missing title

Okay.

All right, everyone.

The April 8th, 2026 meeting of the Housing, Arts, and Civil Rights Committee will come to order.

It is 2.04 p.m.

I'm Dion Foster, chair of the Housing, Arts, and Civil Rights Committee.

Thank you.

Will the committee clerk please call the roll?

Council President Hollingsworth?

Present.

Council Member Juarez?

Council Member Rink?

Present.

Council Member Foster.

Here.

Chair, there are three members present, and excused absence from Vice Chair Lin.

Thank you so much, Clerk, and I know that Council Member Juarez will be joining us shortly.

If there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

We will now open the hybrid public comment period.

Public comments should relate to items on today's agenda or within the purview of this committee.

Clerk, how many speakers are signed up today?

for in-person speakers and no remote speakers.

Fantastic.

Each speaker will have two minutes, and we will start with our in-person speakers.

Clerk, can you please read the public comment instructions?

The public comment period is up to 60 minutes.

Speakers will be called in the order in which they are registered.

We will begin with in-person speakers.

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left.

Speakers' mics will be muted if they do not end their comments within the allotted time to allow us to call in the next speaker.

The public comment period is now open.

We will begin with our first speaker on the list.

The first person is Malcolm Hines, and the second speaker after will be Yoon Kang Oh-Higgins.

Great, yeah, any mic, whichever mic works for you.

Welcome, thank you for being here.

How you doing?

On behalf of a thespian, performing arts person, I'm just here to advocate and also to the new director arts and culture.

I just want to let you know that this city weeps and bleeds, and each new day a gash is added to its wounds.

And those wounds are the lack of space for performance artists, such as film, theater, performance artists.

Even at the Central Library, they don't have enough rehearsal space.

Even as an actor, there's no place for me to rehearse the same way people play basketball at Green Lake in the gym, the equivalency to that, if you can get that metaphor.

If you champion for the marginalized, for the people that have, you know, fight for anti-establishment and fight for justice through the arts, and Seattle's number one in sports, they could also be number one in arts and film.

and performance arts if they have the space to hone that craft.

So I did the research at Seattle Library.

They only have two rehearsal spaces that are always full.

I've been rehearsing at basketball courts because that's the only place I can rehearse my monologues and stuff because as a member of Theatre of Puget Sound, it costs too much to rent a room there in a space.

But they have open spaces, just like there's open gyms for people that play sports here.

And there's a lot of intellectual people here that are very creative.

We have a lot of creative people that have come from this place.

But the last time I checked, my friend told me that Seattle was like 26 in the actual arts in the American cities, opposed to New York or LA.

And a lot of people come here for artists, and it's hindered by the fact, whether it rains, sleet, or snow, that they don't have a space to go to, whether it be more visual artists, performance artists, being able to advocate for film here.

The movie Toe that came out was shot in Canada, could have been shot here, so just wanted to advocate for that.

Thank you so much.

All right, our next speaker is June Kane-O'Higgins, followed by Timothy Firth.

Hi.

I'm gonna read from my phone, just gonna sort my notes out, all right.

Chair, council members, thank you for the opportunity to speak.

My name is Yoon.

I am the Senior Director of Community Impact and Programs of Friends of Waterfront Park, but I'm here actually today as co-chair along with co-chair Megan for the Arts Commission.

So on behalf of the Arts Commission, we are pleased to express our strong support for the confirmation of Amy.

As the Director of the Office of Arts and Culture, her long-standing relationships across our arts and cultural communities, along with deep experience working within city government, make her exceptionally prepared for this role.

Just as importantly, her values are firmly aligned and are building on the priorities that the Office of Arts and Culture and our broader community have organized around.

We also want to affirm that arts and culture are core civic infrastructure.

They are the systems through which we build identity, strengthen community, and shape the futures we want to live in.

Strong leadership in this department ensures that this essential public good remains accessible to everyone in our city.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Timothy Firth, followed by Christina Shimizu.

