As support for the Beyond Integrity working group, 4Culture has offered three Equity in Preservation internships that researched sites associated with underrepresented communities to understand inequities and find new ways to identify, protect and share the significance of properties with high social and cultural importance. University of Washington graduate student, Stefanie Barrera Aguila was 4Culture’s 2018 intern. She worked on identifying ways to strengthen preservation practices to address stories that had not yet been told.

Whose history do we preserve? This question has resonated with me for many years and has led to a greater awareness of the existing inequalities experienced by underrepresented communities in the built environment and the arts.

The work that 4Culture’s Preservation Program and the Beyond Integrity group undertakes addresses equity issues within the historic preservation field, especially concerning underrepresented and marginalized communities. These efforts drew me to apply to 4Culture’s Equity in Historic Preservation summer internship this year.

My work during the internship was divided into two parts. Part one focused on supplementing landmark designation reports with more information on the social and cultural history for two already designated landmarks. Part two aimed to reassess historic preservation outreach methods to educate the public on sites where designation or nomination has not been achieved.

The two sites chosen for first part of the project were the Colman School in Seattle, now the Northwest African American Museum (NAAM), and the Justice White House in Redmond, also known as Hotel Redmond. The research portion for this project involved a large amount of archival research in an effort to find more information on the communities and individuals who occupied these spaces.

Research efforts for the Colman School expanded on the events that led to the closure of the school, especially the implementation of the Seattle Plan and the construction of highway I-90. Other topics of focus were the student body composition and the school’s unique programs prior to closure. Research efforts for Hotel Redmond expanded on the history of Emma McRedmond, the social events that took place at the site, and Redmond historical figures who stayed at the hotel. Both projects aimed to bring forward the social history of the sites. The research on the Colman School brought to light institutional inequities being forced on schools with majority-minority student populations. Research on Hotel Redmond focused on Emma McRedmond, the woman who managed the hotel but whose efforts did not get recognized in the Hotel Redmond nomination.

The second part of the summer project relied heavily on researching public outreach tools with the goal of finding ways to bring public attention to properties that are significant to underrepresented communities, but may not be protected or no longer exist. The observation was made from the beginning of the summer that sites that are important to underrepresented and marginalized groups are often significant due to intangible social and cultural heritage that cannot be captured through architecture. Currently, the historic preservation field places heavy emphasis on architectural integrity, making many sites important to underrepresented groups ineligible for designation. Suggestions for this project included increasing outreach through social media, news features, and websites compiling personal stories, as a way to gather personal stories, foster interactions with the public, and bring attention to sites that lack protection and might disappear.

Overall, both parts of my internship bring awareness to the ways the historic preservation field can improve to ensure equity is met. Placing less emphasis on architectural integrity and celebrating and acknowledging the intangible social and cultural heritage of a site is a step in the right direction.

I applied to this internship position because I strongly feel underrepresented communities deserve better representation in the built environment. While I spent majority of the summer researching and writing about these topics, I know that my research contributions this summer will lead to more discussions around equity in historic preservation within the Seattle and King County region. I am thankful to 4Culture for giving me the opportunity to bring attention to history that has gone untold for too long.

After 27 years serving as the Director of our Public Art program, Cath Brunner is moving on this fall to pursue independent consulting. As Cath passes the baton to Kelly Pajek—previously a Public Art project manager here at 4Culture—the two sat down for an interview that covered decades of projects and included lots of laughs and a few tears! Many of the projects and artists Cath mentions are featured in the video above, created by Collection Curator Jordan Howland. The edited transcript of their conversation is below:

Kelly Pajek: Well, Cath!

Cath Brunner: Well, Kelly!

KP: It’s kind of impossible to capture your decades here in just a little bit of a conversation, but can you share what your trajectory was to end up in this field?

CB: Oh, my gosh, actually, when I moved to Seattle from Galveston, Texas—working in Houston and living in Galveston—I moved here not knowing anyone and not having a job. And I was a working artist, making a living by being an artist in Texas, and all of a sudden encountered Seattle—which, in those days, wasn’t as expensive as it is now, but I paid more to park my car in Pioneer Square than I did to rent an entire old grocery store to be my studio in Galveston, Texas.

[laughs]

So I was like, oh! We’re not in Texas anymore. So we started realizing we needed to get real jobs, in addition to being artists—or, jobs that at least could pay the rent. And I saw an ad in the Seattle Weekly and it said you had to have the following skills: you had to know about contemporary art, you had to have some arts administration experience, and you had to know how to read blueprints. And, I’ve worked on an all-female sheet rocking crew, I’ve run my own small remodeling company, I had been doing construction for years as an artist to pay the bills. So I was like, “I have those skills!” And those were the skill sets for a Project Manager in those days. You had to like construction and know it, like art and know it, and you had to have administrative skills. So Glenn Weiss hired me, and I started working here.

KP: And the rest is history.

CB: And I had no real concept of public art, except that I realized after I started that I’d been doing it all along. I’d been doing a lot of community based artwork, I’d been managing an Artists in the Schools program in Houston, I’d been working on temporary festivals with performances, I’d run a small local art center where we brought artists in and we’d always ask them to do something out in the community in addition to their exhibition. And so I realized, “Yeah, I’ve been doing public art.” Although, we didn’t call it that, we didn’t have a sense of it.

KP: I know, when we started doing what we do it wasn’t really public art per se. There wasn’t a field, there weren’t programs we went to, you didn’t get a degree in public art. It just was and you figured it out.

CB: …and we figured it out. There were different ways of working and different ways of connecting. And I think there always was a strong desire for artists to communicate, to make their work relevant to people. Not just to depend on people coming into a museum or coming into a gallery exhibition—although, I love to do those things myself, I realized when I was working in Galveston and since I’ve been working in Seattle that what really interests me is getting out of those venues and just getting out into life and the world.

