For Kids
2023-2024 ARPA BENEFITS through SPOKANE ARTS
STATUS: Spokane Arts is pleased to announce the successful completion of ARPA grantmaking and the close of our ARPA contract with the City of Spokane, All eligible beneficiaries have received payments and the program has now closed. For other grants available through Spokane Arts, please take a moment to learn about our SAGA Program!
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By the end of June 2024, Spokane Arts disbursed $920,000.00 in direct disaster relief benefits to Spokane City households, businesses, nonprofits, and performing arts venues working in the arts and cultural arts. Between August 2023 and June 2024, support reached 163 applicants over multiple rounds of grantmaking:
93 households (totaling $200,000 in federal benefits, plus an additional $11,700 with support from Empire Health Foundation),
39 nonprofits (totaling $367,500),
26 businesses (totaling $232,500), and
five performing arts venues (totaling $120,000).
Spokane Arts carried out this work the help of community partners such as Empire Health Foundation (EHF) and Nuestras Raices (formerly HBPA) for technical, language and cultural support.
ARPA’s federally-eligible beneficiaries were located within Spokane City limits, work in (individuals) or have a primary mission in the arts or cultural arts. Spokane artists, businesses and organizations with income less than $1M in 2019, and performing arts venues with incomes less than $2M were welcome to apply. All applicants were offered technical support, and language, vision, and other accessibility accommodations as needed.
In assigning benefit levels, Spokane Arts used Federally-recognized criteria for “impact” and “disproportionate impact” as outlined by the U.S. Treasury, in addition to considering other Covid benefits received. Eligible households received benefits between $1,000 and $2,500. Eligible arts businesses and nonprofits received benefit payments ranging from $2,000 to $10,000, and eligible performing arts venues received benefits between $22,500 and $25,000.
The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds through the City of Spokane provided $920,000.00 in benefits and with the support of Empire Health Foundation, we were able to provide an additional $11,700 to local households for a grand total of $931,700.00 in Covid relief benefit payments to Spokane’s creative communities.
Household Demographics
Right-click and select “Open image in new tab” to see a larger version of this scatterplot.
This scatterplot shows the relative impacts of Covid on our household applicants as a function of each household’s 2019 income. 2019 income is represented on the horizontal axis, and the dollar impacts experienced by each household as a percent of 2019 income is represented on the vertical axis. The median figures are represented by the orange dot.
Unsurprisingly, lower income households were more severely impacted by the pandemic. Relying primarily on events for income, these households experienced eligible impacts as large as 225% of their 2019 income over the course of the pandemic. Households with members aged 65+ were also disproportionately impacted by the Covid shutdown.
Our median household “applicant” earned $34,549 in 2019 and reported 17% of that figure in losses and additional Covid-related expenses through the pandemic.
Geographic Distribution of Benefits
Right-click and select “Open image in new tab” to see a larger version of this scatterplot.
This map of the City of Spokane shows the distribution of funds to all eligible Spokane Arts ARPA applicants. Funding totals are broken down by Council District for clarity in reports to the Spokane City Council and City stakeholders.
All Spokane artists, arts businesses, and arts and cultural arts organizations with 2019 incomes less than $1M, and performing arts venues with incomes less than $2M were welcome to apply. All applicants were offered technical support, and language, vision, technology, and other accessibility accommodations as needed.
Spokane Arts is grateful to the City of Spokane, Nuestras Raices, and Empire Health Foundation for their significant assistance through the course of this project.
OUR THANKS TO:
Nuestras Raíces
(formerly the Hispanic Business Professional Association / HBPA) has worked tirelessly alongside Spokane Arts to support our Spanish-speaking arts communities as they applied for this federal benefit. We are tremendously grateful to:
Isabel Mazcot, Vice President of Business Relations,
Yajaira Valentinez, Small Business Coordinator,
Ivan Torres, HR & Accounting Representative,
and the entire team at Nuestras Raíces!
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Empire Health Foundation
EHF’s “Building Equitable Economies” project exists expressly to support community access to ARPA funding. The Equitable Economies team at EHF assisted in Spokane Arts’ programming and outreach and also helped our business and nonprofit applicants prepare their applications for support. Assisting us with this effort were:
Leroy Eadie, Vice President of Programs,
Rocío Caravantes Wofford, Program Associate,
Stephen Reichard, Consultant, Reichard and Associates (Portland), and
Mandy Chapman Orozco, Principal Consultant, Chapman Orozco Consulting
FOR TIRELESS TECHNICAL SUPPORT:
Ash Riant, Propolis Innovations Consulting LLC!!
