Shoreline Parks, Recreation and Arts/Tree Board recommends formation of a Shoreline Arts Commission

Sketch for major art piece now installed at Shoreline's Town Center

The Shoreline Parks, Recreation and Arts/Tree Board has recommended to the City Council that it establish a Shoreline Arts Commission. 

They have sent a detailed letter from the Board to the Council with a review of the functions a commission could provide to further the arts and culture in Shoreline. 

Acknowledging that 25 of the 30-plus cities in King County have arts commissions, the Board believes that development and promotion of the arts via arts commissions represents current best governance practices, and proposes that Shoreline create its own.

The proposal was supported by the board of the ShoreLake Arts Council. The recommendation will be considered at the City Council’s annual retreat on Saturday March 5-6.

The recommendations begin with this:

The arts, culture, and heritage community in Shoreline is not represented by any single entity but rather by a wide variety of private and public organizations. 

While this diversity is a strength, each group tends to focus on particular niches. 

Perhaps the single greatest benefit of an Arts Commission would be a role in serving the community as a single, system-wide body that could speak with a unified voice of advocacy, allowing the various arts organizations an opportunity to combine strengths, collaborate, and grow in unison as a maturing arts community.