And they were also looking for an artist or administrator who could shape the Artist-Made Building Parts™ program, and that was a lot of the kind of work I was doing as an artist. I’d done functional jewelry, functional ceramics, elaborate—but mostly functional—furniture, I’d worked with interior designers, architects and I knew what they were looking for and what would appeal to them. So it seemed completely normal to me to work in that way. That was the good thing about coming from Texas—it was more normal in those days in Texas than it was in Seattle. Texans—I can say this to you because you used to live and work in Texas—

[laughs]

—they’re pretty showy!

KP: Yeah.

CB: They like a house that’s pretty showy, they like to commission artists to work on their houses. They have a hedonistic spirit! And so I thought, “I know exactly this world, I’ve done this.”

KP: It’s so interesting to hear you talk about your time in Texas, because there is that real can-do spirit. And I think it still exists today and you’ve really brought that to the field. I think so many people who have had the opportunity to connect with you would say that that’s an incredible attribute that you have. So going back a little to the field of public art, then versus how it is now: what would you say about it now? How do you hope it’s going forward?

CB: Well, here in Seattle, I can say one of the shifts and changes I’ve seen that I really like is that there’s a lot more collaborative spirit between a lot of different disciplines—visual arts, performing arts, design, architecture, public space making, urban planning, data. I think in the early days, we really had to break down some barriers. I was cold-calling a lot of architecture and design firms, and what I realized was that they felt like they weren’t being given an opportunity to be creative themselves, that they felt like the artists were getting to have this extraordinary opportunity to put forward interesting ideas. So I think, reinvigorating that conversation about creativity and innovation and recognizing that we are a collaborative agency was key. One of the first things we did was to start really developing that idea—we started bringing the design professionals in and we started really challenging the artists and designers to work together in a really proactive way. I think Seattle’s always had that amazing history. Why wouldn’t we want to bring artists in early in the process? Why wouldn’t we want to collaborate with them? That’s an amazing opportunity to have. I think our field in general has evolved in that way. I think Seattle in particular, is very strong in that way.

And then I think what’s also happened is that people began with the assumption that public art was permanent, integrated—we still have that, and I still fight for that—but we’ve also managed to expand that idea of public art into temporary works, social practice work, collaborations with mural artists, poets. I think the really exciting part is that now it’s hugely broad, we can call it all public art. And it allows us to work with a whole group of different kinds of artists. The menu of choices is huge, and gets broader every day. From the beginning we’ve had this idea that it’s the work and thinking of artists—I love that. I’ve always loved that “and thinking” part. I think now we’re really seeing the fruits of that. We have a whole ecosystem at our fingertips.

KP: Yeah, this is something I’ve seen in my work around the country. And maybe it’s also the times that we live in, but I feel very lucky to be in a place like Seattle and King County, where there’s so much civic dialogue about what’s going on in our world—it’s local, it’s national, its global. How can artists’ voices and what they bring influence that? There really is a dynamic menu of possibilities. There’s such a history of public art in this region, and one of the things I was really impressed with when I moved here was that I didn’t really have to defend why we do public art. The question instead is always, “Where is my public art?” “What will the public art be?” You’re somebody who champions this work, and I’ve seen you turn non-believers into believers—can you talk a little bit about that?

CB: I don’t think I make people believe—I start with, “I believe in what you do.” When we did some work in Aberdeen, the very first thing they told us was that people there were feeling depressed about their city’s future, people were wondering where the jobs are going to come from. People want to feel pride in their community. So the first thing is: we believe in what you are challenged with and what you’re trying to accomplish. And then I think it’s an easier process to understanding how artists can help. The biggest challenge is leaving it open—people want to know what’s coming. Many of us have lost our sense of adventure, our sense of risk, our sense of “what the heck.” It’s a heck of a journey, and it may fail, and that’s okay. We don’t know what’s going to happen, so what you have to come back to is that we really do care about what you need to be successful. It’s really not about what the artist wants to do. It’s more about what do you want to do, and how can we find an artist to help you achieve that? People respond to that.

KP: That’s really the place to start: what does the community want? Who are we talking with, what is the hope? It’s about art, but it’s about that too.

CB: It is, and it’s also not reaching straight away to what the art looks like. We spend a lot of time up front just trying to talk about things that are difficult to put words to. I think that sometimes people want to start dealing with exactly how the art looks because they don’t really want to talk about the bigger things that are going on—their insecurities, their vulnerabilities, or their aspirations in a really big, human way. So you have to keep bringing them back to that place. It’s a hard thing to give people permission to do that, but that’s what great arts administrators are doing. They’re making it safe for people to be unsafe.

KP: It’s about trust.

CB: Yeah.

KP: And again, you build it with communities.

CB: It’s hard! Sometimes you just have to say, “I don’t know! And that’s the great thing about it.” And people look at you like you’re crazy.

[laughs]

KP: You just have to be confident when you say that.

CB: You have to be very confident! I do actually really believe that. The other thing I think about great administrators—and we have a bunch of them here in this region and certainly here at 4Culture—it’s never about us, but we always have to walk in with the utmost confidence. That’s a hard line to walk, to recognize that it’s never about you, to have a humble, back-of-house spirit but with a total front-of-house fierceness. That is going to make people believe in where you want to go.

KP: It’s true! It’s a jack-of-all-trades—you’re cleaning up at the end of the night and you’re also happy to speak in front of 300 people. And you have done that.

CB: I love that about it!

KP: So talking a little bit more about the risk and reward—and I mean this in the best way—

[laughs]

—one of the things I’ve learned from you is that we can learn from the failures. And it’s just as important as the successes. So what do you think has been the greatest risk for the best reward?

