Days Of Decision -- As The End Of Kreielsheimer Foundation Draws Near, Trustee Don Johnson - And Area Arts Groups -- Area Faced With Big Questions About The Future

May 23, 1999

Melinda Bargreen

Seattle Times Music Critic

Let others dwell on the Y2K computer bug and the potential expiration of software.

In the greater Seattle arts community, the big issue about the arrival of 2000 is the expiration of the Kreielsheimer Foundation, the mega-fund that has poured more than $30 million into arts and education causes in the past two decades.

That Kreielsheimer name - hard to spell, tricky to pronounce (it's "CRY-els-HIGH-mer," not "CRY-el-SHY-mer") is on the big-donor list for nearly every significant arts project of the past decade; it's also on the front of two of the city's major theaters, and would be on more if the foundation's trustee hadn't declined the honor. With the Kreielsheimer family's stipulated sunset date for the foundation looming in mid-September of 2000, two central questions are buzzing through the arts community:

How much money is left? And who's going to get it?

Two corollary questions, less obvious but perhaps more interesting, also are raising some quiet debate. What is the arts community going to do without the Kreielsheimer Foundation? And who else - if anyone - is poised to take over not only the funding but also the leadership roles the foundation and its two grantmaking trustees have established?

Bells are ringing

It is fair to say that the phones are ringing off the hook at the foundation's Queen Anne headquarters, just across First Avenue North from KeyArena. Don Johnson, the dapper, silver-haired co-trustee who has directed the foundation's philanthropic business since 1992, says, "Frankly, we're inundated with calls from groups and individuals who know just where millions of Kreielsheimer dollars should be sent. Everybody in town wants $2 million, or $3 million, for their endowment. I don't blame them: I would, too. These are excellent causes."

To the stream of requests, Johnson has a straightforward response: a tactful variant on "Don't call us. We'll call you."

Johnson already has sent out a letter to members of the arts and education communities, notifying grantwriters that the foundation would no longer accept unsolicited requests. Several years of intensive arts-community analysis, close connections with a wide circle of ad-hoc advisers, and Johnson's own instincts are guiding him in determining who will receive the remaining Kreielsheimer dollars.

"He's a player," says the Seattle Symphony's Gerard Schwarz, a frequent recipient of Kreielsheimer largesse over the years, of Johnson.

"He really takes part in the arts scene. Don has a great love of glass art and sculpture, and he genuinely enjoys performances - opera, theater, concerts. He loves to be a part of the action, but his concern is for the best interests of the arts community, not for himself or his foundation. His decisions are always thoughtful ones."

"The older I get," says Johnson, "the faster my conclusion ratio becomes - I make funding decisions much more quickly now than 20 years ago. As time goes on, you risk becoming an opinionated old man, but you also draw on valid elements of expertise and tap into several decades of experience."

Is Johnson opinionated? Most would call him judicious instead. His decisions to fund (or not to fund) any given project rest in some pretty rigorous assessments of the project's financial feasibility, its use to the community, its artistic validity and its likelihood of success - but also in Johnson's own ethos, which is rooted in a strong sense of place. He grew up in Magnolia and played at Fort Lawton as a youngster, and he values parks and public spaces. All these factors contributed to a quick decision a month ago to put $1 million of the foundation's money on the line for the Seattle Art Museum sculpture park that is planned for the waterfront, right next to Myrtle Edwards Park.

The fact that Johnson also is interested in sculpture (his wife, Dorothy, is a potter, and there are several artists in the family) made this project "an easy call," as he put it. Still, the call wouldn't have been made if the other elements of the project - leadership, backers, suitability of the property - had not also been in place.

Making the big grants

Johnson looks at the big picture.

"We almost never fund a project alone," he explains. "If it doesn't have any other major backers, is it really necessary? Does it serve a purpose, and have a likelihood of success?"

At the same time, Johnson doesn't make grants only to "sure things."

"My philosophy is that if there's a choice between two fine projects (to fund), we try to give to the one with greater need. We want to make possible what might not otherwise be possible."

Kreielsheimer funds have given the green light to some Seattle Symphony projects dear to the heart of Schwarz, but also requiring more money than the orchestra's budget normally would provide - such as concert performances of Howard Hanson's opera "Merry Mount" and, more recently, Deems Taylor's opera "Peter Ibbetson."

Reflecting the "arts and education" guidelines of the Kreielsheimer will, Johnson also has funded educational causes, including substantial grants to Cornish College of the Arts, Epiphany School, Pilchuck Glass School and the University of Washington Foundation, among others.

Reflecting over the past decade and a half, Corporate Council for the Arts president Peter Donnelly calls the foundation "an absolutely unique and invaluable player in the arts community, benefiting dozens of organizations and taking a very serious hand in important capital projects. The substantial gifts to endowments, too, will live forever into the future."

