CityArtist Grant
Application
Opens April 2, 2024.
Apply online through the City of Seattle’s grant portal.
If you don’t have a computer or internet access, contact staff as soon as possible.
Materials
Deadline
May 7, 2024, 5 p.m.(Pacific)
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Our CityArtist grant supports Seattle-based individual artists/curators in the research, development, and presentation of creative work. By sustaining individuals who are at the core of the cultural sector, we ensure that creative careers and work can develop and adapt over time, which is critical to artists’ professional growth and business insight. Providing financial support for creative entrepreneurs contributes to the broader economy and quality of life in neighborhoods across the city.
The 2025 application is open to artists/curators working in Dance, Music, and Theater (including Playwriting). Awarded artists will need to offer a public presentation within Seattle city limits. We encourage a broad range of artistic and cultural expression that reflects the Seattle’s diversity.
This program is open to specific discipline clusters in alternating years:
- Even Years (2024, 2026): Literary, Media/Digital/Film (including Screenwriting), and Visual
- Odd Years (2023, 2025): Dance, Music, and Theater (including Playwriting)
Eligibility
You are qualified for this grant if you meet this criteria:
- You are a generative artist/curator who produces/presents art.
- You are a Seattle resident OR have a permanent studio/workspace in your name within Seattle city limits where you receive mail. It cannot be a P.O. Box.
- You are at least 18 years of age by the application due date.
- You are an individual artist/curator or the lead artist/curator of a team of artists/curators.
If you are the lead artist/curator of an arts or cultural group/organization, you must clearly distinguish work for this award from the ongoing/seasonal work of your group/organization.
You are not qualified for this grant if:
- You are enrolled in school at any level (high school, undergraduate, graduate, or doctoral) in any degree program related to one’s own artistic work or career;
- You are a current award recipient from any Office of Arts & Culture program with an active contract.
Please read the guidelines for full details.
Funding
Awards are set at a single amount of $8,000 for all recipients.
Scope of work and final event details will be determined after awards are official and during the contracting phase.
Due Date
Tuesday, May 7, 2024, 5 p.m. Pacific
Please allow ample time to complete your application. Submissions after the deadline will not be accepted.
Virtual Information and Draft Review Sessions
Learn more about this opportunity and how to turn in your strongest application. We highly encourage first-time applicants to watch this information workshop:
Draft Phone Review 1
Monday, April 22, 2024
1 - 5 p.m. Pacific
Visit our calendar and select your preferred timeslot to RSVP
Draft Phone Review 2
Monday, April 29, 2024
1 - 5 p.m. Pacific
Visit our calendar and select your preferred timeslot to RSVP
Open Phone Office Hours
Wednesdays, April 2 - 24, 2024
3 - 5 p.m. Pacific
Call Project Manager, Irene Gómez at (206) 684-7310.
Application
Apply online through the City of Seattle's grant portal. If this is your first time using FLUXX, you will have to create a user profile before you start your application. If you don’t have computer or internet access, contact staff as soon as possible.
Info
For information and assistance with the application, eligibility or online technical support, please contact Project Manager, Irene Gómez at (206) 684-7310 or Irene.Gomez@seattle.gov.
We can speak to you in your language, including American Sign Language via video. Just call us and tell us what language you speak. There will be a short pause while we find an interpreter to join the call.
Manage your award
Log in to your account
The current CityArtist application is on a new online system called FLUXX. Applicants must initiate an account/user profile, complete the Demographic section, and proceed to the application form. If you have questions, please contact Project Manager Irene Gómez for guidance at irene.gomez@seattle.gov.
Please check back here for future updates.
Getting the word out
Want to get the word out about your arts or cultural event or exhibit? Here are some tips on sending out information to the public and local media.
Step 1. Gather all the details: who, what, where, when, and why.
Step 2. Gather graphics for publicity. Gather photos, create a logo if necessary, work with a designer on the look and any printed materials.
Step 3. Write a press release and/or prepare a press kit and send it to the media.
Social Media
- Like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Also, be sure you’re signed up for our email newsletter.
- Post about your grant/event/program, and tag us! On Twitter, tag us by typing “@SeattleArts”. On Instagram, tag us by typing “@SeaOfficeofArts”. When you tag us, we get notified and can respond. On your Facebook post, type in “@Seattle Office of Arts & Culture”, and select our office’s page from the drop-down menu.
- The sooner you tell your Project Manager about your event, the more likely we’ll be able to fit it into our social media calendar. We have a lot of news and events, and schedule posts and activities weeks out.
- If you have promo materials, please remember to send anything you have produced (press releases, postcards, brochures, etc.) to your Project Manager. These items should include the Office of Arts & Culture name and/or logo. We rebranded our Office in 2013, so if you’ve been funded before, please make sure to update our logo.
We recommend circulating these items at least two weeks prior to your event to increase awareness and attendance.
The Press Release
Press releases inform the media about your event and can inspire the media to publish a calendar listing or even cover the event. Click here for a description and example of the anatomy of a press release.
- Try to let the media know what makes your event unique or relevant.
- Be genuine. Exaggeration or inaccuracy will only hurt your chances of being a reliable media source. The more a press release reads like an actual news article, the better. Many smaller publications love releases they can print verbatim.
- Press releases should look professional and be easy to read. Type double-spaced.
- Make sure the organization's name, address, website, and contact information are visible.
- Include the media contact's name, direct phone line, and e-mail address near the top of the first page.
- Include a "pull date" (the last date of the event) near the top of the first page.
- Include a headline that summarizes the event and invites people to read the details.
- All the most pertinent information should be included in the first paragraph - the five W's. Who is presenting what, where, and when? Why should people attend? Include information on how people can attend or buy tickets, locations of ticket venues or website, e-mail, and/or box office phone-line information.
- Additional paragraphs can provide more descriptive information about the event, artists involved, and quotes.
- Use your mission statement or general description of the organization at the end of the press release.
- If the press release is longer than one page, write "-More-" at the bottom of each page. At the end of the last page, include "# # #" to indicate the end of the release.
The Press Kit
Press kits provide useful background information for members of the press writing previews or reviews of your arts or cultural event. A press kit should be organized in a folder and generally includes:
1) Organization Information (front to back on the left side of the folder)
- Mission statement
- Brief organizational history
- Organizational brochure
- Feature articles on the organization or lead staff
- Board list
- Business card for media contact
2) Specific Event Information (front to back on the right side of the folder)
- Press release for the event
- Photos or artwork related to the event
- Event postcard or flyer
- Event program
- Artists' bios, if not in the program
- Preview articles about the event
Note: Do not include reviews of the event or previous events in the press packet. Most reviewers do not want to be influenced by the opinions of others.
Online calendars
There are numerous websites with online events calendars to use to publicize your event. Here are a few:
Daily and Weekly Papers
Send your press releases to local newspapers. Here are some of the dailies and weekly papers to begin with.
Neighborhood Newspapers
- International Examiner - Contact
- Northwest Asian Weekly - Contact
- Pacific Publishing Company serves the University District, Ravenna, Roosevelt, Laurelhurst, Sand Point, Wedgewood, Wallingford, Fremont, Phinney Ridge, Green Lake, Greenwood, Queen Anne, Magnolia, Madison Park, Broadmoor, Washington Park, Madrona, Madison Valley, Leschi, Capitol Hill, First Hill, Beacon Hill, Mt. Baker, South Hill, International District, and Kirkland - Contact
- Westside Seattle publishes Ballard News Tribune, West Seattle Herald, and The Highline Times - Contact
Radio
Most radio stations accept a written public service announcement (PSA). Some will take a pre-recorded PSA. Check the website of the radio station you think best matches your audience. Many stations belong to the Puget Sound Broadcasters Association or Washington State Association of Broadcasters. Both organizations list links to their members.
Television
Seattle Channel, the city's municipal television channel, is committed to covering local arts and culture. Art Zone with Nancy Guppy on the Seattle Channel specifically covers the local art scene.
Local television stations are:
Funded Partners
Please Note: The 2021 CityArtist cycle was paused due to COVID-19.
2020
2020 CityArists
Chai Adera
I was raised in a world of Indigenous media making and storytelling. My practice was shaped through experiential learning but with an ethic of giving back to the community. I don't limit myself to one medium because our stories develop along with our art forms. A big component to my work in the last few pieces is glitch art technology and warped VHS distortions as a distinct style choice. I love breaking down VHS images. It feels metaphorical. It's also a great challenge for my mind to build visual pieces out of broken segments that might push emotional reactions. I want to push myself to capture the underground vibe of my generation in an authentic yet visually distorted manner that confuses and informs all at once.
$5,000
Christina Antonakos-Wallace
I had experienced the growing xenophobia in Europe firsthand and was witnessing the anti-immigrant movement grow in the U.S. I knew that we needed empowering stories of migration and diaspora that broke the myths of cultural and racial purity. Using my creative practice to foster belonging has offered clarity. Right now, it means continuing to tell the stories of immigrants and children of immigrants who challenge exclusionary systems.