Hello, my name is Timothy Firth.

I'm the executive director of Common Area Maintenance, a local arts nonprofit, and I'm here to support Amy's directorship and wanted to express My deep appreciation for their work in Seattle historically and their advocacy for arts and culture.

I've seen it firsthand and continue to see it over the days and weeks as this position has unfolded.

And throughout my community, there is strong, resounding support for their work and for this position.

And I would like to represent my community as much as I can in advocating for this amazing leader.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And our final speaker is Christina Shimizu.

Good afternoon, council members.

My name is Christina Shimizu, and this spring I'll be returning to the Wing Luke Museum as the Executive Director.

I'm here to share my strong support for Amy Nguyen's confirmation.

I'm genuinely excited about the opportunity to work alongside her in this role.

Amy brings a rare combination of clarity, care, and action to her leadership.

From her experience working on council staff to SDOT, OPCD, and arts, she understands how city government works.

and more importantly, how to work across departments to actually get things done.

Just as critical, she has a genuine relationship with our communities, with individual artists, beloved elders, community-based organizations, and she's earned our trust through her commitment to investing in the cultural permanence and stability of BIPOC neighborhoods most at risk of displacement and with the most to gain from vibrant investment in arts and culture, place keeping, and the creative economy.

In my experience, she leads with deep integrity and commitment to community-centered decision-making, building trust across differences, and brings people together toward shared goals, and moves ideas into action with focus, accountability, and heart.

And at a time when thoughtful, grounded leadership matters so much, and as our city stares down a big deficit, and as workers and artists feel the pain in our economy, I'm confident Amy will serve our community with dedication and vision, but most importantly, with the spirit of an organizer, because this girl right here can hustle and find resources for community.

And I think that is the number one reason why I am looking forward to partnering with her the most.

So go, Amy.

I hope you're loving this reverse.

Yeah.

Like, roast, basically.

We're giving you love.

All right.

There are no additional registered speakers.

Thank you so much.

Thank you to our public commenters.

And for the folks watching at home, I know we had four public commenters.

There's probably 40 or 50 folks in here, including folks holding some, I don't know, stick people signs with Interim Director Winn's face on them.

So really exciting energy in council chambers today.

I didn't expect to see that when I came out here.

Thank you for that.

It's a boost to the spirits.

Okay, with that, we will now move on to our first item of business.

Will the clerk please read item one into the record?

Agenda item one, appointment 03471, appointment of Amy Nguyen as Director of the Office of Arts and Culture.

All right, I would like to invite up to the committee table Interim Director Amy Winn of the Office of Arts and Culture, as well as Deputy Mayor Brian Surratt.

As they are getting settled at the table, I will take a moment to speak on this item, just first in terms of the process.

So I'm really pleased to consider Interim Director Amy Winn for this role.

For my colleagues, the appointment packet has been circulated with council members and is included in the agenda packet for today's meeting.

Today is an opportunity to hear directly from Interim Director Nguyen and for committee members to ask questions that you may have.

We plan to hold a vote on her appointment in the next committee meeting on April 22nd, and my office will be sending out a list of questions along with a request for other council members to share additional questions for Interim Director Nguyen to respond to those questions in writing prior to the vote.

incredible friends of Director Nguyen.

No, today we are not voting today, but we are excited to have this discussion today.

And just as a reminder, the Office of Arts and Culture manages the city's public arts program, provides grants to support the arts, operates arts education programs and cultural facilities, which are increasingly as we actually heard from one of our public commenters today, and strives to make Seattle a place where everyone has the opportunity to engage in diverse arts and cultural experiences.

I will share briefly about Amy's background, although I know we'll hear more.

She brings over a decade of public sector leadership with deep commitment and experience across arts, planning, and community development.

She has already served the city in multiple leadership roles, including as deputy director of the Seattle Office of Planning and Community Development, interim deputy director, and public art director at the Office of Arts and Culture.

And most recently, she led a community development organization advancing affordable artist workspace, housing, cultural infrastructure, including large-scale mixed-use projects.

