In November, Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown announced her intention to create an Office of Arts and Culture within the city government, 12 years after former Mayor David Condon eliminated the city Arts Department.
Her vision was to fold Spokane Arts — the nonprofit that formed from the ashes of the previous Arts Department — back into the city government, with Executive Director Skyler Oberst joining on as the head of the new office.
Following the November announcement, Spokane Arts extended its contract with the city for the first six months of 2025 and entered an unofficial “discernment period,” during which Spokane Arts and the city of Spokane were to discuss logistics and how exactly the new partnership could work…