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The City of Spokane
Our City of Spokane ARPA Team helped us turn around funding requests accurately and quickly and Spokane Arts is grateful for our team’s support throughout 2023 and 2024.
Caleb Stanton, Grants Analyst and ARPA Coordinator
Michelle Murray, Director of Accounting and Grants
Makayla Sauve, ARPA Coordinator
and Vlad Lukin, ARPA Coordinator
Spokane Arts is grateful for these community partners and more for helping us provide these benefits to our arts and culture communities.
About this Program
In 2023 through early 2024, arts and culture organizations, businesses, and individuals working in arts and culture in the city of Spokane were invited to apply for Coronavirus Recovery grants, funded by federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars granted to the City of Spokane and distributed by Spokane Arts. This benefit program was intended to help offset the negative economic impacts felt by our arts and culture communities through the pandemic.
Spokane Arts defines the arts broadly and includes those who contribute to traditional and folk arts, fashion and costume design, architecture, culinary arts, and arts promotion, administration, and production work. This definition includes both those who are paid AND those who are volunteering their time and talent for the benefit of the community.
These were qualifying benefits, not competitive grants, meaning that many/most applicants who were eligible (according to federally-defined criteria) will receive some level of funding.
Applicants were NOT asked to propose a program or project; these funds are COVID disaster relief benefits, so applicants were asked to demonstrate their eligibility and provide brief documentation and context regarding the impacts of COVID on their business/organization/household.
These benefits were not taxable.
Other ARPA-Funded Projects in Spokane
Spokane Arts was pleased to learn that it was the City’s first ARPA program to successfully complete grantmaking, but programming will continue through 2024 through other pass-through organizations who have received a portion of the City’s ARPA funding.
The City of Spokane received nearly $81 million in ARPA support from the federal government in 2021. Since that time, Spokane has made awards in direct support of our local businesses and organizations and has selected a number of businesses and organizations as pass-throughs to carry out programs further addressing the needs of Spokane’s individuals, organizations, and businesses in the wake of Covid-19. Spokane Arts’ Coronavirus Recovery Funding Program is one of those programs.
You can learn more about the work the City of Spokane has done with its ARPA funding and see if you are eligible for other local ARPA-funded programs HERE.
ACCOMMODATIONS
If you anticipate a barrier to your participation in any Spokane Arts program due to limited English writing ability, visual impairment, or would like to request assistance to access this application, please contact us at shelly@spokanearts.org.
Si anticipa una barrera para su participación debido a la capacidad limitada de escritura en inglés, discapacidad visual, o desea solicitar asistencia para acceder a esta aplicación, contáctenos en shelly@spokanearts.org.
如果您由于英语写作能力有限，视力障碍而希望参加比赛，或者希望获得协助来访问此应用程序，请通过 shelly@spokanearts.org
Якщо ви передбачаєте перешкоду для вашої участі через обмежені навички письма англійською мовою, порушення зору або хочете запросити допомогу для доступу до цього додатку, будь ласка, зв’яжіться з нами за адресою shelly@spokanearts.org.
Если вы предвидите препятствия для вашего участия из-за ограниченных навыков письма на английском языке, нарушений зрения, или хотите запросить помощь для доступа к данному приложению, пожалуйста, свяжитесь с нами по адресу shelly@spokanearts.org.
Nếu bạn dự đoán rằng sẽ gặp trở ngại trong việc tham gia do khả năng viết tiếng Anh hạn chế, bị hạn chế về thị lực hoặc muốn yêu cầu hỗ trợ để truy cập ứng dụng này, vui lòng liên hệ với chúng tôi qua địa chỉ shelly@spokanearts.org.
إذا كنت تتوقع وجود عوائق تحول دون مشاركتك بسبب الكتابة المحدودة باللغة الإنجليزية، أو العجز البصري، أو كنت ترغب في طلب المساعدة للوصول إلى هذا التطبيق، يرجى الاتصال بنا على البريد الإلكتروني: shelly@spokanearts.org.
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Spokane Arts welcomes applicants with disabilities.
Spokane Arts is happy to provide any of our materials in large print format or to bring in an ASL interpreter (free of charge) to assist in your preparation for this, or any other opportunity provided by Spokane Arts.
Additionally, we will work to provide a free interpreter for any spoken language upon request.
Please contact us at shelly@spokanearts.org to request accommodations.
This funding is made possible by United States American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA) dollars received by the City of Spokane and distributed by Spokane Arts.