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.
untouchable is a comedy short film inspired by true stories about the pains of growing up. Originally a one-woman show, it tells the story of a girl growing up while navigating and overcoming limitations, bullying, and learning what it means to be a “good” person.
A six track EP, educational workshops surrounding the release of the album, and a concert debuting the final product.
An outdoor exhibition reflecting the universality of play across place, culture and time.
Improv League is a year-long transformative program taught by local, professional improv faculty and offered for free to Spokane area high school students.
The project will capture the rich narratives and expressive portraits of Kalispel tribal elders.
Cannon will study the process of transforming fish skins into usable leather, and hold an educational event in 2024 for Alaska Natives in the Spokane area.
You Oughta Know will feature five different panels on various aspects of the music and performing arts business Fall of 2023 / Spring 2024.
SAGA is providing support to compensate cultural artists in United We Stand’s International Arts and Foodfest (IAF) and provide materials and arts business education for IAF participants.
EWU’s Design Department has been awarded a SAGA grant to pilot university-based risograph residencies. These residencies will help advance the practices of local and regional artists in collaboration with students and the Spokane community.
Bodies in Conversation will be presented at The Magic Lantern Theater as a multimedia event: a screening of a short art film, live music, and a new play.
Seven days of events are held in the City of Spokane to raise awareness of and activism around the inequities and racism that Black mothers and other birthing people of color face.
The GLOW Children Early Learning Center is a non-profit childcare center established in 2019 to serve children infant through 12 years old. The mission of GLOW Children is to provide a safe and healthy early education program primarily for children whose parents attend Lumen High School. Their mission is also to address the important issues of poverty, trauma and equity particularly within vulnerable populations, such as teenaged parents.
For Kids