So it's my pleasure to have you here today.

Presenters, if you can please introduce yourselves when you're ready, starting with Deputy Mayor Surratt.

And Mayor Surratt will provide a brief intro to Director Wynne, excuse me, Interim Director Wynne, on behalf of the Mayor.

Good afternoon, Brian Surratt, Deputy Mayor, City of Seattle.

Amy Wynne, she, her pronouns, Acting Director, Office of Arts and Culture.

Great.

Well, thank you, Chair Foster and council members, for this opportunity to be here.

I am more than pleased to introduce Mayor Wilson's nominee to serve as the next director of the city's Office of Arts and Culture, Amy Nguyen.

As you can tell by the crowd here, there are a lot of fans of Amy's, and we are one of them, and for many reasons.

Amy brings a powerful combination of creative vision, public sector leadership, and deep community connection.

She has spent her career at the intersection of arts, culture, and civic life, working to ensure that creative expression is not only celebrated, but supported as a core part of how cities thrive.

She has held, as you noted, Chair, many key leadership roles within the City of Seattle, including Deputy Director at OPCD, where she helped integrate arts, culture, and equitable development into neighborhood planning.

She also served as Interim Deputy Director and Public Art Director at the Office of Arts and Culture.

And most recently, she brings strong community-rooted experience as executive director of Watershed in Georgetown, working directly with artists, cultural space, and creative production in one of Seattle's most vibrant industrial arts communities.

What stands out most about Amy is not just her experience, but her vision.

When we announced her nomination, she was quoted, and this really stuck out to me as part of her vision.

She said in her quote, Creativity is how a city honors its past, heals its present, and imagines its future.

That belief is reflected in her commitment to ensure more people have the resources, space, and freedom to create.

And that meaningful cultural experience are accessible in every neighborhood.

That vision aligns directly with Mayor Wilson's priorities.

We see arts and culture as central to Seattle's future, supporting affordability and economic opportunity, activating our public spaces, strengthening the vibrancy of downtown and our neighborhoods.

The arts are not separate from our broader goals.

They are a key strategy to achieving them.

Amy understands both the opportunity and the urgency of this moment.

She recognizes that artists and cultural organizations are still navigating recovery, while also playing an essential role in bringing our city back to life.

Under her leadership, we are more than confident that the Office of Arts and Culture will expand access to cultural space, strengthen partnerships with community-based organizations, support creative placemaking that contributes to neighborhood vitality, and ensure our investments reflect the full diversity of Seattle.

Just as importantly, Amy brings a clear North Star, a future where creativity is within reach and close to home for every Seattleite.

Amy is a collaborative leader, a trusted partner, and a champion for Seattle's creative community.

I respectfully ask for your support for her confirmation.

I look forward to this conversation and doing the work that we all want to do.

Thank you.

Thank you so much Deputy Mayor Surratt for those words and thank you Chair Foster and council members.

I also want to acknowledge and thank everybody who came today on a Wednesday afternoon.

Words cannot express how it makes me feel seen and valued and that just thank you.

We are not who we are without the people who stand behind us.

Thank you for the opportunity to be considered for Director of the Office of Arts and Culture.

As has been noted, I bring over a decade of experience leading complex public sector work here in Seattle.

I got my start at the city on this floor as a legislative aid.

I've innovated and implanted programs at Department of Neighborhoods, led program development from the regulatory and permitting arm of Seattle Department of Transportation, and I'm coming back to the Office of Arts and Culture now for the third time.

Across these roles, I've managed large public budgets, led cross-department initiatives, and worked closely with communities to deliver equitable development outcomes.

The appointment materials before you are a part of my story, but it doesn't capture the why, and perhaps most important, my vision to advance the mandate of this office.

My home is Seattle.

I was born in White Center, went to high school in the Central District.

In fact, I'm joined by some of my high school educators in the audience now from Nova.

I just wanted to shout that out.

And...