The CCA, too, has been a longtime beneficiary of Kreielsheimer grants - $826,000, in fact, since the beginning of the foundation - which are in turn funneled into unrestricted operating money for arts groups in both King and Pierce Counties. An eye-opening major gift from the foundation is expected to be announced Tuesday at this year's CCA Celebrates the Arts annual luncheon.

From canneries to galleries

In many ways, it's fitting that a foundation that has made such a mark on the Northwest was spawned by salmon - that symbol of the Pacific Northwest, now as endangered and as embattled as some of the financially strapped arts groups the Kreielsheimer Foundation has funded. Salmon canneries near Kodiak, Alaska, and later investments of the resulting assets, were the source of Leo Kreielsheimer's fortune.

Kreielsheimer, who died in 1975, chose the highly regarded Charles Osborn, who had managed his business affairs since 1944, to be the co-trustee (with Seafirst Bank) of an arts-and-education foundation. The foundation's assets were increased further after the death of Kreielsheimer's wife, Greye, in 1980.

The Kreielsheimers stipulated an end date of 2000 for the foundation, because Leo Kreielsheimer wanted the grants dispersed by attorneys who knew him well, and who knew which causes he would be likely to support. Kreielsheimer figured that 2000 also would coincide with the retirements of these attorneys - a guess that proved correct.

During the early 1980s, Osborn made only limited grants, as the foundation assets ($28 million in 1980) continued to grow under careful management and investment. It wasn't until 1985, when Osborn took an option on a $2.15 million piece of real estate across Mercer Street from the Seattle Center - a site now generally known as the Kreielsheimer Block, or K-Block - that the foundation's activities moved to center stage. Osborn thought the site was perfect for the new Seattle Art Museum. The museum trustees thought otherwise, and they built downtown instead.

Osborn deeded the site to the city for "cultural and educational purposes," stipulating that work must begin on a new facility within four years. That deadline was extended several times, while feasibility and design studies took shape for a potential Seattle Symphony concert hall, before the concert-hall project was ignited by a 1993 bombshell - the $15 million gift from Jack and Becky Benaroya.

Ironically, the concert hall also ultimately declined the K-Block site and ended up across the street from the new Seattle Art Museum. The city, as it transpired, was ready to ante up substantial funding (more than $40 million) if the concert hall would redevelop the eyesore Marathon Block downtown. Hall backers also had some traffic- and parking-related reservations about the K-Block; Schwarz felt there would be no room for an ancillary recital hall.

Naturally, this was disappointing news to Johnson, who had assumed the mantle of designated trustee upon the 1992 death of Osborn. Like his older partner, Johnson had clearly envisioned the concert hall on the K-Block, and had continued to develop studies for that site.

"He really wanted our hall to be at the Seattle Center," Schwarz says of Johnson, "but he was so open and nice about it. It takes a big person to see the big picture, and to continue to do what is best for the orchestra."

The clock is ticking

Earlier this spring, Johnson stood amidst the neatly labeled boxes at the once-proud Bogle & Gates offices, looking out on an imposing view of the city's skyline and waxing nostalgic about the end of an era for the law firm in which he spent the greater part of his career. It was clear that his mind also was on the upcoming end of the Kreielsheimer Foundation, a terminus that will coincide with Johnson's own retirement (he retired from Bogle & Gates in 1995 to devote full time to the foundation).

Those boxes now are all put away in the Kreielsheimer offices at 10 Harrison Street (in a building Johnson earlier advised Leo Kreielsheimer to purchase as a real-estate investment). Just east of that building lies the vast canvas of the Seattle Center, close enough for Johnson to pop over to see what's cooking.

He's keeping the plans for the remaining Kreielsheimer assets close to his chest; clearly there still are major decisions to be made. But it does not take an arts-policy genius to determine that the Seattle Center, just a stroll from the foundation's front doorstep and an enduring partner in many Kreielsheimer ventures, is pretty high up on Johnson's list. Remember, too, that the K-Block is still owned by the foundation, ready for a useful purpose. Drafts of future plans for a Seattle Center "theater district" suggest uses for a portion of the property as a park (effectively extending the center northward) and the rest as a renovated Seattle Opera center. Johnson also is "prepared to commit major resources to the Opera House," but won't say whether the Kreielsheimer Foundation is the prospective "major private source" of funding for the proposed redo of the Opera House - a project that could be financed by a levy this November, extending present Seattle Center funding. All he'll say is that he likes the idea.

"It's no secret that I have a strong interest in renovating the Opera House as a first-rate performance hall. I'm very supportive of this project in principle. The challenge will be enormous: An effective public-private partnership must be structured, with wide support from the state, county and city as well as the private sector. I think the performance hall should be done as well as Benaroya Hall was done. The Opera and Pacific Northwest Ballet have waited patiently while all the other theaters, museums and halls have been built. Now it should be their turn."

