Spectrum Center Spokane – 2023 Accelerator Case Study
Spectrum Center Spokane
Budget Size: Between 500k and 1MM
Region: Eastern
County: Spokane
Population Centered: LGBTQ+
Mission Statement: Spectrum’s mission is to create a safe, intersectional, intergenerational, LGBTQIA2S+ community gathering space that celebrates a resilient, healthy community through social connectedness and support, arts and culture, access to resources, and leadership development.
Community Accelerator Grant Award: $25,000
Primary Impact Category: Reopening
Spokane is a great city with plenty of spaces to gather with friends – as long as you’re happy to meet up at a brewery or bar. “When we ask our people what they need,” says Spectrum Center Spokane’s Director of Operations Aiden Sanders, “the number-one thing they say is that they wish they had more spaces where they could hang out with other queer people without alcohol and without paying an entry fee.”
Finding ways to take needs like these and turn them into opportunities for community-building is at the heart of Spectrum’s mission. As an LGBTQIA2S+ (Lesbian, Gay, Trans, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, Two-Spirit, and other sexual identities) organization, Spectrum Center Spokane serves the Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho queer community by providing intersectional gathering opportunities for people of all ages to come together, access resources, and forge new connections. Founded in 2018, Spectrum offers a wide range of programs, including leadership development, social services, gender-affirming healthcare, pop-up vaccine clinics, artmaking groups, Two-Spirit beading circles, and activist meetups, and continues to pilot new offerings based on community feedback.
“At Spectrum, we believe that art captures all the complexities and intersectionalities of the queer experience. From queer joy to queer rage, we give 2SLGBTQUIA+ artists a platform and highlight queer excellence in the Eastern Washington and North Idaho arts scene.”
Spectrum Center Spokane website, 2023
Faced with this particular request, the Spectrum Center team set to brainstorming and came up with the idea of a brand-new program they called Adult Art Camp – a free and inclusive set of classes across varied artistic mediums for individuals interested in trying new things, discovering new modes of self-expression, and fostering community. With Community Accelerator Grant funding, Spectrum contracted four professional artists – a photographer, a zine writer, a spoken word performer, and a painter – to each teach four sessions at The Hive (a non-traditional library space in Spokane centered around arts education) in May, purchased a wide array of artmaking materials, and set to work getting the word out. The twenty participants, a cheerful mix of Spectrum regulars and fresh faces, then had a month to finish their projects, which were shared to warm and enthusiastic community acclaim at a Spectrum-sponsored Queer Art Walk in June.
Adult Art Camp was such a success that Spectrum plans to offer it again later this year and hopes it will become regular programmatic offerings as the organization continues to grow. With their residency at The Hive drawing to a close this fall, Spectrum is entering the early planning stages of a capital campaign that they hope will let them provide their community with what they believe it needs most – a friendly face, a door that’s open, and a light that’s on.