I can tell you stories of looking out on Jackson Street as a child from my grandfather's SRO, playing cards at the Magic Dragon on 23rd during lunch, riding the 7 at night leaving youth in focus after spending hours in the dark room.

It wasn't until I left Seattle and moved to New York City to pursue my undergraduate and graduate degree in urban studies and policy that I truly appreciated the city that made me.

It is to love people and place, to ask, how do we meet the needs of a growing city and imagine the future of our built environment, and not invest in culture and how people experience the everyday?

I believe arts and culture are essential civic infrastructure.

It's arts programming for young people to supporting economic vitality, strengthening communities, and helping people see themselves reflected in the city.

It is about embedding the why and envisioning a better future today and for generations to come.

And who better to be at that helm than artists and creatives?

At the same time, I want to recognize that affordability and access remain real challenges for artists and cultural organizations.

Public investment for arts and culture is not proportional to economic generation or our civic values.

You can look at data from the Arts Fund Livability Impact Study for the Arts.

That places Washington State in fiscal year 2025 at investing just 97 cents per capita in the arts compared to a 2.29 national average.

While we have a relatively strong local funding system, the needs continue to grow as artists, cultural workers, small, medium, and large arts and cultural organizations are pinched further and further.

If confirmed, I will focus on strong stewardship of public resources, transparent and equitable program delivery, and ensure that the office's work reaches artists and residents in every neighborhood.

Most importantly, it is fighting for arts and culture and the people who make this city colorful to have a future here.

I'm excited about the opportunity to lead this department and to partner with council in advancing this work.

Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.

I felt I wanted to clap.

I'm not gonna lie.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Deputy Mayor, and thank you so much, Interim Director Nguyen.

I really appreciate you being here today, and I'm so excited to have this discussion with colleagues.

I'm going to share really briefly the reason that I'm so excited to have you in front of us as a potential appointee.

There's three things that really struck me, maybe four actually.

One was the first time that we connected your Zoom background.

Incredible.

Some folks here know.

And as we're doing city business and we're talking about important arts and cultural work, you came through as well as a human being, and I can feel that today.

And I will say that I was just so immediately impressed by the fact that you are somebody who has both a lot of heart, which we can feel, but you're also coming with the data, you're coming with the facts.

I know in some of our earliest conversations, I had questions for you around investment needs in our cultural institutions and your readiness to engage in those conversations in a way that was thoughtful centered the people and also had information was just immediately impressive.

And I could also feel just like the grit and the determination even when we met on Zoom.

So thank you so much for being here today.

I'm really excited for you stepping forward and your willingness to serve because these jobs are about public service and I can tell that so much in your heart.

All right.

Got me on my talking points.

With that, colleagues, I want to turn to you to see if you have questions that you'd like to bring for Interim Director Nguyen.

Spent a little bit of time answering questions that we may have today.

So colleagues, I will turn to you first.

I have some prepared questions to go through, but I will first give folks the opportunity to pose any questions for Interim Director Nguyen.

All right, first to Council President Hollingsworth and then over to Council Member Rink.

I wish I got a prize for putting my hand up first.

I always, it's always, you never know.

I really appreciate the opportunity to have met with Interim Director Nguyen yesterday just to kind of go over like shared priorities, get to know each other better.

So really appreciate that opportunity.

And one of the questions I asked and would love for you to talk about today, because she told me to ask her the hard questions, okay?

I don't think this one is hard, but I always talk like the three C's of Seattle, community, culture, and commerce.

and would love to expand about the creative economy and arts and what you vision and see that playing into Seattle, interwoven into the commerce piece.

We know that it's culture, but just that piece, that social enterprise that is much needed.

Absolutely, and thank you so much, Councilmember, for the question.

And yeah, I asked you to bring the hard ones, so I'm ready for it.

Before I jump into my answer to this, I just also wanna thank you, Chair Foster, for calling out my Zoom background.

I would be remiss if I did not, for the public, know that that background is a part of our civic collection, funded by the 1% for the Art.

