2% -- SUPPORT THE ARTS!

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: : Dear Arts Supporters: : We need your immediate help to get the City Council to pass an increase in the Percent for Arts program from 1% to 2%. This program is one of the major ways the city supports the arts. : The Council will consider raising the Percent for Arts from 1% to 2% at a public hearing on : February 8th (at 5:00 p.m. in the Council chambers) and then vote on the increase at the next Parks, Arts and Culture Committee meeting on February 9th (at 2:00 p.m.). They need to hear from as many artists and arts supporters as possible! : What to Do: : Please write and call as many Councilmembers as you can (their email and phone numbers are at the bottom of this message). Thank them for their support of the Arts, and encourage them to vote YES on 2% for the Arts. In particular, please thank and encourage Jim Compton and Richard Conlin. : Also, please attend the hearing on February 8th -- 5:00 p.m., Municipal Building, 600 Fourth Ave., 11th floor. Show up at 4:30, if you can, and sign up for a time to speak your piece. Bring props, prepare a statement, rehearse a skit or a brief musical number, or just simply stand up and say "please vote yes on 2%." : Finally, talk this up with your friends. We need every call and email we can get to help convince the Council to do the right thing here. Feel free to forward this email on. : This is a big deal: the first meaningful reform of the 1% Ordinance in over 26 years, and the first step towards making Seattle a leader again in public support for the Arts and cultural vitality. We've got a shot here: now we need your help. : Please do your part and email/call the Council and attend the hearing. : Thanks, : Alex Steffen, president : Allied Arts of Seattle : 624-0432 : : Background: : Back in the early 70's, Seattle came up with a radical and innovative idea. A group oftroublemakers at Allied Arts, led by a young president, Paul Schell, proposed that funding for the arts be tied to major public construction projects. Letters were written, meetings were held, voices were raised, and finally a 1% for Arts Ordinance was passed, decreeing that 1% of the construction budget of any large city project would be spent to create art related to that project. : The concept spread like wildfire. Now scores of cities around the country have percent for arts programs. Unfortunately, our own percent program has failed to keep pace with the times: : **where many cities now spend 2%, or even 2.5%, of project budgets on the Arts, our own ordinance has remained at a paltry 1% for over 26 years. Worse yet, administrative and overhead costs for the program must be paid for out of the revenues raised, lowering the total actually spent to a little over 0.6%. : **more and more cities are recognizing that public-private partnerships are meant to be effective because they harness the efficient business practices of the private sector, not because they water down community standards, and are therefore requiring public-private projects to apply percentages for art to the full value of their project budgets (both public money and private). We don't do this. : **many projects have also fallen outside the Percent for Arts program on technicalities. For example, all the work that city agencies do outside city limits currently falls through the cracks. : **finally, we have not remained quite as innovative as we should in how percent for art money is spent. : : To remedy these shortcomings, Allied Arts and other arts advocates have proposed a series of reforms to the One Percent for Arts Ordinance: : *Raise the Percent for Art to 2%, immediately. (This would put us at average/ slightly below average, nationally.) : *Extend full Percent for Art requirements to all public-private partnerships in which the City participates. : *Close the loopholes surrounding the Percent for Art program, and apply it to all City projects, whether built inside or outside the city limits. : *Spend these new Arts revenues in more innovative ways, by supporting a broader array of art forms -- including performing, media and literary arts -- and allowing more project funds to be spent for off-site works where appropriate, such as artists-in-residence in the public schools, a traveling performance series, WPA-style published literary works, and so forth. Extend these new revenues to a larger cross-section of our arts community, so that the art produced reaches citizens in every neighborhood and community in our city. This will in part help meet the need identified in most of the neighborhood plans which call for more arts funding. : : Together, these reforms would restore Seattle's place as a leader in public support for the arts. They would also help to mitigate the horrendous impact our sudden economic boom has had on many artists and on Seattle arts audiences. As Seattle loses artists' lofts by the hundreds, as small theaters and galleries find themselves homeless, as funding for arts education in the schools has waned almost completely away, etc. -- as, in short, our rising cost of living and history of public neglect of the arts eats away at the cultural vitality that defines Seattle -- we need bold action. This set of reforms will not be a cure-all, but it'll be a darn good start. : More importantly, these reforms are possible. And the first step is to pass an increase in the Percent for Arts. : We can get this done. Our Mayor is an old-time arts activist. Our new Council is pro-arts. We need to give them reasons to act on their convictions, by writing and calling them, showing up at hearings, and so on, to thank them for their support of the arts and encourage them to be bold and visionary. : Now is the time. We may not get another chance like this for another 25 years. Let's use our creativity and passion to make the case that it's time to support the arts. Call each Council member and explain your support for a full reform of the Percent for Arts program. Show up the hearings to lobby the Council with a ukulele and a lilting Tiny Tim falsetto. Send them a card from the last art show you held or attended with 2% written on the back in big letters. But whatever you do, don't wait: let the Council know what you think, today. : : Here's the info again: : Public Hearing, Tuesday February 8th, 5:00 p.m., City Council chambers. : Parks, Arts and Culture Committee votes on 2%, Wednesday February 9th, 2:00 p.m. . : : Council email and phone numbers: : Jim Compton jim.compton@ci.seattle.wa.us : 684-8802 : Richard Conlin richard.conlin@ci.seattle.wa.us : 684-8805 : Heidi Wills heidi.wills@ci.seattle.wa.us : 684-8808 : Peter Steinbrueck peter.steinbrueck@ci.seattle.wa.us : 684-8804 : Nick Licata nick.licata@ci.seattle.wa.us : 684-8803 : Judy Nicastro judy.nicastro@ci.seattle.wa.us : 684-8806 : Jan Drago jan.drago@ci.seattle.wa.us : 684-8801 : Richard McIver richard.mciver@ci.seattle.wa.us : mailing address for all: : 1100 Municipal Building : 600 4th Ave : Seattle, WA : 98104-1876 : : ***************************************** : Get involved! Speak out! Spread the word! : Allied Arts of Seattle : (206) 624-0432 : *****************************************

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