Youth Arts grant

Application

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. 

Deadline

Feb. 27, 2024, 5 p.m. Pacific

Open Date
1/16/2024
Open Time
Close Date
2/27/2024
Close Time
Eligible
Organization
Individual
Application

Blind youth sit at a drum kit, bongos, piano, and guitar inside a studio.

Students in the 2017 Jack Straw Blind Youth audio project work on their original song in the studio. Photo by Sherwin Eng.

Español Tiếng Việt 中文(简体) 한국어 Soomaali አማርኛ Tagalog

The Youth Arts grant is a 2-year grant that supports equitable access to arts and cultural learning opportunities for Seattle’s middle and high school-aged youth. Programs occur outside of school hours and are led by experienced artists and teaching artists working in communities across Seattle to increase arts and cultural opportunities for young people from diverse racial and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Eligibility

  • Projects must take place between September 2024 – August 2025 and September 2025 – August 2026. 

  • Eligible applicants include individual artists, teaching artists, arts and cultural organizations, youth-service agencies, and degree-granting institutions.  

  • Programs must be available to middle and high school-aged young people and take place within Seattle city limits.  

  • All artists and teaching artists hired by arts and cultural organizations, youth-service agencies, and degree-granting institutions must have at least one (1) year of experience working with the project age group and arts and cultural forms.  

  • Projects must reflect the Youth Arts grant priorities and demographics as described in the full guidelines..

Please read the guidelines for full details.

Funding

Recipients will receive a total of $12,000 distributed over two (2) years of Youth Arts funding support for programs in 2024-2025 and 2025-2026. You will only receive funding after the program has started. Once an invoice is submitted, the City will process it in 30 days. 

Due Date

Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, 5 p.m. Pacific.

Please allow ample time to complete your application; applications submitted after the deadline will not be accepted.

Information Sessions and Draft Application Review

Learn more about this opportunity and how to turn in your strongest application. We highly encourage first-time applicants to attend:

Virtual Information Sessions

Monday, Jan. 22, 2024
5 - 6 p.m.
RSVP here

Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024
12 - 1 p.m.
RSVP here

Virtual Draft Application Review

Monday, Feb. 5, 2024
5 - 6 p.m.
RSVP here

Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024
12 - 1 p.m.
RSVP here

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, Kristi Woo at (206) 727-8671 or Kristi.Woo@seattle.gov.

We can speak to you in your language, including American Sign Language! 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 City Artist application is on the new Citywide grants platform (FLUXX) that will produce a better experience for applicants and align with the City's race and social justice values by providing more equity in opportunities for artists and communities of color. Applicants will be able to submit applications and manage their awards by creating or logging into their accounts at the City of Seattle Grants Portal

If you are managing an award for an organization or group and think they may already be in the system, please reach out to the program manager at kristi.woo@seattle.gov

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

  1. Like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Also, be sure you’re signed up for our email newsletter.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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

