Local

King County, artists at odds over $10M in taxpayer arts money

SEATTLE — There's a battle brewing in King County over who controls the purse strings of an arts and culture fund.

On one side, King County Council members want more control of 4culture, an independent arts organization created by the King County Council to dispense hotel and motel taxes as well as other public funds for art projects.

On the other side, 4Culture itself is pushing back against King County councilmembers' proposals for more accountability, the ability to hire and fire the executive director, the right to appoint nine of 15 board members and approval or disapproval of the organization's budget.

"Any time you have tens of millions of taxpayer dollars it makes sense to have elected officials, the only people accountable to the public, involved in overseeing the management of that funding," King County Council member Dave Upthegrove told KIRO 7.

But some artists say elected officials shouldn't be trying to fix something that isn't broken.

Some of Michelle de la Vega's art projects, including a video and community integration project around 4Culture's offices and the homeless population, have been funded by 4Culture.

Scroll down to continue reading

More news from KIRO 7

DOWNLOAD OUR FREE NEWS APP

"I feel like the system works very well," she said, "and it is a process that's open to all people."
She called the proposals for more accountability and change a shock.

"The threat that it poses to the arts community is huge," she said.

Artists like de la Vega packed a King County council meeting on Wednesday in opposition.

KIRO 7 discovered Seattle has received about a third of 4Culture's arts funding over the last couple of years, a point that has concerned some council members who want to ensure all districts are represented fairly.

But de la Vega defended that, too.

"The way that those statistics are counted is to show where the artist resides not where the work is necessarily going," she said. "An artist in Seattle may receive or in any district may receive a grant, but their work might be a public project that is going to be serving Woodinville."

She's worried about the council members funneling money to their own districts, which Upthegrove said is not their aim.

"To speak directly to her concern, you're saying council members are not going to look at this money and then cherry pick grants and then give them to people in their district?" KIRO 7 reporter Linzi Sheldon asked.

"No, it does not allow any mechanism to do that," Upthegrove said. "The same processes that were used [for choosing grants] yesterday will be used tomorrow."

Upthegrove also pointed out that Seattle's mayor hires and fires the city's arts department's director and that the city council appoints its board.

4Culture is expected to bring in about $10 million for hotel and motel taxes this year, and just over half of that, a 4Culture spokesperson said, will go to grants. The rest of the funds go toward specific programs and supporting about 20 agency staff, among other expenses.

Not all artists, though, are opposed.

"I'm 100 percent for the county council stepping in," artist and arts administrator David Toledo said.

Toledo is a novelist and created a cartoon called Meet the Mascots. But he was also an arts administrator at Unified Outreach, a youth arts charity, for 18 years. Toledo said he'd like to see a shift at 4culture toward more art projects involving kids and teens throughout the county.

"Each council member will be able to appoint a board member," he said. "So each district will have adequate representation. Right now it's not equitable."

Upthegrove said the King County Council will have a committee vote on March 7th and a full council vote 10 days later.