Funded by a $5 million grant from Comcast, Seattle Channel launches a three-nights-a-week arts program tonight.

Called Art Zone, the show, which will run from 8 p.m. to midnight Thursday through Saturday nights, is unprecedented in the nation, said Feliks Banel, communications manager for Seattle Channel. The programming will include features, performances and interviews primarily about Seattle, including music, literature, film, theater, dance, visual arts and restaurants.

"Seattle has one of the most vibrant arts and cultural communities in the United States," said Gary Gibson, general manager of the channel, which is a service of the city of Seattle.

"Arts and music are both a cultural catalyst and an economic driver for the region -- with 4,000 arts-related businesses, 20,000 arts workers and millions of dollars of annual impact," he said.

"More Puget Sound residents go to arts events than attend professional sports, and the arts are inseparable from the city's cutting-edge image around the world."

Seattle Channel can be found on cable channel 21 on Comcast and Millennium in the city and is also available online at seattlechannel.org.

There will be more than a dozen standing programs that will aired on a regular basis -- weekly, biweekly or monthly.

Among them is "A Guide to Visitors," a show about storytellers hosted by Jeannie Yandel and filmed before a live audience at the Skylark Cafe in West Seattle. Another is performers appearing at the Triple Door downtown, titled "KEXP Live at the Triple Door"; already scheduled are Billy Bragg, Joseph Arthur and the Black Angels.

John Richards of KEXP will host a 30-minute "The Local Music Show" devoted to local artists and their music videos. "Reel Short Movies" is a monthly program of short films made by local filmmakers produced by the Northwest Film Forum, and "Verve" is a 30-minute monthly showcase of local artists, known and unknown.

Cinema 21 will present a full-length feature film every Saturday night without commercial interruption. The films will, in general, have some local connection. This weekend it will be "Inheritance."

Another program is "And Now This," a series of shorts suggesting that art is everywhere, especially in Seattle, produced by Lisa Devlin. Local artist Karl Krogstad, in "American Avant-Garde," will interview cutting-edge filmmakers around the U.S., and Kevin Joyce will host an hour-long variety show, "Big Night Out," before a live audience at Columbia City Theater.

Books will be covered by Nancy Pearl under the rubric of "Book Lust." Nancy Guppy will do two shows: "City a Go-Go," a look at what's happening around town, and "Gallery Hop," a tour of the gallery scene.

Art Zone is the product of a request from the city to Comcast, when it was renewing its licensing agreement, to provide $5 million spread over 10 years specifically for arts programs produced in Seattle for Seattle Channel, said Banel. The idea came from Gibson. So far, Comcast is funding the entire program.

As for future budgets, Banel said, "We will have to see how it evolves. At the moment we have no shortage of content.

"The arts mean so much to so many people in Seattle that Comcast thought the city was a good place to launch such a series.

"It makes everything look better. There is value not only from the corporate standpoint but the community one."

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