The Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) has received a $678,000 grant from The Kresge Foundation to support an art master plan as part of the redevelopment of Yesler Terrace. SHA will use the funding to retain artists to infuse the new, mixed-income community with multiple works of art, and to support collaborative artistic projects and programs, working with community members and teams involved with design of streets, pathways, parks and other public spaces. The grant will also enable SHA to work with artisans living in the Yesler Terrace community to enhance their skills and translate them into works for public display or available for sale locally.
“The generosity and vision of The Kresge Foundation allows us to incorporate art into a community redevelopment on a scale few other housing authorities have been able to take on,” said Andrew Lofton, Executive Director of SHA. “This grant is a gift to the Yesler Terrace community, and to all citizens of Seattle, and represents an opportunity to showcase the importance of art in creating healthy communities. We look forward to working with Yesler Terrace residents, community partners and our region’s artists as we bring a vibrant new neighborhood to life.”
As a part of the three-year grant, SHA will partner with Seattle University (SU) on two projects. An existing SU co-led program that trains youth in filmmaking will be enhanced to include a focus on youth at Yesler Terrace documenting the physical and social transformation of their historic community. In addition, a team of faculty and students from SU will evaluate the overall impact of the artistic efforts at Yesler Terrace, document them, and create ways to share the assessment with other housing authorities and with arts organizations.
SHA plans to recruit a part-time administrator for the Yesler art master plan. Once that person is hired, SHA will announce later this year a Request for Proposals for artists. In some cases, artists will be engaged in the creation of actual physical projects that add to the public realm. Other artists will be involved with community building and weaving art into existing programs.
For more information about the Yesler Terrace Art Master Plan, please go here.