Grants to Organizations - Revisions

Our 2009-2013 Strategic Plan documents a rising number of residents in our state and an increase in the number of arts organizations, along with a rising cost of business and the need for arts support in underserved areas of the state. Outside of a few major cities and counties, there is little government or private support for arts activities. Clearly, WSAC must improve its statewide impact, boosting arts services in rural areas and smaller cities. At the same time, the grants program must offer fair and efficient processes and be accountable for the services purchased.

The revised grants program will focus on the following priority areas identified in the Strategic Plan. Applicants will identify the areas they will address if they receive a contract from WSAC and then report on the results in their final reports.

Community and cultural vitality: examples include outreach to people who are not attending arts events, expanding the diversity of participants, expanding the geographic reach of services, relating the arts to other community priorities, or developing new artistic works.
Stewardship: examples include preserving and caring for publicly held arts resources such as artworks or cultural heritage, or building public awareness through effective promotions and publications.
Lifelong learning and education: examples include audience enrichment activities or learning projects for out-of-school youth.

Washington Arts Grants structure - begins FY2010 (July 1, 2009)

Criteria for organizational grants will be based on:

Artistic merit
Public benefit
Management capability
Geographic representation

Large Arts Institutions: Professional arts organizations with an annual income budget of at least $1 million (average over three previous completed years), and seven years of arts service, will be juried together in one open category biennially. These grants will be approximately $10,000 to maximum $15,000. Geographic service/outreach will be required either by serving participants from underserved areas, or by taking services out to underserved areas. (This replaces the previous closed category of Institutional Support Program that was formula-funded.)

Midsized Arts Organizations: Professional arts organizations with annual income budgets between $200,000 and $1 million in the previous completed fiscal year, and three years of arts service, will be juried together in one category biennially. These grants will be approximately $4,000 to $8,000 maximum. The jury will be expected to consider geographic service/outreach so that all areas of the state are reached within this category as a whole, to the extent possible. (This replaces the previous Organizational Support Program.)

Project Support: Support smaller arts organizations or non-arts organizations of any size that provide an arts service will be juried on a six-month timeline. Grants will be approximately $500 to $4,000. Review will include geographic service/outreach so that all areas of the state are reached within this category as a whole, to the extent possible. (This revised category will no longer fund staff support or public art construction projects.)

There are no changes to:

Cooperative Partnerships, which support the provision of services by four statewide arts service organizations with two-year contracts.
Arts Participation Initiative, which reach underserved communities by providing two-year contracts, training, and evaluation.

Public Benefit Reporting

Beginning in FY2010, all categories of grantees must clearly identify, in their applications, the specific arts services, or programming that WSAC will fund and describe the public benefit that will result by this service. At the end of the year, they must report on the actual public benefits achieved in their final reports.