Monday, April 23, 4:30—6:30 pm
Starting at Rainier Beach Link light rail station, heading south to Angle Lake station

Monday, April 30, 8:00—10:00 am
Bellevue Transit Center platform

Join us as we close out a year of community-sourced poetry in motion! Since launching Poetry on Buses: Your Body of Water last April, we’ve experienced the poetic voice of King County online, on public transit, at watersheds, festivals, and more. In celebration of this extraordinary year, we’re offering two opportunities for you to hear some of the poets read their work out loud and in motion. On April 23—the last official day of new daily poems on poetryonbuses.org—meet us at the Rainier Beach Link light rail station for a poetry-filled evening commute. We’ll travel south to the Angle Lake station as Punjabi, Ethiopian, and Indigenous poets read their work. On April 30, we’ll start the day at the Bellevue Transit Center, with more poets reading their work in their native languages. Please note: you must have proof of fare payment to ride light rail.

A new poem will be posted every day at poetryonbuses.org through April 23—experience them all! Poetry on Buses: Your Body of Water has been a partnership between 4Culture, the Office of Arts & Culture Seattle, Sound Transit, King County Metro Transit, King County Wastewater Treatment Division, King County Water and Land Resources Division, and Seattle Public Utilities.

As Lead Program Manager at the Washington State Historical Society, Molly Wilmoth connects the public with Washington’s history through educational programming and events. Here, she tells us about one of her favorites—Washington History Day, which is happening April 21:

History Day functions similarly to a science fair. Students develop projects related to a historical theme developed by the national office in Maryland. With the ability to select the format of the project, students create incredibly detailed and impassioned works representing many diverse historical topics. Projects may be presented as ten minute long documentaries or performances, or they could be a historical paper, exhibition or website.

This year, students have competed at eight different regional contests and have advanced onto the state contest. The Washington State History Day contest will be held on April 21 at Green River Community College. With the theme of “Conflict and Compromise in History”, projects will face off for the opportunity to travel to the national contest held at University of Maryland.

For nearly forty years, Washington’s History Day students perform at exceedingly high levels, particularly at nationals. Some students have received special opportunities or scholarships related to their History Day projects. The History Channel honored several Washington documentarians with monetary awards while others have traveled across the country for museum openings and special honors.

However, the true value of the History Day program is not in the national honors received year after year, but in the lessons learned at the classroom level. Through historical thinking, inquiry, and research, students learn about important research and critical thinking skills they carry throughout their careers as students and into the real world. The Washington State Historical Society is honored to play a role in educating the students of our great state alongside some truly exceptional teachers.

Members of the public play a necessary role, too. Each year supporters of the humanities and social studies education volunteer as judges to review entries and provide constructive feedback to students. Through interviews and written comments, judges help provide a positive and memorable experience for students and encourage them to remain curious about their topics of interest.

If you’d like to learn more about the program or are interested in volunteering or judging projects at the state contest, check out our website.

This afternoon, King County Council voted to redefine the relationship between 4Culture and King County, limiting our future independence by controlling our budget and board member appointment process in the name of “increased oversight and accountability.”

With no consultation with 4Culture, its board and staff, or the community served by 4Culture, the council “determined” that 4Culture needs more oversight because we would see a $3 million dollar increase in revenues beginning in 2021.

We don’t yet know what the full impact of this legislation will be over time. But some facts are clear:

• • While the Council will be able to reject the 4Culture budget and withhold the transfer of funds to 4Culture until a budget is “accepted,” there is no defined process or timeline for the Council to consider an amended budget. Going forward, this could affect the timely distribution of 4Culture grants to organizations and individuals.
  • Previous requirements that the 4Culture Board of Directors demonstrate expertise in arts, heritage, preservation, or public art and at least one represent the business community have been relegated to the 6 positions that the King County Executive will appoint—a minority of the 15-member board. Councilmembers will now appoint one board member each using whatever criteria they individually choose, compromising the board’s proficiency and independence.
  • The Council will be tasked with confirming 4Culture’s Executive Director, who is not a county employee. The Council’s wish to be able to fire the employee of an independent entity has been removed.
  • A “task force” will be convened to examine all aspects of 4Culture’s governance and operations through an equity lens of some kind and report back to council in early 2019. There are no criteria established for the outcomes and use of the report. This effort will require major focus and funding from 4Culture staff and volunteers. We hope that the consultant and community representatives will be thoughtfully selected.

