Public Art Plan
Seattle's Community Centers
1999 Community Center Levy Program

Seattle’s Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, Seattle, WA.

Seattle Community Centers
1999 Community Center Levy Program
 
Seattle has a strong system of community centers managed by Seattle Parks & Recreation. Over the last years, several levies have been passed that have allowed new construction and renovations to occur throughout the city. Each of these levies has included public art. The 1999 levy was a substantial program that involved 12 community centers. Law was asked to develop an art plan for this levy while in residence at the parks department.

Law's approach was to spend considerable time experiencing the community center system, evaluate the past public art and draw up an art plan that sprung from these experiential investigations. The budgets were relatively modest and the expectations high. She suggested dealing with the three-dimensional zone outside the entries of the buildings since this area was typically neglected during design. In that way the artwork became a part of the identification of the individual center, linked the centers into a system, and experientially greeted and said goodbye to the center’s multi-generational users.

The artists rose to the occasion and produced delightful, significant artworks that grace each community center entry area in very unique ways.