TIMELINE

2013

The City of Seattle becomes the first city in the United States to create a body of work specifically designed to support cultural spaces.

Matthew Richter, originator and co-founder of the Cultural Space Agency, is hired to lead that work. Over the course of the following decade the program would create unique opportunities for cultural spaces in Seattle, including the Tiny Cultural Space program, the Seattle Arts & Cultural Districts program, the Cultural Facilities Fund, the Square Feet Seattle symposium, the Seattle Presents Gallery, the ARTS @ King Street Station cultural space, as well as designing multiple changes to City building and land use codes to support cultural spaces.

2017

As part of this cultural space work, the City of Seattle publishes the CAP Report: 30 Ideas for the Creation, Activation, and Preservation of Cultural Space, and in that report recommends the creation of a new, independent cultural space development entity (Idea #24!). The report recommended that the City “Develop a new organization with the means and authority to manage large amounts of space for cultural uses.”

2019

Based on the success of the CAP Report, and responding to overwhelming community response in particular to the idea of creating an independent cultural space development entity

The city publishes Structure for Stability, a full-length report that continues to explore the idea proposed in the CAP Report. This next report zeroes in on the Public Development Authority model and recommends specific steps towards its development.

2020

Following the completion of two Racial Equity Toolkits, and on the recommendation of eleven City department directors, the support of dozens of cultural organizations and hundreds of cultural organizers

on December 15, 2020 Mayor Jenny Durkan signs the Charter of the Cultural Space Agency and creates Seattle’s first Public Development Authority chartered in almost 40 years.

2022

Following a year of intense fundraising, the Cultural Space Agency and its community-based partner organizations make the first of several important acquisitions: 

In partnership with Cultivate South Park, we acquired El Barrio, over 30,000 square feet of the heart of South Park’s commercial district, at the corner of 14th Avenue South and South Cloverdale Street, including the South Park Hall and the South Park Idea Lab.

  • In partnership with Rainier Avenue Radio, we acquired the 100-year-old Columbia City Theater, a former vaudeville and early cinema.

  • Working with Mt. Baker Housing Association the Space Agency acquired a 1500-square-foot storefront to serve as a permanently dedicated cultural space pop-up incubator.

2023

The Space Agency leases the Jackson Street ground floor of King Street Station in Pioneer Square to create “Station Space,” a youth arts empowerment lab with Totem Star, Rhapsody Project, Red Eagle Soaring, and Wh!psmart. Through the lease the Space Agency negotiated with the City, this space is committed to the cultural community, with no rent payable, for the next 60 years.

The Space Agency takes over the direct production and management of the Build Art Space Equitably (BASE) program, a City of Seattle program that was initially conceived and created by the Cultural Space Agency cofounders.

  • The founding (and intentionally interim) staff of the organization is replaced by a new wave of leadership as the organization’s first permanent Executive Director, Director of Real Estate, Director of Fund Development, and Community Liaison are all hired.