*PLEASE READ OUR UPDATED COVID-19 RESPONSE INFORMATION HERE*

Like you, we are closely monitoring the spread of novel coronavirus in our region. This is a difficult, ever-evolving situation—we see and are inspired by all the artists, organizations, nonprofits, and individuals finding new ways to be responsive and flexible. We also thank everyone at Seattle and King County Public Health for their diligent work in keeping us informed, and encourage you to check their webpage often for updates and instructions on how to prevent the spread of this virus. Additionally, we recommend reviewing the information and resources shared by Americans for the Arts for how the arts and culture sector can prepare at this time.

We want to let you know about some specific steps we are taking to help mitigate the spread of coronavirus:

• 4Culture staff are aware of and following the personal health and hygiene guidelines provided by King County Public Health. Our office and gallery are cleaned nightly.
• Currently, all 4Culture meetings and events—both at our Pioneer Square location and throughout the county—will take place as planned. If you are sick or in a high-risk group, we ask that you please stay home. Everyone else: please use your best personal judgment about attending, and keep in mind that our office and gallery are open to the public.
• We are offering an option to call in for any meetings and workshops held at our office. If you are unable to attend a meeting in-person, please contact the 4Culture meeting organizer to arrange a conference line. For all upcoming on-site grant workshops, we will post the call-in number and pin to the workshop listing on our website at least 48 hours in advance.
• We are only able to offer a call-in option for meetings and workshops taking place at our office at 101 Prefontaine Place in Seattle. If you are unable to attend an off-site event, please contact us; we will connect you with the appropriate staff person to provide any information and materials you may have missed.

If you are a grant recipient and considering canceling a 4Culture-funded event: please prioritize your health and the health of your community, use your best judgment, and know that we will be flexible with adjusting your contract. If you cancel an event, please contact your grant manager as soon as possible so that we can best assist you.

As one of our region’s arts and culture funders, we are also attuned to the financial impact of coronavirus on our region’s culture providers. Cancelling events, refunding tickets, and closing doors have major repercussions—we encourage you to consider supporting these organizations in whatever way or amount you can.

Thank you for your patience and flexibility during this time. Please do not hesitate to contact us with questions, and please follow Seattle and King County Public Health for up-to-the-minute information on coronavirus. We’re proud to be one part of a diverse network of people and organizations working to keep our community healthy.

We are thrilled to announce that Tommy Segundo and Toka Valu have been awarded a unique commission at the King County International Airport/ Boeing Field (KCIA). They will create a 2-dimensional artwork for permanent installation along a fence adjacent to the planned public access road to the Georgetown Steam Plant Museum (GSPM). It will be influenced by the rich history and contextual narrative of the surrounding neighborhoods, communities, industry, and Duwamish River basin. Over the coming months Tommy and Toka will work closely with 4Culture and KCIA to research the history of the area and identify important aspects of the built and cultural environment; this will help them develop concepts for the artwork.

Born and raised in South Seattle, Tommy is enrolled Kaigani Haida and Katzie (Coast Salish) and Filipino. He calls himself an “Urban Native” and says, “Growing up in the city, formline art has always been one of the few ways I’m able to stay connected to my Haida culture.” He has practiced traditional Northwest Coastal Formline Art since a very young age but later learned and studied with the late Marvin Oliver while earning his degree at the University of Washington. He spent the past 15 years as an educator working with Native youth across the state of Washington. As a full-time father of three, Tommy’s art practice not only helps to carry on cultural traditions, it has also given him an opportunity to continue to support his family, while allowing him a more flexible schedule to keep up with the daily demands of parenting.

Toka is an indigenous Pacific Islander artist and illustrator with years of experience facilitating workshops and organizing communities. His artistic and design influences are deeply rooted and informed by his cultural upbringing as a Tongan. A visual storyteller, his practice is rooted in culture, driven by narrative, and centered around a unique voice, which has situated him in a position to provide astute perspectives on today’s geopolitical and social climate though his art and design. “I am committed to creative design solutions, community driven art- and meaning-making, and a collaborative design process built on dynamic back-and-forth dialogue and old-school hustle,” says Toka.

Tommy and Toka’s journey together began in 2009, when they met while working as recruiters for the University of Washington’s Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity. As two indigenous males in higher education, they immediately developed a bond which led to a strong working relationship. They developed, coordinated, and carried out several large scale conferences and workshops that supported underrepresented students of color in their higher education endeavors. They continued to work in education until 2019 when they both decided to pursue art full-time; they believe that this was not by coincidence and that their paths were meant to cross again. Tommy and Toka are thrilled to embark on their first artistic collaboration in creating art that intertwines traditional forms with contemporary elements. Stay tuned for updates as this project moves forward!

Creative Consultancies began in 2019 as a pilot initiative to connect artists and cultural planners with local arts agencies in cities across King County. The program continues a long collaborative history between 4Culture and the LAAs to increase opportunities for artists and audiences in suburban and rural King County.

