Mayor Durkan earlier this week announced that she planned to appoint Royal Alley-Barnes as Interim Director of Arts and Culture. This announcement was met with some very public pushback by City Councilmember Tammy Morales (D2) on Monday who said “I have been contacted by many community members who are very frustrated by the lack of inclusion in the process.” said Morales. Morales also said it was her understanding that Mayor Durkan had not reached out to the Arts Commission or the larger arts community before appointing Royal Alley-Barnes and that the appointment runs the risk of disrupting existing relationships and projects underway at Arts and Culture.

Morales comments have raised some eyebrows in Seattle’s Black community as Alley-Barnes would be the first Black person to hold the Director position.

What are your thoughts on the appointment of Royal Alley-Barnes? Sound off in the comments.

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Councilmember Morales Comments on the appointment of Royal Alley-Barnes (The Seattle Channel)

“Moving on, I was interested to learn that the mayor has decided to appoint a second interim director, different interim director to the office of arts and culture. My understanding is that no one on the Arts Commission or within the arts community was consulted or, you know, included in that discussion. And I will say, I certainly understand that it is the mayor's prerogative to make such an appointment. But I have been contacted by many community members who are very frustrated by the lack of inclusion in the process. And I say that just because as we work towards recovery, and dealing with the funding that is coming, trying to put that money out the door, it's going to be really important that we maintain the very good relationships we have with the arts community in the art sector. And make sure that those folks are that we're including those who are most directly impacted by the work of the Office of arts and culture. So I hope that that will continue in the future. There's been a lot of really important community-building done as you know, we just recently passed the cultural space PDA. And there's a lot of work associated with that that needs to be implemented still. And that all happened because of the relationships with communities. So I want to make sure that those relationships are maintained.”