$8,000
Quenton Baker
I use a combination of erasure poems of source texts-pages from the Senate document detailing the Creole case-and poems in the invented form to look at black interior life under what Fred Moten would call the "constraint" of black non-being, both throughout chattel slavery and in modern civil society. In the future, I see myself with a larger/broader readership and a level of rigorous participation in national/international conversations that deal with poetics and/or Blackness. This is my entire life.
$8,000
Justine Fedronic
I aspire to continue researching and learning about the artistic traditions of my origins and exploring how to fuse them into a contemporary expression of international life. I envision a series that celebrates the symbiosis between natural forms and patterns, individual human health and well-being, and humanity as a community. I believe in the multi-functional potential of art: each piece would also serve as a purposeful component within the home.
$8,000
Aramis O. Hamer
I feel proud to be a Black woman, despite society's challenges to the Divine Feminine. I constantly make new discoveries on my journey to Liberation. It's all too easy to shackle ourselves and limit creative growth. These discoveries help me break my chains, with the ultimate goal of helping others to do the same.
$8,000
Jesse Higman
My work sample shows a compilation of recent public paint pours and illustrates my greatest interest, the corollaries between particles in motion and our own agency as we participate in social systems, always looking to where emergence occurs. My hopes are that together we can go further to see the essence of what is human, collaborative, and generative. It is important to see action and agency as necessary for growth, how clearly our efforts and even our accidents lead to new life.
$8,000
Etsuko Ichikawa
Through this work, many important things in my life have come together - my love of glass, my Japanese heritage and nuclear legacy, my perspective looking through the lens of America, and my fear, hope, and responsibility for the future as an artist. My ultimate goal as a person as well as an artist is to create art to share the inspiration that lights up one's soul.
$8,000
Adam Jabari Jefferson
The story in my DNA is not unique. It echoes the African American experience. Reflections are found in the diasporic, Indigenous, and Asian experiences. We, all of us, are affected by our stories. Memoirs of the Hopeful is a declaration that "I was. I am. I will." It employs storytelling as a tool for discussing, reckoning with, and healing ancestral traumas. My work seeks to depict their descendants, empowered by our stories, as fully embodied beings. It is a celebration of being melanin rich.
$8,000
Eliaichi Kimaro
As a self-taught artist and creative storyteller, I am constantly reinventing myself, experimenting with new materials and techniques, and learning whatever medium it takes to tell the story that is emerging. Across every medium, I find beauty in the rusty, weathered, and worn. As a lover of process, I believe our works deserve to be seen, witnessed, and considered in their current state of being...and becoming.
$8,000
Robert Kunz (Robb Kunz)
All my work is inspired by the tornado sirens that blanketed my childhood town in Oklahoma every week with a surreal wailing that seemed to blur in and out of reality. My intent is always to provide a similar communal experience of listening, to get people to take off their headphones and open their ears. My more compelling work often involved collaborative contributions of composers or crowdsourcing the public for content. That's because I could focus on perfecting the technical aspects, trying to make the soundscapes more compelling without having to ALSO come up with every bit of content for a massive multi-channel sound collage and mix.
$8,000
Fulgencio Lazo
With intense colors and dynamic images, I aim to celebrate the migratory journeys made by children, whose entry into other countries makes it possible to establish a never-ending exchange between societies and cultures. My work is inspired by my exploration of themes of cultural identity. Given the current anti-immigrant climate and the rise of white nationalism, it is vital that I continue to raise my voice on behalf of immigrants and people of color.
$8,000
Megan Griffiths
I grew up never seeing my experience reflected on television or in films, in books or magazines. For people with disabilities (or to use the more punk rock nomenclature, "crips"), as with many marginalized groups, that's now changing. Underrepresented and oppressed communities are popping up on our screens more and more, and not as tropes of themselves, but fully realized, complicated, and radically human people. We are at a point as a culture where these new points of view are more and more sought after. Elevating these stories alongside those we've traditionally celebrated allows for our view of the world we live in to expand, and our collective empathy to grow.
$8,000
Suzanne Morrison
I plan to immerse myself in this literary lineage, research how scientists and engineers envision the world at mid-century, and hit up theater artists and critics for their views on how the American theater will adapt in the face of climate change, political turmoil, and technological advancements. My excitement for this book keeps me up at night, distracts me from other stories I'm revising. Its ambition requires me to become a writer who can complete it. It will require research into subjects I'm unfamiliar with, a deep dive into my own emotional terrain, and the artistic rigor with which to synthesize its many parts. It's a challenge I am eager to meet.
$5,000
Arlene Naganawa
My current project is an integrated art/text piece transforming a steel toolbox into a text-based work of visual art. In this piece, Word Medicine, I am transforming sections of my own poems into "medical objects," including words written on pills made of buttons and entire poems rolled into ACE bandages. My earlier work focused more on pain, but as I evolve, I would like to explore how people manage to work through the pain and sometimes heal.
$5,000
D.A. Navoti
My artistic purpose is to empower indigenous communities through literary nonfiction. As someone who is gay and a member of the Gila River Indian Community, where tribal sovereignty forbids same-sex marriage and legal protections for those who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ), and Two-Spirit (2S), I confront tribal injustices head-on. I believe that conflict is merely an opportunity to advocate and empower others like myself. I want readers to know that language is political.
$5,000
Hanako O'Leary
I am one in a long line of Japanese women who dared to defy tradition and forge their own path. I will continue my quest to unearth feminine power through clay and impart my knowledge to those who want to learn. Like my Mother and my Grandmother, I follow my heart and never look back. I explore myths, folklore, and iconic artworks from Japanese and European culture, observing the consequences of being perceived as feminine in today's world.
$8,000
Shin Yu Pai
As a writer, I consider part of my creative practice the act of curating literary gatherings that bring together the community for intimate conversations on socially relevant themes while facilitating dialogues on literary craft and process. In the last two years, my literary curation work has focused on going beyond curating diverse readers together and structuring programs that allow for audience engagement with authors and onstage conversations with writers that can more deeply interrogate creative intention and craft. My application seeks to fund a live poetry event series centered on socially engaged themes (immigrant voices, the role of poetry in healing, and sanctuary) that I will host in collaboration with KUOW.
$8,000
Cris Romento
I want to tell diverse stories with an underlying theme. Most of my ideas are shaped by multi-racial, female, and indigenous communities' experiences. I believe keeping an uplifting tone in my work encourages people from all walks of life to watch and understand. A love story is universal. People can see themselves in each of these stories because they're the essence of humanity.
$8,000
E.T. Russian $8,000
After 20+ years of making comics, while simultaneously exploring the cultural aspects of disability and chronic illness I became interested in the intersection: multi-sensory art. I thought how do people who are blind, Deaf, or neurodivergent access art? I wanted my comic books to reach a wider audience, not just people who read comics, but who watch videos, listen to sounds, like to touch things, and move their bodies.
$8,000
Sondra Segundo (Cunningham)
I see myself sharing my Haida books and songs with more international audiences while continuing my lifework with the youth in my local Indigenous and Seattle communities. I feel it is of great importance for all children to experience many cultures...but to experience it from the people who actually come from that culture. This will plant seeds of equality and acceptance for the next generations. Through my teachings, I want to help rewrite our negative history. Read my words with your heart and let my art take you on a journey into another realm.
$8,000
Che Sehyun
The G'ma Project, which honors our elders, cultures, and ancestors in the modern world, gathered 10 artists from various backgrounds all over WA (Olympia to Bellingham) to share stories about our Grandmas, our G'ma, and through our artistic forms (music, dance, story, food, etc.) we shared why our elders, cultures, and ancestors matter as modern, young adults. This project built meaningful relationships, put me in a much healthier, empowered frame of mind about social justice, community organizing, and public art and their role in our both unique and collective cultures.
$8,000
Shann Thomas
My most recent project, Gender Gems, is inspired by a desire to create vibrant and readily accessible documentation of living transgender and gender-diverse elders. I am also inspired to create Gender Gems because rarely are transgender and gender diverse people celebrated when they are living; more often than not they are commemorated once they have passed away due to high rates of suicide and hate crimes.
$8,000
Timothy White Eagle
For 20 plus years I have been exploring and seeking connections between ritual, healing, and art. I think I have been very privileged to have been able to spend many years in close connection with my Indigenous elders while at the same time exploring ritualized art-making. This much is certain, there is not a clear blueprint or trail for me to follow, so through experimentation, risk, and vision, I will craft future work that offers individual, communal, and cultural healing to art. Now as my elders retire or pass on, I find myself in the place of elder, and I understand that further growth will come in working with and learning with younger artists. In the future, I will be creating projects which allow me to connect with young creators, exchanging viewpoints, wisdom, and experiences. I have no desire to be a "teacher" I want to be a co-conspirator with younger folks.
