist and tax money his museum would bring to Seattle Center. If Open Platform, the backer of the alternate idea that would bring KEXP to the site, comes up with cash, I’m all ears. I’ll try to get Chihulyites to incorporate a KEXP section – a public performing space, perhaps. If I can’t, deal, people. If we decide we hate it, the Wright family has promised to return the land, in whatever state we see fit, in five years. We can’t lose. 

We need to quit squabbling and cut deals. On the new waterfront – whatever that turns out to be – I’m appointing artists to the planning team. Not just sculptors but performing artists. Instead of commissioning the usual fifty-thousand-dollar naked statues conservatives can use to bludgeon liberals, we’ll take a broader view. Maybe at each street corner there can be a micro-park with a stage. Plus naked statues. Anyway, artists will have an official say.

I hereby create a new Cultural Space Czar to create affordable space for small and medium-sized arts groups so they won’t waste time and money lobbying and losing leases and momentum. We also need to make sure artists can live and work in the city, so we can attract the cyberpunks, scenesters and cultural mavens who fatten the tax base. Condos aren’t selling, commercial space isn’t renting, so I’ll find tax breaks to persuade owners to let creative types use them. Building codes will relax to permit conversions. The Cultural Space Czar will produce clear rules so artists and groups won’t need to be lawyers to understand what the city demands.

I’ll lobby Olympia so Allyson Brooks of the Trust for Historic Preservation can get tax breaks for Pioneer Square development, like the ones that transformed small towns around the state (big towns aren’t now eligible). The feisty new Alliance for Pioneer Square will help spearhead an artistic rebirth. I will also appoint unpaid Arts Zone Referees to devise compromises between intransigent extremists in several neighborhoods where nothing gets done. No more endless debate. I want action, not vague talk. 

The big challenge for the city is assuring the future of 4Culture, which helps support six hundred artists and organizations a year. For a few million bucks, we get a payoff worth multimillions. But if we don’t get a legislative fix soon, it may die and we’re all screwed. I’ll fight to keep it alive. 

But I can’t do it without you. 4Culture is caught between two rivals for public dollars, sports and low-income housing programs. Do you know how politically powerful those are? You artists are going to have to do what doesn’t come naturally: organize. Quit coming off like whining, entitled brats biting each other to steal cookies. Show me the votes! When I call for a massive campaign to pressure legislators, don’t let the moment slip away. Make noise – in unison.  

If you deliver, I will. Back in 1971, when unemployment was about twice what it is today, the mayor spent twenty-five thousand dollars on an arts festival. It became Bumbershoot. Bad times are just the time to invest in the future of art. 

And if you kick my ass enough, I’ll even bike down to First Thursday, visit some readings, see some plays. And if we save 4Culture, I may celebrate by buying some new clothes. By a Seattle designer. •