Since the Union Playhouse was shut down by the fire department, it was fitting that its displaced production was saved by an antismoking organization. The Patch Project (AKA Artpatch) swooped in last month to help Influence, giving it enough money to rent theater space for the rest of its run.

This was Artpatch's first foray into theater, but won't be its last. Founded last summer in response to Lucky Strike's hefty sponsorship of Seattle arts (including grants to Consolidated Works, the Genius Awards, and CoCA), Artpatch has primarily focused on visual art and music events like The Stranger's Big Shot music showcase. The nonprofit, currently funded by King County Public Health's Tobacco Prevention Program, wants to diversify and is talking to fringe theaters about sponsorship possibilities in April.

If it is successful, Artpatch will help fill the funding deficit left by Lucky Strike's departure last October. This is welcome news for antismoking warriors, but even better news for small arts groups scrambling for money.

"Larger organizations like the Rep and SAM are mostly taken care of," said Roger Valdez, manager of the Tobacco Prevention Program. "They've got a brand. But we need to help local, struggling arts groups--we were able to save Influence for $2,500. That's the kind of thing Lucky was doing and getting a big splash for themselves."

Lucky Strike came on the scene in 2002, sponsoring The Stranger's South by Southwest sendoff party for bands on their way to the Austin music festival. The company went on to sponsor fringe art events, sparking a debate among artists about the ethics of accepting tobacco money. In October Lucky Strike pulled out of Seattle, leaving organizations like ConWorks (which had a third of its 2002 expenses covered by Lucky Strike) in serious withdrawal.

Artpatch's timing is a little ironic, given that it appeared just as Lucky Strike was packing up shop. "I suspect they'll be back," Valdez said. "It's best to attack your enemy when they're in retreat."

But no corporate sponsors have stepped up to fill the hole Lucky Strike left behind. "I haven't seen anything like it," said Michael Seiwerath, director of the Northwest Film Forum (which declined a proposed Lucky Strike project). "They dumped an insane amount of money here--they must have spent $900 a smoker."

A couple of theories have surfaced to explain Lucky Strike's departure, from bad press to legal trouble in other states. Last June, the attorneys general of Maryland, New York, and Illinois sued Brown & Williamson (Lucky's parent company) for its Kool Mixx campaign, which targeted the hiphop crowd with events at bars and nightclubs, CD giveaways, and cigarette-pack art. The AGs argued that Kool Mixx violated advertising restrictions established in the national tobacco settlement in 1998. The Brown & Williamson case was settled in October 2004, just as B&W began its retreat from Seattle.

B&W had also merged with a larger tobacco company, RJ Reynolds, in July 2004. A source close to Lucky Strike says that's the only reason the arts-funding program ended: "It wasn't bad press, just a business decision by RJR."

Valdez doesn't think Lucky Strike's absence renders Artpatch irrelevant. "A healthy community needs a healthy art community," Valdez said. "There's a civic interest in filling potholes and there's a civic interest in helping small arts groups."

None of the organizations that benefited from the Lucky Strike program will say exactly how much money they received, but some staffers privately guess the company gave away more than $200,000 a year. Most of the Seattle arts community, including those who accepted Lucky Strike grants, thought of the money as part of a slick, understated marketing campaign. The source close to Lucky Strike disagreed, saying it was less about advertising than a longstanding effort by Brown & Williamson to support arts organizations.

"It would be cheaper and more cost-effective to just barrage people with print ads," he said. "Artpatch is oversimplifying what happened, waving the tobacco flag to ensure their own funding. And they're harming potential funding from RJR and other non-tobacco companies, making them shy away from wanting to get involved."

Regardless of Lucky Strike's motives, everyone agrees that arts organizations are in crisis and that money, from any source, is welcome. If Artpatch manages to establish itself as a sustainable, long-term benefactor for fringe arts, its relationship to Lucky Strike will become secondary. Lucky Strike and the debate it sparked have all but evaporated, but the financial hole remains.

brendan@thestranger.com