$8,000
Inye Wokoma
For the past 15 years, I have been working on an evolving body of work that explores the connections between, land and lineage, culture and community, politics and identity. I experiment with dissolving the boundaries between creative disciplines. I want to continue along this path, creating more expansive films, conceptual art, and projects rooted in community and an investigation of our collective history as a society.
$8,000
Maria Zurbano (Maritess Zurbano)
As the only Filipino-American magician in history, I chose to combine my skills as a playwright, performer, and political activist. I draw a wider audience than usual into my themes of race, gender, and power by using magic, drama, and humor. I work in a tradition, of people of color who convey their political views via entertainment. When audiences witness my Filipino-American excellence in the arts, they now have precedent and I'm hoping with every success I have, it makes it easier for me and other artists/audiences to visualize Filipino-Americans as significant cultural contributors.
$8,000
2019
2019 CityArists Projects
Shontina Vernon
"What has been most exciting for me as an artist is deepening my commitment to social justice through the work I make. Given this time, and this political climate, I am most inspired by everyday people who continue to show up and to share their stories despite the threat of injustice and violence."
$8,000
Paula Nava Madrigal
"Conducting and performing classical music excites me. My Latino heritage and the diversity of Seattle's heritage have inspired my work. I use my creative and collaborative skills to further social justice and accomplish my personal goals."
$8,000
Daniel Kogita
"I am inspired by the full range of humanity and all of its emotions and challenges... The ability to inspire generations all around the world is truly rewarding and humbling. As a minority and disabled person who's overcome many obstacles, I'm inspired to do everything in my power to instill these principles in others, helping them actualize their talents and skills."
$8,000
J Mase III
"My work over the years has consisted of both the content of my art as well as the commitment to economic justice that fuels the capacity of my community to continue creating art."
$8,000
Corrie Befort
"I am interested in unsettling perceptions of what is stable: time, scale, gravity, the form the body takes and what its true identity is."
$5,000
Y York
"I am passionate about the craft of playwriting because I believe in the power of theater - the poetry of individual behavior in the here-and-now. A play asks an audience to walk in the shoes of others - an experience that is a step toward addressing the questions that obsess me. While much of my work is original, I often take inspiration from interviews or by confronting classic texts."
$5,000
Etienne Cakpo
"I always draw on my cultural heritage to influence and inspire my dance creations. This performance allows me the time and depth to reflect on the past decade in my life, to revisit the most diverse aspects of my country of origin, experiences as an immigrant in the US, and to share that richness with audiences here."
$8,000
Fern Renville
"I have been recovering my artist roles and responsibilities as a Dakota woman and good human being by now working as a director and storyteller. I have been adapting traditional stories to the stage with help from many teachers and elders along the way, and have begun adapting my own contemporary story to a mythic format in the hopes of producing and directing a play about the Dakota uprisings of the past, present, and future."
$8,000
Christopher Icasiano
"As a musician, my work has been deeply rooted in a need to express myself through my instrument-the drums. I found that outlet with improvisation. In music, this involves making split-second decisions about composition, timbre, and texture, all while collaborating through careful listening. More importantly, improvising allows me to be expressive, honest and vulnerable."
$8,000
Lily Raabe
"My work as an artist is 100% focused on using theatre as a conduit for social change, starting in low-income communities. I use storytelling and community-engaged theatre models, such as Theatre of the Oppressed, to create theatrical works with, by, and for diverse populations so that their stories can be heard in their own words."
$8,000
Samantha Boshnack
"For 15 years I have been dedicated to building a large catalog of sophisticated yet fun compositions. With jazz as a foundation, I create new works that exercise both the freedom and discipline of the genre while incorporating influences and inspirations from other styles of music as well."
$8,000
Amy Escobar
"As a playwright and puppeteer, I am excited by the complex simplicity of language and practical magic in the theater... I seek to create work that heals, that is openhearted and relevant."
$8,000
Neve Mazique-Bianco
"I am interested in virtuosity, in creating aesthetic hierarchies which destruct the ones previously established. The driving force is my belief in love, Black/Indigenous folk magic, and transcendent healing."
$8,000
Randy Ford
"I noticed that my works all centered around ideas of identity, spirituality, evolution, eroticism, and social representation. Basically all of the things I was dealing with internally as I transitioned. As a trans femme person, people only seem to gravitate towards the physical changes of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) but never want to ask how many affirmations I have to give myself to walk outside the door every day."
$8,000
Mark Haim
"The questions that arise for me are: How do we hold those we know and love in our bodies? How do we embody others? Can a soloist dance inter-connectedness? How many people does it take to feel the enormity of our presence, and the scope of our lives?"
$5,000
Lavinia Vago
"I developed a desire to dive into my own personal research and passions that a company setting could not provide me fully. These interests include both performance studies and dance as therapy through education."
$2,000
Marisol Rosa-Shapiro
"I am, first and foremost, inspired by the human capacity for play. Imagination, laughter, creation, and the spiritual act of collaboration drive my explorations as a theater artist, educator, and citizen."
$5,000
Kaley Eaton
"My work's primary focus now is the voice as the portal both to the individual subconscious and to cultural moments. I intend to create a multi-movement work for soprano and small ensemble with electronics that tells the story of my own family's journey through multiple generational traumas and how that relates to our current societal predicament."
$5,000
Amy Denio
"As a composer, I am inspired by nature's wonders and by the foibles of humankind. My music is influenced by decades of exposure to international cultures and by my preternatural love of playfulness. I often invite audiences to participate."
$8,000
Angel Alviar-Langley
"WPL?! is a living blueprint for other Street Styles organizers in how to organize in a way that celebrates womxn. It's a step in reclaiming a Street Styles history that womxn are erased from and demand for academia to be more accountable in their research practices."
$8,000
Ricki Mason
"My work and career are dedicated to creating theatrical productions that explore content that is vital to the queer community while employing queer, POC, and women artists."
$8,000
Hilary Field
"I recently had the opportunity to compose solo guitar music as well as music and poetry duets in collaboration with Washington State Poet Laureate, Claudia Castro Luna, based on the theme "Ode to Hope." I am excited, inspired, and encouraged to build and expand upon this project by inviting various poets, storytellers, and writers to share their stories about struggle, personal or societal, and their means to survive."
$2,000
Maritess Zurbano
"As a 48-year-old Filipina-American single-parent and seasoned performer, I have new insight into my life choices. Why would a fairly attractive young woman who is educated want to become a Las Vegas magician in an environment where chopping women in half was mandatory? Why would any woman of color want to gain power in our world of continuing misogyny and white supremacist attitudes?"
$8,000
Michael Hall
"The art/music that I make carries all that I have witnessed and absorbed for 50 years. Some have said to me in the past: "to make it here, you have to leave this place". I think I will stay to see what happens next."
$8,000
Savita Srinivasa
"At age five, I witnessed a breathtaking Kuchipudi drama, igniting my devotion to train extensively in Kuchipudi under the foremost student of Dr. Vempati Chinna Satyam (founder of modern-day Kuchipudi). From traveling to India for additional training to my unwavering daily practice, I push for perfection in this uncommon style of Kuchipudi."
$8,000
Devin Muñoz
"As a young Latina, dancer, and filmmaker in the Seattle dance community, what influences me is being in a room with other dancers whose melanin ranges in all shades, who have overcome obstacles, and who continue to raise their voice for their communities."
$5,000
Jason E. Anderson
"I'm interested in the relationships between sound, meaning, intelligibility, translation and rhythm of speech. And I've found that providing a context for sounds attends to the social aspect of sharing the work, how it is received and interpreted, and how it is made accessible."
$2,000
El Nyberg
"'You can't be what you can't see.' I repeat these words daily to remind myself why I dance, and why it is important for me to keep dancing. As a queer, femme, non-binary, mixed-race person of color, I rarely find art that is reflective of me or other dance artists who share my identities."
$2,000
Julie Schulman
"For the last 15 years, this belief has been my compass for navigating my life in my art and organizing work. I am the product of my legacy, family, community, and city. The histories and untold stories that bind us to each other stand to be displaced in the current surges of economic disparity that are threatening to characterize Seattle's future."
$5,000
2018 CityArists Projects
Roldy Aguero Ablao, Jr.
$5,250
Curate and create an installation of traditional Pacific Islander functional and decorative woven works for public celebration of the Lunar Year.
Clayton Aldern
$6,000
Complete a manuscript of creative non-fiction on the relationships between climate change, environmental degradation, neuroscience, and mental health. A public reading with panels on selected essays will be offered.
Joanne Ardinger
$5,200
Finalize and screen a reproductive justice feature documentary about reproductive justice with post-screening panel talk.
John Harry Baluran
$7,600
Produce, direct, act and compose a short film about a day in the life of South Seattle, riders from the #7 bus route and the impact of gentrification. A community screening with performances and exhibit will close project.
Amy Benson
$6,800
Complete a new, hour-long documentary in a series illuminating the complexities of three first generation Nepalese female teens from a poor family as they work to become literate. The film closes with a public screening.