Cities across King County shared their challenges and hopes for what artists could bring to the table. We then invited artists, organizations, and creative planners to respond. Cities and creatives were paired, creating project proposals that have now been evaluated by a panel and awarded funding. The full list of funded collaborations is below—watch for these projects to get underway across King County later this year:

Auburn + Kathleen Frugé Brown
In this second phase of a downtown alley improvement project the artist has facilitated a new partnership between the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe and the city of Auburn by engaging native carvers and artisans to create a cedar welcome (totem) pole as well as a land acknowledgement plaque, incorporating traditional tribal designs into the environmental design, benches, street mural and lighting elements for the alleyway between the new Arts and Culture Center and the Auburn Avenue Theater. This new partnership represents a step forward for the city and the Muckleshoot Tribe in building a collaborative relationship. “Kathleen Fruge Brown will liaison with Muckleshoot Tribe Cultural Director Willard Bill Jr. and traditional carvers Keith Stevenson and Tyson Simmons to produce a sculpture that will bring an iconic symbol of the Muckleshoot culture into the heart of downtown Auburn.”

Bellevue + Katie Miller
The City of Bellevue’s Cultural and Economic Development division requests support from 4Culture to host a creative consultant to facilitate the development of a Community Group that will help identify opportunities for the art district and integrate BelRed’s creative community into a model of sustainable neighborhood development. The project will begin with two distinct phases facilitated by the consultant, Katie Miller, for nine months between April and December 2020. The project’s third phase, to be initiated in 2021, will focus on building a community-based art district action plan. The long-term nature of this collaborative project is crucial because it offers time to meaningfully investigate the central questions guiding the project, as well as time to network with and engage BelRed’s creative community.

Bothell + Una McAlinden
This proposal seeks a Creative Consultancy grant to develop an Implementation Plan for the Cultural Strategic Plan completed in November 2019 for the City of Bothell. Established in April 2017, the Bothell Arts Commission (BAC) was charged with leveraging the arts to improve quality of life by providing arts access to Bothell residents. Local arts commissions play an important role in civic leadership; however, many encounter a range of challenges and BAC too struggles with these challenges as a new entity. This consultancy will take the arts commission and the city of Bothell from the strategic plan to a first year of implementation and evaluation.

Kent + Lucia Neare
This will be the second year of a community development effort to seek out and engage the various cultures and communities in one of the most diverse cities in the county. The artist will continue to seek out various community leaders, businesses and organizations and connect them with funding programs including 4Culture and the Kent Arts Commission and develop opportunities for exhibitions and performances, community celebrations and activating the downtown core of the city.

Mercer Island + George Lee
The artist will create a new vision and arts plan for the restoration of the Greta Hackett Outdoor Sculpture Gallery located along I-90 and the future light rail station on Mercer Island. The project presents the opportunity to build on GHSG’s strengths to evolve it into an outstanding, contemporary arts destination at the core of a cultural corridor through Aubrey Davis Park. Together with a potential MICA performing arts center housed in the TCP and heavy pedestrian circulation to the adjacent Link station, the gallery and the surrounding area have the potential to become a cultural gateway to Mercer Island, an arts- and culture-centric space for residents and anyone else in King County to easily access and enjoy arts-based experiences.

Redmond + Angie Hinojos Yusuf and Carlos Jimenez 
The City of Redmond will partner with artists Angie Hinojos Yusuf and Carlos Jimenez of Centro Cultural Mexicano to serve as the Creative Consultants who will engage with their constituents to promote and encourage participation in the Census Count as an immediate outcome but also is responsive to Council’s vision for Cultural Inclusion – A Redmond in which all residents can fully and effectively access city services, influence city policy and direction, and feel a sense of belonging and safety. This community engagement process will be used to inform the direction and approach for the design and development of either a social practice or visual art piece.

Shoreline-Lake Forest Park Arts Council and Beverly Aarons
A multi-disciplinary artist has been working with the Shoreline historical museum and Arts Council to conduct a series of interviews and oral histories with various ethnic communities in the City of Shoreline and create a theatrical production based on stories of their past and imagined future. The first phase of interviews and research took place in 2019 and this award will support the theatrical production and development in spring of 2020.

Every day, our Storefront Media Gallery screens showcase dynamic media art from all over the United States to the thousands of commuters who pass by our Pioneer Square offices on Prefontaine Place South. We’re excited to continue a long-running partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to bring this urban art experience to another Seattle neighborhood! Pass by their media screen, located at 500 Fifth Avenue North, to encounter these works, selected from applicants to the Storefront Media Gallery program:

Ahree Lee, Permutation
Slices of individual photographs function like the genetic code we inherit from our ancestors. They also represent the genetic material we have in common. Lee’s work often examines race, community, family, and migration. Lee lives and works in Los Angeles, California.

