Seattle likes sports, but it’s also a city for artists
Feb 6, 2014, 7:32 AM | Updated: 1:56 pm
Jennifer Dixon FlipBooks by Jennifer Dixon (2008) can be found on the Interurban Trail between North 110th Street and North 128th Street at Linden Avenue North and was funded by the Seattle Department of Transportation's 1% for Art. (City of Seattle Photo)
(2008)
In the July 2013 issue of Forbes Magazine, Seattle was ranked first on their list of “Most Miserable Sports Cities in America.”
Well, now 700,000 people in Seattle Wednesday have made the author of that list eat his words.
But despite our football-embracing population, the city has made another list that, unlike the “miserable” Forbes Top 10, we can take some pride in.
MyLife.com ranked Seattle second for overall “Best Cities to Be an Artist.”
“We’re very good at sports in this town, but we’re also very good at arts and culture,” says Collandra Childers with the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture.
MyLife examined cost of living, the population of 20 to 34-year-olds, how many people work in the arts industry, how many museums and galleries there are in a city, and finally the number of households with incomes greater than $200,000.
A low cost of living and households with a $2K income might seem like two things that shouldn’t go together.
But having wealthy Seattle residents means, “You get someone out there who really supports the arts by actually purchasing those tickets and buying those paintings. You need patrons.”
The Office of Arts and Culture was set up was to produce public art for the City of Seattle, and Childers said one of the ways they do that is through the “1 percent for art” program.
“We’re the second city in the nation to have that kind of program. So Seattle is very lucky to have a robust kind of art collection,” she said.
The office also handles grants, aids non-profit organizations, which in turn often helps youth programs or getting free tickets to events out to underprivileged populations.
Only Atlanta beat Seattle on the list.
The renting and buying in Atlanta is much lower – overall, Seattle ranked 40th in the nation for cost of living.
And just like the Seahawks, Seattle can’t help from beating San Francisco and Denver. The home of the 49ers came in at third, while the Mile High City ranked eighth.
Report by Zak Kindrachuk