Jean Bradbury
$2,960
Create 50 new, life-size portraits that will become one large patchwork piece. Each of the 50 people interviewed use head coverings as an expression of their identity sometimes adapting with each generation.
George Brown
$6,400
Edit archival footage of a 1990s public access program featuring episodes of NW Hip-Hop for a public screening.
Wendy Call
$4,084
Hold two workshops in English and Spanish and complete an essay collection about navigating grief, loss, and the cancer-industrial complex.
Alaia D'Alessandro
$5,200
Research, interview, and complete a four-part film capturing four local musicians that cross genres, genders and neighborhoods. The film will be screened with a concert.
Suzanne Edison
$4,500
Produce 10 new poems for a book based on interviews with scientists, medical providers, young/adult patients and caretakers living with/working on a variety of autoimmune diseases. The book will include photos and visual art pieces culminating in two readings with talks.
Peter Edlund
$3,000
Complete post-production phase and release of short film that satirizes political Discourse whle highlighting how we collectively ignore, silence and appropriate Perspectives. It closes with a screening and panel talk.
Amy Jean Enser
$6,400
Complete a feature documentary combining film and live stage performance based on 'Buckaroo,' a male revue that follows the visionaries behind the Moulin Rouge-inspired cabaret club.
Sarah Fetterman
$2,400
Fabricate and install a large woven tapestry in white, layered thread on a black background created on a computerized loom that revisits a past performance about memory recall for a public exhibit.
Jolyn Gardner
$4,725
Curate and present a monthly virtual exhibit consisting of daylong pop-ups, showcasing work by 12 Seattle-based artists of the African Diaspora via smart device or wall-projections at non-traditional sites. A catalogue will be published.
Elke Hautala
$6,000
Complete feature documentary about the life work of renowned glass artist Preston Singletary, who seeks to preserve and evolve the Salish culture. There will be a public screening and talk.
Claudia Heron
$6,925
Present two, interactive, bilingual staged readings of poems honoring women killed in a wave of femicide in the 1990's in the border town of Juarez, Mexico. The poem highlights the ways in which the female body endures violence and injustices. Each reading will close with a bilingual discussion.
Robert Hutchison
$2,000
Fabricate conceptual, large-scale architectural models exploring topics of Mortality and memory through the lens of architecture for a public exhibit.
Sibyl James
$1,200
Final edit and publication of a poetry collection inspired by musical genres. There will be four readings where intentional connection with diverse audiences can be made.
Robert Sparrow Jones
$4,931
Research and create a new series of large-scale paintings depicting the evolution of birds, featuring their plumage coloration, sensory ecology (how they interact with their environment), and habitat loss for a public exhibit. The artist will create a multi-age curriculum for potential school visits.
Eliaichi Kimaro
$4,800
Produce a series of 12 new, encaustic mixed media storyboards that were inspired by a recurring dream featuring the ability to breathe underwater, and explores the interdependence of our shared existence and the natural world. There will be a public screening and talk.
Jody Kuehner
$4,800
Develop and complete an installation and performance in collaboration with John Criscitellos. The installation will feature a gallery swathed in fabric printed with physical landscape images that explore the de-sexualization of the feminine. A panel discussion closes opening.
Fulgencio Lazo
$6,300
Create six new, 3D wood sculptures that reflects lives of immigrant workers, their journeys, families, innate beauty, and struggles for a public exhibit for International Workers' Day. Artists talks will accompany the exhibition.
Mita Mahato
$3,000
Create and produce a 40-page cut-paper comic book about ocean life informed by an Arctic Circle Residency in Norway. The manuscript will be accompanied by a series of workshops highlighting conservation art and environmental justice issues.
Natasha Marin
$6,000
Co-curate, assemble and present a story bank by/of mixed generation, multi-lingual Black creatives, which will be collected into soundscape elements for a live gallery experience.
Margaret Mullin
$7,200
Produce a 90-minute documentary film about late artist and champion of dance/AIDS, Ian Horvath including a restaging of two choreographic works.
Doris June Pai (Shin Yu)
$3,000
Assemble, curate, write and edit book manuscript of a retrospective of past/current multidisciplinary work for publication including audio/video stills and image plates that culminates in a community presentation.
Clyde Petersen
$6,000
Complete interviews and filming of a documentary about the musical history of Seattle band Earth and founder Dylan Carlson. As Kurt Cobain's best friend, Carlson pioneered the drone metal genre. There will be a public screening.
Leah L. Piepzna-Samarasinha
$6,400
Curate and produce a literary event with 12 queer artists with disabilities exploring the theme of disability resistance.
Myisa Plancq-Graham
$6,800
Film and edit short documentary stories featuring storytellers of the African Diaspora across all artistic fields for community screenings.
Jason Reid
$6,000
Produce a coming-of-age feature documentary following the main character through adulthood as he deals with his mother's disappearance, family dysfunction and healing. There will be an advance cut screening followed by a discussion.
Rafael Soldi
$4,550
Create a new photographic installation and sculptural objects that share the artists story of immigration. There will be a public exhibit/lecture and an international online platform.
Francine Strickwerda
$8,000
Create a 12-minute documentary film segment featuring a 64-year old Iranian American grade school counselor working with trauma-affected East African immigrant/refugee kids via Ultimate Frisbee. A community screening with discussion closes project.
Ann Teplick
$2,054
Research and write first draft of youth novel in poems that explores the impact of suicide on those left behind. Self-care poetry teen workshops and a joint public reading will close project.
Timea Tihanyi
$4,250
Create new work exploring the sculptural potential of 3D printed ceramics, for two public exhibits.
Monica Washington
$3,250
Create and screen two new short films and remount a digital comic to book for a daylong pop-up showcase with three artists examining the relationship between marginalized citizens from three historically oppressed groups.
David Williams
$2,400
Research, write, and complete first three chapters of book illuminating relationships between people and environment, past and present and natural landscapes and altered ones. Project closes with a public reading.
Koon Woon
$1,800
Complete a full-length book of vignettes, ruminations and poems exploring immigrant life, bi-cultural adaptation, and exploitation in service of solutions. Three readings will be scheduled with one senior center workshop.
2017 CityArists Projects
Ivan Arteaga
$8,000
Create and perform new score for acoustic ensemble plus vocals accompanied by live electronics system and three dancers. Arteaga will hold open rehearsals-workshop.
Etienne Cakpo-Gbokou
$4,800
Develop and perform new work exploring innovative concepts set on fusing Western classical composers like Mozart, Bach and Vivaldi with traditional African dance from Benin.
Ana Maria Campoy
$4,500
Rehearse and perform a bilingual staging of the award-winning play Proof to raise awareness of mental illness and genius through a Latino cultural lens. Performances will be offered on three residential porches in three different neighborhoods.
Terry Crane
$4,800
Create and present a full-evening, immersive performance with 12 artists combining circus, theater and dinner.
Alex Crozier-Jackson
$4,800
Choreograph and present a 10-artist, two-act dance performance influenced by colloquial speech, pop culture, a millennial mindset, appropriations of black culture, gay culture and feminism.
Jade Solomon Curtis
$7,200
Develop and present a mix of five remounted and one new solo work with music, motion-visual art and live mixed media, includes five artists. The work intends to subvert and denounce mass depictions of Blacks.
Hilary Field
$4,200
Compose, commission and perform new music by three musician-composers featuring guest artists from the North, Central and South America for classical guitar concerts integrating elements of classical, jazz, folk and contemporary genres.
Robert Flor
$4,331
Present a full-evening original production with eight artists involving teen Filipino American girls' rejection of a traditional 'community queen' contest.
Sarah Foster
$5,250
Create and perform a new hour-long theatrical clown production by three artists, examining friendship and physics as accidentally plummeting off a cliff.
Alice Gosti
$6,000
Present a live, immersive installation dance performance and communal ritual with 19 artists that grapples with complexity of living in an object-based society.
Stephen Griggs
$4,800
Compose and perform an hour-long piece of narration with improvised music by a quintet exploring police use of force coinciding with anniversary of Native carver John Williams' death.
Kimberly Holloway
$6,000
Rehearse and present a contemporary dance work by nine artists inspired by childhood experiences with abusive control with workshop exploring healing through personal storytelling and concert.
Davida Ingram
$4,550
Remount an interdisciplinary performance installation into an hour-long production with original music about the lived experiences of Black women focused on meditations of Ingram's paternal grandmother's death.
Leslie Law
$5,200
Produce, record and broadcast a live radio theater performance episode with scripted story, original live music and sound effects for 30 artists.
Veronica Lee-Baik
$7,200
Conceive, choreograph and present an evening-length, multidisciplinary revamped version of Giselle focused on teen suicide and madness with special lighting design and sound compositions.
Jill Marissa
$4,400
Create a mobile mini-circus performance hybrid for eight artists featuring a series of acts interwoven with storyline, musical numbers, new media and audience engagement.
