Artist seeking info on seattle jobs, art scene, housing etc.

[Vinylly]

Originally Posted by corvidae

To answer your question about subsidized artist housing, I did a google search, and there are a couple of places. However the wait list is over a year for both.

Here are links:

Tashiro-Kaplan Artist Lofts in Seattle, WA 98104 | Low Income Housing at AptFinder.org

Cooper Artist Housing in Seattle, WA 98106 | Low Income Housing at AptFinder.org

Gray (Affordable Housing for Artists) | hugeasscity

'Tashiro-Kaplan' Artist Lofts was where I had my studio, before it became an Artist's Loft. It was originally the home of the Kaplan Paper Co. The city of Seattle took over the building by 'emenint domain' because the bus tunnal was going under it and they thought it would have to be razed. It proved not to be the case, so the city became the landlords. They used the two sub-basements to store all their old office funiture, files and computers. It had a lot of obscure passageways that took us way down into it's depts and into the underground passageways, from Chinatown, up through Pioneer Square. It was quite scary exploring these passageways alone because you would never know who or what you would meet. A lot of the street people, who are plentiful in this area, knew about the secret accesses to the underground. The city of Seattle tried to close them off, but there is a lot that the city doesn't know about. The 'Tashiro' part is that in early Seattle days, this building was a Japanese 'farmers' market with stalls filling the building. It is rumored that these passageways originated from the docks nearby and were passageways for illegal Chinese immigrants to gain access to Chinatown. This was very common in early Seattle. I was paying the city $100 a month for over 1000 sq. ft. of space which also included city heat and light (that was really 'affordable' housing). There were several other artists in the building and we had our own gallery. The city finally sold the building to a mid-western real estate developer who booted us all out, added two more floors above, broke all the great open loft spaces into tiny cubicals and are advertising them as 'afforable' artist's lofts. A cubical may be about 100 sq. ft. (10 ft. X 10 ft.) and cost you about $300 - $500 a month, so much for affordability!

[artriotnow]

Originally Posted by Vinylly

'
I was paying the city $100 a month for over 1000 sq. ft. of space which also included city heat and light (that was really 'affordable' housing). There were several other artists in the building and we had our own gallery. The city finally sold the building to a mid-western real estate developer who booted us all out, added two more floors above, broke all the great open loft spaces into tiny cubicals and are <a class="inlineAdmedialink" href="#">advertising</a> them as 'afforable' artist's lofts. A cubical may be about 100 sq. ft. (10 ft. X 10 ft.) and cost you about $300 - $500 a month, so much for affordability!

WOW!!!!!!!! $100 a month for 1000 sq ft would be a dream come true. That's really too bad the city sold it. I can't see how 1oft x 10 ft can be considered a loft???? That's just a small studio or office space at best. But the more I keep investigating Seattle, the more I think I should go with my gut and eventually move there. I'm just need to figure out how I would sustain myself there as far as a decent job. Seattle is certainly more progressive and seems to have more to offer than South Carolina. What do you do for a living there?

[Vinylly]

Originally Posted by artriotnow

WOW!!!!!!!! $100 a month for 1000 sq ft would be a dream come true. That's really too bad the city sold it. I can't see how 1oft x 10 ft can be considered a loft???? That's just a small studio or office space at best. But the more I keep investigating Seattle, the more I think I should go with my gut and eventually move there. I'm just need to figure out how I would sustain myself there as far as a decent job. Seattle is certainly more progressive and seems to have more to offer than South Carolina. What do you do for a living there?

What I said previously on your post; I got a BA in Art Education, later an MFA at the UW. Worked at Boeing for a while as a Graphic Artist in film animation before finding a teaching postion. I had a minor in mathematics.., -fortunately for me, because when school levies fail, art and music are the first to go, however school districts are always short on math teachers, which saved my neck. The nice thing about teaching is that you have summer vacation and that's when they have all the summer art festivals. So, I have a Dodge Caravan that toted all my work and a booth to all the festivals from Washington, Oregon, and California, clear to the Bay Area. Art dealers use to scout these festivals for new artists, so I picked up quite a few from Washington, Oregon and California and New York when I went to Art Expo NY. I'm retired now but art still suppliments my income. Infact I have a one-man show going on right now in one of the 'burbs. At the end of this month I will have a booth at the Belleue Art Museum's Art's an Crafts Festival. (Bellevue is an upscale 'burb of Seattle)

[artriotnow]

Originally Posted by Vinylly

What I said previously on your post; I got a BA in Art Education, later an MFA at the UW. Worked at Boeing for a while as a Graphic Artist in film animation before finding a teaching postion. I had a minor in mathematics.., -fortunately for me, because when school levies fail, art and music are the first to go, however school districts are always short on math teachers, which saved my neck. The nice thing about teaching is that you have summer vacation and that's when they have all the summer art festivals. So, I have a Dodge Caravan that toted all my work and a booth to all the festivals from Washington, Oregon, and California, clear to the Bay Area. Art dealers use to scout these festivals for new artists, so I picked up quite a few from Washington, Oregon and California and New York when I went to Art Expo NY. I'm retired now but art still suppliments my income. Infact I have a one-man show going on right now in one of the 'burbs. At the end of this month I will have a booth at the Belleue Art Museum's Art's an Crafts Festival. (Bellevue is an upscale 'burb of Seattle)

I'm not sure if math would be my thing, but I would consider teaching reading, english or special-education. Something along those lines if I could. That would likely mean more training and more school though.

[artriotnow]

Does Seattle have more opportunities for public art than Portland? My dream has also been to start an arts based community nonprofit at some point. I hope to use it to do public art as well as teach art to kids and adult plus help the poor and homeless with education, low cost shelter and food. Would Seattle or Portland be receptive to something like that and are there any organizations I might be able to work for or work under to start something like that there?. I wanted to do it here in SC but so far I haven't garnered much support as far as contributions to start it or people even saying hey lets do that right now. SC can be a strange egg at times people are so laid back , you could tell them the sky is falling and they would ignore it or say oh that's nice. At least that's been my experience. I'm looking for a place with a little more passion.

[Vinylly]

Portland is probably more 'kinky' and artsy. When I sold my etching press and lithography press and stones, they all went to art co-ops in Portland.
Portland is also the home of the famous Oregon Country Fair, where grandfather a permanent booth: www.oregoncountryfair.org