We will adjust to all of these new rules. We are resolute in our commitment to support the cultural workers and residents of King County through innovation, dedication, and organizational integrity, and we want to assure all of our current, contracted grant recipients: your funds are not in jeopardy.

Thank you to all of the many individuals who took the time to write and call councilmembers and testify publicly regarding this legislation. You have stated loud and clear that you are paying attention. That will make a profound difference moving forward.

With deep gratitude,
Jim Kelly, Executive Director
Debra Twersky, Deputy Director

Monday, March 19, 2018, 1:30 pm
King County Courthouse, Council Chambers, Room 1001 (10th floor)
516 3rd Ave, Seattle, WA 98104

The King County Council vote on proposed ordinance #2018-0086, which proposes changes to how 4Culture is managed, at the full Council meeting on March 19. There will be time for public comment. You can view the meeting agenda and other materials on the Council’s website.

Our Board of Directors has made a statement about this proposed ordinance, and we’ve compiled information about how the ordinance would affect 4Culture.

View the updated staff report to see the current impact on 4Culture.

Dear Councilmember Larry Gossett,

4Culture agrees with you that “Black, Asian, Latino, Native American and some low income folks in rural, unincorporated King County have simply not been served well enough,” but we believe this statement applies to the entire arts and culture sector. Issues of inequity, inclusion, accessibility, and diversity in the arts and culture field are complex, involve many institutions, and deserve serious changes in practice, not finger pointing. We acknowledge there are systemic and institutional barriers for people of color and disadvantaged groups that keep them from increased access to arts, heritage, and culture experiences. We further acknowledge that inequitable practices on the part of funding organizations (public, private, and corporate) have historically reinforced these inequities. This is not solely a 4Culture problem, and we cannot solve the problem alone, but we have a major part to play.

Does 4Culture want the number of applicants from Black, Asian, Latino, Native American, low income, and rural communities to be higher? Absolutely! Does 4Culture want the number of organizations and individuals, from these communities, to receive an increased amount of funding? Absolutely! In fact, a guiding principle of 4Culture and its predecessor agency, the King County Office of Cultural Resources, for more than 50 years has been “all of the arts for ALL of the people in all of King County.” For this reason, 4Culture has worked with a singular focus and diligence to improve its outreach to lower income communities and communities of color by launching a series of initiatives and grant programs to address these inequities.

These efforts, over the past decade, have resulted in increased numbers of applicants from and increased levels of funding going to individuals and organizations serving Black, Asian, Latino, Native American, low-income, and rural communities. This is 4Culture’s way forward to a solution, this is progress.

4Culture cannot fix these systemic problems overnight and we cannot fix them alone, but we believe focusing work of the agency through an equity lenses, with a commitment to anti-racist practices recognizes and addresses our responsibilities. Councilmember Gossett, 4Culture is not perfect, but we acknowledge the inequities that exist within the arts and culture field, and we are working tirelessly to be a real and meaningful part of the solution.

Your conclusion that 4Culture is not equitable and does not serve communities of color is based largely on the outcome of two programs that were introduced in the past two years: Building for Culture and Access for All. King County—not 4Culture–authorized the creation of both programs. 4Culture’s role in both was to implement policies adopted by and subject to King County oversight.

4Culture had no role in drafting the Cultural Access Washington legislation that passed in Olympia in 2015, designating that 70% of the revenues in Access for All support the 34 largest cultural institutions. This obviously bothers you, but you place the blame for that at the wrong source. In your letter to constituents, Councilmember Gossett, you said, “The legislation mandates that 4Culture must give beaucoup funds to these large facilities for seven (7) straight years. Tell me that no ‘lobbyist for culture’ effectively and politically assisted in the development of guidelines and eligibility criteria…” No lobbyists working on Access for All were paid by, consulted with, or had any relationship to 4Culture. And 4Culture staff worked diligently with the King County Executive and Council to improve Access for All and try to ensure a more equitable distribution of funds to areas outside Seattle and to organizations representing Black, Asian, Latino, Native American and low income rural residents. 4Culture is not CAWA.

Building for Culture was a grant program only available for capital projects that would be under construction and able to use funds within 3 years. It was authorized by King County. Its funding recommendations were approved unanimously by the King County Council.