Ricki Mason
$5,600
Mason Re-interpret, script and produce a theatrical performance for 6 artists exploring Bible stories through shame, fear, misogyny, faith from a queer, absurdist, feminist perspective with comedic and poignant affect.
KT Niehoff
$5,200
Interpret and perform immersive dance, music environment for 15 artists-participants honoring and illuminating experiences of six guest contributors with unique-powerful connections to their body: an astronaut, athlete, transgender young adult, professional dancer, cancer survivor and a differently-abled person.
Serene Petersen
$5,200
Produce a live theatrical piece about transgender queer punk coming-of-age for 17 artists integrating stop-motion animation, and live music.
Peggy Piacenza
$4,800
Direct and produce an evening-length premiere dance performance for five artists with an original score focused on life markers and asking questions about the human experience.
Elspeth Savani
$5,200
Produce a remounted, full-evening Cuban dance-music retrospective of selected popular genres from 1880's to the present performed by 20 musicians and four dancers.
Che Sehyun
$4,800
Compose new music to fuse with a documentary of community-based, intergenerational, mixed race exchanges and performances with nine artists.
Michael Shantz
$5,600
Perform a 30-minute, three-part suite for steel drum compositions modeled after three female archetypes from Yoruba (Nigeria) performed by nine female musicians, choreographers and dancers.
Jessie Smith
$5,200
Choreograph, film and complete a new work with stop-motion animation, music and other photo-media techniques for three dancers. Work will be installed at viewing stations across the city and close with a public screening and live, solo performances.
Timothy Smith-Stewart
$6,400
Develop, rehearse and present one part of an evening-length premiere of the multi-media performance for eight artists using movement that using movement to battle disaffection with oppressive systems, suicidal ideation and an overall hopelessness.
Ilvs Strauss
$4,400
Complete a two-act comedy script and perform an hour-long queer sci-fi play for 17 artists addressing lack of homeland for and fluidity of queer community-culture.
John Teske
$2,925
Develop a series of new compositions that are algorithmically generated where each score and performance is unique while shaped by musical parameters, accessible on-line and premiered by an ensemble of six musicians with strings, winds, percussion and electronics.
Carol Thompson
$7,200
Workshop, edit, rehearse and present an evening-length, site-specific play for 11 artists in a house scheduled for demolition that explores themes of personal progress and citywide progress.
Storme Webber
$5,600
Produce a multidisciplinary performance installation for seven artists with dance, music, visuals and video projections from an historical lens of working class queer life in Seattle from the 1930's before any liberation movements.
Amontaine Aurore Woods
$3,005
Complete and produce a new play with 11 artists on activism that explores loss of dream, the subsequent effect on one's life and lives of future generations from the Black Panther Party to the 1999 World Trade Organization talks to the present.
2016 CityArists Projects
Lena: Novel-in-Poems: Producing a hybrid novel-in-poems chronicling the life of a daughter of immigrants. Reflecting on memory, longing and the Arabic alphabet ignited while exploring Pike Place Market and Seattle's waterfront. The project closes with a public reading.
Reimaging Belonging - Northwest Stories: Filming interviews with Seattle residents about migration, racism, and belonging through two workshops as part of a larger-scale venture with WINGS and ROOTS. The edited videos will be showcased at a live event where attendees will be invited to share stories.
The Great Northern: Designing and creating a nearly full-sized train tunnel within MAD Art space in South Lake Union. The sculpture will be a rendering of the Great Northern train tunnel incorporating light and sound to fully immerse the audience.
Ballast: Finalizing a book-length poem about the only successful American slave revolt in 1841. Using invented forms based on the 19th-century secondary slave market, Baker will explore the manifold realities of the men and women present on the brig Creole, where the 1841 revolt took place.
A Rendering: Finalizing a 30-minute dance film in two parts generated with sound artist Jason E. Anderson for a premiere at the Northwest Film Forum in fall 2016.
Being with the River: Creating a public installation including sound and images collected from contemplative paddling events on the Duwamish River. Visitors are encouraged to create rocks from clean river sediment and clay to be accumulated and used as a marker by the river.
Spires: A project exploring forest fire land as a tableau for photographs and sculptures while considering human relationships to natural disasters and the potential for rebirth.
The Underground Life of Piero Heliczer, a documentary film, and multimedia experience: Presenting a work in progress of the documentary film and a display of Piero Heliczer's original works in letterpress printing and poetry. Original photographs including Andy Warhol's Factory and the first film shoot featuring the Velvet Underground will also be displayed.
Anybody's Animal: Completing a poetry manuscript-in-progress and presenting it at a public reading as part of a writing class for children.
The Year We Ruined the House: Revising the author's third young adult novel and working with four teenage novelists providing them personal manuscript consultations on their own novels. Everyone's work will be presented at a public reading.
Girl on a Road: Finalizing a storyboard for a full-length graphic novel and sample chapter of a book exploring female friendship, loss, and life on the road. A young adult workshop and a public reading will close the project.
We Are a Crowd of Others: is an interactive installation co-designed with artist Sam Wildman that engages a diverse public while challenging the features that differentiate artist from audience. Collaboration and participation will engage the audience prompting questions about the role of family and performance in our lives.
Generating a new body of work using copper, mixed media sculptures, interactive installations, and one community-based piece. The public will be invited to participate in neighborhood events, culminating in an exhibition at Traver Gallery and in South Park.
Leviathan' Interactive Installation: Developing and fabricating a new interactive sculpture installed in the water tower of Volunteer Park. The audience is encouraged to engage in dialogue about cultural myths and monsters.
Feeding Ghosts: The Life of Sun Yi: Creating a research outline for a non-fiction graphic novel exploring themes of cultural identity, mental illness, generational inheritance, loss of language, and mixed-race identity based on the life and legacy of the author's grandmother, Sun Yi. A panel will be held to discuss themes from the graphic novel.
Capitol Hill Season 2: Completing the remaining eight scenes of the second season of a queer web series parodying 1970s and 1980s TV shows based in Capitol Hill. A public screening will premiere the series.
Clock that Mug: Live creation of a new painting drawing from vintage feminist ideals and questioning present-day queer/drag feminism. Clock that Mug pays homage to feminist performers Janine Antoni and Ana Mendieta who focused on the body as a canvas for social change and rebellion.
Rippling Water, 2016: Create, fabricate, install and uninstall a new kinetic sculpture exploring natural metaphors, focusing viewers on the relationship between visual effects. The sculpture will be on display at the Heaven and Earth outdoor sculpture exhibition at Carkeek Park. The park will be restored to its original condition after the five-month-long exhibition.
International Children’s Day exhibit and celebration: will feature 10 new acrylics on canvas with themes based on the joy and fun of childhood to be on display at Casa Latina. The project will also include a one-day celebration for International Children's Day with tours, a bilingual (Spanish/English) artist talk, and a hands-on art activity for children and adults.
City of Faces: Human and Non-Human Community Building in Rainier Valley: Build community and deter youth violence by constructing an outdoor hanging wall of cast human face birdhouses. 30 local youths will participate by getting their faces cast and turned into birdhouses.
Demolishing Richard Hugo: Researching and creating a first-person narrative for pre-production of a documentary film about the demolition of the current Richard Hugo House building. This will show the building as a case study for the ‘erasure’ of old arts and cultural venues. A public screening event will be offered.
When I Find You: Completing a draft of a novel in progress exploring different strata of violence, from domestic to global, from personal experience to ancestral memory. Passages will be presented in a collaborative reading centered around the theme of "Cultural Memory".
Naked City: Finishing the first draft of a manuscript of autobiographical short stories about growing up in the closet, highlighting moments including cross-country hitchhiking, crash landing in Seattle, and more. There will be a public reading of the manuscript.
Light Gathers in Folds: Fabrication of a form of light architecture revolving around the movement of reflected and refracted light, a site-specific installation in Chinatown-International District's Nihonmachi Alley.
Casting Shadows: is a multi-sensory installation piece comprising approximately seven video comics portraying stories of people with disability and chronic illnesses. Each short video will be projected onto various surfaces within the exhibition space, feature pen/ink illustrations with text captions, and a soundscape. The exhibition will take place in a variety of venues.
Untitled: Build and dismantle an immersive visual art installation to create an interactive sculpture that hosts three heightened performances. Inspired by memory and the maps our brains create to house thought, the installation will fill an entire gallery for three and a half months.
2155: An Afro-futurist Affair: Exploring what it means to envision the future through the eyes of People of Color through performing arts and a reading highlighting local artists' interactions with the idea of the African American aesthetic in the future. The multidisciplinary show will be staged at Gay City Arts.
A Taste of Home: Completing shooting and post-production of a feature-length documentary tracing 100 years of Seattle Chinatown ID's immigrant history through five signature heritage dishes, served by five of the oldest Chinese American family food establishments. Public screenings planned.
Big Sonia: Finishing a feature documentary about 89-year-old Sonia Warshawski the larger-than-life seamstress, Polish immigrant, only Holocaust survivor in Kansas City, and local celebrity. A public screening will include educational discussions.