Viviane Silvera, See Memory
A stop-motion film of 10,000 paintings challenges how our memories define who we are, how we remember, and the link between memory and imagination. This version has been edited for outdoor viewing. Silvera works with researchers and neuroscience in developing much of her work. She grew up in Hong Kong and Brazil and now lives in New York, New York.

Ezra Wube, Pattern Synthesis and Gela 2
These stop action animations layer past with present, and attempt to make a third entity that is in both, where place and time shift. Belonging in displacement and emplacement, in past and present, both here and there, Wube’s work reflects his home in Ethiopia, and now Brooklyn, New York.

The Washington Museum Association (WaMA) was established to represent and serve museums of all types and sizes throughout Washington State. WaMA offers an annual conference for peer-to-peer learning, networking, and idea exchange. The 2020 Washington Museum Association Conference will take place June 17 – 19, 2020 in Olympia, WA. This year’s theme is Museums and Democracy: Advocate, Educate, Participate.

To support professional development of heritage professionals in King County, we are offering four $500 stipends to individuals presenting at this year’s WaMA conference. The deadline to apply is March 13, 2020 at 5:00 pm PST.

To be eligible for a Presenter Stipend, you must present at the conference and be a King County resident, as well as a staff member, board member, volunteer, or intern at a heritage organization in King County, or a consultant, service provider, or independent historian who primarily works with King County heritage. 4Culture stipends may be used for conference registration, and to defray travel and lodging costs. To receive the stipend, you must attend and present at the conference and be prepared to write a brief statement about your experiences.

To apply, please submit a letter of interest via email. The letter should be no longer than two pages, including your daytime phone number, mailing and email addresses. The letter should include the following:

Itemized budget of conference attendance.

• Your current status with a King County heritage museum or organization.
• Title and abstract of your presentation.
• State the significance of your presentation subject to the heritage field. Connection to the key findings of 4Culture Heritage Report is a plus but not required.
• Please share how your conference participation will impact your career, your affiliated institution, and the heritage field. How will you utilize the information, connections, and inspirations you gain from attending the conference for your professional goals, your institution, and/or future of the heritage field?

Email your letter of interest to Megumi Nagata at with the subject line WaMA 2020 Presenter Stipend.

4Culture staff will review and select applications based on:

Evidence of research on the cost, the conference, and WaMA.

• How clearly your interests or goals for career, affiliated institution, and the heritage field are articulated.
• How well your interests and goals align with the conference offering and WaMA’s mission.
• How well you illustrate the significance of their presentation to the heritage field.

We will notify stipend recipients via e-mail by March 20. Please contact Megumi Nagata, 4Culture Heritage Support Specialist, with any questions at or 206-263-3474.

We are honored to announce the recipients of the 2020 Arc Artist Fellowship!

The 2020 Fellows are:
Dani Tirrell, Dancer and Choreographer
Bernadette Merikle, Visual, Sound, and Performance Artist
E.T. Russian, Graphic Novelist and Multi-Sensory Artist
Anastacia-Reneé Tolbert, Interdisciplinary Artist
Storme Webber, Interdisciplinary Artist

The Arc Artist Fellowship provides critical—but rare—unrestricted awards of $12,000 to artists residing in King County. This year we received 35 highly competitive applications from King County artists working in dance, music, theater, media, literature, and the visual arts.

4Culture Executive Director Brian J. Carter says, “I am incredibly proud of the Arc Artist Fellowship program, including its past award recipients and this year’s Fellows. The arts provide the perfect opportunity to grapple with and engage the wide spectrum of human emotions and experiences—but this is only possible if artists, who have lived that full range of humanity, are adequately supported. 4Culture is thrilled to be partnering with artists at the center of this work.”

Each year, a new cohort of Arc Fellows are selected, with an eligibility requirement that changes annually. This year, eligible applicants are artists over 40 years of age who identify transsexual, transgender, genderqueer, Two-Spirit people, and anyone whose gender identity or gender expression is nonconforming.

Arc Fellows will assist in determining the Arc Eligibility Requirement for next year’s fellowship as well as participate in a public cohort presentation organized by 4Culture and in planning and community engagement for the 2021 program.

Marketing support has been identified as a top priority for today’s working artist. The Arc Artist Fellowship will provide each Fellow with a page on the 4Culture website to use for promotional purposes, featuring a description of their work, biography and images.

Congratulations to Dani, Bernadette, E.T., Anastacia-Reneé, and Storme! Stay tuned to learn more about the 2020 Arc Fellows and how you can connect with their work.