And we have a fantastic registrar that manages that collection.

You too!

can look at eMuseum and choose a selection of your own to make your background.

And with that, Councilmember Hollingsworth, it's such an excellent question, and this is one of the places that I'm most eager in the next three and a half years, if I'm lucky enough to have the privilege to lead this office, is I've heard this again and again from individual artists to artist organizations.

Too often, arts and culture and economic development are treated as separate.

And we hear from individual artists that they are small businesses, and we hear from small businesses that culture is competitive edge.

It is about a continuously competitive market, and arts and culture is how you get people to come and frequent your businesses.

It is also about, well, there's so many different applications for it.

When I think about what is possible, I have a lot of dreams on the macro, but I think about what is possible within the next year to three years.

And this office has a lot of really, truly fantastic programs within it.

And it's time to turn up that dial.

And a part of that is really partnering strategically with our sister departments.

I'm very excited to work more closely with our Seattle Office of Economic Development to bring and marry that need for creative economy to live at the intersection of multiple departments.

And our sector deserves that.

I want to get a little bit more granular and also plant some seeds.

We're very excited to get to coming forward to this committee in the next month with cultural district legislation.

Cultural Districts is a program of the city that's administered through the Office of Arts and Culture that was first passed in 2014. And it hasn't had that investment and, frankly, innovation, but it creates a fantastic roadmap for us to lean into creative placemaking, but more importantly, how we can create more integration to your Cs, commerce.

It may seem small, but I hear it again and again.

Time is money.

How can we create more efficiencies around cultural banding?

That's our poll banners, but I also want to ask, let's examine our funding mechanisms.

We know so often that neighborhood business districts, cultural districts, It's unequal.

You have some that are doing better and some that are not.

This is a place where the public sector does need to intervene.

We have this opportunity to link planning, economic development, and arts and culture.

I'm excited to work with different communities and neighborhoods and ask that question around Can we actually create more bespoke economic and creative strategies to envisioning that future?

What is it that we're missing from the dance between limited public investment and where can we actually be more strategic about that subsidy and also remove regulatory barriers?

Sorry, that went a bit of a tangent, but I, Council Member Hollingsworth, I'm very excited for what we have teed up for this council in the coming year.

And I would say that our newly formed creative placemaking division is stepping in that direction of meeting communities, creating that activation, creating that third space.

It can't happen in a vacuum.

It needs to happen in coordination with also the small businesses that make our Seattle vibrant.

Awesome.

And Cher, if I may follow up?

Absolutely.

Awesome.

Thank you.

And I appreciated that answer that you gave yesterday as well.

And that was the one thing that I kind of really honed on because not every community has a business district or formalized BIA, but like every neighborhood is a cultural center and has all this vibrancy.

And so I really appreciated that.

And then another thing, this isn't necessarily a question, but it's more of a comment and observation too.

when I'm looking at other cities and kind of like taking best practices and what they're doing.

And one of the cities I've been very impressed with is Detroit in the sense that, you know, obviously we think of Detroit as this like music hub, cultural, like, you know, epicenter that has this historical, with Motown and all these historical figures that have come out of Detroit, but what they've done in their development just most recently has just been investing in artists, local artists, doing murals, doing paintings, doing activities, activation, like everywhere you turn in different neighborhoods, it is this activation of art.

And so just wanted, and it's like, it's not rocket science.

It's like, hey, they're just investing and really, you know, putting a lot of time and attention in this because they know that they want to activate spaces and make them accessible for people and prideful.

So anyways, I just wanted to highlight that.

I know that it's a lot complexities that go on with implementation, but it's just the simple investment.

So thank you, Director.

I know I have more questions, but I really appreciate you answering those.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Council President.

We appreciate that.

The question and the reference, I think it's incredibly important.

So I'm really glad that you shared that with us.

I am heading over to Council Member Rink.

Thank you, Chair.

