Office of Arts & Culture Randy Engstrom, Director

The Mayor's Arts Awards recognize the accomplishments of artists, arts and cultural organizations and community members committed to enriching their communities through the arts.

August 3 – October 29, 2017
This summer the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture will enliven the third floor of King Street Station with 2D- and 3D works from the City’s collection and site-specific installations.

Kicking off its 39th year, the Out to Lunch concert series is back and bigger than ever, with live concerts every day of the week! This highly anticipated outdoor series is bringing free, live music to downtown Seattle for everyone to enjoy. Join us every Thursday from noon to 1:30 p.m. City Hall Plaza, 600 4th Ave.

The Put the Arts in Parks 2017 brochure is now available and includes an exciting summer of events funded by the program.

SpaceLab NW, a new interactive mapping tool, visualizes the results of our ongoing project to catalogue cultural space in Seattle. Our goal is count every square foot of every theater, gallery, artist studio, rehearsal room, bookstore, music club, museum, cinema, and other cultural space in the city.

Seattle is transforming King Street Station into a hub for arts and culture. In a unique collaboration between the Office of Arts & Culture, the Seattle Department of Transportation, and the Office of Economic Development, the City will create a dynamic space for arts and culture in the heart of the city.

Supporting Seattle's neighborhood arts councils and community groups that produce events to promote arts and cultural participation and build community.

Increasing arts and community events in parks throughout the city by investing in the vibrant cultural work being done in and by diverse communities throughout Seattle.

The Seattle Office of Arts & Culture is seeking a junior or senior college student to assist the Communications and Outreach team in all aspects of managing the Office's events and communications, including preparation and dissemination of print and online marketing materials, pre-event planning and logistics, day-of-event onsite work and planning. The internship requires work in both an office environment and outdoors at events with regular interaction with the general public.8/8/2017

Seattle Arts Leadership Team (SALT) and the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture's Turning Commitment into Action (TCA) program are bringing Real Talk: People of Color Speak Out on Working in and with Arts Organizations to Seattle. Real Talk is a project organized by Arts Workers for Equity(AWE) in Portland Oregon, focusing on personal accounts of applying for work, job interviews, work culture and leaving the job as they relate to being a person of color in the field of arts administration. You can submit your story here. Accepting submissions until July 15, 20177/15/2017

The Seattle Office of Arts & Culture (ARTS), in partnership with Seattle City Light (SCL), will commission one artist or artist team to research, write and illustrate a fictionalized historic graphic novel in relation to the history, story and significance of the Georgetown Steam Plant, a National Historic Landmark.8/15/2017

The Civic Poet Program supports an established poet with a two-year City residency as literary ambassador. In addition to annual City events, the Civic Poet will foster community dialogue and engagement between the public and artists, while celebrating the literary arts. The program emerged from the earlier Poet Populist program and invests in the future of literary arts through community connections.5/8/2017

The Office of Arts & Culture, in partnership with Seattle Public Utilities (SPU), seeks to commission an artist or artist team to create a site integrated or site specific artwork that is reflective of Coast Salish historic and cultural connections to the Salmon Bay and Shilshole areas for SPU’s Ship Canal Water Quality Project (SCWQP) Pump Station.2/9/2017

Aims to create community impact by broadening arts and culture participation at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute, an historic landmark cultural facility in the heart of the Central Area neighborhood of Seattle.

The Seattle Office of Arts & Culture is invested in training the next generation of public artists who can create culturally relevant artworks that resonate with Seattle's diverse population. ARTS is offering a FREE two-day intensive training to artists who are ready to translate their exhibition experience to the public realm.12/15/2016

The Seattle Office of Arts & Culture (ARTS), in partnership with Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), seeks an artist or artist team to develop site-specific, permanent artworks for four (4) streetcar platform stations for the future Center City Connector Streetcar. The successful artwork will celebrate a sense of place, promote wayfinding, and create a visual identity for the Center City Connector. The selected artist(s) will work with SDOT and SDOT consultants from design through construction of the new streetcar line. 2/21/2017

The Office of Arts & Culture maintains an Arts Partner Roster of teaching artists and community arts and culture organizations for The Creative Advantage. The roster is a resource for schools seeking partners to meet their education and community goals. The application to the 2017 community arts partner roster is now open. Deadline: April 18, 20174/18/2017

Seeking an undergraduate student to intern with the Communications and Outreach team. The Communications and Outreach Team is responsible for office communications (including printed materials, website, blog and social media), outreach efforts and events (internal and external), as well as working with the press and partnering with other organizations to activate and sustain Seattle through arts and culture..2/7/2017

“Your Body of Water” Poetry on Buses 2016-2017, has expanded to offer community sourced poetry in nine languages on a broad range of bus, rail and station venues. Residents in King County, Washington is eligible to submit one poem up to 50 words in length on the theme of water online starting May 15 through September 30.9/30/2016

Encouraging innovation and widening cultural participation, particularly by individuals, organizations and communities that may not qualify for other grant programs. Accepting applications year-round, smART ventures is flexible, inclusive and simple.

Looking for rehearsal space by the hour, or an old warehouse for your new theater? Looking for studio space by the month, or an empty retail space for a gallery? Check out Spacefinder Seattle.

We invite you to chart your own course through the city keeping an eye out for art in unexpected places. Art gives shape to Seattleʼs urban fabric. Since 1973, Seattle has proudly supported this endeavor with its 1% for Art program. Venture into Seattleʼs many neighborhoods and find other engaging works of art. The cityʼs collection includes more than 400 permanent public artworks. Enjoy your journey. We hope you are inspired, delighted and challenged along the way.

Resources and events related to the City of Seattle's Race and Social Justice Initiative.

The Creative Advantage is Seattle Public Schools commitment to arts education for all students. The initiative is ensuring that every student has arts integrated into their education, starting in kindergarten through high school.