The Bothell Landmark Preservation Board (LPB) is a seven-member advisory board tasked with identifying and encouraging the conservation of the city’s historic resources. In addition to maintaining the Bothell Register of Historic Landmarks and reviewing new downtown development, some of their projects include a survey of Bothell’s mid-century resources, their book Bothell Then and Now, and a downtown walking tour. Here, they share how 4Culture fundind has supported those efforts this past year:

Downtown Bothell is changing! Over the last several years, the LPB has watched as multi-story, mixed-use buildings have replaced many of the historic homes and commercial buildings in the city’s downtown core. While necessary to accommodate an influx of new residents, the danger of losing Bothell’s sense-of-place is very real. Last year, the LPB tasked their staff consultant with developing a project that would examine the area’s remaining historic resources with the hope of guiding some property owners toward rehabilitation rather than demolition.

Bothell’s Downtown Landmark and Historic District Feasibility Study was devised to take a look at all of the pre-1980 buildings downtown, especially the ones along Main Street, and determine how many of them would qualify for the local register. Yes, that says pre-1980! In a broad study like this it was important to look at buildings that could become eligible in the next few years. Not to mention that some of the building styles from the 1970s and 1980s are now recognized as historically significant.

The study found that downtown Bothell could support a local register historic district centered around Main Street. Of the 54 buildings studied, half are potentially eligible either individually or as a contributing property in a historic district. Nearly half of those were either built or “modernized” during the mid-20th century period. When people think about a city’s historic Main Street or downtown core, the earliest buildings often come to mind but their midcentury counterparts and modernizations can often be just as significant on their own.

Looking through photographs of Bothell’s Main Street from before 1900 through the 1970s and ‘80s up to the present told an interesting story of evolution. Small wooden buildings constructed at the end of the 19th century were replaced with brick and concrete storefronts in the early decades of the 20th century. A little later, in the late-1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s, many of those brick storefronts on Main Street were “modernized,” meaning that outdated historic styles were covered with new Streamlined Moderne, Art Deco and Googie facades. Some of those remain, like at Three Lions Pub and Hana Sushi, but others were covered again later in the century with Mansard-esque facades. Today, there are a mix of building styles and eras represented downtown.

Another part of the study’s mission was to inform property owners about the various financial incentives available to help with building rehabilitation: Special Tax Valuation, Federal Historic Tax Credits and, of course, the 4Culture Landmarks Capital grant! Each building was evaluated with a brief section about which incentives might apply. Telling the story of Bothell’s downtown development, the study is a vehicle that will help residents and property owners see the significance of individual buildings, both old and not-so-old, and how they fit into the history of downtown. Hopefully, owners of downtown properties will be inspired to nominate their buildings to the local register and take advantage of some of the financial incentives available for rehabilitation.

In 2016, we published a survey study on the state of the Heritage field in King County. The findings showed a need for skill-based training and professional development opportunities for practitioners in the field. While many conferences and trainings are available nationwide, attending can be cost-prohibitive—our expanded stipend program aims to close the gap.

Stipends of $200 to $600 are now available to subsidize the cost of registration, travel, and lodging for conferences or trainings provided by a heritage professional association. Eligible applicants must be over 18 years old, a King County resident, and a staff member, board member, volunteer, or intern at a heritage organization in King County, or a consultant, service provider, or independent historian who primarily works with King County heritage. There is no deadline—applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. You may apply multiple times, but can only receive one award per year. Please note that we offer a separate stipend to attend the Washington Museums Association annual conference.

The application will consist of the following questions:

• Name of the presenting organization and title, date, and location of the professional development opportunity.
• Will you attend this conference as a presenter? If yes, title of your presentation and presenting format (panel, keynote, tabling, poster session, etc.).
• Your current status with a King County heritage museum or organization. If you are not affiliated with a specific institution, please describe your connection to King County heritage field.
• Volunteer or Intern applicant – Name and contact information of Volunteer Manager or your supervisor for reference
• Please explain how this opportunity and your participation will address new thinking or solutions to one or more key findings of the Heritage Report.
• Please explain how your participation will impact your career and your professional development. How will you utilize the information, connections, and inspirations you gain from attending this opportunity for your professional goals?
• Please explain how you plan to share information or use the training in your affiliated institution or your practice. How will your colleagues, your clients, or your affiliated institution benefit from you attending this opportunity? Alignment with your affiliated institution’s strategic goals is a plus but not required.
• Itemized budget of conference attendance and how you plan to subsidize the cost if the requested amount does not cover the entire cost. Please explain your institution’s policy on funding staff’s professional development.

To apply, please contact Megumi Nagata at to begin the process, and include “Heritage Professional Development Stipends” in the email subject.

We will review applications based on the following criteria:

• Evidence of research on the cost, the conference/training, and the presenting organization.
• How clearly your interests and goals for your career, affiliated institution, and the heritage field are articulated.
• How well you connect your interests to the conference or training.
• How well you demonstrate your plan to share information or use knowledge for your affiliate institution.
• How well you draw connections between your reasons for attending the conference or training and the Heritage Report key findings. Presenting in some capacity is a plus but not required (includes tabling).
• Whether your affiliated institution funds professional development for staff.