4Culture managed a competitive application and selection process to award $20 million of the $28 million in total awards. The additional $8 million was allocated entirely by the King County Council through their own process. You have more insight into how that $8 million was allocated than we do.

No public funder, including national, state or 4Culture, is able to fully support a capital project. Any organization contemplating any size-building project has to seek money from a variety of sources, and it is indeed hard for small arts and heritage organizations to meet all the requirements necessary for public investment and to find resources. You seem surprised that we would be open about how much 4Culture would be willing to support as a percentage of project costs. What the guidelines actually stated was an intent to help small projects: if a project were over $10 million in size, 4Culture would award only up to 5% of project costs, with a $2 million cap. If a project was between $1 and $10 million in size, the applicant could receive 10% of project costs, and if a project cost under a million dollars, Building for Culture would both review those requests first for priority and would support up to 25% of the total project cost.

4Culture is not afraid of oversight or accountability and is ably served by a well-constituted board who takes their responsibilities for its governance very seriously. The board is proud of the efforts that 4Culture has made to increase inclusion.

Facts matter. We hope that clarifying these issues helps resolve unfortunate conclusions based on information that is not accurate, and sets the record straight.

Sincerely,
Executive Director Jim Kelly and Board President Stephen Elliott

We thank the King County Council staff for providing this official summary.

On March 7, 2018, the King County Council’s Committee of the Whole considered Proposed Ordinance 2018-0086. As originally drafted, this proposed ordinance would make a number of changes to oversight of 4Culture, a cultural development authority formed by King County in 2003 to steward public art, the arts, heritage, and historic preservation funding and programs:

• 4Culture budget. The proposed ordinance would require that the Council accept by motion 4Culture’s board-adopted budget, prior to transferring funding to 4Culture in the next fiscal year.
• 4Culture Board appointment process. The proposed ordinance would modify the process to include one board appointment each by County Councilmembers by district and six appointments by the County Executive. The requirements for a specific balance of expertise on the board would be eliminated.
• 4Culture Executive Director. The proposed ordinance would provide for the County Executive to appoint and the Council to confirm the 4Culture Executive Director recommended by the 4Culture Board. Provide for the County to remove the Executive Director by ordinance.

The Committee of the Whole approved the proposed ordinance as amended, and forwarded the proposed ordinance to the full Council. The amendments approved by the Committee of the Whole were:

• Striking amendment S1.2 was approved. It would make a number of changes to the proposed ordinance:
  • 4Culture budget. The striking amendment would stipulate that the 4Culture budget be transmitted to the Executive 125 days before the end of each fiscal year and then to the Council, rather than directly to the Council 95 days before the end of each fiscal year. It would require the 4Culture budget review and acceptance process to begin in 2020, rather than on the effective date of the proposed ordinance. It would allow transfers to continue in the next fiscal year if the Council did not act on the motion by November 30; transfers would only discontinue if the Council rejected the 4Culture budget by motion by November 30.
  • 4Culture Board appointment process. The striking amendment would provide for a process for notification and input from the 4Culture Governance/Nominating Committee on board vacancies, and also require that the current 4Culture process for nominating vacancies to the Board occur only by request of the Executive or Councilmember making the appointment.
  • 4Culture Executive Director. The striking amendment would eliminate the ability of the County to remove the 4Culture Executive Director.
• Amendment 1 was approved. It would establish a task force to conduct a community stakeholder process to be staffed by an independent consultant funded by King County and 4Culture. The task force report would be transmitted to the county by February 1, 2019. If the Council passes a motion acknowledging receipt of the report by April 1, 2019, then the 4Culture budget transmittal/ review process would begin in 2019. If the Council does not pass the motion by April 1, 2019, the 4Culture budget transmittal/ review process would begin in 2020.
• Amendment 2 was approved. It would add policy language to the King County Code stating that, “King County recognizes that meeting its goals for regional distribution of cultural activities requires regional planning, outreach to cities and communities throughout the county, and a regional investment strategy.”

Next Steps
The proposed ordinance as amended has been forwarded to the full Council for further deliberation and possible action. Following the regular calendar would bring the proposed ordinance to the Council meeting on Monday, March 19, 2018.

