For Immediate Release
July 1, 2019
Information: Sarah Sidman | 206-788-3051 | sarahsidman@artsfund.org
ArtsFund, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives & Communications
ARTSFUND INVESTS $2.2 MILLION IN GRANTS
TO STRENGTHEN COMMUNITY THROUGH THE ARTS
Seattle, WA – 68 nonprofit arts and cultural organizations in King and Pierce counties will receive operating support grants totaling $2,238,510 thanks to the thousands of contributors to the recently concluded ArtsFund annual fundraising campaign. With this allocation, ArtsFund will have awarded nearly $84 million in grants since its founding in 1969.
ArtsFund, which is a Seattle-based nonprofit and the nation’s fifth largest united arts fund, is dedicated to strengthening the community by supporting the arts. Annual grant making is central to the organization’s mission, complemented by leadership and advocacy programs. Grants are distributed as general operating support, which recipients can use to provide programming and arts education, reduce barriers to arts participation, increase access and opportunity for underserved youth, and for staffing, capacity-building, professional development, and facilities. This unrestricted funding enables grant recipients to invest the funds where needed most to advance their missions.
Revenues from ArtsFund’s 48th annual drive, which ended on May 31st, support the 2019 grant allocations, as well as additional programs and services reaching nearly 150 cultural organizations throughout the Central Puget Sound region.
In complement to the annual grant allocations, in December of 2018 ArtsFund awarded $40,000 in grants to ten multicultural arts and cultural organizations as part of ArtsFund’s Multicultural Arts Project, supporting racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse arts and cultural groups throughout the Central Puget Sound Region. Now in its third year, $132,500 in grants have been awarded through the Multicultural Arts Project to date.
In addition, ArtsFund is an inaugural partner in the Creative Equity Fund, a funding collaborative that supports community-based organizations using arts and culture based-strategies to build racial justice.
ArtsFund Interim CEO Sandy McDade stated, “Next year we celebrate 50 years of ArtsFund strengthening the community by supporting the arts. Grantmaking is a central part of ArtsFund’s impact, along with our programming and research. We hear time and time again from arts groups that ArtsFund’s unrestricted grants are essential to their operations. In our allocations interviews, we hear first-hand how our cultural partners are showcasing innovative work, reaching underserved populations, and inspiring across generations – in short, transforming lives throughout the region.”
Anthony R. Miles, ArtsFund Board Chair and Partner, Stoel Rives LLP, added, “ArtsFund’s pioneering new research, The Social Impact of the Arts Study, confirms that the arts are critical to community well-being and can be part of transformative solutions to social needs. We are grateful to the businesses, foundations and individuals who, through their contributions to ArtsFund’s annual campaign, join us in investing in arts organizations that sustain, develop, and transform communities throughout the region.”
ArtsFund’s allocations are awarded by a panel of corporate and private grantmaking experts who engage with ArtsFund in a thorough vetting process, evaluating application materials and interviewing the leadership of arts groups. They systematically rate each group against the same key evaluation points based on mission, financial stability, governance, and community impact. The 2019 Allocations Committee was led by Co-Chairs Gemma Aronchick, Program Manager, Microsoft Philanthropies, Microsoft Corporation, and Tim Otani, Director, External Affairs Manager – NW & Chicago, MUFG Union Bank.
For more information on ArtsFund’s grant recipients, visit: http://www.artsfund.org/about-arts-fund/arts-groups-we-support
For a list of ArtsFund’s cultural partners, visit https://www.artsfund.org/culturalpartners.
For more information about ArtsFund, visit: http://www.artsfund.org/about.
