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.
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 $15,000 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. A panel of local artists and art professionals reviews all eligible applications based on these criteria.
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Inspiration and Expertise: the artist clearly conveys the sources of inspiration and motivation that sustain and drive their work, and demonstrates how their expertise, training, and creative experiences have shaped their artistic practice.
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Vision and Direction: the artist presents a clear plan for their creative development over the next three years, outlining their goals, the strategies and steps they will take to achieve them, and how a $15,000 fellowship would meaningfully support their artistic practice.
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Quality and Innovation: the artist demonstrates a distinct creative perspective, as evidenced by work samples and a highlighted past or in-process project that exemplifies their practice.
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Advancing Equity: 4Culture’s mission focuses on racial equity and envisions a county where culture is essential and accessible to all. The artist’s practice specifically benefits or collaborates with communities of color and/or historically marginalized communities. This is not an eligibility requirement, but it is one of the factors the panel will consider.
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 or project 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.
Each of our grant programs utilizes an Equity Investment system tailored to the specific needs of its applicants. 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.
For the Arc Artist Fellowship, additional consideration will be given to applicants who meet one or more of the following requirements:
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You are based outside of the City of Seattle.
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You are located in one of Seattle’s Communities of Opportunity.
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OR your application scores highly on the Advancing Equity criteria.
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Are You Eligible?
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Are You Eligible?
This is a competitive grant program open to individual artists.
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You must be a resident of King County, Washington and at least 18 years old.
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You must meet the 2026 Arc Eligibility Requirement, as defined below.
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You may not be current 4Culture staff, Board, or Advisory Committee Member.
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You may not have previously received funding through the Arc Artist Fellowship.
Arc Eligibility Requirement
The Arc Artist Fellowship has an additional eligibility requirement that changes annually.
This year, eligible applicants are artists who live in or work with rural communities in King County. We invite applications from artists whose creative practice is rooted in engagement with rural residents, organizations, and networks, and reflects the lived experiences, histories, and aspirations of rural places.
This may include, but is not limited to, artists from Native and immigrant communities who are living and working in rural areas of King County.
2026 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.
Application Worksheets, How-To Guides, and Other Resources
4Culture has put together a variety of documents with helpful information for applicants.
Applicant Worksheets include all the questions you will be asked in the application, as well as tips from 4Culture staff on how to put together a strong submission and details on what to expect after you submit your application.
Download the Application Worksheet: Word
Please note: all applications must be submitted online at apply.4culture.org. Using the application worksheet is not an alternative to the online application form.
These documents provide step-by-step guides to completing different parts of the application process:
Use of AI in Application Drafting
4Culture encourages applicants to represent their work in an authentic and genuine manner. Panelists review dozens of applications at a time and notice patterns of similarity. If you use AI tools to help formulate your narratives, we encourage you to edit, personalize, and make your application unique to you. Panelists are prohibited from using AI summary tools to review submitted applications or generative AI to score submissions or write application comments.
Workshops
Workshops can make a major difference in how competitive your application is—each year, we find that the strongest applications come from people who have attended a workshop. They provide an opportunity for you to meet staff, learn about the process, and ask questions. During a grant workshop, 4Culture staff will walk attendees through a presentation on the grant guidelines and application with time for questions at the end. Virtual workshops will have captioning available, and you’ll need a Zoom account to join.
Office Hours are open sessions during which a program manager will be standing by on Zoom to answer questions ahead of the application due date. There will not be a formal presentation. You can drop in at any point during the scheduled time and leave once your questions are answered. Office Hours will have captioning available, and you’ll need a Zoom account to join.
Accessibility: ASL interpretation will be provided for the workshop on August 31. Interpretation can be provided for any other workshop by advance request. Please contact Jackie Mixon at for access requests and questions.
Draft Application Feedback
If you 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, September 16 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:
Substitulos en Español | 中文字幕（繁體)
Contact
Before you begin or after starting your application, you may have questions. In addition to office hours, our staff are available by email and phone to assist you.
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
Applications due: September 30, 2026 at 5:00 pm PDT
Applicant notification: December 2026
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 click “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.
Narrative Questions
You will be required to answer five narrative questions based on the criteria. In addition, applications must include all the following materials to be eligible. We strongly recommend assembling them before you begin your application.
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.
We accept images, text documents, videos, and audio in the following formats:
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File Attachments (images and documents): ONLY JPEG, PDF, or Word Document under 2 MB each
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Links (video and audio): ONLY YouTube, Vimeo, or Soundcloud – links must be public or unlisted (no password)
Work samples must be under 5 minutes or 5 pages total. For longer work samples, please note what section should be reviewed in the Work Sample Description.
To resize files to under 2 MB, you can use free websites like Image Resizer and PDF Resizer.
The following formats are not accepted and will not be reviewed:
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Links to personal websites, social media, cloud storage, film databases, resume/CV websites, or links requiring passwords.
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Attachments over 2 MB each.
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Full resumes.
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Letters of recommendation.
Work Sample Descriptions
Please prepare the following information for all work samples:
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Titles (and/or track numbers) of the work(s) submitted in the order in which they are to be reviewed.
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Date the work(s) were completed or if they are in-progress.
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Role of the applicant (Example: I was the choreographer and director of this project).
For video and audio links: If longer than 5 minutes, indicate the segment the panel should review.
For documents: identify if the samples are complete works, abstracts, excerpts, or a collection.
For images: include the medium, dimensions of the artworks, and completion date.
Demograhic Information
Your account profile 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.
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.