Andrew Grant Houston

The Rising Tide
Democracy Voucher Program? Participating

The arts sector includes literature, theatre, music venues, museums, public displays of art, arts education in and out of the school building, design, and more. What role do you see the arts playing in the pandemic recovery? What is your experience with creatives, creative organizations, and the arts in Seattle?

Through the pandemic, so many of us have struggled in entertainment and creative fields. As a queer Black and Latino architect, I know this firsthand, having my contracts stop as people see architecture and design as superfluous and not necessary.

The role I see arts playing in the pandemic recovery is one that helps us heal and reconnect as we continue to return to sharing community and seeing each other in person. As a huge music listener, I know a lot of great music comes from this time specifically because people are working through our collective trauma. The ability for artists to express themselves and for that to resonate with Seattleites recovering from the psychological trauma of the pandemic will be extremely important.

In my campaign, that means working with queer-identifying creatives, recognizing that the funds I raise can go back to directly benefiting the LGBTQ+, Black, and creative communities writ large. That’s why we’ve hired a local LGBTQ+ BIPOC video crew to produce and finalize our campaign video.

Total personnel expenses budgeted for 2020/2021 are nearly 30% lower than in the pre-pandemic fiscal year 2018/2019. Artistic and production personnel budgets are those most dramatically affected, seeing 44% and 37% drops, respectively, since prior to the pandemic. Given this statistic from ArtsFund’s economic survey, how will you work to grow the creative workforce sector?

When in office, I will invest additional funds and resources into building more subsidized cultural spaces, including music venues and art galleries. I think the City can also do a lot of affirmative advertising that helps to highlight both events and cultural venues themselves, increasing appreciation and investment in the arts that way.

Growth in creative occupations has outpaced overall job growth (23% vs. 15%, 2012-2017). 2019 saw 4,373 more creative jobs than would be expected if Seattle had followed national trends. At $30.76, the Seattle metro has the second highest cost of living-adjusted, median hourly earnings for creative workers among large and medium metros. Creative industries contribute 18% of Seattle’s gross regional product, compared to 4% of the U.S. gross domestic product. Seattle is a world-class city for the arts and is a thriving hub for creatives with regional, national and international renown. How would you ensure that artists, and arts and cultural organizations, have the support and resources to maintain that status as a thriving hub? What are your plans to help grow the creative class that makes Seattle so vibrant?

Housing is the key stabilizer for all our communities. When we build more permanently affordable housing, artists and entertainers can afford to live in our city and contribute more of their time and energy into making Seattle a truly unique place.

Seattle has always been a great place for music, and a great place for musicians, but that’s become harder and harder as the cost of housing goes up and up and, with it, the pressure to develop eats away at a lot of the places and venues we know and love. Though I have plenty of plans to prevent rising rents, I believe it’s time for the city to get involved in making more space for artists and creatives to showcase their work.

For my policies, that means making deep investments in permanent affordable housing, including land use reform so that anyone regardless of income can afford to live in any of our neighborhoods. I am also interested in raising the minimum wage to $23 by 2025 and expanding our cultural arts and community centers in every neighborhood.

Washington state ranks 45th in funding for the arts, while having the second highest absenteeism rate in the USA. Knowing that the arts increase engagement for children in school, what are your plans for arts education, and what role do you see arts education playing in our school system?

Arts education plays a crucial role in allowing avenues for youth to express themselves freely. The Arts are a necessary component within our school system that helps build the creative brain that supplements the analytical one. I have two tactics for this:

1) Outside organizing: We need the state legislature to increase school funding across the board. It is absolutely critical that we provide a high level of public school education, something that I am a product of myself and a sign that investment works.
2) Supplemental investments from the City: This includes my policy to increase the number of community centers in Seattle as well as investing more money into the Cultural Space Agency. In this way, we will provide extremely affordable venues, if not free venues, for arts to occur.

The arts sector was left out of early recovery dollars, and the impact was a 65% decrease in earned income projected for 2020/2021 as compared to 2018/2019. We know the arts have historically solved problems for our city, as each new job in a creative industry creates a total of three local jobs, according to 2019’s Creative Economy Report. What is your vision for the arts in community recovery, and how will you work with the sector to achieve your goals?

The fastest way the City can aid in an equitable recovery for the arts is through direct grants for artists and creatives along with expanding our communications and advertising for events. As for long-term strategies, I will expand permanently affordable housing as well as increasing the minimum wage to $23 by 2025. In essence, when we make it more affordable for people to live in the city and increase the amount of money in their pockets, that money can go directly to spending on other things like entertainment and nightlife.

I will also increase protections for freelancers, which count creatives as the largest job sector in their ranks. Employers often deliberately misclassify workers as independent contractors (another form of freelancer) to remove them from entitled worker protections. In addition, freelancers are disproportionately urban, diverse, young and/or living with a disability compared to other job sectors.A whopping 70% of freelancers report either not getting paid or having to wait months for their money—and the missing money adds up to $6,390 for the average independent worker. So I will implement a Freelancer’s Bill of Rights that eliminates noncompetes, requires employers to pay workers in a timely manner, and gives portable transit, healthcare, and retirement benefits.

I will also work with freelancers, creatives, and contractors abroad to build a large movement and cohort to advance policy changes and fights for their rights. As much as change and proposals inside bureaucracies are important, the pressure from movements on the outside are just as key.

Historically, the funds dedicated to the arts have gone to predominantly white institutions serving predominantly white audiences. How will you ensure that available funds are distributed in a more equitable manner and that we invest in diverse communities?

The only way to ensure that we put money directly into the hands of BIPOC and LGBTQ+ artists is to overturn the ban on affirmative action, I-200, which I am committed to doing. I also plan on investing no less than $10 million a year in the Cultural Space Agency, specifically geared toward art as well as strategic acquisition of cultural spaces in our historically Black and brown neighborhoods. This is in addition to $100 million I want to invest each year in the Equitable Development Initiative, which can be used for housing as well as mixed-use projects.