Dear Mayor McGinn, Do This! Sincerely, Anonymous: PART 5

We asked important members of the arts community to weigh in on what Seattle Mayor McGinn should do about the arts (and sometimes to ventriloquize what they would like to hear him say in place of his speech at this year’s Mayor’s Arts Awards ceremony). Here are some of their thoughts.

(Continued from Part 4)

Another Longtime Art Curator:

With the budget deficit it wouldn't be realistic to dramatically increase arts funding, but re-allocating funding from failing existing programs might accomplish similar ends:

Time to fully re-examine the "design team" approach to public art. What was once an innovative concept pioneered right here in Seattle has become mired in a tedious process resulting in timid, even awful, art. Make accommodations for art installations in public construction - maybe even rotating temporary pieces - and go back to the, ahem...drawing board with the design team model.

Also, lose about half the bureaucracy associated with the Mayor's Office of Arts & Culture. This agency is bloated with failed-artists-turned-administrators that seem to have self-perpetuating job descriptions, accomplishing little of substance.

What to do with these potential savings is another matter entirely.

A Major Literary Leader:

First and foremost, we’d have to start with the libraries. No more furlough days! Longer hours! More books, so I don’t have to wait for fifty holds to get a copy of Aimee Bender’s new novel! Ack!

Secondly, funding – I hear it’s going to take a serious hit the next budget year. I’d love to hear McGinn say, “Not only are we not cutting funding, we’re increasing funding across the board for all arts! Theater, literature, visual art, film, etc. Seattle will be the home of the best and brightest working in each of these disciplines. No longer will you have to leave here and go to New York or L.A. to ‘make it.’”

Third, Seattle’s the most literate city in America, but we don’t have a Poet Laureate of the city. Redmond has a freaking poet laureate! I’d love to see the Poet Populist program abandoned—or reworked so it’s not a popularity contest—and have the mayor appoint a poet year by year via a committee of the major players in the local poetry world.

I was never impressed with McGinn, who, in my opinion, was elected because he rides a bike and wasn’t the rich guy, and I think he’s really dropped the ball in supporting local artists and lovers of art—not to mention the librarians!

An Important TV Personality:

1) Spend one dollar on the arts for every dollar spent on the endless viaduct debates and studies.

2) Massive financial support for current arts programming on the Seattle Channel.

3) Clearly state that, without local government doing their part to create a vibrant arts and cultural scene (this includes making sure artists can LIVE AND WORK within the city), we're screwed.  The arts are not a luxury, but are essential to economic health. Tourists don't come here for our Pottery Barns and Restoration Hardware stores. They come for our theatre, galleries and museums, film culture, music scene, etc.  And of course, the Pike Place Market, which is an artistic gem all it's own.

A Noted Playwright (scripting a Mayor’s speech):

During my first few months on this job, I’ve become aware of how little I am personally involved in the Seattle arts community. As the elected leader of Seattle, I intend to set an example by filling my own social schedule, and those of my staff, with our city’s arts events. I will commit to regularly visiting First Thursday and other visual arts events; Opening Nights at our theatres, dance companies and musical events; and I will become a regular attendee at Town Hall’s lecture series. Even though our current straitened financial circumstances mean that there’s less that we can do in terms of grants and endowments, I can participate in Seattle’s wealth of artistic achievement by stepping up into the position of audience member and patron.