2022 Grantees

Since the inception of the Spokane Arts Grant Awards in 2017, SAGA has awarded more than one half-million dollars to the local arts economy. SAGA will be awarding a total of $141,000 in grants to the arts in 2022, which will be spread across three grantmaking rounds.

A panel of six community members with experience across arts and culture review eligible applications. Each selection panel serves for one year, and the names of the panelists are announced each December, after all funding decisions have been made.

Round 2 Grantees

In its second round of grant making in 2022, the Spokane Arts Grant Awards (SAGA) funded nine new arts programs and projects selected from 30 eligible applications. Grant winners will carry out their work in the Spokane region over the next twelve months. The eight successful applicants received a total of $47,000 for projects in culture, theater, publishing, visual art, music, and school programming.

The Smokes

Alexander and Slater will hold youth songwriting workshops, kicked off by a performance by The Smokes. After a performance, the band provides an explanation of their songwriting process and a workshop focused on improvisation and incorporating personal experiences into art.

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Mallory Battista and Lisa Soranaka

Battista and Soranaka will execute a large mosaic sculpture for the public, to be installed at the base of the Monroe hill. The sculpture will incorporate tiles made by community members at free workshops, which the two will host throughout their studio residency at The Hive.

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Bright Comet Theatre

Bright Comet Theatre will stage their first production, Lord of the Flies. Featuring an entirely femme presenting cast, and involving a multitude of diverse and queer artists.

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Spokane Playwrights Laboratory

SAGA is providing project funding for intensive, month long professional script development workshops for Spokane playwrights.

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Sindhu Surapaneni

Surapaneni will install a canvas print of her painting in a handful of public schools across Liberty Lake and Spokane, working closely with each school to determine size and placement.

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Spokane Chinese Association

After dealing with the setbacks of Covid-19, the Chinese Association Board has made a decision to “go big” for the Lunar New Year in 2023.

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Spokane Shakespeare Society

The second half of the company’s season two will include the show Romeo & Juliet in July, with eight performances, followed by Goodnight Desdemona, (Good Morning Juliet) in September with eight performances.

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Browne's Addition Neighborhood Council

SAGA funding will provide pay for the four poets' performances and expose a new audience to our local poets’ work.

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Spark Central

In a new project titled "Little Libraries, Big Stories," Spark Central will collaborate with local artists to create and auction three unique little free libraries, stocked with books from local authors and youth, in part generated from a Spark Central workshop designed to ignite young West Central residents’ imaginations and strengthen their writing skills.

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Round 1 Grantees

In its first round of grant making in 2022, the Spokane Arts Grant Awards (SAGA) has funded eight new arts programs and projects selected from 31 eligible applications. Grant winners will carry out their work in the Spokane region over the next twelve months. The eight successful applicants received a total of $47,000 for projects in dance, theater, publishing, book arts, cultural arts, and school programming.

My Turn Theater

My Turn Theater will provide support and performance opportunities for actors with special needs, with the goal of producing a major musical production each year.

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Nicholas Sironka

Sironka will bring a series of half-day batik art workshops and Maasai lectures to Spokane Schools in 2022.

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Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture (MAC)

With SAGA funding, the MAC will be able to subsidize field trips for Title 1 and underserved primary and secondary school students to attend the Dreamworks Animation exhibition.

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The Center for Children's Book Arts

CCBA will be able to make book-arts related workshops accessible for Spokane families of limited means by providing season-long scholarships.

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Spokane Ensemble Theatre

Spokane Ensemble Theatre will perform a contemporary, high-energy reimagining of William Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" in June 2022.

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Spokane Symphony

SAGA joins the effort to complete the Spokane Symphony’s fundraising to cover the cost of repairing the Fox stage floor.

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Kelley Hudson

With SAGA support, Hudson will publish her coloring book, including 30 pages of hand drawn images of locations in Spokane.

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Mary Zhang

SAGA will support Zhang as she establishes a permanent space to choreograph Chinese dances and train dancers to continue offering performances.

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