Arc Artist Fellowship
The Arc Artist Fellowship offers operational support for artists as they pursue their creative work.
These guidelines reflect information for last year’s grant cycle and will be updated ahead of applications opening for the next cycle. Please contact 4Culture staff with any questions.
- Applications will reopen in 2026 with more awards and funding! Find other opportunities on our Grants + Artist Calls, Listings, and Community Resources pages.
- Current grant contracts will continue to be honored.
- Subscribe to our newsletter for updates and please don’t hesitate to contact us with questions. We’re here to help!
Steps to Apply
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What is the Arc Artist Fellowship?
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What is the Arc Artist Fellowship?
The Arc Artist Fellowship provides $12,000 awards and modest promotional support to emerging, mid-career, and established artists.
We know that artists value unrestricted funding above all other types of support. It allows artists to apply funds when and where it’s most needed as they develop their practice. We envision artists using Arc Artist Fellowship funds to offset expenses related to things like rent or mortgage payments, childcare, health care, transportation, food, space rental, legal support, equipment, materials, workshop fees, residencies, community support, and more.
Criteria
We award funds through a competitive process, carefully evaluating each application.
For this grant, a peer review panel will evaluate your application based on the following:
- How well you convincingly express what continues to inspire your work as an artist.
- How clearly you outline your plan to reach your creative goals in the next three years.
- Your expertise, training and/or creative experiences that have helped you develop your art.
- A past or in-process project or presentation of your work that you elect to highlight in detail.
- How well your work samples support the above criteria.
Public Benefit: Why It Matters
Every time a visitor to Washington State stays in a hotel, they pay a Lodging Tax—this is where our funding comes from, and our mission is to put it back into the community. If awarded funds, you will sign an agreement with 4Culture. This agreement will require you to participate in a public cohort presentation organized by 4Culture during the fellowship year. Selected Fellows will also be asked to support planning and community engagement for the next year of the Arc Artist Fellowship program. Read about public benefit more in depth here.
Equity Investments
To combat inequities in our grantmaking, 4Culture engages in the practice of making Equity Investments. This practice involves looking at several indicators of structural inequity and applying that knowledge to our peer review panel process. These indicators include but are not limited to: geographic location of applicants, operating budget, communities engaged with and audiences served, and project focus. By prioritizing these factors in our grantmaking decisions and panel review process, we anticipate funds will be distributed to communities that have historically been excluded from cultural funding.
This organization-wide change—and what we learn about its impact—is an important step towards more equitable funding at 4Culture and throughout the King County cultural sector.
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Are You Eligible?
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Are You Eligible?
This is a competitive grant program open to individual artists.
- You must be a resident of King County, Washington.
- You must meet the 2023 Arc Eligibility Requirement, as defined below.
- You may not be current 4Culture staff, Board, or Advisory Committee Member.
- You may not have previously received funding through a Community 4Culture award or the Arc Artist Fellowship.
Arc Eligibility Requirement
The Arc Artist Fellowship has an additional eligibility requirement that changes annually.
This year, eligible applicants are Indigenous, Aboriginal, or Native artists of diverse international ancestral lands, who live in King County, the unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples.
We seek to lift up the expression of cultural sovereignty of Indigenous makers as culture bearers and as contemporary artists.
2023 Fellows will assist in determining the Arc Eligibility Requirement of the next year’s Fellowship.
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Helping You Succeed
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Helping You Succeed
We recognize that people need different types of support, and we will do our best to provide a variety of resources to help you develop your application.
Workshops
Workshops allow you to meet program managers, walk through the application, have your questions answered, and hear from other artists in an informal meeting space.
This grant is currently closed. Workshops will be posted 6-8 weeks before the next deadline date.
Draft Application Review
Schedule a one-to-one phone or zoom call with the Arc Artist Fellowship Program Manager, Melissa Newbill, to discuss your application and have your questions answered. These 20-minute sessions must be scheduled in advance via Calendly, linked below.
