For Kids
The 2025 R3 application portal is now closed.
The next deadline to submit an application is 11:59 p.m. on February 1, 2026. Find eligibility details and resources below!
SAGA Grants at a Glance
- SAGA will award a total of $166,000 in support to artists, businesses, and organizations in 2025.
- Eligible requests for any amount up to and including $10,000 are accepted three times yearly with deadlines on February 1, June 1, and October 1.
- Please read the Eligibility Guidelines and Application Instructions (below) for more information, and before you apply.
- The funding period is for one year. Grants are non-renewable.
- SAGA invites applications from artists, arts service organizations, large and small organizations and collectives, community-based arts programs and organizations, and culture and heritage groups based in the Spokane region.
- Supported arts disciplines include but are not limited to visual, performing, literary, ear-oriented, media arts, and folk/traditional arts, and more.
2025 SAGA Grant Deadlines
Round 1: February 1, 2025 (11:59 pm). Awards announced April 1.
Round 2: June 1, 2025 (11:59 pm). Awards August 1.
Round 3: October 1, 2025 (11:59 pm). Awards announced December 1.
SAGA Grant Information
Please read our Eligibility Guidelines and Application Instructions before you apply! Direct any questions to our Director of Grantmaking at grants@spokanearts.org.
Discover Past SAGA Winners
Since 2017, SAGA has provided more than $1 million in grants to the artists, arts businesses, organizations, and programs working in the Spokane area. Every grant SAGA has ever made is described in our online grantee archive. As a grant writer, we encourage you to look through past grants to get a sense of our grant making history. It’s also an opportunity to let us know if your application shows off a discipline that is not well-represented in our grantmaking!
SAGA GranteesSAGA Grant Writing Resources
SAGA prides itself on grant writer support, including application walkthroughs, individual read-throughs, and a robust, transparent feedback process that is unique in the grant making space. We strive to make the process of applying to SAGA a value-added experience, no matter the applicant’s level of expertise in grant writing. Our unusual level of feedback and community support are pillars of our program. Don’t pass up these opportunities!
SAGA ResourcesSubmit Your Application Here
Application deadlines are the same every year: February 1, June 1, and October 1. Portals open one month prior to each deadline, and awards are announced two months after each deadline. There are multiple awards every round and the maximum request is $10,000. Selected projects have one year to complete their work.
Portals will reopen January 1, 2026 for the February 1 deadline.
SAGA ApplicationHistory of SAGA
The SAGA grants program launched in January 2017. The program was made possible by community members and arts advocates, who spoke passionately in public forums and city council meetings regarding the need to increase the capacity of our arts economy.
Spokane has a unique cultural, artistic, and creative scene, and the city recognized that Spokane needs individual artists, organizations, and local businesses to stay and grow in order for our city to thrive.
Directing a stable funding source to be invested in local arts organizations and individual artists continues to make Spokane a more appealing place to live, work, and visit, and investing in the creative economy has already shown dividends. We look forward to sharing our grantees’ success stories with you!
The City of Spokane is so excited to see the launch of SAGA. We voted to approve this funding for Spokane Arts in early 2016 because we understand that a successful creative economy makes for a more successful Spokane!— Ben Stuckart, City Council President
Statement of Equity
SAGA grants exist to bolster the work of all artists in Spokane by providing grant funding and other resources to artists, arts organizations, collectives, and heritage groups of all disciplines. We provide funding and resources regardless of socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, language, nationality, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, religion, mental and physical status, or age. Ensuring artists of all backgrounds are included in our cultural narrative is central to having an accurate and fair depiction of who we are as a people.
SAGA Strategic Goals
Transparency
We are excited to offer a richly detailed portrait of the projects and activities of our grantees.
The application process, the selection of projects to fund, and the unique stories of our applicants and grantees are important to share.
Equity
Ensuring that artists of many backgrounds are included in our cultural narrative is central to having an accurate, fair depiction of who we are as a people.
SAGA aims to contribute to the development of equitable and sustainable long-term partnerships.
