By Sarah Goh, UW News Lab/Special to CHS

In 2015, the Historic Central Area Arts and Cultural District originated in Seattle’s neighborhoods along 23rd and MLK Way. Since then, the HCAACD has worked to recognize the identity of the neighborhood and how Black cultural heritage has defined the community.

Co-chair of the HCAACD Sharon N. Williams says the HCAACD works to create and sustain Black arts where the community has been traditionally redlined.

“It’s not just about preserving history,” Williams said, “It’s about the future of arts and culture in the Black community.”

Fellow co-chair Stephanie Johnson-Toliver says HCAACD began with voices from the community who didn’t see themselves within the district and wanted to share their own culture.

“We wanted to have an identity,” Johnson-Toliver said.

The Central District has been a hub for Black art, business, and community. Between the 1930s and 60s — when African Americans in Seattle were mostly limited to living in the Central District due to racially discriminatory housing covenants — there were jazz clubs in the neighborhood catering to the high demand for nightlife from soldiers and civilians stationed and working in the city during Seattle’s stint as a center for World War II-era defense industry.

“Knowing that we were a historically red-lined district,” Williams said, “We really wanted to take that back and own it.”  The logo of the HCAACD has a red outline of the district that signifies a reclaiming of the district as their own, Williams says.

In November of 2014, Capitol Hill became the city’s first arts district  The designation comes with a $50,000 dollar grant, in addition to a “Creative Placemaking Toolkit,” which includes a number of mechanisms and programs that can be implemented in collaboration with various city agencies and vested organizations) to help cultivate a given arts district, such as historic landmarking, wayfinding, and pop-up art projects and space activations.

The HCAACD has put its own shape to the effort.

“We’re not an event organization,” Williams said, “We’re a collective that brings together people and uplifts Black arts and culture.”

Since its creation, HCAACD has accomplished several projects that have promoted cultural identity and a sense of community. Barriers remain.

For each neighborhood in Seattle, there are design guidelines that help each community have their own unique sense of place. In the 80s and 90s, the Central District proposed their own design guidelines that were never acted on, the city’s Mathew Richter said.

“We re-proposed design guidelines specific to the Central District,” Richter said, “Recognizing and celebrating with Afro-centric design that felt right for the neighborhood.”

In addition to new design guidelines, HCAACD has worked on re-claiming space through artwork as well. Many traffic signal boxes in the Central District have colorful portraits of civil rights leaders and organizers that are done in collaboration with local artists.

New street signs have also gone up that honor the district’s historical leaders. One example is Douglas Q. Barnett Street on E Union at 34th Ave E. Barnett founded the Seattle Black Arts/West Theater that closed in 1980.

The value of HCAACD is less about the street signs and murals, and more about the collaboration of artists and locals, Richter says.

“Every month, a dozen players in the neighborhood’s art and culture scene meet together,” Richter said, “They compare opportunities and challenges, and work to bring the neighborhood’s cultural players together.”

Recently, HCAACD received $100,000 in funding from the ARPA recovery act and Richter says this funding has made him optimistic for a year of growth.

HCAACD’s directors are looking into two big projects in the coming months.

One project involves five artists or smaller organizations that are interested in a walk-through with marketing. HCAACD will build a marketing strategy for them and help each organization with branding and how to really tell their story.

The second project involves adding to HCAACD’s portfolio of placemaking and signs that draw attention to the cultural spaces in the district. Johnson-Toliver says they hope to establish a gateway to the Central District that includes their identity and history.

Johnson-Toliver and Williams are also heading into their third year of leadership and say their turns leading the effort are coming to an end and ready for new leaders from the neighborhood to emerge.

Learn more at hcaacd.net.

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