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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Spokane Feminist Art Festival FEM+FEST 2019 is presented by Spokane NOW (National Organization for Women) in partnership with the Downtown Spokane Public Library. The Festival will take place on Saturday, April 27th from 6-9pm.
SAGA is supporting local playwright Kemuel DeMoville in the creation of an original work, “Fire Melt Stone,” along with the creation of a complimentary education packet for area schools (focused on grades 3-6).
Imagine Jazz is a non-profit organization founded by local composer, saxophonist and teacher, Rachel Bade-McMurphy, and SFCC teacher, composer, and trumpet player, Brendan McMurphy. The 2019-2020 season will be Imagine Jazz’s second year providing Spokane with high-quality concerts and educational opportunities.
The Spokane Art School is a non-profit corporation established in 1968 and provides quality art education taught by professional artists. We strive to remove barriers, both financial and otherwise, to hands-on arts education. We provide art classes to the general public in a variety of studio genres.
In close collaboration with Spokane Tribal experts, Chadwell and Castillo will be working to bring the Salish creation story to life. The story will be captured using both traditional and virtual reality filmmaking techniques, and will be set in a historically accurate representation of the Indian Congress Encampment.
Since 2013, Columbia Fire & Iron (CFI), a 501(c)(3), has volunteered hundreds of hours teaching and demonstrating traditional and modern blacksmithing around the Spokane area, giving the community an affordable way to try blacksmithing for the first time and offering continuing education in the craft.
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.
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