If any applicant is in need of accommodations for the application process, please contact the Grants Administrator at grants@spokanearts.org for assistance.
Accountability
We track data to help measure the impact of SAGA’s grantmaking, and leverage the results to fuel advocacy. We use a holistic approach, utilizing our resources to help elevate our grantees.
This includes sharing their successes, failures, and risk-taking ventures.
SAGA Selection Panel Members
Each new granting year, SAGA seats a new selection panel of five to six individuals from the Spokane community, who review and determine awards for qualifying applications over the course of the year. The panel remains anonymous during the granting year, and is composed of one city arts commissioner, one member of the Spokane Arts governing board, and three or four members of the community with experience in the arts. With administrative support from the staff of Spokane Arts, funding allocations are made three times a year with award announcements made on April 1, August 1 and December 1. Together, they grant over $100,000 annually to artists, collectives, and arts organizations working in the Spokane region.
2024
Selection panelists:
- Michael Bethely (Spokane Arts Commission)
- Angela Swenseid (Spokane Arts Board)
- Mica Pointer (Actor and Artist)
- Rika Ream (Arts Supporter)
- Dahveed Bullis (Resident Artist at Stage Left Theatre, Co-founder of Spokane Playwrights Laboratory)
- Jamie Bartlett (Gonzaga University)
2023
Selection panelists:
- Emma Noyes (Spokane Arts Commission)
- Kate Hudson (Visit Spokane)
- Olivia Evans (The Root Experience/Alliance for Media Arts +)
- Kelly Brown (Friends of Manito, Manito Park Art Festival)
- Ken Ngyuen-Scott (Ceramics Artist)
- Jaiz Boyd (Spokane Unlimited)
2022
Selection panelists:
- Dylan Le (Spokane Arts Commission)
- Karen Stratton (Spokane Arts Board of Directors)
- Brittan Hart (Recent Whitworth Publishing graduate)
- Alexander Gibilisco (Manager of Equity and Inclusion Initiatives at Spokane City Council)
- Marsha Marcuson (Avenue West Gallery)
2021
Selection panelists:
- Weiling Zhu (Spokane Symphony, Spokane Chinese Association)
- Patty Tully (Baby Bar music venue owner/Spokane Arts Commission)
- Joyce Cameron (Retired/Spokane Arts governing board)
- Mike Malsam (Art Hour/Spokane Public Schools)
- Frankie Ghee (Musician, Writer)
- Nicolas DeCaro (Apostrophe Art Collective)
2020
Selection panelists:
- Carly Cortright (City of Spokane/ Spokane Arts governing board)
- Shantell Jackson (Artist)
- Erin Sellers (Theater Student, Gonzaga University)
- Jeff Ferguson (Photographer)
- Madison Bush (Museum of Arts and Culture/Spokane Arts Commission)
- Nicholas Sironka (Batik Artist)
2019
Selection panelists:
- Amy Cabe (Visit Spokane/ Spokane Arts governing board)
- Diego Sanchez (etailz, Inc.)
- Juan Mas (Purple Crayon Pictures)
- Laura Bracken (Laura Bracken, LLC)
- R. Skyler Oberst (Seekr)
- Katie Patterson Larson (Art Salvage/Spokane Arts Commission)
2018
Selection panelists:
- E.J. Iannelli (Arts Commission, Theater Critic)
- Cary Boyce (Spokane Public Radio)
- Nathan Huston (Giant Nerd Books)
- Randi Madison (Ammonite Ink)
- Dean Davis (Spokane Arts governing board, Photographer)
- Rickey “Deekon” Jones (New Developed Nations)
2017
Selection panelists:
- Derrick “D.O.” Oliver, (Providence Hospital)
- Kevin J. Twohig, (Spokane Public Facilities District)
- Elizabeth Hooker (Downtown Spokane Partnership)
- Shalon Parker, Ph.D., (Gonzaga University)
- Shawn Vestal (The Spokesman Review)