Seattle Commons — The Case For

Why this is a win for Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF)

civic advocacy
The Win

SIFF is already a multi-venue festival — screenings across a dozen locations, programming that runs for weeks. What SIFF doesn't have is a downtown anchor with the scale to host large-format events: premieres, panels, parties, the events that need a room for 500 and a working kitchen.

The Arch's ballroom seats thousands. The meeting rooms seat dozens. A SIFF venue at 8th and Pike — five minutes from every downtown hotel — would be the geographic center of a festival that currently orbits Seattle Center and Capitol Hill. And unlike most of SIFF's current venues, it's available year-round: programming for SIFF Cinema, the year-round film presentation arm, not just the spring festival.

The question worth asking: what would SIFF build if it had a reliable downtown room bookable as a civic partner at civic rates?

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I want to analyze this proposal from the perspective of Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF). There's a civic proposal to convert the WSCC Arch building at 7th & Pike into a year-round public commons operated by Seattle Center. The case being made to Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF): SIFF is already a multi-venue festival — screenings across a dozen locations, programming that runs for weeks. What SIFF doesn't have is a downtown anchor with the scale to host large-format events: premieres, panels, parties, the events that need a room for 500 and a working kitchen. The full proposal: https://commons.conventioncityseattle.com What are the strongest arguments for and against, from Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF)'s perspective?
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What the commons can host → The booking model →