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

2019-20 Youth Arts Awards

Each awardee receives $6,000

206 Zulu
206 Zulu will offer Beats to the Rhyme, an after-school program that offers education of the music industry, songwriting, and comprehensive insight in related fields while providing access to music production and technology. Youth collaborate to record an original album, film, and release a music video, at a live concert.   
BAYFEST Youth Theatre, BAYFEST Education*
BAYFEST Youth Theatre, BAYFEST Education- "One World, One Story" will guide young people to write their own stories in monologues and poems, to be staged alongside traditional tales of "growing up" from world cultures. Many participants have experienced violence, trauma, racism, and poverty in their lives - and self-empowerment, growth in Life- and communications skills, empathy, and self-confidence are the main focus of work with them. Work will be featured in school and public performances, gallery shows, and online presentations.    
Che Sehyun*
Che Sehyun- ICEE gives low-income youth of color the opportunity to write, produce, and record their own hip-hop song re-mix, and direct, shoot and edit a corresponding music video in their own community. Students will learn about the history of hip-hop, interact with local guest teaching artists, and write and record their own lyrics that reflect their life, their culture, and their community. The event will culminate in a youth-produced mixtape and visual album that will screen at the NW Film Forum.    
Coyote Central*
Coyote Central will provide courses in a range of dance styles at both Coyote's main campus in the Central District and at Coyote's new studio space in Lake City. Each course will culminate in a showcase. A cohort of Coyote's young dancers will also apprentice with the professional dance group AU Collective, rehearsing at Coyote Central and performing around the city.    
Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association (DNDA)
DNDA manages Nature Consortium, which works with youth from Southwest Interagency Academy (SWIA) to engage in four EcoArts projects. Youth will learn environmental lessons through the lenses of art, civic responsibility, and sustainability.     
Earthseed Seattle
Earthseed Seattle creates theatre that actively carves out space for parents/guardians and the children for whom they care to have space to engage in conversations about power and oppression. Teaching artist, Jéhan Òsanyìn will cowrite this play alongside youth.     
El Centro de la Raza          
El Centro de la Raza will work with Latino youth who will be immersed in multi-media art workshops exploring the traditions and art of Dia de los Muertos. Students will learn about various artistic and cultural traditions surrounding the event through several mediums (sculpture, tapete, poetry, etc); create elements of a traditional ofrenda (altar) during after-school sessions; showcase their artwork at the Dia de los Muertos celebration and three -week ofrenda exhibit.  
Eritrean Association in Greater Seattle*
Eritrean Association in Greater Seattle -Eritrean youth will participate in weekly lessons year-round focused on Eritrean dance, culture, and language. Participants will learn and rehearse traditional Eritrean dances, practice the Tigrigna language, study various aspects of Eritrean culture, and perform at a variety of community events.  
Extraordinary Futures
Extraordinary Futures provides young people with dance classes and open practice sessions. Students will participate in monthly dance competitions as part of a Middle and High School Breakdance League and prepare for the culminating event, Massive Break Challenge.   
Jack Straw Foundation
Jack Straw Foundation provides blind and visually impaired youth the opportunity to work with a team of artists in their professional recording studios. Students will tell stories with sound, create music, and share their work with the public, via CD and streaming online.   
Northwest Folklife
Northwest Folklife provides a Youth residency focused on Mexican American and Chicana/o Roots in the Northwest. Youth will explore their cultural identities using visual arts, film, and spoken word. Participants will present their final projects at four culminating community events.  
Olisa Johnson*
Olisa Johnson- and young women will gather for an intensive journey into performance. They will collaborate on an original performance piece that will culminate in a public performance. The performance piece will include, music, dance, and story. The piece will explore the theme "Being a Gxrl". We will look at what it means to be a gxrl/woman. How do we perform gender? Where does our unique power and beauty come from? They will let the world know "Out Loud".  
Pongo Publishing
Pongo Publishing offers weekly writing sessions to incarcerated youth. Pongo will conduct a final poetry event inside the detention center and will share their poetry at the NW Folklife Festival.    
Rain City Rock Camp for Girls
Rain City Rock Camp for Girls introduces Seattle girls to hands-on exploration of rock music through the support of powerful female mentors and role models to discover their own creativity, raise their voices, and work together for positive change. Girls will participate in Rock Camps and "Rockshop" deep dive into music-related topics throughout the year.    
Reel Grrls
Reel Grrls offers young womxn and gender non-conforming youth a Media Club program at Denny International Middle School, teaching a foundation of basic production skills with a focus on emotional development and creative collaboration. Students will produce two to three completed video projects.   
Sawhorse Revolution
