The City of Seattle wants to pay someone $10,000 to live part time in the Fremont Bridge’s northwest tower and write poetry… this is not a joke. Via the Seattle PI,
“The poet or writer selected for the Fremont Bridge post will be expected to produce at least one work that can be presented by the city. (Office of Arts & Culture spokeswoman Calandra ) Childers said that could be a spoken-word piece, an essay or a collection of poetry, or something different.
“Childers said the hope is that the artist’s time on the bridge will help the rest of us understand its place in Seattle life.”
The poet cannot actually live in the bridge… the room where the “living” would take place is not well heated and there is no running water.
But, that’s not all. The city is also looking to pay $15,000 to an artist who works with light. The artist is supposed to add “light-based work to the bridge”—slightly less ridiculous.
The Seattle Department of Transportation must put 1 percent of new construction budget toward public art. Usually, that money is used to pay for pieces of public art around Seattle. Or, it’s simply integrated in building design.
So, if you are interested in living in a bridge and writing a poem about Seattle, the deadline for applications is February 16th.
Poetry is not art. Poetry is “literature.” But, that doesn’t matter because someone in charge of the arts commission has decided to be “more inclusive”….perhaps because aside from a few MAJOR artists (who are constantly winning grants for 10, 20 or 50 thousand dollars for public art installations) there isn’t much of an opportunity for anyone else to meet their level of expertise. As proof, Seattle is holding seminars for artists to help them develop the ability to comply with the requirements demanded by the city in producing art that meets the 1% on art mandate.
“Poetry is the art of understanding what it is to be alive. . . .” ~Archibald MacLeish
Literature is an art form just as painting, filmmaking, photography, sculpture, etc. etc. are. Not that the way you classify something matters much at all.
” Poetry is not art. Poetry is “literature”. ”
Of course poetry is art. Do you think art consists only of things that hang or sit in galleries, like paintings and sculpture? What a narrow view of the world. What of ballet, modern dance, or Beethoven’s symphonies? Are they not art?
http://www.seattle.gov/arts/public-art
When the city speaks of “art” in the context of 1% for public art, art is described as visual art, it can be permanently installed or portable. While there are certainly many professions that are considered an “art”…poetry and literature are not visual arts. Also see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art
of course poetry is art. Writing is a medium of expression, just like sculpture is. Novelists, playwrights, poets, all are artists.
When and where? Is the information online?
I have some details and the links in my post. https://ayearwithmona.wordpress.com/2016/01/14/writing-with-rapunzel/
Literature is a category of art, as is sculpture. I wouldn’t say sculpture isn’t art, because it has its own name. That would be dull. That would be terribly, doltishly stupid. Please refrain from being stupid — literature is part of art.
Thank you defining me as terribly, doltishly stupid, did that raise the image you have of yourself? Or do you just enjoy name calling? The city defined “art” within the context of its 1% funding of public art – visual art. While poetry is often, maybe most often, written on a page and you can see it, it isn’t often, and mostly never considered a visual art, but written word. There is no doubt, art is a very broad term…and has been used to describe many human activities including, “The Art of War.” That does not make war a visual art. And, if you are not yet regretting your post, try checking classes offered in ART at UW….are there poetry classes there? No. Because poetry is not taught in the ART department.
Only a small-minded person would think this a joke. Of course, I don’t expect much from someone who doesn’t proofread. Fix your typos and grammar errors, philistine.
You’re joking right? Clearly you are a comedian doing a stuck-up poet routine.
Calling someone a philistine looks pretty stuck up and overly judgemental man. The author is just trying to their job and nothing they said warrants your hostility.
If this is MY tax money, I’d like it back. Fix the damn roads.
We’ll just assume your tax money is going somewhere else.
Unless you’re going to fix the roads with crayons and canvas, you’re not getting any of that 1%
Lol you made me laugh, thanks!
If we are getting to select where our taxes go, I’d like a refund on ALL the wars. I don’t want to
support murder or keep paying subsidized bloated jobs.
but you can’t actually live there.
Can it be a Canadian?