Paper-son Poet: Finishing and publishing a memoir in a multi-genre format of poetry, short fiction, creative nonfiction, and straight memoir for four generations of a Chinese immigrant family in Seattle's International District where the author has lived for 25 years. Four public readings will take place.
2015 CityArists Projects
Compose, perform new music for jazz orchestra that incorporates elements of classical, jazz and Brazilian traditions including an educational component.
Create and present new music/sound score incorporating the almost lost art of katsudo benshi (live film narration) for the classic Japanese silent film "A Story of Floating Weeds."
Rehearse and stage the play "Fireface" in a domestic residence or a neglected industrial or commercial space with bused-in audiences with actors and audience in close proximity.
Develop and present new body of solo and group choreographic work exhibiting styles from both East (Zimbabwe/So Africa) and West (Togo/Benin) Africa for two public performances.
Produce new bilingual ASL/English play about the intersection of hearing and Deaf culture and the controversy over cochlear implants featuring a mixed ensemble of Deaf and hearing actors.
Create and produce a multidisciplinary work including performance and sound design and exploring death via the transitional world and the living world.
Complete and present an evening length contemporary circus show with director KT Niehoff inspired by The Library of Babel, by Jorge Luis Borges.
Five performers present demonstrations and concerts exploring music along the Silk Road with cultural and historical context for the music including presentations or workshops to public school students and the general public.
Collaborate with eight West Coast composers and compose new pieces with field recordings while on a walking trek of the Pacific Coast Trail. The work will culminate with performances and school workshops.
Generate songs for a new Rock Opera with local composer and perform selections at a Duwamish River festival.
Develop a five hour-long live performance that questions identity, community and where art belongs, and challenges the canonic boundaries of dance and that brings politics and history into the foreground.
Commission a 45-minute program of narration with composed and improvised jazz music to be performed at the site of one sculpture by James Washington.
Compose, record and mix a musical score for "With Wings and Roots," a feature length documentary about immigration and belonging, with a screening event of the finished film.
Create and present a new solo-group quartet dance work based loosely on a discarded sheet of calculus problems as a visual blueprint for intricately patterned movement for premiere performances.
Compose new music for piano, voice and cello for two public performances and a studio recording.
Complete a new 15-minute piece in three movements for full orchestra with an improvising soloist to be performed by the Seattle Symphony based on three poems by Richard Hugo.
Develop and record stories of challenging experiences of 10 women of different ages and backgrounds. Closes with a draft script and recording.
Compose, produce and present a new recording and create new student ensemble focusing on free-improvisation.
Complete recording of a voice-on-voice performance of classical and contemporary Persian poetry, lecture, and song-melody from mystical literature with four artists.
Development and design of an online interactive experience of a multi-faceted website combining original music, photos, writings, and historic recordings with a 'Meet the Artist' event to discuss the work.
Pushing past performance category traditions, development and performance comes second in a triptych of gender-bending modern dance/drag solos exploring existential crisis. A journey to find peace in the unknown.
Present a nine-artist participatory Garden Party Theatre parading wearable art with large public feast where gowns are given to young women for proms.
Complete, rehearse, and present an evening-length performance incorporating multiple performers, objects, live video and original music. Work is inspired by conspiracy theories and explores how we as viewers and as humans process information.
The Temporal Nature of Stability is a minimalist symphony depicting the Chernobyl Disaster. Using modified electric guitars, acoustic instruments and organs, the music will illustrate the inclination toward patchwork solutions often applied to problems created by technological advancements.
Record a soundtrack for an animated musical documentary film, the true story of a charismatic LSD-loving leader of a controversial Buddhist sect centered in Seattle in the 1970's, closing with a public screening.
Compose and present new music for orchestra with girls’ choir addressing pressures girls face from popular culture and society today from their own perspectives.
Produce a bilingual Peruvian holiday of De Inga y Mandinga exploring mixed ethnic-cultural heritage from an Afro-Peruvian perspective. Remount version invites a new partner, the Sound of the Northwest with Negro Spirituals, for a public performance.
Create a 3-show performance series exploring original and experimental musical composition in a visceral environment with visual art works.
Create and present a new, evening-length choreographic work with an original Sacred Harp score in Southern Baptist a capella traditon. It will take place in an environment immersing audience in cacophony of song and dance.
Develop and present 8 new, solos for an evening-length dance works designed for experimentation. Work will be taken apart, transposed from stage to site-specific locations and reassembled in new orders.
Collaborate and create a cross-cultural performance with Indonesian director Rachman Sabur of the Black Umbrella Theater exploring birth, re-birth, trauma and near death experiences through physical theater, storytelling and puppetry.
Create, record and premiere new music for a small jazz group and electronics based on the poetry of Sylvia Plath's book Ariel with lecture and demonstrations.
Commission and perform five new works for flute and up to five other instruments.
Present a solo performance piece exploring the social and physical landscape of the Metro bus based on interview excerpts with transit drivers and observations of daily life on the bus.
Develop and perform a 20-minute choreographic-dance performance examining the effect of accidents on people, communities and their futures with 11 artists via interviews and research of past incidents with common themes.
Create a site-specific, cross-sector and multidisciplinary performance including imaging studies of brain activity that explores the experience of being 'in synch' with another, or 'withing.'
Recreate and perform a children's theatrical work, the practice of 'el contador de cuentos', the storyteller of ancient Latin American children stories and songs, by two actors in Spanish. Rehearsals will close with two public performances.
2014 CityArists Projects
Research and production of a manuscript of new and edited poems that generates an illustrated chapbook. A high school reading of selected pieces will be accompanied by musicians at the Massive Monkee headquarters.
A complete feature-length documentary film about a Vietnam War reenactment. Searching for solace from the ghosts of their own wars, a platoon of veterans head into the woods of the Pacific Northwest to recreate some of the darkest days of American history. A public screening will be offered.
Complete first two chapters of the Cafe Nordo Cookbook, an interactive multi-media cookbook, and compendium of the science, history, and philosophy of food based on previous shows. Chapters will be accessible via free download and presented at farmers markets.
Complete a partial feature-length adventure in episodic format for both big screen and download. The film will include live-action as well as animated effects and title sequences.
Complete writing a young adult novel: a fictionalized account of the author's senior year in high school while facing repercussions of a friend's lies. Culminating with a reading and lecture at Nathan Hale High School.
Complete first three chapters of a graphic novel-memoir exploring a year spent living in European squats that culminate with a comic workshop plus public reading.
Create daily fairy-tale narratives based on worldwide stories in a public window theater that explores working with removable materials at a storefront and workshop at The Vera Project.
Curate and document an intergenerational, multi-disciplinary, and traditional event for Native American-Alaskan cultures in and alongside a newly created Umiak that illustrates the importance of community sharing with an exhibit, film, dance, and gift-giving.
Write and self-publish a collection of narrative essays surrounding what happens when a black, transracial adopted boy, raised by white parents, ages out of honorary white and suburban privilege and into a world where folklore, statistics, and conjecture deem him dangerous until proven otherwise.
Create a video archive of 17 separate video recordings of band performances in Northwest houses and punk clubs widely embraced by national and international queer, feminist and artistic communities. Excerpts from the archive will be screened for youth and college-age audiences.
Complete a young adult novel set in present-day Las Vegas, where a seventeen-year-old protagonist is trying to support himself, find love, face dyslexia, and struggle to find an authentic identity in a world revolving around money. Closing includes readings and workshops.
Produce a new, short film by manipulating layers of footage of rogue cop, horror, and film noir genres frame-by-frame with an original score for a public screening.
Complete a book manuscript including transcription and editing of interviews with Japanese architects and artists, personal essays, and photography executed by the author while in Japan for public lectures.
Complete and give a reading with a slideshow from a book-length manuscript about working as a hack in all aspects of life: writer, parent, partner, and child. Employing poems and stories this tale of post-partum depression, broken noses, spilled milk, and sins of the generations unfold.
Create an illuminated, floating teahouse that floats on water for open-air, traditional Japanese tea ceremonies in public places.
Generate and exhibit a new body of photo-based work on the theme of conversation that explores photography's struggle to document the unseen. A public exhibit and an elementary school workshop will be presented.
Complete original poem per Red Lineage adapted to allow others to contribute their own personal histories that echo, overlap, and foster a sense of community despite real and/or perceived barriers. Produce interactive, multimedia archive, public workshop, and a screening and performance event.
Complete BAHRAIN: THE UNCOVERED UPRISING, a feature-length documentary film providing an in-depth look at the pro-democracy uprising in the Gulf Kingdom of Bahrain. Once complete, the film will be screened at multiple Seattle venues, and include discussions about the situation in Bahrain.
Complete the first draft of a book-length memoir entitled THE ANATOMY OF A GUN OWNER about my personal history with guns and violence and the fear and paranoia that led me to become a reluctant gun owner. Present two readings in South Seattle near the sites of shootings covered in the book.