CB: Well, I was not the project manager, but I think one of the greatest risks for the best reward was—and is—Creative Justice. I feel really proud of that. That was hard on a variety of levels. To convince partners who really didn’t want to see beyond the notion of art being a beautiful object to trust that artists could play a meaningful role in reform of the criminal justice system—that was hard. It wasn’t my achievement at all. Diana Falchuk, Aaron Counts, Jordan Howland, Nikkita Oliver, Heidi Jackson, Shontina Vernon —those people were the best possible implementers. So I think that was a risk and reward model that will be amazing for many years to come. We will look back on that.

Some of the really robust programs that we’ve grown with some of our partners—like sewage treatment plants, transfer stations—were hugely risky. Because of course, it’s difficult to convince people often to do public art anyway, but to do public art in a sewage treatment plant or in a dump? There were a few really difficult editorials written about art in the dump—we really had to climb our way back out of that. I learned a lot from that experience. It really taught me that you can’t fly under the radar. You can’t be afraid of failing and you can’t be afraid of rolling up your sleeves and truly working in all aspects of our community and owning it, big time. That has been risky, but it’s been hugely rewarding because people respond to it. People—adults and children—really respond to the art in sewage treatment plants! It gives them an access point to understand how our water is managed. Same with art at the transfer stations—it’s giving people access into how various civic endeavors work that we don’t think about otherwise. You put your trash out, you don’t think about it. You flush your toilet, you don’t think about it. Artists are part of the solution. They shine a light on things so we can all be better stewards of our planet. That looks easy now, but it wasn’t easy. I have this horrible memory of a news program—every day for a week they showed a close up of a toilet with dollar bills going down it!

[laughs]

KP: At least they weren’t putting art down the toilet!

[more laughs]

CB: But you know what, we actually asked the reporter to do an in-depth story—to talk to the artists, to talk with me and others at 4Culture, to go to the site, talk to the designers. They did a really thoughtful piece. They presented objective facts to the audience. And after a week of flushing dollar bills, I was certain we were going to get a clamoring from the public about what are we doing, but the Executive at the time, Ron Sims, got two emails and I got none!

KP: Wow.

CB: When you put it forward to people and say, “You spend time in these systems, these are some of the biggest issues we’re going to face—clean water, clean air, how to manage our waste responsibly.” When you really explain what’s at stake, the response almost always is, “Why shouldn’t we have everybody working on that, including our artists?” So that’s been hugely rewarding and I’m really proud I specialized in art in dumps.

[laughs]

KP: I think it’s the uncovering of this day-to-day that we don’t think about but keeps things running. As we think about what public art is and what it can be, and all the education and storytelling—everything that’s below us is part of the story. It’s huge to have artists help share that story.

CB: And artists love sharing that story! Artists are communicators—they want to reach out to people, they want to be tackling important issues.

KP: Yeah, and there are artists that love working at sewage treatment plants too!

CB: Totally love it. Some of the best live right here in town.

[laughs]

KP: Well, to that point—and this is going to be such a hard question—what artists really inspire you, or have really inspired you?

CB: There have been artists over time that have taught me a lot. I’m winding down at the office and people are sending me all these notes and reminders and I’m getting to relive a lot of things—that’s been so meaningful to me. There have been certain moments—these aren’t the only moments or the only artists—when people have influenced me to think differently. I remember very early on in a panel process when Nick Lyle , who’s an artist who lives on Bainbridge Island with his wife Jean Whitesavage , said something to me that I’ve never forgotten, that I’ve always found to be very true. He said, “Never underestimate the power of a well-crafted object.” And it is true that can overcome all other kinds of barriers—there’s some kind of innate appreciation we have for something well-made.

I watched Lorna Jordan , working on the front entry of the Regional Justice Center, be so doggedly determined to bite off every single ambitious piece possible. That level of ambition, that level of, “I am going to tackle it, I am taking this on” totally impressed me early on in my career.

Ted Savinar sent me a really sweet message about working with me. I was so fortunate to work with him at Harborview because I really began to understand the power of artists who come out of a different tradition—who come out of playwriting, out of theatre, using words—and what a remarkable, powerful, emotional connection that there could be through what was seemingly simple words and gestures and phrases.

I have watched artists who are immaculate editors. I put Christian Moeller in that camp. Artists that will not stop, but instead of making it more and more elaborate there’s a reduction there that just makes it truer and truer to its essence. I so admire that, and I try to watch for that.

I’ve watched so many artists in our region also just take on things with that can-do spirit that we’ve talked about. Cappy Thompson at the airport—having only done relatively small hand-painted glass vessels, being given a chance to do her first big commission, seizing the day in a four week turnaround, getting on an airplane to Taunusstein, Germany, researching who’s doing the largest hand-painted glass murals in the world—which happens to be in a little town in Germany because that’s where all the medieval cathedrals are—convincing them to paint a sample, living there at the facility with the owner and his wife, boxing that up, coming back, standing in front of a selection panel and saying, “I’m ready for this.”

[Pause]

And she was.

KP: Yeah.

[Pause]

Both: Sorry!

[Break to grab tissue]

CB: That makes me so proud.

[Tears and laughs]

KP: Insert tears here!

[More tears and laughs]

KP: That piece, it’s just so—even if you don’t set foot in Seattle, when you go through SeaTac Airport that’s the encyclopedic representation of artists in our area and what our region is. It’s just incredible to think about that and that you were part of that. And now with the extension of the light rail going south, at night it’s literally like a glowing beacon. As you come home it almost greets you like a storybook. It’s like Goodnight Moon, it’s the closing to your day, and it’s so special. It’s so great to hear that story because I’ve never heard that before.