We will notify all qualified applicants via email within four weeks of recevining an application. To receive payment, recipients must provide an attendance report and a final expense sheet to 4Culture. The attendance report should include a narrative about your experience at the training or conference, findings or lessons learned, and, if presenting, how many attended your session.

For questions, please contact: Megumi Nagata, 4Culture Heritage Support Specialist, or 206-263-3474.

Revisiting Washington is a web-based update to the 1941 Washington, A Guide to the Evergreen State, published through the Federal Writers’ Project American Guide Series. With support from 4Culture and other unders, the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation has complemented the original text with new tours focused on Latino and Asian/Pacific Islander heritage, and a tour highlighting sites associated with African-American heritage is in the works for 2020. Here, Chris Moore, Executive Director of the Washington Trust, provides insight into how the project took shape:

Over a decade ago, we began work to digitize the rich content included in the 1941 Federal Writers’ Project American Guide Series: Washington, A Guide to the Evergreen State. As part of this special project beneath the umbrella of the Works Progress Administration, writers and photographers set off across the state to capture a moment in time and to document 1941 life in Washington. Predating the interstate freeway system, intrepid travelers took what today we call the “slow roads.”

It turns out these slow roads – what today essentially constitutes our state route system – provided a poignant portrait of the state. Tours in the guidebook meander through dense forests, agricultural areas, river valleys, and high plains, with associated text providing an informative backdrop as you travel from one landscape to the next. Traversing all 39 counties, these tours often terminated (or originated, depending on which direction you were headed) in our county seats. The guide text includes descriptions of key buildings and landmarks in these cities and towns, providing a true sense of main street life in our smaller, more rural communities.

We distributed the first iteration of Revisiting Washington as a CD-ROM which, given the speed technology progresses, proved to be obsolete nearly the day it was completed. Learning from this, we set out to develop a web-based version, available as a phone app with the capability to be updated and added to. Working on this version of the project, it became very clear that elements of our state’s history were glaringly missing. The narrative voice from 1941 did indeed provide rich content – valuable information for understanding that point in time. But it was not an especially diverse illustration of Washington State life. Aside from brief mentions, communities of color, non-European immigration, and tribal representation are relatively absent from the guide.

To address this, we envisioned a series of tours focused on sites associated with communities that have impacted Washington in deep and transformative ways. Maintaining the 1941 guidebook protocol, the new tours would be geographically discrete and focused on actual locations able to still be experienced by road trippers. The first of these focused on Japanese-American heritage on Vashon Island, highlighting nine sites, several of which are farms documenting the Japanese and Japanese-American impact on the island’s agricultural practices and economy. The second endeavored to highlight sites in the Yakima Valley associated with Latino heritage. Another 10 sites were added, again largely agricultural but including places important as social gathering spaces and cultural centers for the valley’s burgeoning Latino community.

Most recently, we completed a King County-based tour of sites representing Latino heritage. Given migration patterns, there are clear ties between the county’s flourishing Latino communities and the history of migrant labor supporting agriculture in the Yakima Valley. Over two dozen sites cover education, civil rights, religion, local business, and education. From South Park to White Center, from the Central District to the University District, extant sites featured on the King County tour cover a broad range of issues. Exclusive video interviews provide additional insight for those interested.

These tours are critically important elements of our Revisiting Washington platform. They highlight existing places and buildings that serve as anchors for the communities they represent despite being overlooked as “architectural” landmarks. They give bricks-and-mortar presence to stories too often hidden from mainstream narrative. This work coincides with efforts by the National Park Service to more fully understand and acknowledge the contributions of underrepresented communities. NPS funding has supported survey work for Latino and Asian/Pacific Islander heritage in Washington State, and our tours benefited greatly from these surveys. In fact, three of the sites included in our King County tour will be added to the National Register of Historic Places. There are so many Places That Matter across Washington. Yes, we should preserve the stately manors and monumental civic buildings. But we should also work to save the farmsteads, labor camps, social halls, and places of worship associated with all people whose legacy have enriched our state.

Our Storefront Media Gallery is a video art exhibition space, displaying dynamic work from across the U.S. to an audience on the go. Comprised of four screens, the Storefront Media Gallery is located in 4Culture’s large windows, facing Prefontaine Place South in the Pioneer Square neighborhood of Seattle. Two directional speakers are mounted on the exterior of the building, broadcasting sound to passers-by. Artworks are scheduled to play through a playback system, which loops daily from 7:00 am until 10:00 pm. The entire program usually rotates about once every hour.

Earlier this year, jurors Gazelle Samizay and Ezra Wube reviewed applications submitted through a national open call process and selected eleven new artists, beginning in 2020. The next time you find yourself on our street, take a break in front of the Storefront screens to experience their work!

