Allied Arts of Seattle

Allied Arts of Seattle is a non-profit organization in Seattle, Washington, USA. The organization advocates for public funding of the arts, better urban planning and architecture, and other civic improvements. The organization claims to be the "oldest non-profit organization in Seattle dedicated to urban livability", but, in any case, at 50+ years old is certainly a venerable organization by the standards of a city barely older than 150 years It was a major force in establishing the Seattle Arts Commission, creating Seattle Center on the grounds of the Century 21 Exposition (1962 world's fair) and preserving historical landmarks and neighborhoods, particularly Pioneer Square and Pike Place Market, as well as defeating the 2012 Seattle Olympic bid.

Allied Arts grew out of the Beer & Culture Society organized in early 1952 by University of Washington drama professor John Ashby Conway. Other early members were U.W. professors Lloyd Schram, Robert Dietz, and Norman J. Johnston, assistant Seattle Art Museum director Sherman Lee, and architect John Stewart Detlie. On October 3, 1954, the Beer & Culture Society convened a "Congress" of the Arts that established Allied Arts as a permanent organization. Detlie became its first president. A second Congress in 1955 led to formal incorporation. By 1956, Allied Arts represented 57 local arts organizations and 55 artists and activists, including Kenneth Callahan, George Tsutakawa, and Lucile Saunders McDonald.

The new group convinced the city to create an advisory Municipal Art Commission. The Commission, created August 1, 1955 published a master plan on June 23, 1956, which reads like a list of what would occur in Seattle over the next few decades. They proposed dedicating 2 percent of city capital funds to purchase art works (which in 1973 became One Percent for Art); establishing an annual city arts festival (Bumbershoot, established 1971); hosting a world's fair (the Century 21 Exposition, 1962); public funding for the Seattle Symphony; creating opera and ballet companies (the Seattle Opera, founded 1963, and Seattle's Pacific Northwest Ballet, founded 1972 as Pacific Northwest Dance Association, are now among the leading institutions of their kind in the country); burying public utility lines; preserving historic landmarks; and planting street trees. The group also campaigned for a State Arts Commission (founded 1961). Their proposal to prohibit billboards met with lesser success (billboards in Seattle are now highly regulated, but not prohibited ).

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