Recently we shared some of the work we are doing to become a more equitable agency. Now, we are highlighting you—the individuals and organizations throughout King County who put their 4Culture grants to work centering the stories of those who have been excluded from the narrative.

That’s a lot of grant recipients! The projects, people, and organizations doing this hard but invaluable work are numerous and wide-ranging, and this represents just a small sampling. We encourage you to spend some time exploring our Past Grants page, where you can see everyone we’ve funded over the last three years. In addition to including the King County Public Art Collection and Gallery 4Culture, we’ve divided this list up by King County legislative district—who is doing equity work in your community?

District 1

Percussionist and Master Drummer, Charles Armah received a Community 4Culture Individual Fellowship to share the music of West Africa with North King County neighborhoods in Shoreline and Lake Forest Park.

Mercy Housing NW is turning former Navy barracks at the Sand Point Naval Air Station Historic District into 149 affordable housing units with help from a Landmarks Capital grant

The Arab Center of Washington used their Equipment grant to purchase Arabic Darbukah drums, so they can offer hands-on classes for youth.

The Bataan, Corregidor Survivor’s Association + Their Families organization received an Open 4Culture grant to produce a Filipino-American World War II museum inside the Filipino Community Center of Seattle.

Yadesa Bojia’s Truth Be Told exhibition, funded through Art Projects, grappled with the stereotypes that people of color have to fight against in our society.

District 2

SEED Arts received a Facilities grant to fabricate and install an antenna for KVRU 105.7, their low power FM radio station serving the diverse communities of Southeast Seattle.

Onyx Fine Arts Collective celebrates work of artists of African descent from the Pacific Northwest, and recently openedGallery Onyx in Downtown Seattle with support from a Community4Culture grant.

The Eritrean Association In Greater Seattle received a Facilities grant to create an outdoor gathering space at the Eritrean Community Center, increasing the Center’s capacity to provide event space for Eritreans and other immigrant groups.

The Refugee Women’s Alliance used Heritage Project funds to produce Their Very Existence, a documentary telling the stories of four refugee and immigrant women resettling in King County as they try to understand life in the U.S. while preserving their cultural heritage and identity.

Choreographer Dani Tirrell received an Art Projects grant for Black Bois, a new dance piece based on the stories of black male bodies traumatized by living in the United States.

District 3

Tasveer’s mission is to inspire social change through thought-provoking South Asian films, art, and storytelling—they received an Art Project grant for the 12th Annual South Asian Film Festival.

As a first time applicant, the Seattle Chinese Chorus received an Open 4Culture grant for a Chinese language performance of Where Am I?, going on to receive Art Sustained Support funding.

Art Project funds are at work in the Vedic Cultural Center’s annual Ananda Mela—the Joyful Festival of India—presenting the arts and cultural traditions of India for multicultural audiences.

District 4

Anna Maria Campoy received an Art Projects grant to stage a bilingual Spanish/English production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Proof on front porches across King County.

Garinaga Houngua, an organization set up to preserve and promote the Garifuna culture, utilized Community 4Culture funds to pay teaching artists to offer free, dance and language workshops.

Arts Sustained Support recipient The Greater Seattle Bureau of Fearless Ideas provides literacy classes serving low-income, minority, and immigrant youth.

The Bailadores de Bronce’s Heritage Projects grant helped produce A Cultural Treasure, a film documenting the organization’s 35-year history, as an outreach tool to youth.

District 5

Sabori Mohammad received an Open 4Culture grant to use his jewelry making skills to teach immigrant women from Afghanistan a traditional art form that they can use to generate income.

Des Moines-based graffiti and hip-hop artist Sneke received an Art Projects grant for Murals Masters III, where he worked with youth to make murals on a temporary wall space in Burien’s Art Alley.

Circle of Indigenous People received Community 4Culture funding to advance their work bringing Native and non-Native people together through a cultural gathering at Northwest Folklife Festival.

An Art Projects grant helped fund Sharon Williams’ The Consciousness of Love: A Maze in Me, a short documentary about navigating depression as a black person.

District 6

Published Taiwan-born author Vanya Wu received a community 4Culture grant to support her work as a Chinese language novelist.

After receiving an Open 4Culture grant to frame paintings for his exhibit Birds in Flight at the Mercer Island Community and Event Center, José Orantes went on to receive a Community 4Culture fellowship.

