SeattlePrintmakersCenter

141216 Economics and the Seattle Printmakers Center 

All my life I have directed my resources to being a teacher, and my domain of expertise is art, specifically the fine art printmaking field. As a teacher, I believe printmaking is not only a way to produce works of art on all levels—from activities of entertainment and play, amateur art and crafts projects to fully professional and commercial production business and industry.

As a teacher, I see several ways to use the art, crafts and design of printmaking for economic development for the greater Seattle area. Printmaking is set apart from other arts because it is a blend of art, technology and performance. That is why it has potential for economic development whereas other fine arts, such as painting and drawing, sculpting and ceramics for example, have less potential for economic development.

On the other hand, over the past two generations, all the arts have proved to be beneficial to economic development in the Pacific Northwest. For example, Dale Chihuly sparked the glass art industry here, which has led to significant economic developments in the tourism and arts sector. Dozens of arts-oriented institutions—profit and non-profit—have contributed to the economy.

Some of these institutions—the Pratt Center for the Arts for example—seem to already be Seattle’s printmaking centers. However, my concept is different because I also saw significant economic factors in the housing sector, with such developments as the Schack Art Center in Everett, the Tashiro-Kaplan, Artspace Mount Baker and Hiawatha Lofts, the Old Rainier Brewery, and 12^th Avenue Arts, where housing, production, workshops and retail venues are combined under one roof.

It would seem to most people that a teacher cares mostly about teaching, and most people have a history with schools and teaching institutions. Much has changed over the past fifty years and I have seen it all, I think—from the conventions of my high school and college years to the outbreak of Massively Online Open Courses, Wikipedia, home school and other kinds of innovations.

Teachers change, too, if they are innovative, just as any worker in any industry might change if he or she looks around the workplace and wants to exercise an innovative urge. What I think is hard for people who might know me is to see me as anything other than an old artist and former art professor. I imagine that is my profile, and I don’t try to change that.

When it comes to the Seattle Printmakers Center, however, I do try to change that. I want people to see it is not just another art center, like a museum or even like the Schack Center up in Everett, or any of the four newest Seattle combination housing and live/work spaces for artists.

Surely there are useful comparisons you might call analogies or metaphors to help shape the Center as to planning and costs; but it is economics that I think about. Economics are more important to think about than art, in my opinion, when planning the Seattle Printmakers Center. Throughout the conception of the Seattle Printmakers Center, which took most of the year 2014, economics has been at the center of my thinking.

For example, Ethan Lind came along and showed me the need for putting into action my idea that printmaking is close to the performing arts. He is a bluegrass musician. He is the second bluegrass musician to show a keen interest in etching and in using the Mini Halfwood Press like an instrument instead of a machine. The housing aspect of the Seattle Printmakers Center is interesting to Ethan, but also the performance tradition—busking in a busy place, for example, and then he became a vendor at the Pike Place Market.

This opened my eyes to the importance of tourism, as millions of people each year pass through the Pike Place Market, and they come from all over the world by planes and ships. Ethan has a fairly comfortable home, but he aspires to ownership—and my weekly contact with him has given me to think about this as part of the Seattle Printmakers Center. It is economics that is important, and I think it’s true of many artists who would make prints—locally and globally.