CB: I also I also want to give a shout out to the artists who have served on our PAAC, our advisory board because they give up the opportunity to get commissions themselves, but they have so influenced the way we work and the way we think and what we’re able to do with artists. I’m thinking of, for example, Marita Dingus who was on the Public Art Commission very early on in my career and was really instrumental and pushing and talking about how artists of color can be better represented in our collection. And out of that grew the Cultural Heritage Collection at Harborview and we continue to really talk about those things and push them forward. Marita has been hugely influential in our community in general—she really changed my thinking about a lot of things.

I think that those artists who attend all the meetings and try to help other artists along—give them critique and advice and hook them up with fabricators they may not have worked with before—we just had amazing commitments from artists. Artists like Cris Bruch, Pete Reiquam, Claudia Fitch , and so many more. Mary Ann Peters brought the Port Art Commission to tears when she went to testify on behalf of formalizing their Percent for Art program. They cried. You know, those kinds of advocates in our community for the power of art—I just can’t stress enough how much they’ve influenced the way we work.

KP: Well, it’s interesting because something that’s come up lately as we all talk about you—we keep hearing how for so many artists, much of their best work has happened because they’ve been able to work with you. And I would say, as far as our path, there’s always been an exceptional outreach to sort of bring together the perfect dinner party—the right mix of committee members. And you really bring out their best qualities.

CB: Well, part of this, too, is passing it on to you! What do you see in the future? What are you thinking about? You’ve been working in this field a long time.

KP: Thanks for asking that. It’s so interesting to be here—to be at 4Culture after the career I’ve had moving around the country. And for me, every place I’ve worked, every team I’ve worked with has become family. And every place has been—whether for a short time period or longer—has really been about growing, about learning to create experiences. From the New York City subway, to convention centers, to schools, to working with the great team at the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture—coming here really feels like landing at home. Some of my questions for you were coming from a place of thinking about where we go—I can’t shake the world we live in right now, in good and bad ways. There are so many good things that are coming, and there are really horrible things happening. Out of the negative, I’ve been trying to think a lot about what the positive can be. And while I realize all of our work isn’t necessarily social practice, I’m thinking about things like Creative Justice and the power of that—how do we move forward? It is time to step up, and we need to be the makers of social change. It’s just too late to wait for anybody else to take care of it. I feel like there’s a real urgency right now. For both of us, we’ve been in the field a long time, there are always trends and change, ebb and flow. But I feel like we’re at a really critical point—the time is now, there isn’t a time to go back to. I so seriously think about this every day in the context of what we do. There’s always a way to do better and to learn. You’re one of the originators of 4Culture, from the King County Arts Commission, all the way to now—how does that feel?

CB: I see a tremendous positive future for 4Culture. All the change we’ve been through has made us tough, resilient, focused, brilliant programmers, a tight team. Our reach has gotten broader and I think that will continue. Change is a powerful motivator and it shifts your thinking and allows you to try new things.

KP: Any last words of advice for someone who might be reading who’s just starting a career in Public Art?

CB: Don’t be afraid to fail! On time and on budget is not always the measure of success.

[laughs]

CB: It’s so not! It’s so not. And be an advocate. There will always be somebody in the room watching out for maintenance. Always somebody in the room watching out for budget, or making sure that the artwork is built properly. There will be people like that and they’re necessary. But there won’t always be somebody who’s a really strong and articulate advocate for the artist’s vision. Learn that, care about it, be great at it.

KP: Do more of it.

CB: Do more of it! Twice as much and twice as often.

As rapid development continues to affect every corner of King County, most public discussions focus on our future: where will newcomers live? Who will be able to afford to stay here? But as we plan for our future, we also need to consider how development affects our past. The historic buildings, spaces, and artifacts that have shaped our region are at risk of getting swept up and lost. We checked in with some of the experts—our friends at Seattle’s many neighborhood-based historical societies—for an on-the-ground look at how they’re responding to all this change.

At Friends of Historic Belltown, Beck Keller says they are, “…taking the fight to the streets—and the halls of government—to ensure that Belltown’s community spaces remain vibrant, intact, and significant. We do our work in the ‘trenches’: we write comment letters, attend public meetings, and meet with developers to try and forge deals for Belltown’s benefit.” Keller notes that strong partnerships are also key: “We’ve teamed up with two local historic preservation societies, Historic Seattle and Vanishing Seattle, to advance the landmark designation of local community hubs, including the Showbox. When our input was requested for a local park’s design, we emphasized the importance of reflecting the strong Native history that Seattle has, and the importance of the specific location to Seattle’s Native legacy.”

Steve Hall, also a member of Friends of Historic Belltown, pointed out that the landmarks process is not always a straight path to preservation: “FHB and others in the community managed to get both the Wayne Apartments and Mamma’s Mexican Kitchen designated as historic landmarks. However, the City ended up agreeing with the owner of the Wayne that there was no economic use of the property if the building were protected, so they waved any protections.” Persistent advocacy is still critical, Hall says: “FHB has also been working with developers to try and make new buildings fit in with the Belltown look-and-feel and to provide workforce housing, but developers have not been very responsive to such requests. FHB is soldiering on, hoping for help from the City to help preserve and enhance Belltown’s unique character and rich workforce culture and history.”

Responding to change has been central to Historic Wallingford‘s work from the beginning, says Sarah Martin: “Historic Wallingford is a community organization that emerged partly in reaction to the rapid and extreme changes in adjacent neighborhoods. Proposed zoning changes call for a projected 95% increase in density in Wallingford at the expense of its historic fabric.” The organization was formed in 2017 and its first year has grown a following of more than 200 people. Their upcoming historic homes fair on October 6 will be an opportunity for both learning and advocacy: “We hope to strategize with our friends and neighbors about Wallingford—past, present, and future.”