Sawhorse Revolution's All-Womxn's Design and Build Program engages all-female teens to design and then build ambitious community projects across Seattle - facilitated by all-female architects, builders, and volunteers. Young womxn are engaged in an experiential "classroom" where they learn all aspects of working on a real construction project while fostering creativity, imagination, and mental flexibility.  
School of Acrobatics & New Circus Arts [SANCA]*
SANCA's Circus RODA Program blends arts-based learning with work-readiness training by drawing upon principles of Social Circus and the social justice movement. Emphasizing 21st-century skills including creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration, circus skills are used as a transformational metaphor for personal and social development.  
Seattle JazzED
Seattle JazzED works with students at all levels of music ability to learn how to play their instrument, read music, and perform in an ensemble. Youth can participate in year-round programming.
Seattle Mongolian Youth Center*
Seattle Mongolian Youth Center- will provide Mongolian youth in Seattle with art education through various arts and cultural programs that preserve our traditional nomadic culture. We offer language, history, art and culture, dance classes, and organized community events. Our Youth Center also serves as a cultural and community HUB for the Mongolian Community in Seattle, especially for the young generation that are children of first-generation immigrants.  
Seattle Music Partners*
Seattle Music Partners- The Middle School Music Project (MSMP) provides under-served youth in Seattle's Central District with music education centered in quality instruction, youth development, and social justice. Musical instruments, supplies, and one-on-one and group instruction are provided free and in an accessible community location. Music education leads to research-verified gains in academic success and youth development, and that makes the world a better and more joyful place.  
Seattle Repertory Theatre*
Seattle Repertory Theatre introduces high-school students to the work of the celebrated black playwright, August Wilson through the August Wilson Monologue Competition.  Through workshops, small-group coaching, and a multi-round competition, students prepare a monologue and compete for a spot in the national competition on Broadway.   
SIFF - Seattle International Film Festival*
SIFF Crash Mobile is an immersive filmmaking program in collaboration with LANGSTON to expand access for Black youth to media-based storytelling. Taught by Black filmmaking educators, students create a film during each session in 5-student production groups around culturally relevant historical and social justice themes. Their work is then shown at the end of each workshop and previous student films have been presented at the Langston Hughes African American Film Festival, Folklife, and SIFF.  
Sondra Cunningham*
Sondra Cunningham: Haida Roots- is a cultural preservation project that will connect urban Seattle Haida youth to their critically endangered language through dance, writing, and art. Sondra Segundo, will organize and teach Haida youth classes and continue to educate Seattle youth (in schools, libraries, youth programs) about NW Coast Indigenous culture through art lessons and storytelling/song sharing.  
South Park Arts sponsored by Urban Art Works
South Park Arts is sponsored this year by Urban Art Works- in partnership with community organizations is offering a mural art training program where teaching artists and youth will collaborate to paint three murals in the South Park business community. This pilot program will lay the groundwork for a long-term partnership between South Park Arts and other local artists, community groups, and the businesses that will engage youth in future arts training and create additional public art in the neighborhood.  
Spectrum Dance Theater
Spectrum Dance Theater offers DanceSPEAK, where students explore contemporary dance, improvisation, and choreograph their own solo and group dances. The collaborative process culminates in an interactive community performance.   
Stephanie Guerra
Stephanie Guerra teaches creative writing classes in King County at the Juvenile Detention Center to a revolving roster of incarcerated teens and helps publish their work in an online magazine.
Sumayya E. Diop*
Sumayya E. Diop- I am....We are! A sojourn & celebration of Gurlz & sisterhood stories, throughout the African Diaspora, studying and performing dance, drum, spoken word, poetry, fashion, hip-hop, and song!  
Totem Star
Totem Star allows youth to book weekly after-school studio sessions working with teaching artists for one-on-one vocal and/or instrument lessons, participate in jam sessions, program digital beats, gain assistance with songwriting, compose and record original songs.    
Wing Luke Memorial Foundation*
Wing Luke Memorial Foundation YouthCAN is The Wing's free, out-of-school arts, heritage, and leadership program for Asian Pacific American high school students. Through mentorship by local artists of similar backgrounds to students, students build arts and leadership skills, develop community connections and portfolios, and take on leadership roles through exhibition development and internships. Original artworks produced by teens are displayed in The Wing's Youth Gallery three times a year and in other community venues.  
Young Strings Project Outreach/Orchestra NW*
Young Strings Project Outreach/ Orchestra NW-  professional classical musicians/teaching artists, will provide orchestral and instrumental (viola, violin, cello) instruction to Latinx immigrant and refugee middle and high school youth, including basic technique, music theory, and ensemble skills that emphasize individual instrumental achievement mainly as support for the ensemble as a whole.  
*Denotes first-year recipients for the 2019-2020 school year

