All kinds of people should enjoy the arts, as well as make art themselves. Although King County has a high arts participation rate, participation is still often highest among residents who are white, college-educated or affluent. Multiple factors can hinder access for others: inadequate leisure time, excessive cost, or transportation and scheduling problems. Some may be unfamiliar with the arts, or feel uncomfortable or out of place at arts events. Members of King County’s growing immigrant population often have language barriers. But surveys may not capture the art or music-making of lower-income, minority or immigrant households. A healthy arts ecology provides all citizens a range of entry opportunities—informal and formal, small and large—in all kinds of disciplines.
- Attract artists from underrepresented populations and involve diverse communities in creating and performing works of art.
- Work with community organizations to introduce low-income families and schoolchildren to museums and cultural activities, and overcome transportation, cost or familiarity barriers.
- Help arts organizations broaden participation with marketing and audience development.
- Bring performances into places where people's access to art may be hindered, such as underserved neighborhoods, nursing homes and retirement communities.
- Support arts participation within and across cultural and ethnic groups, and at cultural festivals that bring many such groups together.
- Make art a part of people's everyday lives by bringing public art to neighborhoods and workplaces.
- The Take Part in Art initiative brings together more than 100 local arts and cultural organizations to collaborate in regional marketing, public relations and audience development.
- SouthEast Effective Development's Concerts in the Park series brings free outdoor performances by national and local musicians to southeast Seattle green spaces for people of color and lower-income households.
- The Nature Consortium teaches environmental lessons through the creative arts by offering free classes such as Nature Ceramics, Masks of Nature and 3-D Nature Sculptures to youth (K-12) living in public housing communities throughout King County.
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