Srivani Jade received Art Projects funding for Soul Raga, four new multi-part compositions combining Indian raga vocals with Greek clarinet, Latin piano, Senegalese drums. and Tabla to create a new sound.

District 7

The Federal Way-based Korean Music Association received a Community 4Culture grant that will help support their mission of healing, entertaining, and empowering a wider immigrant community through musical events.

Open 4Culture support helped the Filipino Cultural Dance Group of the Filipino American Community of Puget Sound pay for dancers to participate in the Algona Days Festival.

An Open4Culture grant led the Iraqi Women Association to apply for and receive Arts Projects funding to participate in the Kent International Festival, celebrating the cultural diversity of South King County.

District 8

The Friends of Mukai received Preservation funding to save and restore the Mukai Farmstead, the historic home and strawberry farm of B.D. and Kuni Mukai, Japanese immigrants who overcame adversity and discrimination.

With support from a Community4Culture grant, Latino Theatre Projects worked to engage Latino audiences in theatre activities, going on receive Arts Sustained Support funding.

After receiving an Open 4Culture grant to screen The Lobby, her film about a woman wearing a hijab, Faria Absie went on to receive a Heritage Projects grant for her collaboration with Eat with Muslims, a project to document the lives of King County Muslims

Duwamish Tribal Services are the recipients of Heritage Sustained Support funding, advocating for the survival of the Duwamish Tribe and sharing their history and culture with all peoples.

District 9

The Filipino Cultural Dance Group of the Filipino American Community of Puget Sound received Open 4Culture support to pay for dancers to participate in the Algona Days Festival.

Eunice Kim is a printmaker living and working in Ravensdalewho received a Tech Specific grant for her Nontoxic Printmaking workshop at Cedar River Watershed.

Maria Louisa Batayola received an Open 4Culture grant for a film project about Filipino and Latino farmworker history.

King County Public Art Collection

The Cultural Heritage Collection is a component of the King County Public Art Program at Harborview Medical Center. The Collection features artists from across the United States who explore their own cultural traditions through art-making. King County artists represented in the collection include Akio Takamori, Connie Watts, and Donald Varnell.

In 1976, King County instituted the Honors Program which recognizes visual artists who have made significant contributions to our region through the sustained production of high-quality artwork. As budget allows, new pieces are purchased for the King County Public Art Collection. Artists in the collection include George Tsutakawa, Patti Warashina, and Jacob Lawrence.

Poet Chenxi Liu hosted a bilingual Community Poetry Workshop at the Redmond Senior Center and Chinese Information Services Center as part of our Poetry on Buses public art program.

Gallery 4Culture

Gallery 4Culture has a thirty-five year history of presenting innovative and underrepresented artists and art forms. Artists who have recently exhibited their work include David Jaewon Oh, Satpreet Kahlon, Francisco Guerrero, and Marilyn Montufar.

Wednesday, March 7, 2018
9:30—11:30 am
King County Courthouse, Council Chambers, Room 1001 (10th floor)
516 3rd Ave, Seattle, WA 98104

The King County Council will debate and vote on proposed ordinance #2018-0086, which proposes changes to how 4Culture is managed, at a meeting of theCouncil’s Committee of the Whole on March 7. There will not be time for public comment. You can view the meeting agenda and other materials on the Council’s website.

Our Board of Directors has made a statement about this proposed ordinance, and we’ve compiled information about how the ordinance would affect 4Culture.

We’re proud to announce the recipients of our new grant program, the Arc Artist Fellowship!

The 2018 Arc Fellows are:
Angel Alviar-Langley, Performing Artist
Earl Debnam, Visual Artist
Tara Hardy, Literary Artist
Michael Rowe, Theatre Artist

Jim Kelly, our Executive Director, is excited about this first cohort, saying, “Through their own medium, each of these artists tackles challenging issues including sexism, violence, racism, LBGTQ liberation, and rights for people with disabilities. We are grateful to these artists for their work and we are proud to offer them this prestigious award.”

Arc provides critical—but rare—unrestricted financial support, helping King County artists dedicate energy to their creative practice. A new cohort of Arc Fellows will be selected each year, with an eligibility requirement that will change annually. This year, Arc was open to artists with physical, developmental, cognitive, intellectual, and/or emotional disabilities; next year, the 2018 cohort will help us determine the eligibility requirement. With 98 applicants for the four $12,000 grants that were available, the pool was extremely competitive in this first year.

