By Margo Vansynghel, Gemma Wilson, Moira Macdonald and Michael Rietmulder
Basic income, affordable housing and free health care for artists. These may sound like pie-in-the-sky ideas, but multiple organizations here and across the country are making it happen. These are among the many solutions and ideas King County-based artists, in our Seattle Times 2024 Affordability for Artists Survey, say could help address the affordability crisis cramping local arts — while noting that those things should be available to everyone.
Below, we’re highlighting a few promising programs while acknowledging that individual programs can only do so much to remedy a structural issue (which requires structural solutions). These are by no means a panacea, but a Band-Aid can still stem some bleeding.