2018-19 Youth Arts Awards

Each awardee receives $6,000

Stephanie Guerra           
Stephanie Guerra teaches creative writing classes in King County at the Juvenile Detention Center to a revolving roster of incarcerated teens and helps publish their work in an online magazine.  

Extraordinary Futures  
Extraordinary Futures provides young people with dance classes and open practice sessions. Students will participate in monthly dance competitions as part of a Middle and High School Breakdance League and prepare for the culminating event, Massive Break Challenge.  

Pongo Publishing           
Pongo Publishing offers weekly writing sessions to incarcerated youth. Pongo will conduct a final poetry event inside the detention center and will share their poetry at the NW Folklife Festival.  

Seattle JazzED  
Seattle JazzED works with students at all levels of music ability to learn how to play their instrument, read music, and perform in an ensemble. Youth can participate in year round programming.  

Totem Star
Totem Star allows youth to book weekly after-school studio sessions working with teaching artists for one-on-one vocal and/or instrument lessons, participate in jam sessions, program digital beats, gain assistance with songwriting, compose and record original songs.  

Seattle Repertory Theatre          
The Seattle Repertory Theatre introduces high-school students to the work of the celebrated black playwright, August Wilson through the August Wilson Monologue Competition.  Through workshops, small-group coaching, and a multi-round competition, students prepare a monologue and compete for a spot in the national competition on Broadway.  
Spectrum Dance Theater                                             
Spectrum Dance Theater offers, DanceSPEAK, where students explore contemporary dance, improvisation, and choreograph their own solo and group dances. The collaborative process culminates in an interactive community performance.  
Jack Straw Foundation 
Jack Straw Foundation provides blind and visually impaired youth the opportunity to work with a team of artists in their professional recording studios. Students will tell stories with sound, create music, and share their work with the public, via CD and streaming online.  
Rain City Rock Camp for Girls                                                    
Rain City Rock Camp for Girls introduces Seattle girls to hands-on exploration of rock music through the support of powerful female mentors and role models to discover their own creativity, raise their voices, and join together for positive change. Girls will participate in Rock Camps and "Rockshop" deep dives into music related topics throughout the year.    
206 Zulu                                             
206 Zulu will offer Beats to the Rhyme, an after school program that offers education of the music industry, songwriting and a comprehensive insight in related fields while providing access to music production and technology. Youth collaborate to record an original album, film and release a music video, at a live concert.  
Earthseed Seattle                                           
Earthseed Seattle creates theatre that actively carves out space for parents/guardians and the children for whom they care to have space to engage in conversations about power and oppression. Teaching artist,  Jéhan Òsanyìn will cowrite this play alongside youth.  
Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association (DNDA)                                                       
DNDA manages Nature Consortium who work with youth from Southwest Interagency Academy (SWIA) to engage in four EcoArts projects. Youth will learn environmental lessons through the lenses of art, civic responsibility and sustainability.  
South Park Merchants Association (SPMA)         
SPMA in partnership with community organizations offer a mural art training program where teaching artists and youth will collaborate to paint three murals in the South Park business community. This pilot program will lay the groundwork for a long-term partnership between South Park Arts and other local artists, community groups and the businesses that will engage youth in future arts training and create additional public art in the neighborhood.  
Reel Grrls           
Reel Grrls offers young womxn and gender non-conforming youth a Media Club program at Denny International Middle School, teaching a foundation of basic production skills with a focus on emotional development and creative collaboration. Students will produce two to three completed video projects.  
Northwest Folklife                                         
Northwest Folklife provides a Youth residency focused on Mexican American and Chicana/o Roots in the Northwest. Youth will explore their cultural identities using visual arts, film, and spoken word. Participants will present their final projects at four culminating community events.