Jake Couri, Alpine, NJ
Couri will utilize the multiple screens format to expand upon their work, Find Your Ritual, with the build out of animation in a way that utilizes each of the screens as if it has its own camera angle within the animation. Couri will also explore the use of subtitles.

Lauren Dake, Seattle, WA
Dake will expand a series of video vignettes entitled, Monoliths. This project is based on personal feelings of isolation, detachment and a sense of impending doom. It is influenced by 90’s science-fiction and fantasy films, and is a response to the post-internet static hum of our current culture.

Leslie Foster, Los Angeles, CA
Foster’s work is rooted in queer and Black futurity. They will adapt and present recently created work entitled, Etude #1, 59.9 and 59.10 sequentially playing across all four screens.

Adam Jabari Jefferson, Seattle, WA
Jabari will simultaneously display the interwoven themes of recent work, which includes: I Was, I Am, and I Will, which explores grounding and memory as a means of moving forward.

Rachel Lodge, Seattle, WA
For most people carbon is an abstraction. Lodge will create an animation sequence that lets people see the actual flow of carbon dioxide all around us, both in nature and through our own actions, which is normally invisible to us.

Chris Lowery, Brooklyn, NY
Lowery will create videos of their collection of Rolodexes. Set to music, which will be playing through a computer, these videos will show Lowery’s hands flipping through their Rolodex.

Berette Macaulay, Everett, WA
Macaulay will create new two and three channel abstract narrative work, which will explore their interest in transcultural identities. She is interested in examining collective interpretations of belonging, (re)connection, (in)visibility, and media (re)presentation in any work that strives to resolve objectified ideas of “difference’—specifically when coded as either “dangerous” or commodifiable.

Sri Prabha, Hollywood, FL
4Culture welcomes Sri Prabha back to the Storefront Media Gallery. Prabha is a multidisciplinary artist originally from Hyderabad, India who integrates into his aesthetic process tenants of geography, nature, time, human origins, and the cosmos. Prabha asks how our intellectual understandings compare with our emotional responses to scientific discoveries. They will be exhibiting Brahama 3, a three channel 1080P video.

Rebecca Shapass, Staten Island, NY
Shapass will create a silent, three-channel work that meditates on forms of symmetry found in living organisms. Using a green screen technology, they will construct these images using vibrantly colored, digitally abstracted videos of truncated parts of their own body. Through the combination of abstract images, whole forms will emerge.

Emily Tanner-McLean, Seattle, WA
Tanner-McLean will share their work, Flower/Thorn, a video resembling Victorian-style wallpaper, a work-in-progress, this work will arrange footage of a hand caressing the petals of red roses then gripping their thorny stems in a repetitious pattern.

Gordon Winiemko, Long Beach, CA
Filmed in Seattle, this work by Winiemko addresses gentrification and development that is displacing residents and businesses, exacerbating homelessness, and transforming the character of the city.

If you’re wondering how to spend these cold winter months, you’re in luck—this year brought an influx of incredible new heritage experiences to our region. Across King County, long-planned projects came to life as four much-loved heritage organizations moved collections, installed exhibits, and finally opened the doors to their new facilities.

Each one is an incredible feat! We’re proud to have supported them all through a myriad of grants over the years. Whether you’re entertaining out-of-town guests or need some solo time away from the shopping crowds, these newly opened heritage sites will keep you warm and inspired about the dynamic history of our region:

• • Wagner Education Center at the Center for Wooden Boats
    Open Wednesday through Sunday, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm; free admission
  • Sea Mar Museum of Chicano/a/Latino/a Culture 
    Open Monday through Friday, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm; free admission
  • Highline Heritage Museum
    Open Tuesday through Sunday, 12:00 to 7:00 pm; $8 general admission
  • Burke Museum
    Open daily 10:00 am to 5:00 pm; $22 general admission

As 2019 comes to a close, we’re getting ready to dive into a new year of grants, starting with Projects, one of our biggest funding programs. We checked in with some our grant managers to find out what advice they have for folks planning to apply this coming year. Even though the grants they manage all differ, we heard strong common themes that can help you not only with Projects, but all 4Culture grants—and probably even with grants from other funders. Happy applying!

1. Start early

Every grant manager we talked to echoed this one: start early. Heather Dwyer, who administers our Art Projects grant for individuals, says, “More than half of the applications I receive for the program arrive in the last 24 hours before the deadline. They shouldn’t! It’s stressful for them and administrators can’t offer as much help as we’d like at the last minute.” We typically open applications 6–8 weeks before a deadline—you can start your application and save it as a draft right up until you click submit. Melissa Newbill, who manages our Open4Culture grant, says, “Save often!” Plus, getting started early gives you plenty of time to follow our next piece of advice…

2. Read everything

When you first check out a guidelines page for a grant you’re interested in, it can be a daunting amount of information—but it really is all important. Again, all of our grant managers agree: read the guidelines in full before starting the application. Brandi Link, Preservation Special Projects manager, recommends tackling this in a way that works best for you: “Print them out, write questions on them, highlight, circle text, whatever you need to do to process the information.” Chieko Phillips, who manages Heritage Projects, adds “Pay extra attention to the review criteria. These are what grant reviewers weigh your application against when they are reading and scoring your applications and can help you decide how you describe your project.”

