Meet Our 2019 Multicultural Arts Grantees
In December ArtsFund awarded $40,000 in grants as part of our Multicultural Arts Project, supporting racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse arts and cultural groups throughout the Central Puget Sound Region. The funds were distributed as matching incentive grants with the objective of empowering recipients to leverage these grants to raise greater support for their organizations. To date, $132,500 in grants have been awarded through the Multicultural Arts Project.
MAP grant recipients have utilized funds to stage large and small scale performances, enable platforms for cross cultural dialogue, bring non-local artists to Seattle, support heritage events, provide teaching artists for underserved youth, and more. Recipients have also leveraged their ArtsFund grants to attract new donors and matching funds to their organizations. 2018-2019 grant recipients will continue to use funds for programs connecting communities, creating access to the arts for underserved populations, enhancing cross cultural understanding, and serving youth.
New groups to the fund this year include SIS Productions, a production company that strives to create, develop and produce quality works that involve Asian American women, their themes, and Asian American issues, and Seattle Chinese Chorus, a 70+ member chorus that strives to bring Eastern and Western cultures together. Large or small, each of the organizations that have received funds through the Multicultural Arts Project is doing tremendous work in our region, at once providing a space for individuals to connect with culture and enriching the broader community.
The Multicultural Arts Project aligns with ArtsFund’s value of fostering equitable and inclusive communities and ensuring the arts sector reflects, represents, and engages the entire community. ArtsFund is proud to support the recipients of the MAP grants, who are doing inspiring work – using art as a tool to enhance understanding across cultural, generational, and even geographic boundaries. ArtsFund is grateful to the donors to this fund whose generosity helps broaden the range of arts and cultural organizations that we serve, including those that have historically been excluded from traditional funding streams.
Recipients of the 2018-2019 Multicultural Arts Project grants include:
–American Asian Performing Arts Theatre
–The Central District Forum for Arts & Ideas
–Chinese Arts and Music Association
–Densho
–Northwest African American Museum
–Pratidhwani
–Seattle Asian American Film Festival
–Seattle Chinese Chorus
–SIS Productions
–Tasveer
ArtsFund was honored to be the beneficiary of the Hong Kong Greater China Business Association of Washington’s 2018 Lunar New Year Gala on February 24, 2018. Proceeds from the event will benefit Asian arts and cultural organizations in 2019 through year three of the Multicultural Arts Project.
Donors interested in contributing to the Multicultural Arts Project, and helping sustain the organizations funded through it, contact Annemarie Scalzo at annemaries@artsfund.org.
All grant recipients join ArtsFund’s network of over 118 cultural partners. For more information about ArtsFund’s cultural partners, visit: https://www.artsfund.org/culturalpartners
Photo credits: (L-R): Chinese Arts and Music Association, 33th Annual East Meets West Concert, photo by Jodi Gaylord; American Asian Performing Arts Theatre, China in Dance 2018, photo by Gary Gao; SIS Productions presents Happily Ever After by Kathy Hsieh, directed by Lisa Glomb, pictured left to right: Kathy Hsieh, Moses Yim, photo by Rick Wong; Northwest African American Museum, 2018 MLK Day, photo by Leah Blanton.