2017-18 Youth Arts Awards

Each awardee receives $6,000 

Sumayya Diop
Sumayya Diop along with local female guest artists work with girls, learning African culture through dance, song, theater, drumming, Hip Hop, music, spoken word and poetry. The program will culminate in a sharing for family and community.  
Andy Peterson 
Andy Peterson through Seattle Robotic Arts provides art and technology programs for young people who are encouraged to explore their presumptions and associations with technology while developing connections with visual art through learning opportunities and exploratory play.
Eritrean Association of Greater Seattle 
Eritrean Association of Greater Seattle's Youth Dance Group focuses on introducing youth to Eritrean dance, culture, and language. Students learn and rehearse traditional Eritrean dances, practice the Tigrinya language, study various aspects of Eritrean culture, and perform at variety of community events.  
Sondra Segundo              
Sondra Segundo through Haida Roots has implemented a preservation project that connects urban Seattle Haida youth to their critically endangered language through dance, writing, and art.  
The Filipino Community of Seattle
The Filipino Community of Seattle in collaboration with Youth Theater Northwest offers theater sessions to local youth to build theater skills, learn Filipino culture through folktales and gain confidence and experience in the performing arts.  
Young Strings Project Outreach
Young Strings Project Outreach's World Youth Orchestra, provides immigrant and refugee youth the opportunity to be mentored by professional classical musicians in orchestral and stringed instrument (viola, violin, cello) instruction. Students learn basic techniques, ensemble skills, and music theory, culminating in community concerts.  
Urban ArtWorks              
Urban ArtWorks works with King County adjudicated youth to provide subsidized work training and art training. Through the creation of site specific murals youth will connect with community in a positive way.  
Andrea LaVare Malagon              
Andrea LaVare Malagon partners with young people to learn the fundamentals of Mexican Folklorico and Traditional Quinceañera dances and their historical relevance.  
Photographic Center Northwest (PCNW)
PCNW hosts, New Views, an immersion program that teaches photography alongside language and American culture to immigrant and refugee students at Seattle World School (SWS).  
Wing Luke Memorial Foundation (The Wing)
The Wing's offers YouthCAN, an arts and leadership program for Asian Pacific American high school students. Guided by local artists, original artworks are produced by teens and displayed in The Wing's Youth Gallery and appear in community venues.  
School of Acrobatics & New Circus Arts (SANCA)
SANCA Social Circus Roda Program introduces young people to blended arts-based learning with work-readiness training in a Social Circus context. Circus skills are used as a transformational metaphor for personal and social development and students participate in a community sharing.  
Charles and Emma Frye Free Public Art Museum (Frye Art Museum)      
Frye Art Museum's Spatial Solutions in partnership with RecTech Lab at Yesler Community Center, and Seattle Youth Violence Prevention work with community youth to develop skills in architectural design and 3D modeling through instruction, local guest speakers and site visits with their work highlighted in an exhibition at the Frye Art Museum.  
El Centro de la Raza       
El Centro de la Raza educates Latino youth about Dia de los Muertos and create elements of a traditional ofrenda (altar) through mentorship of community artists. Student work is showcased at the Dia de los Muertos celebration and ofrenda exhibition at El Centro de la Raza.  
Sawhorse Revolution   
Sawhorse Revolution's All Women's Design-Build program provides female-identified youth the opportunity to work with professional women, in design and craft building fields to design and construct a custom community structure with lasting benefit for a partnering community group.  
Debra Kendrick
Debra Kendrick's No More Bull (NMB) program provides young people the opportunity to be mentored by teaching artists in history, dance, lectures, drama activities, scene building and tech support. The culmination is a stage production for the community.

2017 Youth Arts Awards

Andrea LaVare Malagon (Mexican Folklorico and Traditional Quinceañera Dance Club) $6,000
Students will be taught the fundamentals of Mexican folklorico and traditional Quinceañera dances and their historical relevance. Each session will build on the previous one, maintaining a positive and safe learning environment. Each class will present a life skill concept, discussion, and action plan.   

Coyote Central  $7,306
Engage youth in hands-on media courses by professional filmmakers, photographers, animators and recording artists during fall, winter and spring terms. Screening of work at NW Film Forum.   

Charles and Emma Frye Free Public Art Museum          $6,000
Spatial Solutions is a free of charge annual partnership program between the Frye Art Museum, RecTech Lab at Yesler Community Center, and Seattle Youth Violence Prevention Initiative provides high school teens with limited/no access to arts education to develop skills in architectural design and 3D modeling.  

Creative Justice         $6,000
Creative Justice is an arts-based alternative to detention for court-involved youth of King County. Participants collaborate with mentor artists, building skills in a variety of disciplines, and utilizing art to express their own ideas, visions and creativity to address issues that most impact them.   

El Centro de la Raza  $6,000
Thirty-five at-risk Latino youth will learn about Dia de los Muertos and create elements of a traditional ofrenda (altar) during after-school sessions at El Centro de la Raza. Their work will be showcased at the Dia de los Muertos celebration and three-week ofrenda exhibit.   

