Bruce Harrell

Bruce for Seattle
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?

I was the first candidate to pledge on day one to support recovery efforts to preserve and revitalize arts, culture, and nightlife – some of Seattle’s hardest hit businesses and creative enterprises. I am optimistic that as we continue to reopen and return to a sense of normalcy that the arts are going to be a crucial element of this recovery. Neighbors are dying to experience live music, return to museums and galleries, and use art to share a connection, experience, or feeling with the artist and those around them.

I have a strong connection to Seattle’s arts scene – my dad played saxophone with Quincy Jones in Bumpy Blackwell’s Band, it was Quincy who introduced my parents, and I was once a musician myself. I serve as Chairman of the Board for the Royal Esquire Club, the city’s oldest African American creative space, and I’ve been a lifelong patron of the arts. On the City Council, I was a strong supporter of Seattle’s cultural sector – I expanded access to arts programs, especially for underrepresented communities; encouraged and incentivized venue improvements; worked to create a Downtown Historic Theatre District; fought to save the Showbox; and supported and sponsored budget items for the Northwest African American Museum, Wing Luke Museum, and others.

The arts have been an important part of my life, and I have always been committed to expanding their reach and preserving their special prominence in our city for all communities. I’ll continue working alongside artists, creatives, advocates, businesses, and nonprofits as we recover and move forward from this pandemic.

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?

It’s clear we have to work to restore funding, stability and incentives that allow for needed investment in the creative personnel. Members of this workforce are crucial drivers of the arts and necessary to revive it in full – the sector does not exist without their effort and input. I’m open to a number of strategies to encourage and restore personnel budgets, including funding directly to rehire and retrain employees, tax incentives and subsidies based on employment numbers, investments in other priorities that free up funds for employment, housing and cost of living support, and by working directly with workers and organizations to develop and implement these and other effective strategies.

I am also proposing a Seattle Jobs Center, which will be used to connect job seekers with opportunities across our city. This could play a major role in the artistic personnel space, helping train new employees and rapidly connecting returning workers to needed new jobs. The 2021 Arts Commission letter states, “More than 62% of artistic and creative workers have become fully unemployed, 95% of them have experienced significant income loss...” As part of my Seattle Jobs Center initiative, we will listen to the concerns and barriers faced by artistic and creative workers and implement real solutions to help.

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?

Seattle’s rapidly rising cost of living and rent expenses (facing both individuals and businesses/organizations) are a significant threat to the vitality and diversity of our city’s arts scene. We need to do more to keep artists, creatives, and institutions in our city and prevent displacement and insolvency.

Rent stabilization and the threat of displacement are some of the largest impediments to artists in Seattle. I would examine the potential to replicate the 12th Avenue Arts model – a combined affordable housing and performance space – elsewhere in the city. From a policy standpoint, I will make sure we invest to prevent displacement and to come up with policies to help with rent stabilization. Artistic space is something we need to preserve and invest in.

I’m open to a grant program similar to what San Francisco is exploring to fund guaranteed income to artists in our community. Having this set monthly resource will create stability and prevent the kind of economic uncertainty that drives artists to explore either other locations or other careers.

We also need to show young people who are considering a career in the arts that it is a viable career path. Through community programs and organizations, support for performance and display opportunities, school mentorship, and a larger emphasis and embrace of our artistic values, I believe we can help inspire the next generation of creatives and artistic leaders.

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?

As mentioned, music and the arts played a major role in my dad’s experience at Garfield, and for me as a young person in our Seattle Public Schools. I am an advocate for a strong arts curriculum both in our schools and through complementary programs targeted to youth through afterschool programs, community organizations, and city-sponsored activities.

I would like to work with the cultural advocacy community and school district to include arts education in our state legislative program, making sure legislators and the Governor know that this is a priority for our city.

I will also work with our school board to create a new city-supported mentorship program that connects youth who are at-risk with adults and leaders in industries they are interested in. I would love to include artists in this program, as their unique stories can make a major difference impacting the lives of young people.

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?

Few sectors of our economy have been as hard hit as our city’s dynamic – and critical – arts, culture, and nightlife economy. The County has set a good example for how we can support these critical nonprofits and businesses, and Seattle needs to look closely at the second disbursement of American Rescue Plan Act dollars next year to see how we can funnel support to arts and artists.

But we also know that the arts sector can’t wait until then if we’re going to fast track recovery and provide effective support. We need to do more to re-imagine how we can help – from preservation of historic buildings and venues, to exploration of sustainable revenue to support organizations that advance equity, inspire and teach, and provide a stage for the next Quincy Jones, Macklemore, or countless other creative voices in our community. These kinds of investments create both temporary and long standing jobs in different industry segments, while developing long lasting structures and community interfaces that power new artistic creation for decades to come.

We should also look at regulatory barriers – whether they exist in starting a new business, making a film or production, or any other facet of the creative economy. The last year placed an undue burden on the arts sector to take necessary but extremely disruptive precautions to protect health and safety. Going forward, we should review where we can speed up our processes and better expedite artistic creation.

The pandemic has been traumatic to so many in our community for such a wide array of reasons, but as we reopen and recover, there is reason to have hope. I believe a rapid restoration of artistic prominence, opportunity, and accessibility should be an integral part in our recovery – powering optimism and positive thinking, allowing us to thoughtfully examine the last year, and once again bringing communities together through shared experience and feeling. Seattle should be helping facilitate this through funding, creative thinking, and dedicated energy.

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?

This is extremely important to me, core to my approach as an elected official and something I championed on the City Council. I was the Councilmember who introduced, sponsored, and passed the Race and Social Justice Initiative – requiring all Seattle policies to be viewed through a race and social equity lens. I supported specific funding to further align the focus of that initiative with racially equitable organizations serving artists of color, immigrants, and others experiencing structural oppression, such as the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Committee.

I also supported tens of thousands of dollars supporting Creative Justice, an arts-based alternative to incarceration for young people in King County (disproportionately communities of color), as part of Zero Youth Detention goals. Again, I dedicated hundreds of thousands of dollars (unprompted) to museums like NAAM and Wing Luke – which serve and prominently highlight the work of communities of color, and I supported funding for the AIDS Legacy Memorial, elevating other underrepresented communities in our city.

These are the kinds of strategies we need – an assurance there will be – and a dedicated eye toward – equitable distribution of funding and support to art projects created by and for marginalized communities; investment in community groups that lead these efforts; and an intersectional and interdisciplinary connection between arts and other programs and projects that support communities of color. That’s the proven approach I’ve brought to the City Council, it’s the focus I’ll bring to the Mayor’s Office, and it’s the direction I’ll give to our Office of Arts & Culture.

Finally, we need to make sure young people of color, along with members of the disability, LGBTQ+, and other marginalized communities, have not just the encouragement, but the entry points, financial support, and access to creative resources needed to follow their dreams. I’ll work directly with artists and creatives in these communities to learn more about their experiences and how the City can be a better partner, and then I’ll fund city programs and community groups that put those plans into action.