This new grant brought new 4Culture applicants: 70% had never applied to 4Culture before. We’re thrilled to have this opportunity to build new relationships with King County artists, and we can’t wait to see their names on future applications.

Congratulations to Angel, Earl, Tara and Mickey! Stay tuned to learn more about them and how you can connect with their work.

Theresa Ball is a student in the University of Washington Museology graduate program, and one of the first participants in our new rural heritage internship program, part of our T.I.P.S. initiative. Here, she shares insight into her experience:

As with many students in the U.W. Museology program, I have relied heavily on the Museology Student Newsletter to stay informed of internship and networking opportunities. This past fall a particularly interesting opportunity caught my eye. 4Culture, the cultural funding agency for King County, was offering a six month internship with a small, mostly volunteer-run institution in the area. The rural internship is part of 4Culture’s T.I.P.S. program which was launched in 2018 to help provide technical assistance, inspiration, and professional development to cultural workers in King County.

My specific project of interest was based at the Neely Mansion in Auburn, Washington. Neely Mansion was built by the Neely family, a group of early settlers to the White River Valley, in the late 1800s. The Neely’s left the property in the early 20th century and over the next 75 years, they leased the property to a succession of families, most of which were immigrants to the US from Europe, Japan, and the Philippines. The proposed internship involved research and interpretive planning to highlight the stories of the immigrants who lived, worked, celebrated, and suffered at the site.

This was the exact type of project I was looking for, one that would allow me to utilize my previous experience in research and exhibit development while developing new skills in interpretive planning. I was also inspired by the institution’s commitment to spotlighting the experiences of PNW immigrant families and the fact that, even as interns, we were given some ownership and real creative input in the final goals and deliverables of the project. Even better, it was paid!

The project has more than lived up to my expectations. After a series of orientation meetings with the staff at 4Culture and the Neely Mansion, I and my partner intern—a Seattle University student receiving her M.F.A. in Arts Leadership—devised a plan for the research and potential reinterpretation of the site. At present, we are working on the first portion of this plan which involves in depth primary and secondary research into each of the families. I consider this the forensic work of the project; finding and piecing together the genealogical and contextual story of the families, discovering why and how they came to the US, what drew them to the White River Valley, and what their lives might have been like living at the Neely Mansion. The next step in this process, which will begin in the next couple weeks, involves compiling a narrative from this research. From here, we will discuss possibilities for interpretive changes at the site which will focus on the stories of the families and present a more complete and diverse narrative of the Neely Mansion. These changes may take a few different forms. First, a new docent script will be created to help guide site tours. We have also discussed updating the exhibits and displays themselves, writing new labels, and creating new programming which emphasizes the impact that immigrants have had on the Neely site specifically and in the White River Valley as a whole. Finally, we plan to conduct training with the site docents and implement an evaluation plan to determine the success of the project as well as areas for growth in the future.

I could not have asked for a better opportunity to round off my graduate school experience. I am personally committed to discovering and sharing the diverse stories which enrich the Neely Mansion and I know that the experience will help me to become a better museum professional overall. It will be an exciting six months!

As we, like many cultural organizations, wrestle with how to become a more equitable* agency, transparency is key. Being open about this process helps us improve, holds us accountable, and builds community around equity work. In that spirit, we’re sharing some of the work we’re doing to transform the way we serve King County:

Internal Equity: Transforming How We Work

These are all efforts we’re making to change the way our staff works, every day—we feel strongly that equity should be woven into the fabric of our organization.

External Equity: Serving All of King County

An essential start to equity work is recognizing that many communities have been excluded from the cultural field in general, and underserved by our programs. These offerings begin to address those inequities.

*We define equity as a system in which everyone has access to what they need to be successful—it recognizes and celebrates our differences.

The second in a short series of videos on basic preservation practices, this video breaks down the often complex investigative processes of condition assessments, with help from property managers who’ve been there. You’ll learn how assessments can be used to plan for future work and where to find resources that can help.

If you haven’t already, you may also want to check out our video on the landmarking process. And let us know what you think. If these are helpful we will do more!