Debra Kendrick (No More Bull (NMB))   $6,000
Teaching artist will engage youth in a 12 week fall theater program. Youth will learn basics in putting on a show from start to finish. Lessons will include history, dance, drama activities, scene building, and tech support. The program will culminate with a stage production for the community.   

Eritrean Association of Greater Seattle   $6,000
Eritrean youth will participate in weekly lessons year-round focused on Eritrean dance, culture, and language. Participants will learn and rehearse traditional Eritrean dances, practice the Tigrinya language, study various aspects of Eritrean culture, and perform at variety of community events.   

Gage Academy of Arts  $3,500
Artists will provide visual arts techniques and skill-building mentorships to teens at two sites that will close with an annual, month-long exhibit.   

Girls Rock! Seattle  $9,000
Youth will participate in music and positive aspects of rock culture lessons and coaching by female musician role models that will close with performances of original songs.   

Na'ah Illahee Fund   $3,000
Artists will offer instruction to young women as cultural bearers through basket weaving, carving, storytelling, spoken word and film-making. A community exhibit and screening closes the session.   

Peterson, Andy (Seattle Robotic Arts!)  $6,000
Seattle Robotic Arts! is a free, out-of-school art/technology program for youth in Seattle Public Schools. Youth are encouraged to explore their presumptions and associations with technology while developing connections with visual art through learning opportunities and exploratory play.  

Photographic Center Northwest  $6,000
New Views, formerly Club Photo, is as an after-school program hosted by Photographic Center Northwest (PCNW). This summer immersion program teaches photography alongside language and American culture to immigrant and refugee students at Seattle World School (SWS).  

Reel Grrls   $10,000
Three film-makers will offer afterschool video production workshops including media literacy, creative vision, and storytelling for girls who will produce their own short films.   

Richard Hugo House   $3,500
Teens will produce new work in poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction through creative writing sessions given by artists via workshops that will culminate in readings.   

Sawhorse Revolution  $6,000
High school age girls and female-identified youth from Central and South Seattle will work with professional women in design and craft building fields to design and construct a custom community structure with lasting benefit for a partnering community group.   

School of Acrobatics & New Circus Arts  $6,000
SANCA's Roda Program blends arts-based learning with work-readiness training in a Social Circus context. Emphasizing 21st century skills: creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration, circus skills are used as a transformational metaphor for personal and social development.   

Seattle Jazz Orchestra  $1,400
Provide supplemental band and jazz music instruction to teens at a week-long, summer camp led by local jazz scholars at Chief Sealth High School      

Sondra Segundo (Haida Roots)  $6,000
Haida Roots is a culture preservation project that will connect urban Seattle Haida youth to their critically endangered language through dance, writing, and art.  

Spectrum Dance Theater  $9,000
High school youth will receive in-depth learning experience in music, and cultural history of African dance and its evolution to American Tap dance. Sessions will culminate in a school-community performance.   

Sumayya Diop (Griot Gurlz!) $6,000
Students will take a sojourn of culture from Africa to America through dance, theater, drumming, music and spoken word poetry! Middle school girls will participate in multimedia/multidisciplinary arts classes, and will receive mentoring by Seattle based female artists. Classes include African dance, song, drum, Hip Hop, emceeing and culture, theatre arts, griot/poetry/rhyme, and spoken word, culminating in a share for family, community.   

The Filipino Community of Seattle  $6,000
Bringing Filipino folktales to life through theater. The Filipino Community of Seattle in collaboration with Youth Theater Northwest will offer three 12-week theater workshops for middle and high school students. Youth will build acting skills, learn Filipino culture through folktales and gain confidence and experience in the performing arts.  

Urban ArtWorks   $6,000
In this fall after school program Urban ArtWorks will work with King County adjudicated youth to provide subsidized work and art training after school Monday-Thursday. Through the creation of site specific murals youth will connect with their community in a positive way.   

WA Asian Pacific Islander Community Services  $4,000
Four artists will lead music, writing and visual arts sessions incorporating culturally-relevant life skills, music production and business elements to youth.   

