Imagine your family is building a house and sets aside one kopeck for every ruble spent to decorate it. Hardly noticeable, right? In Seattle, they came up with that kind of rule for an entire city. Since 1973, whenever the city builds something new—a school, library, or park, for example—about one percent of the money goes to art. People from different professions and backgrounds helped shape the policy, and many of the artists whose works stand in the streets were children of immigrants.
Where the One Percent Idea Came From
In the past, the city spent money only on what was “necessary”: bricks, asphalt, and pipes. But Seattle residents noticed that people love beautiful places more. You want to sit by a fountain, and you want to reach out and touch a sculpture. So in 1973, the city government passed an ordinance allocating part of the budget for public construction projects to works of art. Seattle became one of the first American cities to adopt such a rule.
Here’s a simple example. If a school costs $100 million, about a million of that could go toward art. The school’s cost barely increases, but suddenly the grounds in front of it become something special.
Here’s another important point: no single community “built” the program. Artists, officials, architects, and ordinary residents came up with the idea and supported it. Many of them had families who had once moved to the United States from other countries.
George Tsutakawa: The Boy Who Listened to Water
One of Seattle’s best-known artists was born in 1910 to Japanese immigrant parents. His name was George Tsutakawa. As a child, he was sent to study in Japan. Later, he returned to America and became an artist and a professor at the University of Washington.
In Japan, he saw little stone cairns in the mountains: travelers stacked stones one on top of another, like tiny towers. The simple shape stayed with him all his life. Later, he created dozens of fountains resembling bronze versions of those towers. Water flows down their steps like a small mountain stream. One of them, the Naramore Fountain, stands in downtown Seattle. People sit nearby, listen to the water, and forget the noise of the city.
That’s how Japanese beauty found its way into an American city. No one made the artist give up what he remembered from childhood. The city took his “mountain memories” and turned them into a gift for everyone.
What Art Brings to a City: Money and Craftsmanship
It may seem that art is just beautiful. But it also does a job. To create a fountain or sculpture, you need: - an artist to come up with the design; - craftspeople to cast metal, cut stone, or weld structures; - workers to install the piece on-site; - people to look after it and keep it in good condition.
Every commission provides work for many people. Beautiful places also attract visitors: they take photos, walk along nearby streets, and stop at cafés and little shops. In this way, the small amounts spent on art gradually flow back into city life.
There is one important caveat. I don’t have exact figures showing how much this program has generated over the years. Economists calculate these things in different ways, and it’s not easy to measure the “value of beauty.” But the general picture is clear: art gives a city not only a mood boost, but also commissions, jobs, and visitor interest.
What Stays With Us
I think the most important thing in this story is not the fountain or the percentage, but the idea that beauty happens when a city shares. The city shares its money, while artists share what they’ve carried with them in their memories and hands. If you ever find yourself in Seattle, look for a bronze fountain that resembles a little mountain tower. Remember that behind this simple shape are both a boy’s Japanese childhood and a penny from every dollar.