If you do not need a one-to-one meeting, but would like us to review your draft application and provide feedback over email, make sure to save your work and contact us no later than Wednesday, June 14 to allow enough time for review and edits.
Tutorial Videos
Watch this step-by-step application guide video to assist you in the Arc Artist Fellowship application process:
Watch this video to assist you through the process of creating an account, starting your application, and saving it for later:
Application Worksheet
As you draft your application, you may choose to work offline in a document. This application worksheet can be used as tool as you work. It includes helpful tips and space to draft your responses. Click to download the worksheet: PDF or Word.
Contact
We are here to assist you! We will make every effort to ensure equal access to services for all applicants. If you need assistance or require different forms of access, please contact us. If you have any questions, please email or call at any time.
Translation and Assistance
The guidelines, a detailed explanation of how to apply, and the application are in English. If this is a barrier that stops you from understanding the grant or applying due to limited English writing ability, visual impairment, or you would like to request assistance to create an application, please contact or call (206) 296-7580 or TTY 711, and we will make sure you get the support you need.
Русский (Russian)
Руководство, подробная инструкция и форма заявки на английском языке. Если вам сложно разобраться в процедуре получения грантов или подачи заявок из-за ограниченных навыков письменного английского языка либо нарушений зрения, а также если вы бы хотели обратиться за помощью при составлении заявки, отправьте письмо на адрес электронной почты или позвоните по номеру (206) 296-7580 или 711 (телетайп), и мы позаботимся о том, чтобы вы получили необходимую помощь.
Soomaali (Somali)
Tilmaamaha, sharaxaadda faahfaahsan ee ku saabsan sida loo codsado, iyo waraaqda codsiga waxa ay dhammaan ku qoran yihiin Af-Ingiriisi. Haddii ay arrintani tahay caqabad kaa hor istaageysa fahamka deeqda ama codsashada oo ay sabab u tahay awoodda qorista Af-Ingiriisiga oo xadidan, araggaaga oo liita, ama aad jeclaan lahayd inaad codsato in lagaa caawiyo in aad codsi sameyso, fadlan la xiriir ama wac (206) 296-7580 ama TTY 711, waxaana xaqiijin doonnaa inaad hesho taageerada aad u baahan tahay.
Español (Spanish)
Las pautas, la explicación detallada de cómo enviar la solicitud y la solicitud están en inglés. Si esto le impide comprender la información relacionada con la beca o enviar una solicitud debido a una limitación en la capacidad para escribir en inglés, si tiene una discapacidad visual o si desea recibir asistencia para crear una solicitud, escriba a o llame al (206) 296-7580 o TTY 711, y nos aseguraremos de que obtenga la ayuda que necesita.
Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
Hướng dẫn, giải thích chi tiết về cách nộp đơn va tài liệu áp dụng tất cả đều bằng Tiếng Anh. Nếu đây là rào cản khiến quý vị không hiểu được khoản trợ cấp hoặc cách nộp đơn do khả năng viết tiếng Anh hạn chế, do quý vị bị suy giảm thị lực hoặc muốn yêu cầu hỗ trợ để tạo đơn đăng ký, làm ơn liên hệ hoặc gọi (206) 296-7580 hay TTY 711 và chúng tôi sẽ hỗ trợ những gì quý vị cần.
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After You Submit
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After You Submit
Selection Process
4Culture staff reviews applications first to ensure eligibility. Eligible applications are then evaluated by a peer-panel, which will be comprised of artists and arts professionals working in diverse disciplines. Our peer-panel changes annually. 4Culture staff facilitates the selection process but does not vote or try to influence the outcome.
Timeline for Selection
Deadline for entry: June 27, 2023 at 5:00 pm PDT
Applicant notification: September 2023
Contracts and Payment
If you are selected to receive a Fellowship, the grant managers will work with you to create a contract outlining your public benefit requirement and the payment schedule for the Fellowship year.