The University of Washington, too, is likely to be a part of the future funding picture. Johnson is especially interested in issues of ethics in education, and he is mulling over a variety of possibilities, some including interdisciplinary ethics studies.

So how much money actually is left to spend? Johnson won't say, but conservative estimates place the figure in the $60-million range. The issue is complicated by the fact that a lot of money is already promised (though not paid out): $1 million each to the Seattle Art Museum's sculpture park and Seattle Opera's 2001 "Ring," for example.

Other questions swirling around the foundation have more to do with concerns about who will step into the gap when the Kreielsheimer doors officially close in mid-September of next year. Schwarz calls the closure of the foundation "tragic, because we don't really have anything like it that can take over.

"There are other promising possibilities for that kind of important role in the arts, however. I have great faith in Trey Gates' (the Microsoft chairman's) father, Bill Gates, who is very brilliant and also very thoughtful. The family have made some extremely important gifts, most recently in the medical field. I think they will step forward for the arts."

One thing seems certain: As the Kreielsheimer Foundation winds down during the next 16 months, we can expect some high drama in the arts community, and not all of it will be on the stage. There's nothing like money, millions of dollars of it, to provide plots and action more gripping than any fiction. financial feasibility, its use to the community, its artistic validity and its likelihood of success - but also in Johnson's own ethos, which is rooted in a strong sense of place. He grew up alone," he explains. `"f it doesn't have any other major backers, is it really necessary? Does it serve a purpose, and have a likelihood of success?"

At the same time, Johnson doesn't make grants only to "sure things."

"My philosophy is that if there's a choice between two fine projects (to fund), we try to give to the one with greater need. We want to make possible what might not otherwise be possible."

From canneries to galleries

Kreielsheimer, who died in 1975, chose the hard-charging, highly regarded Charles Osborn, who had managed his business affairs since 1944, to be the co-trustee (with Seafirst Bank) of an arts-and-education foundation. The foundation's assets were increased further after the death of Kreielsheimer's wife, Greye, in 1980.

The clock is ticking

He's keeping the plans for the remaining Kreielsheimer assets close to his chest; clearly there still are some major decisions to be made. But it does not take an arts-policy genius to determine that the Seattle Center, just a stroll from the foundation's front doorstep and an enduring partner in many Kreielsheimer ventures, is pretty high up on Johnson's list. Remember, too, that the K-Block is still owned by the foundation, ready to be turned to some useful purpose. Drafts of future plans for a Seattle Center "theater district" suggest uses for a portion of the property as a park (effectively extending the Seattle Center northward) and the rest as a renovated Seattle Opera center. Johnson also is "prepared to commit major resources to the Opera House," as he puts it. He won't say whether the Kreielsheimer Foundation is the prospective "major private source" of funding for the proposed redo of the Opera House - a project that could be financed by a levy this November, extending present Seattle Center funding. All he'll say is that he likes the idea.

A sampling of capital arts projects, 1983-2000, to which Kreielsheimer Foundation has contributed: A Contemporary Theatre (Kreielsheimer Place), 1996 Seattle Repertory Theatre's Leo Kreielsheimer Theatre, 1997 Seattle Children's Theatre (Charlotte Martin and Eve Alvord theaters), 1993-95 Benaroya Hall and Seattle Symphony Endowment, 1998 Empty Space Theatre's Fremont Phase I and II, 1994-96 Henry Art Gallery, 1997 Intiman Theatre Remodel and 25th Anniversary Initiative, 1987-1996 Kirkland Performing Arts Center, 1997 On the Boards, 1998 Pacific Northwest Ballet's Phelps Center, 1993 Seattle Children's Museum, 1996 Seattle Asian Art Museum (Volunteer Park), 1994 The Group Theatre, 1993-1997 The Village Theatre, 1996 Bellevue Art Museum, 2000

Some recent Kreielsheimer Foundation grants: Year ending May 31, 1998 (partial list): A Contemporary Theatre, $500,000 Pacific Northwest Ballet Endowment, $500,000 Pacific Science Center, IMAX Theatre, $500,000 Seattle Symphony, contributions for recording and for "Garden of Remembrance" at Benaroya Hall, $1,100,960 Total direct distributions for fiscal year ending May 31, 1998: $5,096,017.78

Year ending May 31, 1997 (partial list): A Contemporary Theatre, $500,000 Cornish College Scholarships, $303,740 Henry Art Gallery, $250,000 Seattle Opera, season support, $270,000 Seattle Repertory Theatre, challenge grants and other contributions: $1,275,000 Total direct distributions for year ending May 31, 1997: $3,834,138

Year ending May 31, 1996 (partial list): Gonzaga University, $250,000 Corporate Council for the Arts, $100,000 Seattle Repertory Theater, $300,000 Seattle Symphony Endowment Fund and recording project, $180,000 Seattle Art Museum Foundation Endowment Fund, $200,000 Total direct distributions for year ending May 31, 1997: $2,758,860