For Kids
With SAGA support, local artist Tami Hennessey will execute an intricate multimedia art exhibit exploring her experience with Functional Neurological Disorder (FND).
New Media
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.
Arts Business
Grantee
Art Salvage
Art Salvage is working towards taking steps to grow the organization in order to meet community demand for more creative reuse services, with the goal of expanding to a larger brick and mortar store location.
Film
Grantee
Chase Ogden
Chase Ogden returns to his roots on the Spokane River to make a film highlighting the need to protect the water for future generations.
Cultural
Grantee
Spokane Chinese Association
After dealing with the setbacks of Covid-19, the Chinese Association Board has made a decision to “go big” for the Lunar New Year in 2023.
LGBTQ+
Grantee
Bright Comet Theatre
Bright Comet Theatre will stage their first production, Lord of the Flies. Featuring an entirely femme presenting cast, and involving a multitude of diverse and queer artists.
Words
Grantee
Browne’s Addition Neighborhood Council
SAGA funding will provide pay for the four poets’ performances and expose a new
audience to our local poets’ work.
Stage
Grantee
Spokane Playwrights Laboratory
SAGA is providing project funding for intensive, month long professional script development workshops for Spokane playwrights.
Words
Grantee
Spark Central
In a new project titled “Little Libraries, Big Stories,” Spark Central will collaborate with local artists to create and auction three unique little free libraries, stocked with books from local authors and youth, in part generated from a Spark Central workshop designed to ignite young West Central residents’ imaginations and strengthen their writing skills.
Stage
Grantee
Spokane Shakespeare Society
The second half of the company’s season two will include the show Romeo & Juliet in July, with eight performances,
followed by Goodnight Desdemona, (Good Morning Juliet) in September with eight performances.
For Kids
Grantee
Sindhu Surapaneni
Surapaneni will install a canvas print of her painting in a handful of
public schools across Liberty Lake and Spokane, working closely with each school to
determine size and placement.
Visual
Grantee
Mallory Battista and Lisa Soranaka
Battista and Soranaka will execute a large mosaic sculpture for
the public, to be installed at the base of the Monroe hill. The sculpture will incorporate
tiles made by community members at free workshops, which the two will host
throughout their studio residency at The Hive.
Music
Grantee
The Smokes
Alexander and Slater will hold youth songwriting workshops, kicked
off by a performance by The Smokes. After a performance, the band provides an
explanation of their songwriting process and a workshop focused on improvisation and
incorporating personal experiences into art.