Interim Director Nguyen, my staff has informed me that you are actually the coolest It's in my materials for today, so I just wanted to get that on the record, and noting in your appointment packet as well, growing up in White Center, attending Nova High School, living and working New Orleans, New York, and serving on leadership roles from Watershed Community Development, Arts, OPCD, SDOT, Department of Neighborhoods, and as a legislative assistant for this body, apparently you've always been cool.

So really, again, excited to be discussing your appointment today.

And I'm wondering if you can speak to how our cultural ecosystem shaped you growing up and the role you hope that the Office of Arts and Culture can play in ensuring that the next generation of Amy Wins can make it here.

Thank you so much, Council Member, for that question and giving me the opportunity to uplift and showcase so many of the people, programs, and institutions that make me who I am.

I did that plug very briefly to Mark Perry, my first US history teacher, but also Melissa Park in the audience.

And I think about this.

so much currently in this time when we have so much heightened real heightened danger.

And I think about it from also the vantage point of arts and culture in that I wouldn't be who I am today without youth arts programming.

I wouldn't be who I am today without educators and mentors who invested in me.

And they didn't invest in me in the traditional ways.

It was the...

having that time to have somebody who would talk to me, who would expose me to literature and art and not tell me, this is the music you should listen to, this is the mediums you should do, but expose me and then put me on the spot to react.

And I think about that.

That's developing critical thinking skills.

And I feel the pride of The two months of coming back to this office and I think about programs like the Creative Advantage and our partnership with Seattle Public Schools I really believe that's the best of us.

That's the best of us in this city.

I think about our mental health crisis.

I think about what it could, I think regardless, being a young person is just terrible.

It just sucks.

But how much more difficult that is now.

and the fear that we have of technology and AI, regardless of where you kind of stand on that, the need for more collective socialization, right?

And that's so much of what art practice and investment in culture can do.

Yeah, I could go on and on.

Like I said, I...

I love people and place, and I think about so much the stories that make us who we are.

It is those quiet, everyday, random Wednesdays when you're walking down Cherry Street and the sun hits that branch and you sit down and you're with your friends.

That was my high school experience.

And it was also a period when the Central District was facing, it still does, we should have made the investments in the 2000s to ensure that the black community was not displaced in the Central District.

And I ask myself, what is not going to be here tomorrow if we don't make the investments into culture now?

Beautifully put.

Thank you for that.

And building on this point, understanding the work of the cultural action plan, I'm wondering how that planning work can inform and strengthen also the work of other departments, because in so many ways, arts should not be a separate or a nice to have.

It truly needs to be integral in the work of many, if not all, of our departments.

And so I'm wondering if you can speak to how the work that you're intending to do under the Cultural Action Plan can again inform or strengthen the work of some of our other departments.

Absolutely.

I love this question, Councilmember.

Thank you.

I'm not saying anything that I think is controversial.

We have a wonderful legacy of producing a lot of reports.

And this is, I had the honor of serving on the Mayor's Arts, Culture, and Creative Economy Transition Committee.

And the consistent, at every single touch point we had, I would say one to five committee members would say, can you just actually do what you said you were gonna do in that 2019 report?

Could you do what you did in that 2022, 2023 report?

I could, yeah.

So a part of this pivot into really a cultural action plan is to acknowledge that we can't keep asking community members to tell us the same thing.

We need to shift into action.

We need to show, well, We need to make it operational and implementable, and it's been too many years of, frankly, studying.

I love studying.

I'm not saying no.

But where we are going to shift our focus in, and there will be community engagement embedded into this, is taking what we've heard over the years putting that into what is the step-by-step that this office needs and what sister departments need to be in alignment to achieve what we have been hearing consistently.

And I do believe, just to give you a taste of some of that excitement, what that really translates to, because it's like, oh great, another plan.

But we need that rigor to hold us accountable.

When I say operationalize and implement, take what we've been talking about at length.

cultural space, the need for cultural space.

We haven't had the opportunity to dive into so many of the existing public development authorities or programs that invest in cultural space across the city and unite it within a a coordinated strategic approach.

