For Kids
Tribal elder and Sanpoil/Spokane artist Diane Covington will hold ten workshops throughout 2020 integrating art making and artistic practice, seasonal stories and lessons.
Cultural
Grantee
Grantees
Spokane Arts Grant Awards (SAGA) funds multiple programs and projects three times every year through a competitive application process. Grant winners carry out arts related activities in the Spokane area during the twelve months following their award date. Awards can be for any amount up to $10,000.
SAGA defines the term “arts” by observing our community’s creative activity. We live in a region populated by many cultures, talented in varied crafts and trades, and curious about learning and engaging in technique, expression, and artistic community. SAGA has funded blacksmithing and glassblowing, cultural art forms such as canoe making, performance, exhibition, education, therapy, and individual artistic development. We have also funded arts-based businesses and new collaborations.
SAGA stands on the principle that creatives should be paid for the work they do and we educate both the broader community and the artistic sector that creative work has value.
Due to Covid, the City of Spokane faced a 60% drop in its admissions tax income in 2020. The City’s 2020 tax revenue was the basis for SAGA grants in 2022, leaving us with less than half of the funds we required to sustain meaningful grantmaking to arts and culture that year. We were prepared for relatively normal tax base downturns, so we were able to offset some of the Covid shortfall, but even exhausting our emergency fund, the tax base losses outstripped our resources by well over $50,000.
To maintain our grantmaking in 2022, SAGA was grateful to receive $50,000 in support from the NEA Grants for Arts Projects (GAP) program. This support meant we were able to fund an additional seven projects in 2022 during a time when organizations were feeling a second pinch: that audiences and customers were not yet returning to pre-Covid levels. We are grateful to the NEA for supporting Spokane’s arts and culture at that critical time.
At the end of 2023, SAGA had funded 171 proposals providing a total of more than $800,000 dollars to local artists, organizations, and businesses.
2024 is SAGA’s eighth year serving the Spokane region. Below we provide a complete list of each of our awardees since our first year of funding in 2017. View just the most recent year’s winners here.
Visual
Grantee
YES IS A FEELING!
Taking up residence in the Steam Plant (in the former Pop Up Shop space), Roin Morigeau and Cody Schroeder are stepping into a ten-year plan to create an accessible and sustainable variety of arts activities.
Music
Grantee
Cary Boyce
Dr. Cary Boyce is known locally as the General Manager of Spokane Public Radio, but away from home, Cary is known primarily as an Emmy award-winning composer. SAGA is providing support for the composition and presentation of a new work in partnership with two of Spokane’s premiere ensembles.
Visual
Grantee
Apostrophe Spokane
Apostrophe is a student lead group that exhibits LGBTQ+ students, students of color, and women student artists from six local universities and colleges. Apostrophe will be holding its second annual exhibition of curated student work at an independent gallery space, to be announced, during the month of April 2020 with SAGA support.
Words
Grantee
Scablands Books
With support from SAGA, Scablands Books will publish a graphic novel, Baby Speaks Salish, by local writer Emma Noyes. Proceeds will go to the Salish School of Spokane, which is dedicated to keeping the interior Salish languages alive in the face of ongoing colonialism.
New Media
Grantee
Factory Town
Ellen Picken and Rajah Bose started Factory Town to combine their interests in visual art and storytelling. With SAGA support, Factory Town will be creating six kinetic sculptures which transform the familiar handheld “Jacob’s Ladder” toy into an over-sized interactive experience on impermanence.
Visual
Grantee
Hannah Pomante, Katie Smith, & Melissa Jones
The three artists are all 2019 graduates from Whitworth arts programs and are collaborating to create and share the work with Spokane’s youth. The goal of the Bird Nest Installation is to provide a place of escape for Spokane’s youth by translating elements of nature into an eco-friendly public art installation.
Stage
Grantee
Square Top Theatre
Square Top Theatre was founded in 2007. It seek to create ongoing artistic collaborations, to tell good stories well, and to create new and enduring work. The organization strive to expand the medium of live theatre and to explore its boundaries while engaging a wide audience.
Words
Grantee
Writers in the Community
Writers in the Community (WITC) at EWU offers free workshops to audiences as varied as inmates, veterans, men and women in recovery, pediatric oncology patients, and elementary, middle, and high school students.
Cultural
Grantee
Spokane Chinese Association
Spokane Chinese Association (SCA) is a non-profit organization that connects and unites people of Chinese heritage in the Greater Spokane area with the purpose of fostering stronger community connections and pursuing a more enriched quality of life.
Music
Grantee
Spark Central
Spark Central is a nonprofit that breaks down barriers to creativity so that people of all economic backgrounds can create the future they imagine. The organization offering transformative programs, access to innovative technology, and a welcoming creative community for people of all economic backgrounds.
Cultural
Grantee
The Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture (MAC)
Founded in 1916, the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture is the largest cultural organization in the Inland Northwest, serving more than 100,000 visitors a year. It is one of Washington State’s five Smithsonian affiliates and are accredited by the Alliance of American Museums.