Rooney, Alice, 1926-2019

Prominent arts activist, art school administrator, architectural preservationist, and philanthropic advisor, Alice Rooney, died peacefully at Foss home in Seattle March 26, 2019. A Seattle native, she attended elementary and junior high school in Seattle, graduating from Ballard high school in 1943 after which she attended the University of Washington, majoring in English. After college she sought her fortune in New York City, landing a job at McCann Erickson advertising agency before returning home to Seattle in 1948. Her marriage to teacher and utilities executive Robert L Rooney in 1953 continued until his death in 1996.

Alice’s influence on the cultural life of Seattle was profound and affected several aspects of her endless interest in the arts. After an administrative job at the Seattle branch of the American Institute of Architects, she became involved with groups dedicated to saving the Pike Place Market and banning billboards from Interstate 5. This influence was reinforced while she was executive director of Allied Arts, the city’s leading urban and architecture preservation activist group which she lead from 1960 to 1980.

Called upon to professionalize and stabilize Pilchuck Glass School in 1980, she was appointed director and remained until 1990. After a year-long fellowship at the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington DC, Alice was asked to head the national advocacy group Glass Art Society during which she moved headquarters to Seattle and remained until retiring in 1997.

Born in 1926 in Seattle, Washington, Alice Rooney is a retired arts administrator who led Allied Arts of Seattle, the Pilchuck Glass School, and the Glass Art Society. Rooney studied English with a minor in economics and business at the University of Washington (BA, 1947), and she spent her first years out of school writing radio ads and newsletters for a broadcasting company in New York City. She soon returned to Seattle and worked for more than a decade at Wallace v. MacKay Advertising Company and as a part time executive secretary for the American Institute of Architects Seattle chapter. Rooney joined Allied Arts of Seattle in 1960 as the organization’s manager. Advocating for urban design and the arts, the group worked to preserve many historic Seattle monuments throughout Rooney’s tenure, including Pike Place Market. In 1980, Rooney accepted the directorship at the Pilchuck Glass School, overseeing a decade of growth and an increasingly international network of instructors and students. Her final job was as executive director of the Glass Art Society, where she worked from 1990 to 1996. Rooney has also been an active board member at both the Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle and the American Craft Council, among others. In honor of her many contributions to the arts, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Glass Arts Society in 1998 and a Cultural Service Award from the King County Arts Commission in 1990. Alice Rooney was elected an Honorary Fellow of the American Craft Council in 2001.