3. Reach out

We list contact names, emails, and phone numbers for all of our grants for a reason. “Get in touch with that person about your interest in applying. Not only if you have questions—introduce yourself and your ideas,” says Brandi. A reminder from Melissa: grant managers will even review your draft application if you send it to them at least two weeks before the deadline. Heather recommends that applicants make sure to, “use any and all assistance offered by the grantmaker. Attend workshops, review sample applications from past applicants, email or call with specific questions.” Don’t be afraid to ask for help. We know applying for grants isn’t easy!

4. Understand the grant

Every funding organization and grant is different, and your application will almost always be one of many. First, make sure you qualify for the grant: “I receive applications every year from artists who have spent many hours on an application that’s not eligible. It breaks my heart!” Next, do your research. Heather says, “Artists should find out why and how the grantmaker offers funding. What is the organization’s motivation? Where do the funds come from? Knowing this will help the artist understand if the grant is a good fit and use language that is relevant to the grantmaker.” Finally, understand that your application will be evaluated in a pool of other applicants. “Grants are competitive,” says Brandi. “So, do everything you can to make your application as competitive as possible: be realistic with your budget, write clearly, and give as many details about the project as you can.”

Get involved with this project!
Wednesday, December 11, 3:00—6:00 pm
Hop on a parked Metro bus for interactive art, music, poetry and wellness (more details)
RapidRide C Line, 2615 SW Barton Street across from Westwood Village

4Culture and King County Metro are pleased to share that artist team Johnson Ramirez have been selected to create a system-wide Art Plan for the RapidRide Expansion Program. Kristen Ramirez and Elisheba Johnson are both artists and public art project managers working here in the region. Collectively, they see public art as a practice that embraces “public” and “art” as equal sides of the same equation. When they approach projects, they begin by asking three fundamental questions: who works here? Who plays here? Who lives here? They believe every project ought to begin with meaningful engagement with the people who occupy a place, whether through questionnaires, storytelling, historical research, or celebration. The poetry-based performance shown above, Radical Self Love Seattle, captures their first collaboration together as artists. The project posited the question “what is self-love?” at a time that they, as two divorced moms seeking love while working jobs championing other artists, wished to champion themselves, too.

In anticipation of this project, they say that, “Rapid Ride is vitally important to transforming everyone’s commute, from our youth going to school, to our elders running errands. Reliable and convenient transit options are part of equitable urban planning. This is an exciting moment to imagine how art can transform bus rider’s lives.” Over the next six months, Johnson Ramirez will be analyzing and identifying opportunities to integrate art across the RapidRide system and on a line-by-line basis. Their work will culminate in a conceptual framework for system-wide and community-specific art integration and intervention. This Art Plan will directly inform how 4Culture and Metro prioritize future artist opportunities, and will be a living document that adapts and responds to the evolving RapidRide Expansion program over the next 7–10 years. Although the plan will lay a foundation for other artists’ work, Johnson Ramirez will have the opportunity to propose ideas for their own artwork for the expanded RapidRide system, or a particular line and location. They will launch their work with a community engagement event in December—stay tuned for details.

RapidRide is King County Metro’s premiere service: arterial bus rapid transit. First implemented in 2009, there are six existing lines (A-F) serving King County today. Each day, these lines carry almost 20% of the over 400,000 daily Metro transit trips taken around the Seattle region and represent one of the busiest bus rapid transit systems in the nation. King County and the Seattle region are experiencing unprecedented population growth. To meet the ever-increasing demand for high quality transit service, a massive expansion of the RapidRide system, King County Metro’s arterial bus rapid transit service, is underway. Seven new lines are planned to launch between 2021 and 2027.

Through annual internships, we support research on King County historic properties to inform the work of our Beyond Integrity group—visit that page to explore the work of previous interns. This past year, intern Tera Williams tackled surveys and inventories, which are often the first step in identifying significant historic properties in an area. How do local survey methods line up with national standards? Here, she shares about her process and findings:

Going into the position, I was very excited to learn more about the specific preservation issues in the area. I wanted to better contextualize how historic preservation should fit within equitable revitalization and what was preventing that from happening. Luckily, the focus of my internship allowed me to get a broad overview of how preservation functions on a county and city level. My internship work happened in two research phases. First, I analyzed preservation survey and inventory methodology in Seattle and King County to see where the process was straying from the most equitable path. For the second phase, I worked together with Beyond Integrity to select a Seattle and a King County survey to examine for equitable practices and create two embedded case studies. I was then able to come back to the survey and inventory methodology and combine that with the things I learned in the case studies to create recommendations.

