We are honored to announce the recipients of our 2021 Arc Artist Fellowship!

As many of you are aware, most of the grant funds 4Culture distributes to the cultural sector come from King County Lodging Taxes. These tax proceeds are generated whenever people stay in local hotels and motels. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the current economic recession, people are understandably not staying in hotels and motels with the same frequency. As a result, 4Culture recently learned that it will receive significantly less Lodging Tax revenue than anticipated in 2021. This does not impact 4Culture’s Public Art program, which is funded through a separate revenue source.

This month, we get ready to say goodbye to Charlie Rathbun, who is retiring after nearly 30 years at 4Culture—which was known as the King County Arts Commission at the time Charlie joined! Here, 4Culture staff and friends share their thoughts and wishes for our Arts Program Director:

4Culture Heritage is now accepting remote internship proposals from heritage organizations in King County! Proposal deadline is at 5:00 pm PST on January 15, 2021.

We are happy to announce UrbanRock Design as the artist team selected to work with 4Culture and our partners at the King County Wastewater Treatment Division (WTD). Based in Los Angeles, California, UrbanRock Design is the collaborative partnership of Jeanine Centuori and Russell Rock who have experience working on a range of public projects in a breadth of materials. The artist team will create a site-specific public artwork as part of the new Jameson building in the Interbay Industrial Area of Seattle, Washington.

On September 1, the King County Council approved an additional $2 million in CARES Act funding to 4Culture’s ongoing COVID-19 response efforts. We thank King County Executive Constantine and the Council for this critical support. This amounts to $4 million to 4Culture in 2020 to distribute to the cultural sector in this time of persistent crisis.

COVID-19 continues to impact every aspect of our lives and work. Each day presents new challenges, and as we move forward, our top priority is keeping our community informed and feeling supported as best we can.

Rewind to December 2019: artist team Johnson | Ramirez rolled up their sleeves and began laying out a cohesive art master plan for King County Metro’s RapidRide Expansion program, connecting the entire network of lines.

The Salaam Cultural Museum (SCM) exists to raise awareness about Arab American cultures and support refugees and immigrants both locally and internationally. Here, they share with us how they’re fulfilling that mission in Beirut: 

Even as we face great uncertainty, many of King County’s capital projects are moving forward as planned,  and although the ways we commission and create work must shift, we’re thrilled to celebrate some recent triumphs!

On April 1, we launched our COVID-19 relief fund for cultural workers, offering both emergency support for essentials like rent, groceries, and healthcare as well as grants for artists who had ideas for creative projects that could help King County residents through the pandemic.

Our commitment to racial equity demands that we say this clearly: the status quo is intolerable. The violence perpetrated against George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Charleena Lyles here in King County, and countless others by law enforcement and the white supremacist systems that disregard Black life cannot stand. As an agency that exists to support creativity in King County, we’re ready to play our role in imagining and building a new reality.

Gallery 4Culture has exhibited innovative and underrepresented artists and art forms for over forty years. Our seasons typically run from September – July with ten, month-long solo or small-group shows. We are dark in December and August.