Capitol Hill Historical Society is also new, formed in 2017, but working hard. Tom Heuser says that rapid development has “…put a lot more of the historic houses, apartments, and automotive buildings that define our neighborhood at risk for demolition,” prompting the organization to focus their efforts. “Typically this has involved informing the public through social media of at-risk buildings and what makes them worth keeping, reaching out to city staff and Historic Seattle to ensure these buildings are properly reviewed for their landmark potential, attending landmark board meetings to support nominations, and in one case, co-writing a landmark nomination for the Roy Vue Apartments with Historic Seattle. Lastly, we’ve also made an effort to ensure our neighborhood’s historic character carries forward in new designs by reviewing and contributing to the city’s revision of the neighborhood’s design guidelines and attending design review meetings in order to encourage architects to incorporate historic character into their designs.”

Thank you to all historical societies throughout King County for doing this critical work, and to the groups who shared with us. Are you involved with a King County neighborhood-based historical society? We’d love to hear from you, too—send us an email at and we’ll share your work on our social media channels.

Michelle Gehlman-Teeter from the Greater Kent Historical Society shares a sneak peek of what you can expect from this much-loved, month-long annual event! We’re proud to help fund Experience Historical Kent through our Heritage Projects grant program.

Experience Historical Kent is coming together under this year’s new coordination of the Greater Kent Historical Society! There will be many returning favorites, including the Downtown Walking Tour, the Soos Creek Botanical Garden’s event, the popular Cemetery Tour and the All Kent Reunion.

This year, the Neely-Soames open house and historical garden tour will be in July to better highlight the plants when they are in peak season. The yearly car show has had some big changes and this year it will be located at Showare Center on an even larger scale than before. This year it will be called “The Pacific Cascade Mustang Club All Ford & Mustang Roundup” and they are planning some surprises for us.

They will again have a historic churches open house day and this year they are adding a historic barn tour, including tours of the Sidekick Distillery, Mary Olson Farm and the Carriage Barn at the museum is having an historic quilt show.

The Greater Kent Historical Society will have its annual open house to kick off the month. Look for “Hounds Meet History,” where you can learn about famous pets of King County with your leashed pet.

Mark your calendars to learn about Kent’s history and have some fun meeting your neighbors! Details of the month’s schedule are available online. All events will be free, however, donations will be accepted.

King County residents: what’s working and what’s not as you engage with culture? As part of a year-long study, we’re hosting Listening Sessions in each of King County’s 39 cities and unincorporated areas to help us better understand the cultural health of our region and how we can support you. We’d love to hear from you!

What to know about the sessions: 

• Space is limited! RSVPs are required, and we ask that you only RSVP if you are sure you can join us.
• Each Listening Session will be focused on a particular city or area—please only RSVP and attend if you live and/or work in that area. Don’t see your city represented here yet? Stay tuned! We’ll be holding sessions through the end of the year, and they’ll get posted as they are scheduled.
• For questions about accessibility or to request accommodations, translation services, or activities for children, please contact us—you’ll find a name, number, and email on the RSVP page for your city or area. Two weeks advance notice of need is requested.

We’ll be hosting sessions through fall 2019, and will update this page as they’re scheduled. If your city’s Listening Session is full, has passed, or you can’t attend, make your voice heard by filling out the online survey.

2019 Listening Sessions

Woodinville
Tuesday, February 19, 4:00–6:00 pm, Woodinville Heritage Museum

North Bend
Thursday, February 21, 2:30–4:30 pm, Meadowbrook Farm Interpretive Center

Des Moines
Monday, February 25, 4:00–6:00 pm, Des Moines Activity Center

Mercer Island
Wednesday, February 27, 5:00–7:00 pm, Stroum Jewish Community Center

SeaTac
Monday, March 4, 6:00–8:00 pm, SeaTac Community Center

Black Diamond
Thursday, March 21, 1:30–3:30 pm, Black Diamond History Museum

Issaquah
Tuesday, May 21, 10:00 am–12:00 pm, Issaquah City Hall, Eagle Room

Seattle, King County District 1
Thursday, May 30, 5:30–7:30 pm, Lake City Library, Lake City Meeting Room

Lake Forest Park
Tuesday, June 4, 2:00–4:00 pm, Lake Forest Park Civic Club

Covington
Wednesday, June 5, 6:30–8:30 pm, Covington City Hall, Council Chambers

West/Central Seattle (King County District 8)
Monday, Jun 10, 2:30 pm–4:30 pm, Gay City

Fall City
Wednesday, June 19, 6:00–8:00pm, Fall City Library

Carnation
Wednesday, June 19, 11:00 am–1:00 pm, Carnation Library

Tukwila
Thursday, June 20, 5:30–7:30 pm, Tukwila Community Center

Snoqualmie
Monday, June 24, 1:30–3:30 pm, Snoqualmie City Hall, 1st Floor Council Chambers

Algona
Friday, June 28, 12:00–2:00 pm, Filipino American Community of Puget Sound

Pacific
Thursday, September 5, 6:30 – 8:30 pm, Pacific Community Center

Clyde Hill, Yarrow Point
Monday, September 9, 5:00–7:00 pm, Chinook Middle School Library

Milton
Thursday, September 12, 6:30–8:30 pm, Milton Activity Center

Skykomish
Monday, September 16, 3:30–5:30 pm, Great Northern & Cascade Railway Passenger Depot

Snoqualmie Valley
Wednesday, September 18, 1:00–3:00 pm, King County Fire District 27 Station Meeting Room