As I got further along in the research process, the true nature of the work began to unfold itself. The more I worked, the more it became evident that having a solid survey and inventory methodology is often the deciding factor for whether or not cultural assets are detected. In my case studies, I looked at the Vogue Hotel/VAIN in Seattle and the Yasamura’s Packing Shed in Auburn. The Vogue has been a counterculture hub for decades and was the site of Nirvana’s first Seattle show and the Yasamura’s Packing Shed was the place where Japanese Americans boarded trains to internment camps during WWII. The sites both represented values that were important to specific communities, but would not necessarily be picked up in the ordinary survey process. Through comparing these case studies, I learned the importance of using the context statement to guide the survey and inventory process and talking to the community to see what assets they value within the community.

My biggest takeaway from this process was not to take anything at face value. The sites themselves and the historic preservation process have more depth to them than I initially assumed. Looking at the process from the terminology to survey and inventory methodology, I found that while things had been designed to preserve dominant American cultural assets, it was not strictly structured to exclude assets of marginalized communities. Rather, the system was created to be open to interpretation and was not being utilized procedurally to its maximum potential. While integrity has been recognized as architectural integrity, it is not defined on a local level and on the national level, it is defined as the integrity of meaning. Unpacking and expanding our working knowledge of the preservation process and retraining local preservation professionals with new, more equitable, guidelines and definitions of terms is the key to being able to achieve landmark status for cultural assets that do not have architectural integrity, but retain integrity of meaning.

Our Rural Heritage Internship Program connects skilled interns with heritage organizations located outside of Seattle. In its second year, we have partnered with Des Moines Historical Society and Issaquah History Museum as the host sites of the internships. Three students from University of Washington Museology Graduate Program and Museum Studies Certificate Program started their internships in June 2019, and have been working on various projects such as evaluation, collections management, and public relations at their host sites. Here, we have asked them to share their experiences:

Johanna Berliner is working on audience evaluation at Issaquah Historical Museums:
My learning goals for this internship revolved around coming into my own as a professional: managing and planning projects, developing skills in leadership and finding confidence in decision-making. Issaquah History Museums has treated me like a consultant, which means I’ve been able to make major decisions about my projects and take ownership of those decisions. Working so closely with a small, rural institution has given me a better sense of what evaluation can look like in the field, the amount of collaboration it takes to implement, and how to deal with difficulties when they arise.

Working with a smaller, rural institution also means working on a smaller scale than the large evaluation projects I’ve done through my program, so I’ve also learned to think strategically about what kind of work is most useful for the organization. I’ve refocused to create evaluation tools IHM can use to continue to get feedback on their programs once my internship ends, without putting strain on their staff resources. Through this experience, as a stronger collaborator and more confident decision-maker, I’m better-equipped to do more kinds of evaluation projects in the future.

Andrea McKeever is working on collections management at Des Moines Historical Society:
My learning goals for the rural internship program developed over the course of my project. Initially I planned to focus on entering information from paper files into a PastPerfect catalog. By following this plan, I would increase my knowledge of PastPerfect and my abilities to manage a long term, detailed project. After spending time at the Des Moines Historical Society, I shifted my learning goals to develop materials that teach how to use PastPerfect. Currently my focus is making PastPerfect training manuals for the museum’s volunteers. These manuals use screenshots to illustrate how to perform tasks including cataloging, records management, and collection searches. I am also working with the organization’s volunteer collections manager to create basic records and authority files that future volunteers and interns can build on.

So far, my experiences in the rural internship program have allowed me to expand my knowledge of PastPerfect and my teaching abilities. Working at the Des Moines Historical Society has challenged me to be flexible and aware of how my project fits into the organization’s other priorities and resources. I am confident that my mastery of PastPerfect, my ability to teach and work with volunteers, and my ability to adapt to and work with an organization’s needs and resources will help me thrive in the non-profit heritage field.

Melody Smith is working on public relations at Des Moines Historical Society:
My name is Melody, and I am working with the Des Moines Historical Society through the Rural Heritage Internship. While 4Culture assigned me to work on DMHS’s marketing plan, it became apparent that they also needed an update of branding. As I set to work, my learning goals focused on learning how to build community engagement. Through talking with the community, understanding marketing channels, and envisioning a historical society that reflected the needs of its people, I learned not only how to create ties to the community, but how necessary historical societies are for the rural communities they support.

Through this program, I had the opportunity to reach out to a rural community, hear their stories, learn their passion for local history, and further understand the importance of investing in smaller historical societies. As I go forward in my career, my work in the program has deepened my understanding of who we do our work for and why it matters. Our rural communities hold immense value for the future of the heritage field and investing in the heritage of these communities will pay dividends long into the future. I am greatly appreciative for my time working for 4Culture and the Des Moines Historical Society.

For more information about the Rural Heritage Internship Program, please contact Megumi Nagata at .