Complete a manuscript exploring the intersections of development, conservation, social justice, and global climate change in two of the world's last wild places, Antarctica and the Amazon, from a developing world's perspective with a public presentation.
Create new poems to complete a book manuscript with an interactive poetic structure inspired by the ancient Chinese divination method Book of Changes (I Ching). A series of audience-interactive group-divination performances of the new poems will be held.
Complete final re-edit of a documentary film based on interviews of American women instrumentalists in jazz from the 1920s to 1970s with public screenings.
Create an installation comprised of lynching postcards brought to life through animation and original music, and wooden sculptures marking historic deaths related to the civil rights movement as part of a series demonstrating parallels between slavery and the prison industrial complex.
Complete early research and development phase of a dance film piece about abandonment derived from a multi-year residency experiment with choreographer Shannon Stewart and company of 15 set in an abandoned site in King County. Year-end work will have a public screening.
Produce a short documentary following Seattle inventor, Peter Scott, as he creates the world's most fuel-efficient cookstove that saves forests and lives. Public screening planned.
Maria TV interweaves videos of Latina domestic workers with reenactments of their jobs based on how they are portrayed in the media to highlight experiences of local underprivileged people. Work creates a connection and sensibility for an important and tangible political and cultural issue. A public screening will be offered.
Complete interviews, shoot, and post-production of a 30-minute documentary focused on an indigenous North American concept of 'Two Spirit' for a public screening. 'Two Spirit' references a person who fulfills one of many traditional mixed-gender roles among Native American and Canadian First Nation communities.
Finish manuscript for a book exploring how and why Seattle shaped its physical landscape, including Denny Hill, the Duwamish Tide Flats, the historic shoreline, and Lake Washington Ship Canal. Free public presentations at community centers and museums will be scheduled.
Produce new site-specific installation at a storefront comprised of video projection throughout the space, shimmering upon three-dimensional cut paper elements suspended.
Complete poems based on a sequence of intercultural encounters with girls and women that form a section of a book confronting family and national history, and the intersection of the personal and public arena.
Create and exhibit an immersive, site-specific sculptural light installation representing Phase II MALA, a multi-year project based on Buddhist prayer beads creating a meditation mantra. MALA is built with 108 individual sections.
2013 CityArists Projects
Revise and complete a script Old Testament about homosexuality in the Black church and gang violence in the Black community, based on gang violence in The Old Testament. Material from community forums will be integrated into the production.
Expand conceptual aspects of a full-length, one-woman play (including multimedia) about a Black teen exploring revolutionary mindsets in 1970s suburban Seattle.
Develop eight new jazz pieces that push parameters. These works will be performed by a new group of musicians covering a span of ages and experiences in disparate venues around Seattle including an elementary school. Final live concerts will be recorded. Develop eight new jazz pieces that push parameters. These works will be performed by a new group of musicians covering a span of ages and experiences in disparate venues around Seattle including an elementary school. Final live concerts will be recorded.
Completion of a playscript for non-verbal, image-based theatrical performances that follows the protagonist of the classic play "Death of a Salesman" into the afterlife highlighting his modern resonance.
Development and presentation of a dance-theater performance blending historic scholarship and choreography based on Niki de Saint Phalle. A major theme of the work is criticism of female artists on accomplishment versus beauty. Events will engage UW students and participants from Reel Grrls.
Complete script development and staged presentations of a bilingual play based on Don Quixote and Sancho Panza as homeless characters. Performances will take place through a series of readings at local shelters and for homeless and advocacy organizations.
Further collaboration with multidisciplinary artists from Mexico, Los Angeles, and Seattle plus immigrant youth in the development of new compositions culminating in two concerts/fandangos and video.
Record, rehearse and perform traditional Afro-Cuban compositions descended from Yoruba folklore with sacred bata drums and vocals for a public concert.
Create, record, and present original compositions for Cuban tres and guitar showcasing similarities between Cuban tres and Gypsy Jazz guitar. New work will be performed at a community concert.
Present and record a concert of music based on sounds from nature performed by the Seattle Chamber Players with pre-concert talks and recording. Performances will be made available to middle school students and senior citizens.
Present a new, evening-length dance-theater piece blending details of the 2012 school board shooting with studies of Chekhov's suicides and the Death Wish crime films.
Create and record a set of instrumental songs for string trio with electronics and for piano with electronics that will be performed as a suite. The songs incorporate repurposed compositions, acoustic material, and real instruments.
Compose, record, and perform new work exploring secular court music, vocal traditions, and fragments of classical literature from Iran and Java including innovative and open-ended translation processes.
Compose, rehearse and perform a song cycle in five movements for six artists based on the artist's great grandfather's memoir. Culminating events will be two public performances, one of which will include a composer question/answer period.
Present new ensemble drag dance comedy of excess work inspired by small-town fame to replicate and commodify our personas no matter how unflattering the results.
Research, create and produce a new retrospective, multi-disciplinary butoh piece focusing on gender and its relationship with costuming, make-up, movement, and themes for public performances and talks.
Rehearse, present and record live theater for a radio show with poets and playwrights, composers, and performers highlighting the Puget Sound region. Thematic episodes are all scored with original music and sound effects available online as podcasts.
Debut the production of a full-length stage play about an African American woman's journey with breast cancer. The project encompasses development, rehearsals, and production which will be in Fall 2013.
Create and develop a new collaborative dance drama with the Chinese National Acrobatic Troupe from Beijing based on a young boy's struggle to pursue his dream of becoming the best acrobat in the world.
Produce an environmental site-specific light installation based on Buddhist prayer beads and meditation mantra that will have a number of live performances over a two-week period in multiple spaces. The installation will be fully documented.
Develop through research and collaboration with theatre artists a stage play that dramatizes current scientific and philosophical explorations of human consciousness. The process will culminate in a fully staged workshop production in 2013.
Select, arrange and record original jazz compositions by Seattle-based musicians for two public performances with four high school workshops-concerts.
Complete final script of Don Nordo, a new full-evening theatrical work about food culture issues with free readings and post-reading talks including performers, producers, and supporters.
Create, record, and present six derivative Northwest Americana works from the mid-19th century through the early 20th Century exploring the settlement era, railroads, mining communities, travel to the west, and their influence on our local culture. Pieces will be accompanied by historical context and photos for school and public performances.
Create, rehearse and perform an original rock n' roll play, These Streets, with exhibit and oral histories inspired by the lives of women musicians from the 1990's Seattle grunge scene.
Present a dramatic live show exploring the ritual of dressing, the ceremony of fashion, and exclusivity within the fashion industry based in part on textile archives research. Performances will be concurrent with fashion week 2013 and performed three times on a single day with the exhibit.
Complete the first draft of a full-length play about homophobia among teens. There will be a community and school staged reading with post-play discussions led by the director and representatives from King County Sexual Assault Resource Center.
Complete and perform two 60-minute performances of new concert music for a 26-piece ensemble of strings and woodwinds, exploring the subtleties of human consciousness, awareness, and experience at two venues.
Present a two-woman show via a collage of monologues, ballads, old photos, modern dance, and '60s pop songs that weave a sad story of a Ukrainian-American family's war-torn past. Work paints an unexpectedly whimsical picture of loss.
2012 CityArists Projects
To further develop a new body of photographic work of a recent trip to Cuba giving some insight into what life is like for the average person living on this Caribbean island where the average U.S. citizen cannot visit and the Cuban citizens are not allowed to leave.
To complete and screen a full-length documentary exploring poverty and suicide among young girls in Nepal. Two showcases with post-screening panel discussions will be offered to communities with large Nepalese populations and teens.
Create an addition to a pop-up camper van as an installation venue featuring six composers/musicians at five local festivals, inviting pedestrians and the general public to engage.
In partnership with Safe Schools Coalition, complete a 12-piece series of paintings illuminating aspects of bullying GLBTG youth and potential interventions. After a month-long gallery exhibit, work will be shown at Washington Middle School with a panel discussion.
Continue exploration of small sustainable farms of Snoqualmie Valley via plein air studies and large studio paintings to be shown in venues where organic food is sold or its production is referenced. Public exhibits will take place at three farmers markets and at a Seattle Tilth event.
Develop a performative, portable sculpture on a bicycle trailer to encourage interaction about food rituals and family recipes at six P-Patch sites in diverse, socio-economic neighborhoods.
Write and publish a chapbook of lyrical essays exploring patriotism, imperialism, and environmentalism characterizing our national parks closing with writing workshops and one joint reading at the Klondike Gold Rush National Park Museum.
Create and publish new poems plus broadsides based on interviews and conversations with families raising chronically ill kids of ethnically diverse backgrounds with public readings at Seattle Children's Hospital, Odessa Brown Clinic, and UW Schools of Social Work and Nursing.
Complete final editing of a short documentary featuring the Fremont Troll as a community public art venture to premiere at the Fremont Outdoor Movies and UW School of Architecture.