Newcastle
Thursday, September 19, 6:00–8:15 pm, Newcastle Library Meeting Room

Kenmore
Monday, September 23, 3:00–5:00 pm, Kenmore City Hall

2018 Listening Sessions

Kent
Tuesday, July 31, 6:00–8:00 pm, Kent Commons, Mt. Rainier Room

Sammamish
Tuesday, August 7, 5:30–7:30 pm, Sammamish City Hall

Shoreline
Tuesday, August 7, 10:00 am–12:00 pm,Shoreline Chamber of Commerce

Seattle, King County District 4
Wednesday, August 8, 5:30–7:30 pm, Seattle Center Armory Loft

Maple Valley
Thursday, August 9, 7:00–9:00 pm, Maple Valley Creative Arts Center

Burien
Monday, August 13, 6:00–8:00 pm, Moshier Arts Center

Seattle, King County District 2
Wednesday, August 15, 5:00–7:00 pm, El Centro de la Raza, Room 309

Federal Way
Thursday, August 16, 6:00–8:00 pm, Federal Way Community Center, Senior Lounge

Bellevue
Tuesday, September 25, 5:30–7:30 pm, Crossroads Community Center, Community Room

Kirkland
Tuesday, October 30, 3:00–5:00 pm, Kirkland Arts Center

Bothell
Wednesday, November 7, 2:30–4:30 pm, Bothell City Hall

Enumclaw
Thursday, November 8, 7:00–9:00 pm, Enumclaw Library

Normandy Park
Wednesday, November 14, 3:30–5:30 pm, Normandy Park Recreation Center

Redmond
Thursday, November 15, 4:00–6:00 pm, Redmond City Hall

Renton
Tuesday, November 27, 10:00 am–12:00 pm, Renton Civic Theatre

Skyway/West Hill Unincorporated
Thursday, December 6, 7:00–9:00 pm, King County Fire District 20 Administration Building

What was once a two-mile stretch of industrial buildings is transforming into an urban art gallery of incredible murals, created by artists from King County and around the world. As we finish our third and final year of painting, celebrate with us! Enjoy drinks and bites, shop a SODO Track artist print show, catch a walking tour of the Track, and meet some of the artists:

Alex Gardner / Angelina Villalobos / Brian Sanchez / Celeste Byers / Evah Fan / Fernando Chamarelli / Franco Fasoli / Gabriel Marquez / Gage Hamilton / Georgia Hill / Jeremy Nichols / Jesse Brown / Jillian Evelyn / Kristen Ramirez / Saddo Jdero / Rather Severe / Ricky Lee Gordon / Yok & Sheryo

This event is free and all-ages. Please RSVP online. Learn more about the program at sodotrack.com!

Produced by 4Culture, the SODO Track is curated by Gage Hamilton and led by Tamar Benzikry with support from the SODO BIA, King County Metro and Sound Transit, Urban ArtWorks and the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.

Since announcing our longtime Executive Director Jim Kelly’s retirement in December 2017, our Board, Advisory Committees, and staff have been hard at work filling this essential role. It’s a daunting task, especially as we’ve contended with other big changes and new initiatives this year. 2018 has not been boring! As we get closer to selecting and announcing our new Executive Director, we’re taking a moment to put a spotlight on the person largely responsible for holding it all together: Deb Twersky.

While the network of people helping 4Culture navigate this challenging and exciting time has been vast, Deb has truly been at its center. As the manager of all our funding programs, Deb tirelessly tracked and interpreted the evolution of King County Ordinance #2018-0086, helping our community understand its impacts. She stepped into the role of Acting Director in April after Jim’s retirement, guiding us through the process of evaluating applications and interviewing candidates—all while overseeing the day-to-day tasks of running 4Culture.

4Culture staff, Board, and Advisory Committees thank Deb for her incredible leadership. Stay tuned for more information on our new Executive Director, coming soon!

Beyond Integrity is a group of preservation professionals and community advocates concerned with inequity in historic preservation practices in Seattle and King County. 4Culture has hosted and supported Beyond Integrity since 2014. Claudia Kiyama, a new member of our Historic Preservation Advisory Committee and a preservation architect who has been a part of the group since its inception, recently presented at the Revitalize WA conference, as part of a panel about “Telling Difficult Stories.” This post is a condensed version of her presentation.

What are difficult stories? They may be stories that remind us of a shameful past, or that bring back a painful collective memory. These stories are obviously not easy to tell, but most people can agree on their relevance. But what happens to the stories that not everyone knows, that not everyone is interested in remembering? What happens to the stories not of the majority, but of only a few? Time and time again, these stories are either not told, or deemed as not relevant to our historical narrative.

In the Fall of 2014, 4Culture convened what we now call Beyond Integrity. The group was formed with three initial goals. Our first priority was to gather data on currently designated landmarks in Seattle and King County—particularly related to their association with underrepresented communities. Second, we aimed to engage local decision makers, such as historic preservation boards and commissions, on issues of equity. And ultimately, we want to foster a stronger voice for the public in the historic preservation process, especially for those from underrepresented or marginalized communities.

The members of Beyond Integrity maintain that places are important for much more than their mere physicality. Buildings are more than a conjunction of construction materials, parks are more than a collection of vegetation and structures. We know that places have served as witnesses to the lives of people, multiple generations at times; places hold stories, and stories hold places in people’s memories.

However, within the field of historic preservation, the intangible qualities of places are often overlooked or minimized. Too often architectural significance is emphasized over cultural significance, and architectural integrity is deemed more important than people’s stories, memories, and associations with a place. This is particularly common with places connected to underrepresented communities—modest houses, rural farms, neighborhood spots, community banks.

