The dying of City Corridor’s revered government director earlier this month impressed an outpouring of tribute. Past celebrating Wier Harman’s work to make that stage Seattle’s premier cultural gathering area, the popularity spotlights the large influence of an oft-ignored job: arts administrator.
Anybody who has felt their coronary heart pound sooner at a dwell live performance or been moved by the emotion conveyed via a dancer’s gesture has an invisible crew to thank. Not the performers taking a bow, however these behind-the-scenes curators and artistic administrators laboring in comparative anonymity for months, generally years, to verify the reveals will go on.
Usually, arts directors get waved off as mere bean-counters. However between balancing their data of what brings in audiences with a eager sensitivity to the cultural milieu — and the monetary calls for of their boards of administrators — these professionals stroll a inventive tightrope certainly.
Hardly ever have they confronted such a troublesome second. Fallout from the pandemic has pummeled budgets and left the Seattle Opera, Symphony and fifth Avenue Theatre in search of new management. Hugo Home, the town’s storied literary incubator, is pondering closure. And quite a few smaller organizations face a future finest described as precarious.
Seattle sees itself as a world metropolis. However no metropolis can retain that title and not using a vibrant arts scene. In some methods, the humanities are like native journalism: simple to take without any consideration; sorely missed when gone.
Bear in mind, a type of faceless of us on the Seattle Artwork Museum helped convey King Tut to city in 1978, and 1.3 million guests got here out to fulfill him. Identical goes for SAM’s 2011 Picasso present, one of many highest-attended reveals within the nation that yr, and its Gauguin exhibition in 2012.
Harman was celebrated for a lot of causes, not least his willpower to make City Corridor extra inclusive by decreasing ticket costs to $5 and making many occasions free for younger folks.
The Intiman Theatre, resurrecting itself from what appeared like sure dying, has finished one thing related, promoting memberships for $8 to $28 monthly and making a variety of remaining tickets free an hour earlier than curtain.
These of us should not in it for the cash. They do it out of perception within the energy of arts to construct neighborhood, one thing that Seattleites — with their tendency towards isolation and love of working from dwelling — want now greater than ever.
Harman defined the job with typical grace. “Our function is easy and profound,” he stated, “to remind us that some issues should be skilled collectively, and that ‘coming collectively’ is commonly its personal reward.”
