Recent Stories with tag 4Culture

Open Flight Studio, HERE/NOW. A quarterly project of Paige Barnes at the Open Flight Studio, HERE/NOW features a lineup of randomly paired dancers and musicians who will produce improvised performances (Saturday night 8 p.m.; $8 suggested donation at the door). It's very off-the-cuff and informal, and the results can either be complete flops or brilliantly inspired. Barnes has ensured that her guests are some of the most talented artists in Seattle; past participants have included dancers KT Niehoff, Jim Kent, Michael Rioux, and Mônica Mata Gilliam, and the musicians have included Tiffany Lin, ilvs strauss, Paris Hurley, and Jeff Huston. The lineups are kept secret until the performance, though, so prepared to be surprised.

The Trails Project at Marymoor Park. One of the many projects supported by 4Culture, The Trails Project (Sunday, 11 a.m.; RSVP preferred) features three artists commissioned to produce work that engages audiences with our regional trails. At first blush, it probably sounds like one of these cheesy community events you want to avoid like the plague, but true to form, 4Culture has commissioned three pretty brilliant artists. Susan Robb is a visual artist and sculptor whose work I don't know very well, but it looks cool. Paul Rucker, on the other hand, is a pretty amazing musician, composer, and visual artist, and a pretty nice guy to boot. And as for performer Stokley Towles, his last piece Waterlines, on the municipal water system, was so strangely compelling that I can't help but highly endorse his work.... (more)

It was only a few years ago that people were wringing their hands and predicting the demise of the historic Washington Hall on 14th Avenue. Built in 1908, for decades the building was a center of African-American culture in the city (everyone from DuBois to MLK to Hendrix has been there) and eventually the first home to On the Boards. Back when I lived across the street a scant three years ago, the space was dilapidated and collapsing. Now, through the efforts of Historic Seattle and 4Culture, the space has been renovated and is ready for people to use it.

Right now, Washington Hall is accepting proposals for use. There's three ways to apply: as a one-time user, as an organization in search of a short-term residency, or as an "anchor" tenant, a member of the collective of long-time users who will ultimately shape the Hall's second century of use. The space is available for a relatively broad array of users, from arts organizations to various sort of community groups, so visit the website to find out more information; applications are due June 9.

Times are tough for everybody, especially in the arts.  Between the Northwest Film Forum's fundraising last summer to close a $70K budgetary gap and 4Culture's current funding strife--not to mention KEXP's pledge drive that ended earlier this month and KING FM's announcement that they are also shifting to a listener-supported model--it seems like every local business or organization at all affiliated with the arts has a cup out.  Well, add one more to that list: Columbia City Cinema.  Move over, Haiti:

For the last few months we have been in a state of undeclared Chapter 11 holding creditors and lenders at bay, trying to figure out solutions. We've danced our way of trouble and imminent closure several times but we're running out of options. Use any metaphor you want: We've hit the iceberg and we're going down. We've avoided checkmate a dozen times but we're running out of moves. We're almost out of gas. There are no more rabbits to pull out of the hat. You get the idea. We are in endgame unless something happens to turn the game around....

Send money. The good news is we don't need a lot. We just need a little from a lot of people. We believe in the power of many. We're trying to raise $20,000. That much will catch us up, pay the rent, keep the doors open and carry us through to the big summer movies that begin in May, when we can breathe again. The bad news is we need it now, today, from all of you or survival is iffy. We are the perfect poster child example of a neighborhood cinema in need.

Of course, big-hearted gift-givers will derive personal benefit from their donations.  Yes, you get to keep the theater in the neighborhood, for the good of the entire community, but there's also the promise of bogus stock options and a deed for virtual land--suitable for framing! The full text of owner Paul Doyle's plea after the jump.

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A shot of the Glenn Kawasaki Studio at the new Velocity Dance Center space. Through the window to the left, you can even see the home they've been displaced from. Photo coutesy of Velocity Dance Center.

This Saturday, March 27, the long, agonizing wait is finally over, when Velocity Dance Center--whose future was cast into uncertainty with the purchase and refurbishment of Oddfellows Hall--officially opens the doors of their new space in the old Capitol Hill Arts Center building at 1621 12th Avenue. It's one of precious few success stories for arts organizations over the past few decade, when first rising rents and then a bad economy made it seem impossible for arts groups to survive in Seattle.

Velocity originally opened in 1996 and quickly established itself at the center of Seattle's dance community. Hosting both entry-level and professional development classes, as well as providing badly needed rehearsal space and serving as a performance venue, the overall health of contemporary dance in Seattle and the greater region has been closely tied to the institution. But in 2007, Oddfellows Hall, where Velocity occupied three separate studio spaces, was sold to Ted Schroth, the developer behind Trace Lofts, among others.

