The Seattle Mayor’s Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs is hosting a two-day event on December 6 and 7 to help shape policies to keep and create affordable space for artists and arts organizations to work, rehearse and perform in Seattle. Although the verbiage coming out of MOACA seems to emphasize the arts, surely the owners of historic venues in Seattle will have plenty to contribute to this discussion. A public forum will be held Tuesday, December 6, at Town Hall in Seattle.  It will feature a keynote by Theaster Gates. President and founder of the Rebuild Foundation, as well as director of arts program development at the University of Chicago, he is committed to the restoration of poor black neighborhoods, converting abandoned buildings into cultural spaces that allow not only new cultural moments to happen in unexpected places, but raising the city’s expectations of where “place-making” happens and why.

The next morning there will be a working session from 10 AM to 12:30, again at Town Hall, to discuss how, in a time of limited resources, Seattle can be proactive about a systematic approach to growing local cultural space resources. After mining the wisdom of local and national arts organizers at the evening forum, participants will hear about some local cultural space projects and work together toward a plan to advance an agenda for cultural space initiatives. The working session is free but registration is required.  Space is limited to the first 50 registrants.

Cultural Space Seattle is a free event open to the public and designed to engage artists, arts and cultural organizations, elected officials, government leaders, arts administrators, creative business owners, investors, real estate developers and brokers, nonprofit organizations and interested citizens.

For registration information, call the Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs at 206-684-7171 or e-mail arts.culture@seattle.gov.