Wednesday, February 21, 2018
9:30—11:30 am
King County Courthouse, Council Chambers, Room 1001 (10th floor)
516 3rd Ave, Seattle, WA 98104

King County Ordinance #2018-0086, which proposes changes to how 4Culture is managed, will be discussed at a meeting of the King County Council’s Committee of the Whole. One hour will be made available for public comment. You can view the meeting agenda and other materials on the Council’s website.

Our Board of Directors has made a statement about this proposed ordinance, and we’ve compiled information about how the ordinance would affect 4Culture.

Proposed Ordinance #2018-0086 took us by surprise.

As the citizen volunteer Board of 4Culture, we are dedicated to reflecting King County’s values of public service, participation, transparency and government accountability to our residents.

Proposed Ordinance #2018-0086 states “the 4Culture board, executive director, staff and advisory committees have demonstrated a commitment to addressing racial, geographic and income related funding inequities and creating an environment in which all King County residents participate actively in cultural opportunities.” We believe all of this is accurate.

4Culture is defined by its commitment to the public process. The County Code that governs our funding programs requires distribution of public funding through annual competitive processes that invite applicants from all disciplines, and from all sectors of the county. Those proposals are evaluated by dozens of independent citizen review panelists who generate funding recommendations, which are then reviewed by volunteer expert Advisory Committees before we as the Board review and approve them.

Each of us who serve as board members has been recommended by the King County Executive and confirmed by the County Council after nomination by a Board Nominating Committee that includes board members, three county councilmembers, and the liaison to the King County Executive’s office, all of whom are voting members of the committee.

We are proud that both our financial accountability and compliance with state law have been audited 23 times, and that the State Auditor has lauded 4Culture and its board of directors for its commitment to sound financial management.

We take immense pride in navigating complex financial challenges throughout the past 15 years, in our stewardship of public funds, in retaining superb staff, and in the trust we believe we have earned from the arts, heritage and preservation communities throughout King County for our commitment to accessibility, fairness and equity.

The significant changes required by Proposed Ordinance #2018-0086 would result in an agency with very different governance and budget processes, and could very well reduce, instead of improve, community transparency. It is clear that the County Council desires to have closer oversight and involvement in this agency, and a path to grow arts, heritage and preservation capacity in districts throughout King County so that 4Culture funds can be distributed in a way that promotes equity and social justice, including geographic equity.

We have no doubt that the Executive and Council desire to see 4Culture succeed in its service to county residents.

We ask that the King County Executive and Councilmembers take a pause in acting on this ordinance and join together to work with us in a public process that will address the Council’s primary concerns about including geographic distribution of cultural funds and any other matters of concern.

Sincerely,
The 4Culture Board of Directors

The King County Council introduced Ordinance #2018-0086 on Wednesday, January 24, 2018. It states the Council has “determined that public funding for the cultural programs necessitates greater oversight and accountability to the public.” 4Culture is a respected public agency (Public Development Authority, PDA) with an excellent record of accomplishment and proven fiscal responsibility and accountability. The ordinance proposes changes to 4Culture’s charter and its by-laws that will have a significant impact by shifting responsibilities for budgeting, staffing, and board appointments from the 4Culture Board of Directors to the King County Council.

03/16/2018: View the updated staff report to see the current impact on 4Culture.

Current Oversight Measures:

The proposed ordinance will:

Give the King County Council the right to accept or reject 4Culture’s annual budget. If 4Culture’s budget is rejected, King County lodging tax, public art, and other funds to 4Culture will not be released until the 4Culture board submits a new budget for council approval. Withholding revenues would disrupt annual grant programs and Public Art projects.

Give the Council the authority to remove the Executive Director with or without 4Culture Board approval. The King County Council does confirm King County Department heads, but does not have the authority to remove them. Under this ordinance, the Executive Director would serve at the discretion of the King County Council and not the 4Culture Board.

Give the King County Council the ability to appoint the majority of the 4Culture board—nine of fifteen members—by council district, eliminating the 4Culture Nominating Committee’s recruitment process. It reduces the nominations of the King County Executive to six members.

There are 14 public agencies similar to 4Culture located in King and Pierce Counties. If this ordinance is passed, 4Culture will be the only one with a governing authority—in this case, the King County Council—that has direct political veto power over the Executive Director, can remove professional staff, can veto program or capital budgets, and can appoint Board Directors by elective district.