I've heard this during my time with OPCD over the Equal Development Initiative.

It's like, great, you gave us resources, but can you talk to SDOT and SDCI?

Because I'm still waiting two years for that permit.

There's so much that we can do to create those efficiencies, and that is about, well, public servants getting up and talking to other public servants.

That's what I'm excited to do.

I really appreciate that response.

And Chair, if I may, I just have one last question for today.

And it kind of reflects the public comment that we heard today, just hearing directly from working artists.

And I know in my work, Once Upon a Time, I was a kid's art teacher, ceramics and sculpture.

Made minimum wage, but it was one of the coolest jobs I ever had.

and I know the arts for me growing up was my safe space, but it can be tremendously hard to make it as a working artist in this city or someone working within the creative economy and so I'm wondering as a final note, what message do you have for working artists that are trying to make it in this city that is facing so many affordability challenges?

I would start by saying you're not alone.

I think a big challenge with American culture is this is the subsect of individualism that if you do not succeed, it is your own fault.

But individual artists that are struggling and working, and you said it, Councilmember Rink, affordability is macro.

Affordability is the role of the public sector to do better to serve its people.

I believe we can do that.

I think about how often artists, arts and culture are, to your point, segmented as an island, but artists are also, well, they're taxpayers, both from W-9 and 1099 perspectives, but they are parents, they are mothers, they are children, they fit so many different cross-sections of who we serve, and I also hear this quite often, When you work within the creative economy, you're an artist or cultural worker, you take what you can get.

And I want to push and say, ask, demand more of me in this position if I'm so lucky.

Demand more of your elected officials.

You're entitled to that service.

You're entitled to matter.

Just as we say housing is a human right, arts and culture is the why.

Why do we build buildings if we're not thinking about the people who will live in them?

Beautifully put, really, putting the servant and public servant.

I want to thank you for those answers to my questions today and excited to advance this appointment.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Rankin.

Thank you so much, Interim Director Winn.

Now I get to ask a few of my own questions, which I'm excited to do.

And it's a pleasure, it's genuinely always a pleasure to get to hear you reflect and sort of think about the way that our city is connected, that artists aren't just artists, they're parents, they're teachers, they ride the bus, et cetera, as well as the connection to community.

And so I wanna turn a little bit more into displacement.

And I'd love if you can share with us more about strategies that you think are important when we think about preventing displacement of artists and cultural organizations in this moment as a city.

Absolutely, I think it's a, I'm gonna try to, this is probably one of the things that I get most passionate about, so Councilman Chair Foster, I'll try to keep it a bit more concise here.

Arts and culture, artists have been left off of the real estate pre-development conversations.

It's often artists are brought in at the end, but if we were to address, take housing affordability and center what it is for artists and artist communities to live there, the entire pipeline would look different.

I would make the argument of even the capital stack would look differently into the final product of...

Anyway, sorry, I'm gonna stick on track here.

I get very passionate.

So when I think about...

what the public sector needs to do on anti-displacement.

We have to act now.

We're late, we're behind.

We will lose the artists that we have now if we don't invest in the pipeline for future artists, but also recognizing that We haven't even built the ecosystem for artists to have families, and that comes down to how much we've delivered on one bedrooms, two bedrooms.

And then we think about what it is to create space, how little affordable studio space there is.

And that's best reflected in Watershed Community Development, Equinox Studios, fluctuates between a 1% to 3% vacancy on commercial studio space.

That is amazing to have that.

I listen to that and I go, we need more.

That weight, that level of vacancy that's fluctuating at that rate, that's a key indicator of demand.

Sorry, I went on.

What is the full question again, Councilmember Foster?

I want to make sure that you asked for a solution, what we can do more of.

I was just, I was teeing you up to go off, so.

Oh, okay.

No, let me bring it back.

So I think the reason I wanted to bring this question is we've had some really interesting conversations one-on-one about how important it is to make sure that we are protecting and paying attention to the need in our art community, and in particularly to make sure that our cultural institutions have stability.