Requirements and Appeals
Learn about what will be required if you are awarded a grant, and about the process for appeal of a 4Culture decision.
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Apply
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Apply
Once you’ve started your application, you can save after each step and sign out—your application will be saved as a draft that you can continue to work on up to the deadline. Once you hit “Submit,” your application is final. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions during the process.
What’s in the Application
We will not consider your application without work samples. The peer panel will review no more than ten (10) minutes of combined work samples per application—keep this in mind if you are submitting audio and video samples. We strongly recommend assembling them before you login and begin your application. Don’t hesitate to email or call us with any questions as you work on these materials.
Demographic Information
Your profile in our portal must provide demographic information for the current year. We use this information to help us understand how well we are doing in our efforts to reach all communities in King County.
Work Sample Descriptions
You will need to identify the work sample(s) that you submit with your application. You will add this information into a text box in your application by writing directly into the application; this is not something you will upload. Your Work Sample Description must include all work samples, including those uploaded (image or manuscripts) or those hosted externally (video or audio files). Please prepare the following information about the work samples:
- Titles (and/or track numbers) of the work(s) submitted in the order in which they are to be reviewed.
- Date the work(s) were completed or if they are in-progress.
- Role of the applicant (Example: I was the choreographer and director of this project).
If your work samples are in the manuscript format, identify if the sample(s) are complete works, abstracts, excerpts or a group of works.
If your work samples are in the image format, include the medium, dimensions of the artwork(s) and completion date.
You may choose to write a few brief sentences about your work sample(s).
Work Samples
Work Samples are required of all applicants. You are encouraged to submit work samples of past or in-process projects that best exemplify your work. Prints, transparencies, musical scores, brochures, and press-clippings will not be accepted.
You must submit work samples in one of the formats listed below. Additionally, you may choose to select a second format, if you work in multiple disciplines or believe your work is best represented in different media. Each applicant’s work will be reviewed for a cumulative total of ten (10) minutes maximum. Recommended formats by discipline:
- Music: audio format
- Dance: video format
- Theater: video or manuscript format
- Visual: digital image format
- Literary: manuscript format
- Media: video or manuscript format
Please use this guide as you prepare and submit your work samples:
Audio
A maximum of three (3) work samples.
How to submit: You may submit up to three (3) audio files using SoundCloud. Once you have uploaded your files to SoundCloud that you would like the selection panel to review, indicate the SoundCloud URL (e.g. https://soundcloud.com/m-rodriguez/03-m-rodriguez) in your application, in the order in which you would like the files reviewed. Work samples may not be submitted through other media sharing sites or on personal websites.
Digital Image
A maximum of ten (10) JPGs in the order in which they are to be reviewed. JPG (.jpg) files only. Images must be under 2MB, 1920 pixels on the longest side and at least 72 dpi. Label your images in the following manner: 01_LastName. Example: 01_Rodriguez, 02_Rodriguez etc… Images will be presented one at a time during the application review process.
How to submit: Upload JPGs in the order in which they are to be reviewed, in the required format.
Manuscript
A writing sample, in English, of no more than ten (10) pages (plus one (1) cover page) with a minimum font size of 12 points. Include a cover page with your name and title of work(s) and label each page with your full name.
How to submit: Upload in Portable Document Format (.pdf) or Word (.doc) only, in the required format.
Video
A maximum of three (3) work samples.
How to submit: You may submit up to three (3) videos using Vimeo or YouTube. You may not submit private files with a password (see mail-in option). Once you have uploaded video selections that you would like the selection panel to review, indicate the URL (e.g. https://www.vimeo.com/2992575) in your application, in the order in which you would like the videos reviewed. Work samples may not be submitted through other websites. If your video is private, please provide the private video link. Do not select the password protected option.
We will make every effort to ensure equal access to services for all applicants. If you need assistance or require different forms of access, please contact us.