[1][3] Allied Arts grew out of the Beer & Culture Society organized in early 1952 by University of Washington drama professor John Ashby Conway.
professors Lloyd Schram, Robert Dietz, and Norman J. Johnston, assistant Seattle Art Museum director Sherman Lee, and architect John Stewart Detlie.
They proposed dedicating 2 percent of city capital funds to purchase art works (which in 1973 became One Percent for Art); establishing an annual city arts festival (Bumbershoot, established 1971[4]); hosting a world's fair (the Century 21 Exposition, 1962[5]); public funding for the Seattle Symphony; creating opera and ballet companies (the Seattle Opera, founded 1963,[6] and Seattle's Pacific Northwest Ballet, founded 1972 as Pacific Northwest Dance Association,[7] are now among the leading institutions of their kind in the country[8][9]); burying public utility lines; preserving historic landmarks; and planting street trees.
Voter approval in November 1956 of a $7.5 million bond issue to upgrade the Civic Auditorium into an Opera House (later remodeled again as McCaw Hall) proved to be the first step toward the creation of the grounds for the Century 21 Exposition, later site of Seattle Center.
Many buildings from the late 19th and early 20th century survived, but most were in poor shape, and the success of Boeing was gradually turning Seattle into a more prosperous city.
Other prominent Allied Arts leaders in this period were "secretary" and manager Alice Rooney, Jerry Thonn, Peggy Golberg, Lew Pritchard, Alf Collins, and Rae Tufts.
Allied Arts also played a role in this period in establishing funding and changing zoning to promote artists' housing, and in the plans for facilities at the former Sand Point Naval Air Station.
In the wake of its destruction, Allied Arts—led in this period by Mia McEldowny, Karen Kane, Walt Crowley, and Clint Pehrson, among others— pushed for stronger historic preservation laws and creation of transferable development rights (TDRs).
[14][15] In recent years (as of 2008) Allied Arts have played an important role in promoting discussion of what is to happen to Seattle's Central Waterfront once the Alaskan Way Viaduct is torn down.