To Seattle's board members, civic leaders and anyone who's done well here
A message to Seattle.
The 30-second version
Seattle magazine recently asked me what I want people here to know. I didn't answer well, so here it is, written for people like me: people this city has been good to.
Why I'm here
I can live anywhere, and I chose Seattle, for the people: curious, creative, opinionated, all within a few blocks of each other. I made my money on the internet, starting with one of the first online dating sites, in 1994. At some point I realized I had enough. Once you have enough, the rest is for something bigger than you. And honestly, giving it back has been more fun than making it.
What I'm doing with it
- The ArtLove Salon downtown: free to visit, and artists keep 100% of every sale.
- Studios and a free gallery at the Occidental Fine Arts Center in Pioneer Square.
- The Seattle Prize: painters get a stipend, a studio and a year to make ambitious work for the public.
- Free shows at the Coliseum, the 1916 movie palace at Fifth and Pike. Next up is Winter Lights, opening November 27.
- PublicDisplay.ART: free coverage of the city's art scene.
What it actually takes
That's what it takes to bring a world-class painter to Seattle for a year. These are fine artists working long-term on humanistic art for the public, and they're the starting point for our education programs.
So far I've put more than $20 million of my own money into the Conru Art Foundation. This is a start. I've been doing philanthropy for almost 20 years, and this is me ramping up. My mom's rule: never do anything half-assed.
One painter for a year, or a season of free events in your neighborhood, changes a lot.
What's behind this
Two kinds of money: grants from my family foundation, and buildings I bought myself.
The Conru Foundation has granted about $9.7 million to about 200 organizations since 2019. About $3.8 million of that went to 112 nonprofits in the Seattle area, including Gage Academy of Art, Seattle Theatre Group, Shunpike, Artist Trust and Pratt Fine Arts Center. The full list is on conru.org.
Buildings I've bought in Seattle
| Building | Bought | Price | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| The ColiseumFifth and Pike | July 2024 | about $8.9M | Free shows: last summer's season, and Winter Lights from November 27. |
| The OccidentalPioneer Square | Aug. 2024 | about $5.5Mincl. renovation | Seattle Prize studios, the free street-level gallery and workshops. |
| Union Trust BuildingPioneer Square | July 2025 | about $7.5M | Next door to the Occidental. Part of it is planned for future programs. |
| Marketside Flatsby Pike Place Market | July 2024 | about $10.1M | Housing for our fellows at about 20% below market rent. |
| The Lusty Lady buildingFirst Avenue | March 2023 | about $3.0M | The historic Lusty Lady building, preserved for a future cultural use. |
| Total | about $35M | The Coliseum and the Occidental are provided to the foundation rent-free, with costs covered by my company. The Union Trust and Marketside Flats support the work in part. |
Purchase prices are from King County sales records, rounded. The Occidental figure adds about $2 million of renovation.
Seattle, all of it
Part of why I love Seattle is the mix: people and cultures from all over, living a few blocks apart. I want the free spaces to belong to all of it.
The Conru Foundation has given about $3.8 million to 112 Seattle-area nonprofits since 2019.
Some of the people and groups we've worked with:
- Grants to the Northwest African American Museum, Wa Na Wari, the Wing Luke Museum, Arte Noir, Tasveer, Deaf Spotlight and Path with Art.
- At the Salon, where nonprofits use the space free: Tasveer's film festival closing night, a community screening of 13th with Belong Partners, Whim W'Him, SIFF, Intiman, Seattle Print Arts and the Seattle Bach Festival. More than 50 outside groups and artists have held public events there since September 2025.
- On the walls and in the studios: the Seattle Prize fellows, including Kevin Müller Cisneros, Miriam Baranov, Milan Franklin, Diego Glazer and Agustina Forest; Joey M. Robinson's solo show at the Salon; and 49 artists paid for the Coliseum's summer season.
Everyone the Conru Foundation has supported · Kind Words
One idea, for individuals
The owner-run coffee shops and small boutiques downtown and in the neighborhoods are what make a street feel alive, and a lot of them are just breaking even. What if a few of us paid some of them a stipend, say $5,000 a month, to make their places somewhere people want to linger? Ten shops is $600,000 a year, and you'd see the result every time you walked by. That's for individuals, not foundations, which have strict rules about paying private businesses.
To everyone who's done well here
This city needs you. It deserves you. And it's the right thing to do.
AI is going to concentrate even more wealth among people like us. I'd rather we put it into things that are local, that we understand, and that we can walk past. Free art is my way. Yours might be music, parks, a shop or a school. Do something like this, in your own way. I'm happy to sit down with anyone who wants to and help come up with ideas.
Andrew ConruSeattle, October 2026
