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About the Cultural Partners Network

ArtsFund’s Cultural Partners are a network of ArtsFund-affiliated arts and cultural organizations of the Central Puget Sound region. The Cultural Partners Network was formed in 2015. Through trainings, events, and communications, the goal is to deepen ties between organizations, provide capacity building resources, and generate exposure to new audiences and donors.

The Cultural Partners Network is comprised of 146 organizations based in King, Pierce, Snohomish, and Kitsap counties. Currently, the most common artistic disciplines represented in the network are music and opera, multi-disciplinary organizations, theatre, and visual art. Cultural Partner organizations range in budget size from under $50K to over $5M annually, representing volunteer-run organizations and those with 50+ employees.

ArtsFund recognizes the value our Cultural Partners add to one another and to our programming and impact and provides a variety of opportunities for ongoing engagement.

ArtsFund supports the arts through leadership, advocacy, and grantmaking activities in order to support arts organizations throughout the state of Washington be adaptive to the future. We believe that when organizations are healthy, inclusive and equitable, and engaged with youth and families that our work contributes to a dynamic, equitable, and robust cultural sector. As affiliates of ArtsFund, Cultural Partners should support our work building a healthy, equitable, and creative Washington. You can learn more about ArtsFund’s mission, vision, and values here.

Participation in the network does not guarantee inclusion in any of ArtsFund’s granting programs.

ArtsFund’s Cultural Partners

Kitchen Cabinet

The Kitchen Cabinet is an advisory body for ArtsFund’s Cultural Partners Network. This group of volunteers meets quarterly to inform and shape Cultural Partners Network programming and the network composition. Kitchen Cabinet members must be staff at a Cultural Partner organization and will receive a stipend based on their ability to attend in-person and/or virtual meetings.

Are you a member of the Cultural Partners Network and interested in serving on the Kitchen Cabinet? Check out this one-sheet with more information, and then reach out to us at CPN@artsfund.org.

For more general information about Kitchen Cabinet, please email CPN@artsfund.org.

ArtsFund would like to thank the following for their service on the Kitchen Cabinet:

2024-2026 Kitchen Cabinet

Value statement

We believe that creating spaces for connection among Cultural Partners will build partnerships, spark new relationships, and deepen continuing relationships; that the most valuable resource for the network is the knowledge and perspectives of its members; that working together in partnership builds a dynamic, equitable, and robust cultural sector.

Annual surveying

We conduct annual data collection to better understand the composition of the network, the challenges that cultural organizations are facing, and to identify timely needs so that ArtsFund can create responsive programming and opportunities to serve the Cultural Partners Network. See below for survey findings.

• 2024 Cultural Partners final report
• 2022 Cultural Partners final report and Executive Summary
• 2019 Cultural Partners final report 
• 2018 – data collection helped to inform the Social Impact Study, for more information, click here.
• 2017 Cultural Partners final report

For more information

To learn about the eligibility criteria, benefits of the network, and how to join, read our FAQs here.

For questions or more information, please contact cpn@artsfund.org.