On November 17, 2014, the Seattle City Council approves a resolution creating an Arts & Cultural Districts program, selecting Capitol Hill's Pike/Pine/12th Avenue neighborhood as the city's first Arts District. Two days earlier, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray (b. 1955) and City Council member Nick Licata (b. 1947) had announced the designation at Richard Hugo House, one of several arts-oriented sites on Capitol Hill facing displacement caused by neighborhood gentrification. In the next five years, the Capitol Hill Arts District will be followed by the Central Area (2015), Uptown (2017), and Columbia Hillman (2018) arts districts. The program marks a milestone in a decades-long effort to ensure that individuals and organizations involved with the arts will have a place to create and thrive in the city's rapidly changing mixed-use neighborhoods.
The City and the Arts
In the later decades of the twentieth century, Seattle's government evidenced a growing commitment to promote and preserve the cultural elements of the city, although budget limitations often hampered progress. A major step forward was when the Seattle Arts Commission was established in 1971 to promote and encourage public programs to further the development and public awareness of and interest in the fine and performing arts" (Ordinance No. 99982). Five years later, in 1976, Seattle Mayor Wes Uhlman (b. 1935) brought the arts commission, which had been working under the aegis of the Seattle Center, into city hall, giving it greater status and direct ties to the executive branch. Despite this positive move, funds were tight following the Boeing Bust earlier that decade and what resources the commission had were largely devoted to saving the struggling Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera.
In 1990, the arts commission encouraged the city to create a formal cultural-space program administered by a dedicated staff person, but again tight budgets, along with issues of property rights, zoning, and other concerns, stymied its creation. The Seattle Arts Commission was dissolved in 2003 and many of its functions folded into the newly created Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, whose name was shortened to Office of Arts & Culture in 2013.
What the city could or should do for the arts community took on increased urgency in 2007 when the venerable Oddfellows Building, a 1908 structure located at 915 E Pine, was sold to developers. The rundown building had for decades provided affordable spaces for artists, performances, and arts and community groups, but this was sure to change after costly renovations were made. Although the sale was devastating news for the building’s tenants, the ensuing public outcry was a catalyst for a more aggressive approach to the issue. A community meeting, held in January 2008 at the Capitol Hill Arts Center, was convened to develop ideas to counter the piecemeal disintegration of Seattle’s arts community.
In April 2008, Seattle City councilmembers Nick Licata and Sally Clark organized a public forum at city hall entitled "Make Room for Art: Cultural Overlay Districts for Seattle?" An "overlay district" is a regulatory tool that creates a special zoning regime superimposed over an area's existing zoning and can provide incentives or impose regulations in addition to those already in place, encouraging "the retention of existing and the development of new places for arts and culture activities" ("Cultural Overlay Districts"). More than 200 individuals – property developers, zoning specialists, visual and performing artists, neighborhood activists, and others – attended, and a certain momentum started to build.
Arts Resolution Approved
In July 2008, Licata and Clark helped establish a Cultural Overlay District Advisory Committee (CODAC), an all-volunteer group charged with identifying "creative incentives and regulations that can help preserve and promote spaces and activities for art, culture, and entertainment in Seattle, beginning with the Capitol Hill neighborhood" ("Cultural Overlay Districts Background"). After months of work, the committee’s recommendations were unanimously endorsed by the city council on August 17, 2009. In March 2010, Mayor Mike McGinn (b. 1959) added his approval.
Resolution 31155 was in large part a statement of aspirations. Although it did not create or preserve a single square foot of art or cultural space, it marked a formal commitment by the city's executive and legislative branches to work toward that end and provided the beginnings of a road map for how to get there. There were six goals, in brief:
- Allow the creation of designated cultural districts in the city;
- Create a full-time staff position to work specifically on behalf of cultural districts;
- Use financial and land-use incentives as well as regulatory tools and processes to develop and promote an arts and cultural space "brand" in the city;
- Provide technical assistance to neighborhoods;
- Conduct outreach and build awareness of the ways in which arts and cultural space can serve a variety of interests in the community and enhance the quality of life;
- Identify and pursue partnerships with groups and individuals to achieve the goals of the CODAC's recommendations.
The resolution also proposed specific changes to the land-use element of the city's Comprehensive Plan and identified the Capitol Hill neighborhood as the first to be considered for designation as a cultural overlay district. That became reality on November 17, 2014, when the city council unanimously endorsed a resolution sponsored by Licata to create an Arts & Cultural Districts program and recognize Capitol Hill’s Pike/Pine/12th Avenue corridor as the first Arts District. The resolution included an implementation plan and a Creative Placemaking Toolkit that provided mechanisms and programs that can be implemented in collaboration with city agencies and stakeholders. The designation carried with it a $50,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts matched by the city’s Office of Arts & Culture.
Capitol Hill First Arts District
As the densest arts neighborhood in the state and home to more than 40 arts and cultural organizations, Capitol Hill has a long tradition of supporting the arts. In 1914 Nellie Cornish (1876-1956) founded the Cornish School of Music in a one-room studio in the Booth Building at Broadway and Pine. The Burnley School of Professional Art, later renamed the Art Institute of Seattle, was founded by Edwin (1896-1981) and Elise Burnley (1898-1989) in 1946, also in the Booth Building. Some of Seattle's first art galleries, including those of David Hall-Coleman and Zoe Dusanne (1884-1972), found homes on Capitol Hill.
By the 1960s, as Pioneer Square was becoming the new chic neighborhood for art and design, Capitol Hill’s Pike/Pine/12th Avenue corridor began a decline. This allowed low-income residents and artists seeking large, light-filled, live/work spaces at bargain prices to move in, along with cash-strapped arts organizations and theater groups. Over the span of several decades, a vibrant, if largely unstructured, arts community took root.