The sale, and the attendant 300 percent rent increase, was a huge blow to the local arts and non-profit community, who had been taking advantage of the building's cheap rents and who were rapidly being displaced elsewhere on the Hill. The Oddfellows sale became the sine qua non of the transformation and gentrification of Capitol Hill (among others, Freehold Theatre left the neighborhood and now operates in Belltown), and a threat to the arts overall in a white hot real estate market that was quickly pricing them out of the urban core. ... (more)

Unless the legislature takes action in the last few days of the special session, King County arts and heritage organizations are likely looking at a nasty funding problem in 2011. A couple weeks ago, I wrote about the problems facing 4Culture, the agency that disperses part of the hotel and lodging tax in King County to cultural projects. This week, I've heard from 4Culture that uncertainty over future funding sources may well lead them to cut dispersal of funds by up to half in 2011, a year before their tax funding actually expires. In 2010, they're dispensing over $4 million; that means that next year, King County could be losing up to $2 million in already scarce funds.

Two bills--HB 2912 and SB 6051--are currently both still in the rules committees of their relative houses, and could make it to the floor for a vote any day. Advocate4Culture, a citizen's group supporting efforts to preserve 4Culture's funding, is calling on people to contact their legislators and encourage them to act soon. Information on how to do so can be found here.

For six years now, supporters in the legislature have tried--and failed--to pass legislation that would extend the county's 2 percent credit against the state's 6.5 percent hotel and lodging tax, which is set to expire in 2012 when the Kingdome debt, for which the credit was originally designed, is paid off. Politically, the issue should be no-brainer. For one thing, this has nothing to do with the collection of the tax; it's about whether or not counties get to keep part of it (today, nearly every county in the state keeps its 2 percent to support tourism, culture, and youth sports). Extending the credit is a win for every legislator, since it ensures part of the state taxes collected in their district stay there.

The issue also has very little to do with the state's current bottom line problems, since the credit doesn't expire until 2012, when, theoretically, that 2 percent would revert back to going to the state's coffers. In fact, most observers tend to think legislators are just being slow to act, assuming that there won't be any negative impacts if they wait until the last minute--the 2011 general session--to pass the extension, and that funding won't be interrupted.

Unfortunately, that's not the case. Due to the economic downturn, hotel and lodging taxes were down 18 percent in 2009 versus 2008, according to a statement from 4Culture. That left them with only $3 million to disperse in competitive programs for 2010, in contrast to $4.5 million in 2009. So the board made the decision to borrow $1.1 million from the agency's rainy day fund--the interest it earns off its  $40 million endowment, which was created to fund its activities after 2012--in order to maintain arts and heritage funding during the downturn, when alternative sources like corporate giving were likewise down.... (more)

If you're not a working artist in King County, or some sort of moneyed arts patron, you may well have no idea what 4Culture is. But if you make art in or around Seattle, or work on cultural preservation projects, you definitely do, because 4Culture forms a crucial component of the funding process for local artists, cultural centers, and arts organizations, and currently, they're under threat.

Here's how it works--the state levies a 6.5-percent tax on hotel and lodging. Back in the 1970s, when King County was looking for ways to fund building the Kingdome, the state agreed to give the county a 2-percent credit against the tax collected in King County to service the debt. Over the years, the amount collected exceeded that necessary to fund the debt, and so 4Culture came to exist, using part of the money to fund arts and heritage projects in King County, with the rest dedicated to the Kingdome debt and supporting youth sports and tourism advancement.

But here's the catch--in 2012, the program expires when the Kingdome debt gets paid off, so a group called Advocate4Culture has formed to press the legislature to pass bills to continue the funding. Currently, there are bills that have made it out of committee and are waiting for floor votes, so time is of the essence. Here are some important facts:

• The bills have nothing to do with taxes. Whether or not 4Culture continues to receive a credit on taxes collected, the state will continue to levy them; they won't go away. The only change will be that in 2012, a major revenue stream to support culture, arts, heritage, and youth sports in King County will be lost.
• This is not just a King County issue. Many counties in the state have followed suit and receive a credit to support tourism activities and other local priorities.
• This is not just an arts issue. Rep. Frank Chopp, whose bill in the House is the main hope for preserving funding, has tied arts and heritage funding to increased funding for affordable housing, making it a win-win if it's passed.
• 4Culture will not be able to continue funding at the same level if funding isn't extended. Strictly speaking, 4Culture won't go away in 2012; 40 percent of the money they receive has been put into an endowment to support their mission after 2012. But the endowment isn't large enough to continue funding at the same level--nearly $5.2 million in 2008. Also, a lack of long-term funding will prevent them from helping other organizations with capital funding projects--such as the effort that is restoring Washington Hall....