Our group is called Beyond Integrity because in our initial discussions we came back to the observation that in many cases, preservation boards and commissions denied landmark designations based on the lack of architectural integrity of buildings. We talked about how heartbreaking it was to watch places that were so important in their communities not achieving landmark protection, because they lacked qualities that in our estimation, did not seem as relevant to the significance of those places.

We discussed endlessly the realization that in many cases, preservation standards were written to describe only a certain type of place, to protect a specific narrative. As a group, we aim to get the preservation process to look beyond the architectural integrity of buildings; we wish to motivate decision makers to realize that people’s stories, their memories, and their connections to a place are as relevant, if not more so than the physicality of structures. A place doesn’t necessarily lose its meaning when a wall is lost or a room added.

We, the members of Beyond Integrity felt strongly about all this. But, were we right about local preservation practices? In order to discover this, with the support of 4Culture, an internship was set up with the goal of gathering data to test our ideas. For research purposes, groups defined as underrepresented communities included: people of color, women, the LGBTQ community, veterans, the homeless, the working class, and those of low-income.

We felt that due to the historically marginalized position of these groups, there have been barriers to their participation in the landmark designation process. We also felt their lack of representation was reflective of the reality that the narrative and experiences of these groups historically had not been considered to be significant.

During the summer of 2016, Beyond Integrity intern Jialing Liu began an assessment of whether the diverse communities in King County are reflected in the historic landmarks that have been designated. Jialing compiled data for 128 King County properties and 348 Seattle properties that were designated as local landmarks. This information was used to produce maps showing the distribution of landmarks and whether they have a documented association to an underrepresented community.

Some general observations emerged from reviewing this data. First, LGBTQ, Native American, and Latin American immigrant communities are largely absent from the histories in nomination and designation reports. During this first review, it was unclear if this meant that these associations were not being presented as part of a property’s significance, or if properties associated with these communities simply were not being nominated. Similarly, women’s stories are rarely found in nominations and where women are mentioned as part of the significance of a place, it is only briefly.

The next phase of the project was carried out by our second intern, Kirsten Freeman during the summer of 2017. The goal of her research was to add to the data collected in the previous internship, and also identify properties for more detailed examination. Kirsten wrote five case studies, including the history of the properties, their associations with underrepresented communities, and an analysis of how they fared in the nomination and designation process. Four case studies address some of the reasons properties associated with underrepresented communities are not nominated or designated as landmarks. One case study is of a designated landmark with a strong association with an underrepresented community that was not acknowledged as part of its significance.

The findings of our two summer interns backed up the concerns and fears of the members of Beyond Integrity. Their research suggests that in Seattle and King County, we have not done a good job telling the stories of all. We are not doing that good of a job protecting places that are meaningful to certain communities. We are not doing that good of a job acknowledging the multiple stories many of our designated landmarks hold.

Beyond Integrity is now sharing our research findings more broadly, both with local preservation decision-makers and with the general public. We are committed to continuing in our mission to make preservation more equitable and inclusive, so that we can better recognize, protect, and learn from places that are significant to diverse communities.

Interested in attending the 2018 Western Museums Association conference? We can help!

WMA’s annual conference—happening this year October 21–24 in Tacoma—is an excellent opportunity for those involved with the museum industry to exchange ideas, network with colleagues, and learn from each other by attending valuable sessions. This year’s conference theme is “INSPIRE”—the focus is on ways museums inspire action, change, and unity.

We’re excited to offer $400 stipends to King County residents who are a staff member, volunteer, or board member of a heritage organization also located in King County. The stipends may be used for conference registration, travel, and lodging costs.

To apply, please submit your resume detailing your commitment to action, change, and unity within King County heritage museums or organizations as an email attachment to Chieko Phillips at  no later than Friday, July 13, 2018 by 11:59 pm PDT. We’ll notify you by August 1, 2018. Checks will be presented to awardees at the conference.

Saturday, June 9, 11:00 am—2:00 pm
Preston Community Center, 8625 310th Ave SE, Preston

Join photographers Jenny Riffle and Melinda Hurst Frye on a unique look at King County Regional Trails! Jenny and Melinda will talk about their work on Picturing Trails, a collaborative project with 4Culture and King County Parks. After the talk, explore the Preston-Snoqualmie Trail with Jenny and Melinda and post your own #picturingtrails photos to Instagram for a chance to win prizes! Visit picturingtrails.com for details.

Jenny and Melinda will talk from 11:00 am–12:00 pm inside the Preston Community Center. We’ll head outside for a nature walk from 12:00–2:00 pm.

Bring your camera or camera phone, wear weather appropriate attire and comfy shoes for exploring! Coffee, tea, water, and trail snacks will be provided. This event is free, no registration required.

Parking: lower parking accommodates several vehicles. When this area is full, please use the overflow parking just down the street at the old Preston Mill site. Please do not park along the roadway by the facility.

Saturday, June 23, 2:00—4:00 pm
Washington Hall, 153 14th Ave, Seattle

Celebrate the very first cohort of 4Culture Arc Artist Fellows at this free event! The Arc Fellowship is a new grant program providing financial and promotional support to King County artists. This year, we’re proud to honor:

Angel Alviar-Langley, Performing Artist
Earl Debnam, Visual Artist
Tara Hardy, Literary Artist
Mickey Rowe, Theatre Artist

Hear from and learn more about each Arc Fellow, connect with other artists, and enjoy light refreshments.

This event is free, but we do ask that you RSVP on Eventbrite.

Did you know that 4Culture manages the King County Public Art Collection? This incredible body of over 2,000 works includes sculptures, installations, portable pieces like photographs and paintings, and so much more—and you can find it all over King County. Currently, we share a small, curated selection of these works on our website. As part of our ongoing mission to make our website a great experience for everyone, we’d love to get your feedback on how we’re sharing this collection! If you’re interested in sharing your opinions with us, please fill out this short form, and we’ll get in touch with you.