So that's part of what I had in mind with asking that question.

And often we are thinking about displacement, and we're thinking about individual people as we should and as we will continue to.

And it's also, I believe, important to make sure that we're investing in preserving our institution.

So I was trying to tee you up for some comments around our arts and cultural institutions and their preservation.

Thank you.

I really appreciate that, Council Member Foster.

I went a little bit off the rails.

I realize that.

I'm going to go into one of the very many fantastic programs the Office of Arts and Culture has, but more to demonstrate the needs component of it.

implement a program called the Cultural Facilities Fund.

And this program has, in the previous cycle, we were able to grant $400,000.

That's nothing.

When we look at the numbers and actually were able to calculate what the capital needs were for it, it was upwards of $90 million.

$400,000 to the $90 million needs of it, we need to do more.

We need to invest more.

And the recognition that we have limited public dollars pushes me to think about what is within our existing toolkit that we can leverage and have better integration with.

and also thinking about what is the marriage between the public and private within our control.

One of the things that I'm really interested in building stronger relationships is seeing how we can to have arts and culture be positioned to be better partners within existing capital departments.

That means with the passage of the Seattle Transportation Levy, there's so much excitement that was embedded within Seattle Transportation Plan around People Streets, around ways of activation that is a perfect marriage for us in the Office of Arts and Culture to be delivering for our cultural institutions and advocating for them to get the investments need in capital outside of their facilities.

And we have a fight in front of us to ensure that the public sector is playing its role in also stabilizing the built environment for arts and cultural organizations.

Thank you so much, Interim Director Nguyen.

And my final question, you know, obviously part of the role for the Arts and Culture Director is to have a vision, is to be able to collaborate and work across departments, and it's been a pleasure to hear you speak about that today.

I want to ask you to close out by speaking about your role as a leader of the staff team.

We know that the city is made up of individual people who are working really hard, whether that's our grants managers, whether that's our facilities folks at King Street, whether that's any of the other fabulous folks in the Office of Arts and Culture.

And I'd like to ask you to speak briefly to how you think about ensuring success of your team from a management perspective.

Absolutely.

I think about this will be my first time in a quote-unquote number one role, and I'm proud to have started and progressively been able to move up in the responsibilities of the roles in front of me.

I say that to put into perspective that We are nothing without our staff.

Our staff are the ones that are getting the work done.

It is the staff that are the heart of our city.

Public servants are not just public servants.

They are the ones that I'm proud of this office because so many of our staff are artists themselves.

A big part of my leadership principles come from a place of knowing that, and this goes back to my feelings on American individualism, I believe in the collective and I believe in the embracing the knowledge of our staff to move this forward, to move this work forward because our sector needs it.

and how does that show up in practice?

This office has gone through so much iteration and change.

I want to recognize the previous director and the staff for the amount of time and energy they put into developing an art strategic plan that focused really internally.

It's also available online if you'd like to read it.

And for me coming in back as a leader here, it is important for me to not be an agent of chaos.

We need to create more stability, resiliency.

So that's my priority within this year, stability and resiliency.

Trusting my staff because they know better from public art to creative placemaking to partnerships and grants than I'll ever know.

and also being strategic about where my time is invested.

I see my mandate as I need to open the doors so that we are at the tables where we have been missing before.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for being here with us today.

I'm just going to check that there are no further questions from colleagues.

And seeing none, I want to say thank you for the time and thank you for your commitment to public service.

My office, just to reiterate, we will be sending out a request to council members to submit written questions to Interim Director Nguyen, and we plan to hold a vote on her appointment at our next committee hearing.

With that, thank you for joining us today.

Colleagues, is there any further business to come before the committee?

All right, seeing none, this concludes the April 8th, 2026 meeting of the Housing, Arts and Civil Rights Committee.

Our next scheduled meeting is on April 22nd.

Thank you for attending.

Thank you, Chair.