City Arts Fest Culture Club Programs
City Arts Fest works throughout the year to seek out local individual artists, collectives and organizations to co-produce their work. By building an infrastructure that includes funding, production and marketing, we’re able to provide the artists with a very unique, efficient and extraordinarily impactful platform for their work and to bring to the region a series of works that might otherwise not have been able to happen.
In our first two years we’ve produced works involving more than two-hundred artists, the majority being local. We enabled a three-part series of one-day-only visual arts exhibits curated by the Free Sheep Foundation, Michael Van Horn, Serrah Russell and Amanda Manitach. We hosted performances by Daniel Barrow, a projection-puppetry performer who made his Northwest debut at City Arts Fest. Culture Club also held several symposiums, poetry and food events, and staged a “Pop Up” art market featuring local artisans and crafts. All programming and artist compensation was funded directly by the festival.
Recent Successes and Current Challenges
The successful execution of Culture Club 2011 was evident in the enthusiasm and appreciation from the artists and patrons; the arts community as a whole. We also were able to seed interest from new audiences drawn to the festival for its music events. The multifaceted programming format in one location over a short period of time is a new and unique experience for Seattle and something that is only in its nascent form. We feel that with more fiscal support will be able to create a wholly new, durable resource for arts in the city and region. Artists want to be a part of Culture Club in 2012. Our challenge with limited funds is to catapult our capacity to meet the demand. This challenge is further demonstrated in our search for the ideal “creative” venue or space for this type of undertaking. With improved financing our options for locations improve dramatically. With successful growth, especially in the early years of the festival and the Culture Club venue, we believe we will be able to open up sponsorship funding in addition to grant resources. Culture Club could be a very important platform for arts, perhaps even a draw for visitors from outside the region, for years to come.