Thank you for helping connect King County with its public art collection by making the 4Culture website the best it can be!

Melinda Hurst Frye is one of two photographers to receive our Picturing Trails commission in 2017, a project in partnership with King County Parks to comprehensively capture and interpret the King County Regional Trail System through fine art photography. Melinda has been out on the trails photographing since October of 2017—here, she shares an update:

Hello, King County! My name is Melinda Hurst Frye, and you may have seen me setting up my scanner and making images along the trails in the last few months. Say hi if you spot me! You can also follow my Instagram account to keep track of where I am and what I am photographing during the year. I am excited to share a few sneak peaks of the work in progress from Picturing Trails and to tell you a bit more about my intent and process.

I photograph in a combination of methods, though mainly making images that combine the use of a flatbed scanner and a camera to create small environmental scenes. I am curious about how place, memory and varying ecosystems occur in one physical space, such as the grass that my children play in while the worms below the surface refresh the soil.

Photographing the trails has allowed me to look at the idea of home in a larger context. I scan small environments, insects, and objects found along the trails to create a sense of wonder based on our immediate natural world. When we are still, the natural world reveals itself. I want these images to reveal the viewer’s own stillness and observation. The initial heart of my previous work was my home in Seattle, though Picturing Trails has been a remarkable experience for a greater exploration of our region. The trails have taken me to places that I have not been aware of even though I was born and raised here in King County. This is as much of an exploration of my home, as it is a portrait of our regional trails.

There are so many pockets of wetlands, forest and natural areas to explore in both the urban and rural areas. What has surprised me the most is how our system of trails connects nearly all of King County, and while connected, each region has a defining look, attribute or environment. I have been particularly interested in the trails that are high use, intersect with bordering counties, cross municipal borders, and/or the areas where multiple trails come together.

The Greenlake trail was a favorite place this fall, as well as a total surprise. I assumed with its use and location it wouldn’t offer nearly as much ecodiversity as it does. I was wrong, and I ended up making one of my favorite images of a katydid perched on a fir tree with several small mushrooms growing out of the bark. The Mercer Slough along I-90 also offers gorgeous trails spotted with skunk cabbage (surprisingly pleasant smelling) and salmonberry flowers in the spring. I am looking forward to photographing in southern King County as well as the more urban areas around as we enter the most beautiful time of the year. See you out there!

On Monday night, we gathered with current and past staff, board, and advisory members underneath the stunning ceiling of the Paramount Theatre to celebrate Jim Kelly’s 25 years of leadership at 4Culture. The location was fitting—a historic building that hosts artistic performances of all disciplines, run by an organization that, while based in Seattle, works tirelessly to share their programming with all of King County. The Paramount is emblematic of how the four disciplines of 4Culture—arts, heritage, preservation, and public art—are intertwined. Our agency’s vision of supporting culture on all of these levels is a product of Jim’s leadership.

Throughout his tenure as Executive Director, Jim’s focus has been on the individuals, cultural organizations, and communities of King County. True to form, Jim put those we serve at the center of his comments on Monday night: “What we do is try to help them do their work. What could be greater than that? Is there a job that’s better than helping people who are trying to bring beauty to community?”

Jim’s commitment has set the tone for how we work at 4Culture. As our colleague Charlie Rathbun said on Monday, “Jim always showed up, in every way.” It’s impossible to deny that Jim’s retirement represents the end of an era, but our core belief that all of King County deserves access to arts and culture will not change.

We thank Jim for building our organization on that foundation.

Jenny Riffle is one of two photographers to receive our Picturing Trails commission in 2017, a project in partnership with King County Parks to comprehensively capture and interpret the King County Regional Trail System through fine art photography. Jenny has been out on the trails photographing since October of 2017—here, she shares an update:

Hello! Jenny Riffle here to share some of my work with you. I am a native of the Pacific Northwest and have been working with the landscape of this region for the last few years in my photography. The natural world is a beautiful and sometimes unsettling place. It can be full of mystery and unknown forces. The vastness of the forest and the ocean can be scary, but also full of beauty and calm. The connection people have with the natural world in this area is strong and it is easily accessible here in King County. This is one of the reasons that every time I left the Pacific Northwest, I found myself being called back.

Exploring the Regional Trail System over the last few months has introduced me to many new green areas within the county. I find that you do not need to go far to find yourself in the middle of what seems like wilderness, but is in fact very urban. I have been photographing what you see from the trails and how you can feel transported to a different place as soon as you step on the trail. These trails traverse the whole county and go through many diverse surroundings.

One of my favorite moments was on the Springbrook Trail, which goes along the brook not far from IKEA—in one direction I could see the neon glow of the IKEA sign, but in the other direction a blue heron was flying along the waterway. It was a stormy day with rain on and off and I had my rain poncho on with my camera gear under it. I was walking through a portion of wetland and the trail was on a raised wooden boardwalk and the rain had stopped so I was setting up a shot, then suddenly a huge rainbow appeared! I knew I only had a few moments to catch it and got very flustered and realized I was out of film and had to reload my camera—it was a hectic few moments but I reloaded, got a few shots, and then it was gone.

Another favorite spot of mine is on the trail closest to my house on Beacon Hill, the Mountains to Sound Trail. I have been on this trail many times over the last few months. If you start at the south end of the trail, there is a huge forest off to one side while I-5 and all of SODO stretches out to the other side; then you reach a turn and suddenly the downtown skyline is in front of you. Here there is an amazing lush forest in the middle of the city, and I love the contrast of the built world peeking through the trees.

I have been on about half of the trails and I’m looking forward to exploring the next half in the coming months. Check out my Instagram account to see regular updates from Picturing Trails!