ArtsWA awards $403,997 to 116 arts organizations! 
Fiscal Year 2018 Grants to Organizations - recipients announced

Congratulations to the 116 organizations that will be receiving ArtsWA Project Support grants through the Grants to Organizations program during Fiscal Year 2018! The Project Support program seek s to expand arts participation in communities across Washington State by providing  funding and services to nonprofit arts organizations, arts groups, c ommunity service groups, Local Arts Agencies, nonprofit organizations, and Tribal governments so they may develop and deliver arts events that engage, enrich, unite and strengthen local and statewide communities. These grants support a diverse array of performances, exhibitions, educational, professional and economic opportunities, workshops, and arts-engagement related services throughout the state with intentional efforts to increase participation for audiences and artists located in underserved and rural communities.

Migration Project by Deborah Fay Lawrence - The collage tray tells the success story of a Filipina immigrant.
The grantees are divided into categories based upon the budget size of the organization. Forty-one Level A organizations (organizations with annual budgets under $200,000), forty-four Level B organizations (organizations with annual budgets $200,000 to $1 Million), twenty-eight Level C organizations (organizations with annual budgets over $1 Million) will be funded in FY18. The Cooperative Partnership Program enables ArtsWA to extend our reach by partnering with organizations that provide services to artists and arts professionals across Washington State. Three organizations will receive funding through this program.

We are thrilled to be supporting all the grantees whose cumulative reach in FY18 is estimated to be 740,472 constituents and whose ArtsWA grant dollars will leverage an additional estimated $14,448,376 in income and in-kind support to produce their projects.

Unfortunately ArtsWA does not have the funds to support all the proposals seeking funding. Sixty organizations submitted applications that were declined. We invite these organizations to seek feedback on their applications and welcome the opportunity to provide any guidance we can.

THANK YOU to the 176 organizations that submitted applications to the Project Support program. We highly appreciate the great work you do to expand arts participation in communities across Washington State. 

TAT Lab participants getting to know each other through conversations about being both artists and educators.
Washington State Teaching Artist Training Lab

We are so pleased to have started the 2017-2018 year of the Washington State Teaching Artist Training Lab (TAT Lab) this past weekend! TAT Lab is a program that builds teaching artists' capacities to provide powerful learning experiences in the arts for students K-12 throughout Washington State; the program is presented collaboratively by ArtsWA and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, in collaboration with  Seattle  Children's Theatre and Pacific Northwest Ballet, and with significant support from the National Endowment for the Arts. 

The Teaching Artist Training (TAT) Lab is a seven-month professional development program with a focus on supporting arts education as part of basic education in K-12 schools. Participants benefit from ongoing learning, individualized coaching from master teaching artists, connections to statewide organizations, and peer learning and reflection.

Our 7th cohort of this program includes 32 teaching arti sts and arts educators working in multiple arts disciplines,  and coming from all over the state - from Bellingham to Yak ima, from Chimacum to Winthrop, nearly half of this year's participants are from outside King County. We can't wait to continue the work with this really cool group of people who are committed to improving educational outcomes for all students.  

State Champion Addi Garner from Anacortes High School represented Washington State at the 2016-17 National Poetry Out Loud competition. Photo by Jesse Gardner.
Poetry Out Loud school registration is open

It's back to school time for K-12 students and that means it's also school registration time for Poetry Out Loud, a national recitation competition sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. 

Any school in Washington State serving students in grades 9-12 is eligible to participate. Over 20,000 students participated last year at the classroom level. Using a pyramid structure, students advance from classroom to school-wide competitions and then to regional and state competitions. The state champion receives a cash prize of $200 and an all-expenses-paid trip to the national competition in Washington D.C. and a chance to win $50,000 in scholarships and school stipends. The school registration deadline in Washington state is November 17th.

My Public Art Portal update

Color, Form, Line, Shape, Space, Texture, Value:  These are the foundational visualarts elements in Washington's Learning Standards for Visual Arts, and the basis of My Public Art Portal's newest Web Exhibition. They are the building blocks for arts learning and creating, and the starting point from which Arts Educators engage students to produce, respond, and connect. 


More than half of the Collection's 4,600 artworks are now online at  My Public Art Portal, and it continues to grow weekly. You can search the Collection or browse over twenty-five Web Exhibitions on the Portal. 

Artwork copyright from top to bottom: Francis Celentano, Robert Demar, Miro Fitzgerald, Robert Maki, Robert Irwin, Susan Brandeis, and Fred Sodt. Composite photo courtesy of the Washington State Arts Commission.

Upcoming events...  Mark your calendars!

September 26, 2016 - Creative Forces Summit
Interested in using your art to help heal the invisible wounds of war? Check out the free Creative Forces Summit funded by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The all-day Summit is an opportunity to make connections and learn about the   NEA'S Creative Forces: Military Healing Arts Network.  Join us at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma on September 26th. There are still a few seats available on a first-come, first-served basis.


November 14, 2017 - Governor's Arts & Heritage Awards Dinner
We are looking forward to celebrating the achievements of the six 2017 Governor's Arts & Heritage Awards (GAHA) recipients. The annual awards dinner will be held at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma this year. The public is invited to join the festivities.
The Washington State Arts Commission is committed to values of inclusion, diversity, equity, and creative expression. We believe in diverse forms of artistic expression, and we believe in access to arts and arts education for all individuals in our state. The arts can and should play a role in addressing inequities, modeling inclusion, and teaching empathy.
For more information contact:
Glenda Carino | W. 360.586.8093 | C: 360.259.7862 | g [email protected]
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