City Arts Magazine Shutting Down

SEATTLE, WA - Seattle's only monthly art magazine will cease publishing soon. City Arts began in 2006 in Tacoma, and then expanded to cover Seattle and the Eastside.

Although the magazine will no longer be published, the staff has promised to keep the publication going online. The magazine's archives will be maintained online as well.

"We knew going into this process of independence that the prevailing winds in both media and the arts were not on our side. Major publications in Seattle and around the U.S. have all but eliminated arts coverage, and the arts sector remains consistently undervalued by private and public interests," magazine staff members Leah Baltus, Amanda Manitach, Dan Paulus, Gemma Wilson, and Jonathan Zwickel in a letter published online Thursday.

Earlier this year, City Arts' former parent company, Encore Media Group, told the staff it would no longer support the magazine. Instead of shutting down, the staff tried to raise $1.2 million to support an independent version of the magazine.

"Some brave believers contributed significant resources that made the last few months possible, but there just wasn’t enough financial support to buy us the time required for full transformation," the letter explained.

Read the magazine's full farewell letter here.

City Arts served as an important booster for the Puget Sound art community. The magazine served as a platform for local writers and cartoonists. The latest issue featured poetry by Nikkita Oliver, an interview with Amelia Bonow's new book about the "Shout Your Abortion" movement, and a preview of a dance performance at the endangered Beacon Hill Garden House.

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