2019 ArtsFund Grants
5th Avenue Theatre – $90,810
ACT Theatre – $89,200
Art with Heart – $5,000
Artist Trust – $16,160
Arts Corps – $4,000
Auburn Symphony Orchestra – $1,110
Bellevue Arts Museum – $5,440
Book-It Repertory Theatre – $16,870
Burke Museum – $10,600
Coyote Central – $2,500
Early Music Seattle – $7,120
Earshot Jazz Society – $24,190
Frye Art Museum – $9,630
Henry Art Gallery – $109,230
Hilltop Artists – $7,500
Intiman Theatre – $20,690
Jack Straw Productions – $10,690
Jet City Improv – $1,600
Meany Center for the Performing Arts – $14,800
MoPOP – $20,590
Museum of Glass – $6,550
Nordic Museum – $15,910
Northwest African American Museum – $19,180
Northwest Film Forum – $8,180
Northwest Sinfonietta – $2,710
On the Boards – $30,770
Pacific Northwest Ballet – $198,760
Red Eagle Soaring – $2,500
Reel Grrls – $5,000
Richard Hugo House – $20,150
Sanctuary Art Center – $5,000
Seattle Art Museum – $191,250
Seattle Arts & Lectures – $15,410
Seattle Chamber Music Society – $17,570
Seattle Children’s Theatre – $76,300
Seattle JazzED – $2,500
Seattle Men’s Chorus and Seattle Women’s Chorus – $12,690
Seattle Music Partners – $2,500
Seattle Opera – $160,710
Seattle Pro Musica – $6,150
Seattle Public Theater – $10,070
Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra – $27,190
Seattle Repertory Theatre – $123,550
Seattle Shakespeare Company – $51,130
Seattle Symphony – $173,970
Seattle Theatre Group – $77,510
SIFF – $16,070
Spectrum Dance Theater – $32,480
Symphony Tacoma – $15,510
Tacoma Art Museum – $48,180
Tacoma Arts Live – $63,700
Tacoma Musical Playhouse – $8,000
Tacoma Opera – $6,620
Taproot Theatre Company – $8,130
Three Dollar Bill Cinema – $5,270
Totem Star – $5,000
Town Hall Association – $29,460
Vashon Center for the Arts – $4,120
Velocity Dance Center – $8,630
The Vera Project – $21,440
Village Theatre – $75,480
Whim W’Him – $2,630
Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience – $49,450
Youth in Focus – $2,500
King & Pierce Counties Total – $2,133,610
Special Grants
ArtsFund Plestcheeff Design and Decorative Arts Grants
Frye Art Museum – $2,500
Henry Art Gallery – $7,500
Museum of Glass – $5,000
Nordic Museum – $5,000
Seattle Art Museum – $11,400
Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience – $11,400
Subtotal – $42,800
Kreielsheimer Remainder Foundation Grants – $62,100
Grand Total 2019 ArtsFund Grants – $2,238,510
2019 Allocations Committee
Gemma Aronchick, Co-Chair
Program Manager, Microsoft Philanthropies
Microsoft Corporation
Tim Otani, Co-Chair
Director
External Affairs Manager – NW & Chicago
MUFG Union Bank
Brian Carter
Executive Director
4Culture
Jonathan Cunningham
Program Officer
Seattle Foundation
Mark Dederer
Executive Director
Biller Family Foundation
Randy Engstrom
Director
City of Seattle Office of Arts & Culture
Ellen Ferguson
Trustee
The Hugh and Jane Ferguson Foundation
Sandy McDade
Interim CEO
ArtsFund
Erika Nesholm
Executive Director
Nesholm Family Foundation
Kim Vu
SVP | Seattle Market Executive
Local Markets Organization
Bank of America
About ArtsFund:
ArtsFund’s Mission: ArtsFund strengthens the community by supporting the arts through leadership, advocacy, and grant making.
ArtsFund’s Vision: A community with a dynamic and world-class arts and cultural sector where the arts are accessible to all and valued as central and critical to a healthy society.
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Photo credits: Earshot Jazz, 2018 Earshot Jazz Festival, Naomi Moon Siegel, photo by Daniel Sheehan; The 5th Avenue Theatre, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” photo by Tracy Martin; Whim W’Him, Transfigurate, Danielle Agami, photo by Bamberg Fine Art; Jack Straw Cultural Center, Roxhill Elementary student in the studio, photo by Sherwin Eng; Seattle Art Museum, Double Exposure: Edward S. Curtis, Marianne Nicolson, Tracy Rector, Will Wilson, photo courtesy of Seattle Art Museum.