CANDIDATE: Isaiah Willoughby, Seattle Mayoral Candidate
ARTS PLATFORM
My arts platform centers cultural preservation, creative justice, and equitable funding. I will strengthen public arts infrastructure, increase investments to BIPOC artists and neighborhoods, and embed arts in citywide planning. I support expanding Seattle’s Cultural Space Agency, funding the Office of Arts & Culture (ARTS) beyond 1% for Art, and launching a Neighborhood Arts Recovery Fund focused on rent and space stabilization.
How do the arts reflect the voices and perspectives of your district? What are the challenges and opportunities?
In South Seattle—Rainier Beach, Beacon Hill, Central District—art is storytelling, protest, and healing. From Wa Na Wari in the Central District to Nepantla Cultural Arts Gallery in Delridge, our arts reflect BIPOC resilience and history. But 65% of our cultural venues (per Cultural Space Inventory 2022) report displacement threats. There’s opportunity in stabilizing these spaces using public land (e.g. decommissioned libraries, Fire Station 6), supporting land trusts, and prioritizing artists of color in real estate partnerships.
How do you envision arts as part of critical issues—affordability, displacement, education, racial equity? Policy ideas?
Arts funding must intersect with housing, education, and anti-displacement policies. My proposals include:
- Live/Work Creative Housing Program using surplus city property (similar to Capitol Hill Arts District model).
- Require cultural impact assessments for major zoning changes in CID, Central District, and Rainier Valley.
- Mandate that city-funded developments include public gallery or performance space, especially in communities of color.
- Expand the Creative Advantage arts education initiative citywide and ensure funding for culturally relevant instructors in every middle and high school.
How will you address COVID aftershocks and federal arts cuts?
I support a Seattle Cultural Recovery Plan, modeled after San Francisco’s Creative Corps. Key steps:
- Direct grants to artists earning under $50,000/year.
- Rebuild capacity at cultural nonprofits via increased ARTS budget (currently 0.94% of city capital improvement spending—push to 1.5%).
- Expand Arts in Parks programming from 30 parks to 75 by 2027.
- Use participatory budgeting ($27 million in 2024 cycle) to fund community-chosen cultural programs in the South End and Chinatown-ID.
How do you plan to work with ARTS and Seattle Arts Commission?
As Mayor, I will:
- Appoint BIPOC and multilingual artists to the Arts Commission with lived experience from displacement-impacted neighborhoods.
- Embed artists-in-residence in SDOT, OPCD, and Human Services (as piloted in King Street Station residencies).
- Prioritize youth arts mentorship through Creative Economy Career Pathways (similar to what Creative Justice and TeenTix are doing).
- Elevate ARTS as a partner in all city budget discussions—not just arts-adjacent planning.
Describe a meaningful arts experience that has stayed with you. How have the arts affected your life?
As a kid in Beacon Hill, I joined a spoken word program through Seattle Youth Speaks. That stage gave me voice, confidence, and a connection to community power. Later, I saw how places like Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute and Umoja Fest amplified resistance and community vision. Art didn’t just influence me—it built me.
Seattle Arts Voter Guide 