Research and write four chapters of a young adult novel about a girl raised on a commune in the Pacific Northwest for one public reading and one combination reading-lecture at a north-end high school.
Create a wall-mounted art installation at the South Park Community Center made of 3-D hexagonal patterns activated by vibrantly colored vinyl and lights with an interactive component inspiring neighborhood dialogue.
Transform a 2-D series into an installation of large-scale, silk paper burqas (traditional outer garments worn by some Islamic women) with burned calligraphic markings and sound recording accounts of violence from war survivors for a public exhibit at Seattle Central Community College.
Complete final draft of a manuscript focused recounting an eating disorder suffered by a fat, black, gay, bulimic adopted by white parents struggling with the diagnosis of a girl's disease. Public readings will be offered in partnership with LGBT agencies, the National Eating Disorder Association, and the CD Forum.
Develop a multi-platform project of performative photos and giant wearable works exploring weight, physical burden, and labor. Interactive workshops, a blog, and a residency in Ireland will culminate in a public exhibit.
Complete a short film as a composite myth told through native story fragments, visual allusion, and complex sound design to be screened in partnership with Conservation Northwest and UW Department of American Indian Studies.
Create a 3-D, site-specific installation of complex layered drawings through which the public can move with tours and talks aimed at Pike Market Senior Center and a Montessori school.
Complete walking tours, a published trail guide, and an exhibition of physical, autobiographical artwork mapping a personal trajectory of studio space over time and reflecting current displacement of local artist live/workspace. HistoryLink and Storefronts Seattle will partner on shows and tours.
Complete a short documentary exploring connections and complexities between adoptive and birth families of children in Guatemala. Adoption service agencies will partner on screening outreach and lead a panel discussion.
A photographic series documenting the changing character of Seattle's industrial Sodo neighborhood exhibited at four galleries with presentations at four high school photography classes.
Complete a draft manuscript of revised/new lyrical poems exploring isolation via Northwest urban/rural landscapes for a public reading and north Seattle high school visits.
Draft a collection of 20 short stories inspired by a brother's struggle with autism and other family dysfunctions. Two public readings will be held with extended outreach to local organizations serving persons with autism plus talks at high schools.
Create a large-scale, site-specific braided grass sculpture/venue for seven musical performances at Discovery Park, including the Daybreak Star Cultural Center, to provoke new park experience and viewer responses.
Compose, print, and produce public health service messages/poems as laminated placards and books for display in public restrooms at sites including art venues, college campuses, high schools and small neighborhood businesses.
Complete final draft of novel chronicling the life of a village girl employed by the East Indian Company in medieval India. Two public readings will target South Asian cultural organizations and UW students.
Present a temporary sonic porthole via a large-scale, sound installation at Union Station featuring 15 layered broadcasts from train stations from around the world. Performances will target youth and senior populations from the International District.
With an all-ages team from Casa Latina, create a large-scale sand painting and mechanized carved sculpture reflecting immigrant themes of separation, hard work, nostalgia and struggle to adapt for installation at SAM's Olympic Sculpture Park in recognition of Day of the Dead.
Create a new series of 3-D artworks made entirely of acrylic paint, bridging the space between painting and sculpture for a gallery exhibit of "paint objects" and a public talk at a local high school.
To print a series of four, limited edition, hand-bound issues of Folio, a local arts journal containing writing and artwork by regional artists for public distribution and readings, performances, and presentations at Seattle Art Museum.
A stop-frame animated film series comprised of vignettes based on 12 taped interviews exploring human-animal connections with pets for a public park screening. Media programs serving young girls and Native American teens will be invited.
The completion of a lecture-slide show presentation chronicling struggles with weight loss and a workshop performance targeting the health and fitness field with a focus on groups addressing childhood obesity.
Revise and create chapters of a current novel on race, identity, and belonging. A flash fiction workshop with Latino students on the theme of growing up brown will close with a joint reading of work.
Complete draft of a novel about a middle-aged widower who scandalously quits a well-established career with the World Bank. One reading and discussion will be offered in Spanish and one will be targeted to inmates in the correctional system.
Final production of a short animated film exploring the struggles and transformative changes of transgender experience and encouraging dialogue on the subjects of visibility, safety and support. Screenings will be geared to the queer community and youth.
Produce an audio book of a self-published novel about an urban school in disarray and the veteran public school teacher as champion. Free interactive readings will target populations struggling with literacy.
Complete a sound and light installation incorporating urban sounds recorded in Seoul, Korea, and amplified through a kinetic sculpture for public presentation at Union Station.
Develop a series of videos for public screening that draw on stories, sounds, and images and capture the essence of a neighborhood and serve as a record of the community.
Create a multi-media exhibit featuring a sculpture made of helicopter rotor blades symbolizing ascension along with audio-visual portraits of individuals recovering from adversity. A public exhibit will aim to combat stigma and inspire hope.
Create a new body of sculptural cedar bark basketry incorporating invasive plant species in Seattle and using experimental gathering and preparation techniques for a public exhibition at a park's environmental center.
To produce a documentary featuring the professional and personal journey of reinvention of local and internationally recognized photographer Phil Borges for a public exhibit.
Create a multi-media installation for the public exhibit, including drawings, sculpture, and video, that re-imagines the world of Oz based on research of gay history within the military.
Design and produce a set of alphabet images using paper cut technique and silkscreen and relying on distinct Pacific Northwest flora and fauna for exhibit at libraries and community centers.
Complete a book-length lyric poem divided into short sections that study the route of a daily Queen Anne neighborhood walk for a public reading that reaches local youth arts programs.
Identify two neighborhoods with a high volume of young adult pedestrian traffic to use QR codes and smartphones for viewing Oaxacan images paired with the specific location of QR code.
Create a large-scale, site-specific light installation that transforms the Intiman Theatre courtyard and creates a space for performance and reflection for Seattle Center audiences.
2011 CityArists Projects
2010 CityArists Projects
2009 CityArists Projects
2008 CityArists Projects
2007 CityArists Projects
To compose and produce an hour-long chamber opera based on historical text by Ruth Whitman of the pioneer spirit of the Donner Party and American West.
To compose a new work and present ancient melodies in a cappella oratorio for antiphonal chorus The Esoterics.
To create an interactive dance/theatre multidisciplinary-media experience to be performed in a hotel room including a live Web stream and complimentary gallery installation.
To present a five-hour West African dance and music concert and workshops.
To create and present new work for a music composition oratorio about a historic show predicament.
To create and perform male dance in contemporary society and throughout history.
To develop and present touching and comedic music-dance stories.
To create and present a new puppet show based on Brian Stoker's Dracula, written and directed by Kooser with live music featuring Bunraku, traditiional Japanese puppetry.
To complete one work-in-progress and present a Shakespearean adaptation of theatrical music performances with episodes streamed on the Web.
To create and present new work using actors mixing classic black-and-white film imagery with the multidisciplinary media of the 19th century.
To develop music and present a concert of original boleros, sambas and folkloric vocal music from Mexico, the Caribbean and South America.
To create and present a multi-disciplinary piece focused on two Pillar Pieces and interconnected over three months through symphonic/dance work.
To create a theatrical script from 300 hours of interviews detailing the struggle over survival of the Skagit River.
To develop and stage read a play intended to evolve for 10,000 years, illuminating ideas embodied by the Clock of the Long Now.
To remount and present an outdoor, interdisciplinary "dream theater" piece with expanded ensembles and moving sets.
To compose and present one large-scale original composition and one large-scale arrangement for classical guitar trio.
To create and present partnerships with a dance, theater and music artists culminating in four complete works.
To create a recording of a pieces of classical Persian music, including original compositions based on multilingual poetry in Farsi and English.
To present a full-length work blending deconstructed/re-arranged compositions and absurdist theater.
To develop and present an original story about love and relationships integrating dance-theater, music and video performance.
To create and present a new dance-music performance about how we map and navigate changing and compromised worlds.
To complete and present a multidisciplinary-media musical theater production inspired by individuals worldwide forced to create to stay alive.
To create, present and record a new set of jazz compositions for an avant-guard trio with alto sax, percussion and piano.
To develop and present new music and produce a CD incorporating electronic and acousitical elements.
To commission and present a series of short, new "Padua-esque" plays staged outdoors in site-specific locations.
To compose, record and present a lecture performance combining classical music with elements of various jazz styles.
To create and present an original dance work exploring music, timing and personal styles by exchanging video and visit from NYC choreographer Pat Catterson.
To create and present a one-act work including theatrer, film, dance and live music offering a glimpse into personal isolation, anxieties, vulnerability and aspirations.
Create and present a new theatrical re-creation of the silent movie experience combining acrobatic performance, music, videography and stage magic.
To record and produce a CD and tunebook of "old time" unique styles and techniques for tunes collected over 30 years from fiddlers in Washington and Oregon.
To direct a reconstruction of Hedda Gabler, a classic Henrik Ibsen play.