In 2013 and 2014, several interesting developments took place. Capitol Hill Housing, a public corporation organized by the City of Seattle, broke ground in February 2013 on its 12th Avenue Arts Building, which provided 88 affordable apartments, offices for nonprofit organizations, community meeting space, two flexible theater spaces, and food and beverage outlets. That same year, Landmark Theatres’ lease of the century-old Egyptian Theatre lapsed and was taken over by Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF). After major equipment upgrades, the theater reopened on October 3, 2014, as SIFF Cinema Egyptian.
A month later, Capitol Hill became the city’s first designated Arts District, led by a steering committee of neighborhood arts organizations, artists, small businesses, developers, and residents who meet monthly to develop community-led initiatives. In 2024, completed projects included an expanded arts walk, a monthly artist marketplace called On The Block Seattle, and UNION Projection, a celebration of the visual arts in which rotating images were projected nightly on the side of the Woodworth Apartment Building. On the eve of its 10th anniversary, the Arts District transitioned from a partially staffed organization managed by Community Roots Housing to a stand-alone entity led by a volunteer coalition of community creatives.
Central Area Arts District
Full of history and character, Seattle’s Central Area, long a hub for Black art, business, and community, became Seattle's second Arts & Cultural District in December 2015. As the city’s oldest surviving residential area, the neighborhood has seen a diverse and changing community, including Japanese, Jews, and African Americans. The neighborhood was enhanced by this mix of cultures that contributed to its distinctive arts scene. "Between the 1930s and ’60s – when African Americans in Seattle were mostly limited to living in the Central District due to racially discriminatory housing covenants – there were jazz clubs in the neighborhood catering to the high demand for nightlife from soldiers and civilians stationed and working in the city during Seattle’s stint as a center for World War II-era defense industry" (Sarah Goh).
By the early 1970s, Black people made up 60 percent of Central Area residents, but that figured had dropped to around 20 percent by 2020. Wanting to "better secure the African American legacy in a fast-changing neighborhood environment" (David Kroman), organizations including the Northwest African American Museum, Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute, Seattle Theater Group, and others came together to apply for an Arts District designation. With place-specific design guidelines to create authenticity, the CA Arts District worked with local artists on several projects, including creating colorful portraits of civil rights leaders to adorn stationary traffic boxes, and updating street signs to honor neighborhood cultural leaders, such as Douglas Q. Barnett (1931-2019), founder of Black Arts/West Theatre.
Uptown Arts District
In 2017, the Uptown neighborhood, stretching from Seattle Center to lower Queen Anne and encompassing more than 45 arts and cultural organizations, became Seattle's third Arts & Cultural District. Uptown is home to some of Seattle’s most prestigious arts organizations, such as Seattle Opera, SIFF, and Seattle Repertory Theatre. It also supports several of the city’s largest arts festivals – Bumbershoot, Northwest Folklife Festival, and Seattle Center’s cultural series, called Festál. With more than 12 million visitors each year, Seattle Center is the No. 1 arts and cultural attraction in Washington.
Uptown’s place as an artist-focused community started with the 1962 World's Fair held at Seattle Center. "Uptown's rich concentration of diverse arts and cultural spaces and activities includes independent artists, internationally renowned classical arts, innovative theater, and visual arts, ethnic festivals from around the world, and major music concerts. Uptown is a stage to celebrate the international diversity that is represented throughout Puget Sound. People come to the neighborhood to share the richness of music, dance, art, and food found around the world" (Uptown Arts & Cultural Coalition website).
As a city Arts District, the Uptown Arts & Cultural Coalition curates and coordinates programs and events that solidify the area’s role as a prime destination for creativity and community engagement. Recent projects included an artist-in-residence program, beautification projects to enhance public spaces such as building murals and signal-box wraps, pop-up art installations and performances, and a monthly art walk.
Columbia Hillman Arts District
Columbia City and Hillman City became Seattle's fourth Arts & Cultural District in 2018, uniting two distinctive neighborhoods located along Rainier Avenue in southeast Seattle. "The two neighborhoods have distinct personalities but share a cultural vibrancy as a result of being in one of the most racially, ethnically, and economically diverse communities in the nation, as well as having one of the highest densities of artists in the state" (Columbia Hillman Arts & Cultural District website).
Columbia City, incorporated in 1883 and annexed to Seattle in 1907, was founded as part of a speculative real estate development. After an economic decline in the 1970s, its local business community came together to preserve the neighborhood’s historic ambience, and once-empty storefronts eventually reopened as restaurants, small shops, and an artist collective that showcases emerging and professional artists. The neighborhood’s historic business core, with its century-old buildings, received landmark protection status in 1980.
Hillman City, about one-half mile south of Columbia City, expanded in the 1890s from its early beginnings as a streetcar stop on the Rainier Valley line. Over the decades, the neighborhood boasted an opera house, movie theater, and a central fountain that was a favorite gathering spot. There was also a cigar factory, Lough’s Grocery and Meat Market, and the Hitt Fireworks Company, one of the largest fireworks manufacturers in the nation.
It took more than two years of community organizing and meetings with artists, arts organizations, and residents before the two neighborhoods were ready to apply for the Arts District designation. Over the next six years, nine projects were completed under the program. One was a street beautification project in which Hillman City artists and gardeners collaborated to build planter boxes with a fireworks theme in honor of the historic Hitt Fireworks Company. A mural depicting the No. 7 bus was installed at the Columbia City Gallery, and digitally printed murals showcasing jazz icons Ernestine Anderson (1928-2016) and Quincy Jones (1933-2024) are outside Columbia City’s Royal Esquire Club.
