Arts make our communities more livable, for all.

We are grateful for your partnership to strengthen the arts and improve livability for every Washingtonian.

Over 50 years of service, together we have seen the tremendous benefits of a healthy and equitable arts ecosystem, improving community connectedness, economy, and health and wellbeing. And yet, 2025 was a year of shifts to the operational environment for many cultural organizations, magnifying the need for this essential sector. ArtsFund has worked tirelessly to meet these needs by adapting and expanding to provide a steady source of resources for Washington’s cultural community. From unrestricted and accessible grants to high-quality data, ArtsFund remains an unwavering support making the arts possible for every single Washingtonian.

In fiscal year 2025, ArtsFund’s work across our three mission pillars; leadership, advocacy, and grantmaking, was historic:

Leadership: We served arts and cultural administrators across 30 counties through our leadership programming, which provides free and accessible resources for the cultural community by way of trainings, networking, and workshops, connecting them to experts and peers.

Advocacy: We released our first-ever Livability Impact Study of the Arts, a new report that finds strong correlations between access to well-resourced nonprofit arts and culture organizations and better quality of life for all Washingtonians, providing a new advocacy tool for arts champions and decision-makers.

Grantmaking: We supported 100% of Washington counties, providing essential unrestricted funding to arts and culture nonprofits through our Community Accelerator Grant.

We know that with greater access and resources to arts and culture, communities thrive across all measures. From students, to artists, to audiences, when the arts are possible, our lives are better.

As you explore our impacts over 2025, we hope that through the breadth of our service you see a community, an organization, a program that resonates with you. Your partnership with us to achieve our mission: to support the arts through leadership, advocacy, and grantmaking in order to build a healthy, equitable, and creative Washington, keeps our work possible and relevant. Alongside the dedication and leadership of our Board of Trustees, our Foundation Board, and our staff – we are committed to our vision of a community where the arts are accessible to all and valued as central and critical to a healthy society.

Thank you,

Photo courtesy of Tacoma Refugee Choir

Through training, events, and communications, the goal of the Cultural Partners Network (CPN) is to deepen ties between organizations, provide capacity-building resources, and generate exposure to new audiences and donors. In 2025, eight new groups joined the Cultural Partners Network, including two new groups from Kitsap County. Historically, the Cultural Partners Network consisted of nonprofit organizations in King, Pierce, and Snohomish County; however, with the addition of two Bainbridge Island organizations, the CPN now reaches a new county. The following groups gain access to training, networking, and funding by being a part of ArtsFund’s Cultural Partners Network. Those new groups are:

ArtsFund’s latest research in partnership with SMU Data Arts, the Livability Impact Study of the Arts (LIS), launched in March of 2025. The LIS is the first Washington State study to examine the specific impacts the arts have on community health and how those impacts improve livability for Washingtonians. What we found is that Washingtonians with more access to better resourced cultural organizations are more connected, more involved in helping their communities, and have more economic opportunities. The correlations are even stronger in rural communities. The LIS measures access and public resources and uncovers findings related to rural communities and impacts to Washington statewide. As a result of this new research, we have recommendations customized for the private sector, public officials, and arts and culture participants, ensuring there are many ways to act on LIS findings.

El Centro de la Raza, photo by Marcos Olazabal

In September 2025, ArtsFund distributed $217,000 in unrestricted funds to 31 organizations who aim to increase access to and participation in robust arts experiences for underserved youth. The Youth Arts Opportunity Fund not only celebrated its 10-year anniversary in 2025, but it also distributed a record amount of funding. Support for the Youth Arts Opportunity Fund comes from our sponsors, Kaphan Foundation, and a generous anonymous funder.