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.
Hilary Hart is a gifted Spokane digital graphic artist who has cultivated a group called “Spokane Women Together.” In partnership with Rick Singer, one of Spokane’s most respected portrait photographers, the “See Me Spokane,” project is an outgrowth of this group and the stories of these diverse women.
The Spokane International Film Festival (SpIFF) aims to deepen audience engagement with films, and to strengthen their interaction with the filmmakers and local experts who introduce and lead discussions following screenings.
The Garland District has created an art alley between Monroe and Post. The mural project was completed by professional mural artists, and was also a collaborative project with staff and students from a neighborhood youth center.
Laboratory provides space and support for interactive, digital, and performance art in Spokane. Interactive art goes beyond either ‘something on a wall’ or ‘something on a stage’. It is an artist residency program for interactive artists from all over the world.
The purpose of Shine Youth Fund is to provide arts education, scholarship funding and accessible arts programs for youth in Spokane. Shine Youth Fund has three primary programs including: community outreach, scholarship funding, and Shine Art Center.
Saranac Art Projects is a non-profit artist cooperative designed to support and educate artists and their communities while inspiring a vibrant contemporary art culture. Located in Spokane, WA, Saranac brings together artists and curators that represent the diversity of thought in the Inland Northwest.
The South Asia Cultural Association of Spokane is proud to present three rare cultural and musical art performance for the Greater Spokane Area. Jugalbandhi on June 2nd and Oct 7th. The artists who will be performing are classically trained in very distinct and ancient traditions of South Asian music.
The Spokane Zine Fest will be a one-day public event celebrating zines, small press books, comics, drawings, prints, cards, and other small paper media DIY items. The event will be minimally curated to include as many participants as possible while maintaining a high level of craftsmanship.
The Spokane Symphony’s concertmaster, violinist Mateusz Wolski, uses humor and his fascination with fast cars to introduce musical discussions, guests, and performances at alternative local venues. The M Show is a quirky and fun interactive experience for all.
Spark Central has started a new program called West Central Publishing Union, which includes two parallel literary tracks— a program for elementary-aged children (which SAGA funding will support) and a program for adults.
Dr. Shawn Brigman is an enrolled member of the Spokane Tribe of Indians and descendant of regional Salish bands (San Poil, Arrow Lakes, and Shuswap). Shawn has crafted a full-scale sturgeon nose canoe unique to the interior Plateau Salish peoples in Eastern Washington State.
Bethany Taylor, Derek Landers, and Thom Caraway of Millwood Print Works have provided Spokane with a community print shop specializing in letterpress and screenprinting. The facility will include presses/equipment, knowledgeable teachers, opportunities to print and attend classes and studio space to work.
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