The Kent Arts Commission will mark its 40th anniversary when Mayor Suzette Cooke proclaims October as National Arts and Humanities Month, as well as Kent Arts Commission’s 40th Anniversary Month at the Oct. 20 meeting of the Kent City Council.
Ronda Billerbeck, Kent’s cultural programs manager and staff to the Arts Commission says city leaders recognized long ago that the arts are a significant part of the quality of life, growth and vitality of a community.
“Arts and culture are an integral part of the human experience – allowing us to define and express our humanity and the joys and sorrows that come along with it,” Billerbeck said in a city media release. “The arts are also a means to achieve broad societal goals like increased academic achievement, healthy living and building strong communities.”
Established on Oct. 20, 1975, Kent’s Arts Commission is one of the oldest in Washington and, according to Billerbeck, was at the forefront of the local arts agency movement nationwide.
“I am consistently impressed by and grateful for how forward-thinking the leaders of Kent were back in 1975,” she said. “From the very beginning, the city’s public art program set a high standard with the dedication of Mill Creek Canyon Earthworks Park by internationally renowned artist Herbert Bayer in 1982.
“More than 30 years later, the project is still successful as a functional dam, a public park, and an art work that is featured in art history texts and in national and international publications.”
In 2008, the site was designated as Kent’s first Historic Landmark.
Billerbeck says the economic impacts of the arts are significant as well.
“According to Artsfund’s most recent economic impact study, $2 billion in business activity and more than 32,000 jobs in the Central Puget Sound Region are attributed to the arts,” Billerbeck said.
The impact is apparent locally, too. Kent Arts Commission Chair Suzanne Smith says between 1988 and 2015, the Arts Commission’s Community Arts Support Program provided $214,000 to nearly 200 local artists and organizations.
“This support has provided tens of thousands of Kent residents with arts and cultural programs they might not be exposed to otherwise. Coupled with our Give Me Culture funding program, we’ve been able to broaden participation in arts and culture activities, especially by ethnically diverse or under-served communities,” Smith said.
In 1985, the Kent City Council approved a $2 per capita funding mechanism to support public art which led to a collection that today includes more than 300 art pieces, valued in excess of $1.6 million.
The Arts Commission oversees the city’s public art program and portable art collection, hosts festivals and community events, funds programs that serve Kent artists and organizations, and produces an active performing arts program.
Over the past three decades, the Commission’s performing arts program has grown from a handful of concerts in the park to more than 30 performances annually. Regional performers, international touring artists and Grammy Award winners now grace Kent stages.
“I am consistently inspired by the power of the arts to benefit individuals and communities and am amazed by the dedication of commissioners, volunteers and staff. We’ve achieved a lot during the past 40 years,” Billerbeck said. “We are looking forward to even more success in the future.”
For more information, go to KentArts.com.
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