As long as they have funds for this stuff they don’t need any more of our money, for anything. Period.
I agree
People often times point to the usage of art to undermine fascist governments. I will take this comment as an unequivocal support of fascism, oppression, and Nazis. Meanwhile, if we are getting to select where our taxes go, I’d like a refund on ALL the wars. I don’t want to support murder or keep paying subsidized bloated jobs.
The government is meant to provide essential services that individuals in society can’t provide on their own. Security, emergency services, critical infrastructure, etc. For a few it includes a safety net of social services. I would prefer the taxpayer money wasted on art be detoured to more/better roads, other critical infrastructure, emergency services, or social services for someone who truly needs them. The government uses taxes paid by citizens to do these things. As a citizen and a taxpayer I have a right and duty to do what I can to see that our money is used properly.
If you disagree that’s fine, but please do it politely. Labeling others without knowing anything about them is ignorant. Calling people names is childish.
“Waste money on art”–that’s priceless. Where would we be as a culture, without art? Seattle is an extremely wealthy city with a substantial tax base–enough for roads, social services, AND art. I’m glad that Seattle is attempting, in a small way, to make up for the fact that they have priced artists completely out of the city.
Yes, it is my opinion that using a taxpayer’s funds for special lights and poetry in a city where they do not live is a waste of their money. I do not live in Seattle, but the funding for this project is coming from every taxpayer in the state, not just Seattle residents. If it were just the “extremely wealthy city” of Seattle with all it’s wealthy taxpayers footing the bill I would not care or comment on it. I am not extremely wealthy and can not afford poetry or special lighting for Seattle.
There’s one grant for ten grand, and another one for fifteen. How much do you think that will cost you?
You know, it might just be pennies. But it does start out as my money in my pocket, then goes there without my consent. It is also not the only item we are talking about. 1% of every road project in the state must pay for art to go with it. Now we are talking millions of taxpayer dollars. As I said before, I believe there are more important needs for that amount of money than pretty lights and a poem. There are health issues, mental health institutions, other critical infrastructure projects and a long list of other things those millions could be spent on.
Are you really telling me that lights and a poem are more important than those things?
I think art is important for any culture. I just disagree with one person being forced to pay for someone else’s art or culture.
There is a lot of data that shows that art can be one of the best investments a city can make. It pays back in economic impact, quality of life, community image and tourism. New Orleans certainly learned that when Katrina came and they realized that what brought the money to the city were the tourists coming for the music. The cultural infrastructure was one of the first things rebuilt.
I have no problem with Seattle and Seattle taxpayers paying for pretty lights if that is what they want. I live in Colbert. I want my taxes to go toward more substantial things than lights and poetry in another city.
For those of you saying your tax money is not worth it… It is worth it long term. A culture succeeds because of roads and education, but a culture thrives and grows because of art, music and literature. The roads will always fall apart after a civilization is gone, but what survives is the remnants of the art and things that were created out of appreciation. That’s where our humanity lies, not in fixing a few potholes. Your roads are fine.
Well I agree with you, except for the part about the roads. As a biker I can say firsthand that the roads are not fine. 🙂
The education isn’t fine either, unless you’re a teacher, then you’re doing pretty good.
Anyone ever sung The Star Spangled Banner? Enough said.
I object to spending money foolishly and this is foolish – beyond measure.
$10K for “at least one work” absolutely absurd.
Maybe it’s time to abolish the Office of Arts and Culture if this is the best that can be done.
I object to you being a douche
Well aren’t you special? hahaha
I object to you being a steaming pile of $hit. Isn’t that poetic. Pay me $10,000
The federal government paid Edwin Arlington Robinson a sinecure because it was understood the man was a gifted poet whose poetry lifted up the nation spiritually through the renewal granted by poetry. Melville had a gig working in a customs house that was provided him so that he would actually have time to write. The government has through time granted any number of geniuses in the arts the luxury of working at jobs that required no actual work on their parts other than sitting around being creative. Does it matter? Well, ask Samuel Reshevsky. (You can’t, ’cause he’s dead now). He was strong enough to be world champion at chess back in the late 30’s. The reason he wasn’t was because he had to work as an accountant to keep a roof over his head. Who cares about chess, right? Well, the people we were competing with in that time period were the Russians. Imagine the propaganda value generated by paying someone what would have been a pittance to allow them to basically devote their full time to their specialization–something that only a handful of people are good enough to do at that level. You may be too young to remember Bobby Fischer. Millions of people learned to play chess, and in the process, learned to think about the world analytically, simply because Fischer was strong enough to beat the Russians.
