To Seattle's board members, civic leaders and anyone who's done well here

A message to Seattle.

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

About $3.8Ma year runs all of it: two free venues, studios, the fellowship, the magazine and the shows.
79free events last year, each a few thousand dollars in direct costs.
$81,000supports one painter for a year. Twelve this year.
$250,000paid for a summer season at the Coliseum, and paid 49 artists.

So far I've put more than $20 million of my own money into the Conru Art Foundation, and I'm just getting started. But you don't need to do it at this size. One painter for a year, or a season of free events in your neighborhood, changes a lot.

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.

The ask

We need your help. Do something like this, in your own way.

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. I'm happy to sit down with anyone who wants to do something like this and help come up with ideas.

Send me a note

Andrew ConruSeattle, October 2026

In my own words

2 minutes

A farm in the Midwest, one of the first online dating sites, learning to paint, why I'm not taking another dollar of profit from my company, the enough principle, and why I open free art spaces in Seattle. More videos →

Read and watch

More, if you're curious

  • Watch The 2-minute reel, and a longer conversation about selling a company, losing my way, and how painting brought me back.
  • My story, on humanist.com How do you know what you know is true? Five years, two online communities, and what I learned.
  • The enough principle Why the money was never really mine, on the Conru Art Foundation's site.
  • Kind Words What reporters, partners and visitors have said about the spaces.
Andrew among the paintings at the ArtLove Salon Downtown · free ArtLove Salon A living room for Seattle's art world at 110 Union Street. Artists keep 100% of every sale. artlovesalon.org → The Beautiful Things floor at the Occidental Fine Arts Center Pioneer Square · free Occidental Fine Arts Center Studios and a free gallery for realist art: Seattle Prize painting, life drawing, talks and live music. occidentalfinearts.org → Light art inside the Coliseum during this summer's show Fifth & Pike · opening Nov 27 Winter Lights at the Coliseum Light, projection and interactive art inside Seattle's 1916 Coliseum. Free. coliseumofart.org → A still from the film Meet the Seattle Prize Artists Fellowship The Seattle Prize A year-long fellowship for painters: a stipend, a studio and a year to just paint. seattleprize.org →