{"id":1805,"date":"2010-07-06T21:57:13","date_gmt":"2010-07-07T04:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp\/2010\/07\/thanks_to_dale_chihuly_all_eye\/"},"modified":"2010-07-06T21:57:13","modified_gmt":"2010-07-07T04:57:13","slug":"thanks_to_dale_chihuly_all_eye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/2010\/07\/thanks_to_dale_chihuly_all_eye.html","title":{"rendered":"On Dale Chihuly’s tide, other boats can rise"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in December, 2007,  Seattle Center announced<\/a> its Fun Forest would close. Sixteen months later, Jeff Wright of the Howard S. Wright family revealed a plan for a Chihuly center near the Space Needle, funded by Wright with an initial outlay of $15 to $20 million.<\/p>\n

How many other proposals were on the table?<\/p>\n

None. There are eight others now, some of them excellent. None come with their own funding, which Jen Graves says<\/a> is a question of timing, as the others didn’t have a  “year to hone their proposal.” <\/p>\n

This is, of course, untrue. Everybody had the same time, from late 2007. The prospect of cracked asphalt and weedy abandon was increasingly obvious to all, given the economy and the necessity of budget cuts. (More on those cuts here<\/a>.) The Fun Forest was over. Given the fact that the city is struggling to mow its lawns and keep fresh water in its wading pools, what could have led anyone to suspect that the city could replace a former money-maker with a money drain?<\/p>\n

Wednesday night, there’s a public meeting at Seattle Center’s Center House. Architects of all proposals will make their pitches from 4:30 to 6 p.m., followed by open comment. <\/p>\n

I’ve already commented on the Chihuly plan, here<\/a> and here<\/a>. I’ll leave it at that, except to say the original proposal now includes additions. Wright plans to put up $1 million for the creation of artist-designed playground equipment, including fabrication and development of the site, as well as development of additional green\/open space. The Chihuly team has also come up with a program to partner with Seattle Public Schools, Pilchuck Glass School<\/a>, Pratt Fine Arts Center<\/a> and the ArtsFund<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Team Chihuly is asking for a 5-year-lease. If the results fail to dazzle the public (and bring in from $300,000 to $500,000 annually to city coffers), its plug can be pulled, leaving the building that’s already there and a garden. (Even if he’s a raging success, the lease will terminate at 20 years.)<\/p>\n

I’d like to see the Chihuly approved, partly because I’d also like to see one or even two of the other proposals given a chance as well. When museums sell art from their collections, best practices encourage them to use those funds to collect more art. If the city is taking in $300,000 to $500,000 from Chihuly’s project, why can’t a hefty share of that money be used to underwrite other uses of the former Fun Forest? <\/p>\n

I’d give the nod to Open Platform<\/a> and\/or the Northwest Native Culture Center. The Fun Forest was 5 acres. The Chihuly center will be 1.5 acres. Math
\nis not my strong suit, but I believe that leaves 3.5 acres for other
\nuses. Think as well as, not instead of. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in December, 2007,  Seattle Center announced its Fun Forest would close. Sixteen months later, Jeff Wright of the Howard S. Wright family revealed a plan for a Chihuly center near the Space Needle, funded by Wright with an initial outlay of $15 to $20 million. How many other proposals were on the table? None. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1805\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}