Good to think about
I wonder if they’ll pay me to animate in the bus terminal.
Just when we think all the nuts have come out of the cupboard there seems to be another jar of them! I think we need to build a wall to keep ’em from the east side.
So very like a snob from the east side would drool forth!
Please write all of my future insults, you eloquent brutal angel.
Seattle used to be a great city…..fifty years ago before the nut trees were imported from California and elsewhere. It’s no wonder it takes forever to get a road section completed. Besides making sure every bug and bird are not displaced and spending months deciding how to waste thousands on “feel good” so called art.
with the troll ? 🙂
It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there.
– William Carlos Williams
I would love to this. Light and water, mornings and sunsets, lines and waves, birds and cars…so many wonderful things to write about!
How about a troll under the bridge(3 Billy Goats gruff)?
Yeah everyone loves the troll! That was this type of spending and now everyone loves it. Art is worth supporting.
Seattle already has this.
The author finds a commissioned poem or spoken-word piece “ridiculous”, yet is trying to have a go at being a professional writer. Art is what makes Seattle different from any other city in this country; it’s a wonderful place because of projects like this. So, if you think it’s silly, there’s always Cleveland.
Many of the greatest works of art were subsidized or commissioned. If you want to live in a barren culture-less society, please go move to Antarctica. But, they will probably not be cool with it either. Good lucking finding a single culture that doesn’t celebrate some form of art.
So just how should I sign up for this gig. I can be as cultural as any one of the people I see and hear of in Seattle and I also paint and build wood projects which I consider beautiful works of art. You can see how well I write by reading what you see from me under donnn.
Yes, poetry is “ridiculous”. Now let’s all get back to work. If we’re good, we can watch some TV when we get home, then some internet porn before bed. That’s what life is all about, after all.
Seattle used to breathe culture naturally. Now it’s desperately paying for some. What happened to my city?
Perhaps Seattle “breathed” culture because it invested in culture in ways you weren’t aware of.
It is wonderful that the epartment of Public Transportation puts money toward art, to help beautify a mundane need. Our backward state of Louisiana still thinks that public transportation is a “handout for deadbeats.” But we have a new Governnor now; perhaps some hope for progress in any small amount?
For those complaining about “their” tax money — in a city the size of Seattle, the $10K grant likely amounts to something in the neighborhood of half a penny per person. Most who complain would not even bend over to pick up a penny off the street.
There once was a hipster named Biff, who coded much slower than swift; he scratched at his beard, and noted: “It’s weird that poets should live on such thrift!”
Seattle Fall Clouds
Fall wind herring between bare
branches
extenuated after summer growth.
Sensations that pulsate through
your heart when a woman touches
you in away
that tells you
she wants you to make love to her.
Memories taking us to different
time’s in our life when each
new rain drop could change
the way we looked at things.
Something new thought to ponder.
Moments where we realized
something new something
different is about to take place.
Sitting here pondering on
what life means
what it is i’m are looking for.
Reflection of my youth.
Feel the breath of the Sound passing overhead.
Understanding nature’s intimacy
Sitting here after having a few
beers at the Fremont Tavern
watching our world changing.
This Bridge that links land’s
Triangle to water’s Union’
These feelings that come to
to you under Olympic clouds.
Allowing us to see how things
could still
turnout the way God intended.
Knowing your love the joy of being
alive, taking this ride on a rustic
spaceship from Lenin, to a different
world than the one we live in.
poem by joseph mayo wristen
written on a rainy May day 2007
Is this for trolls?