Wing Luke Memorial Foundation (YouthCAN at The Wing)  $6,000
YouthCAN is The Wing's free, out-of-school arts and leadership program for Asian Pacific American high school students. Guided by local artists, original artworks produced by teens are displayed in The Wing's Youth Gallery three times a year. YouthCAN works have also appeared in community venues.   

Young Strings Project Outreach/Whidbey Island Waldorf School   $6,000
World Youth Orchestra professional classical musicians will provide sequential orchestral and stringed instrument (viola, violin, cello) instruction, including basic technique, ensemble skills, and music theory, for immigrant, refugee, and mainstream teens and will culminate in three concerts in December, March and June.  

Youth in Focus  $9,000
Seven artists will lead year-long, film-digital photography sessions for teens that will close with an exhibition of images, self-portraits and artist statements.

2015-16 Youth Arts Awards

Arts Corps
The program will provide 200 southeast/west young people with 528 hours of after-school, multi-art, and leadership classes by seven artists that will culminate in showcases at each site plus service-learning assignments.
$9,000
Associated Recreation Council
The program will provide 10 teens with 28 hours of hands-on graphic design and social media instruction with neighborhood and museum staff to create a campaign that reflects community issues. Classes close with a public showcase at the Frye Art Museum.
$2,700
Center for Wooden Boats
The program will teach 30 hours of Native cedar carving and restoration skills to eight at-risk youth by two artists. The project will close with an event showcasing ceremonial traditions open to the public.
$5,040
Common Language Project, The
The program will offer 40 refugee/immigrant teens an intensive workshop including 48 hours of research, reporting, and publishing workshops by three artists as an introduction to create and share their own content for a public showcase. Intensives are pipelines to journalism apprenticeships.
$6,000
Cornish College of the Arts
Ten artists will lead 100 hours of summer, pre-college team intensives with critiques for 50 teen producers-in-progress that culminate in a public performance.
$7,000
Deaf Spotlight
Eight deaf artists plus an ASL translator will lead 112 hours of playwriting-theater summer camp workshops for 15 deaf teens and kids of deaf adults. Camp will end with a performance by youth.
$5,000
Diop, Sumayya
The program will offer 64 hours of fused traditional and contemporary dance-theater-spoken word-hip-hop-song where 13 middle school girls will explore cultural bridges and give a community performance.
$4,521
El Centro de la Raza
The program will offer after-school sessions taught by four artists providing 338 hours of hands-on design and production of 'ofrendas' (altars) elements for 60 young people. It will close with three Day of the Dead celebrations at two schools and one neighborhood site.
$3,400
Extraordinary Futures/Shunpike
Through 180 hours of breakdancing, meditation, yoga, and mentoring by a single performing artist, 15 youth will participate in a showcase at community events with city and countywide peers.
$6,000
Guerra, Stephanie
40 at-risk teens will participate in writing, literature circles with reflection and readings taught by a novelist.
$3,600
International Capoeira Angola Foundation
Seven lead and guest artists will teach 15 teen fundamental movements, world music, and history including written and spoken reflection that transform aggression and violence into a non-competitive form.
$5,000
Jack Straw Foundation
Audio story-music and visual arts pieces will be generated by 30 youth with disabilities who will engage in 100 hours of radio drama sessions led by 10 artists for an in-studio installation.
$9,000
Korson, Emily
Three artists will lead 30 hours of visual arts and literature for 15 young people to explore destruction and repair. Books with narratives and artworks will be generated and exhibited.
$3,984
Marshall, Lauren
The program will offer 82 hours of scriptwriting and theater by two artists for 16 teens with learning and physical challenges plus homeless teens at two sites. It will close with community performances.
$3,372
Mercer Middle School PTSA
40 hours of Liberation Theater workshops blended with hip-hop culture focused on Beacon Hill as "home" will be led by three artists for 25 youth and culminate with a community showcase.
$5,000
Na'ah Illahee Foundation
45 Native youth will create a short film, video games and engage in traditional arts through 70 hours of hands-on instruction taught by four artists at different sites. A month-long gallery show with all artworks will close sessions.
$6,000
Nagy, Mary
15 teens will be led through 120 hours of after-school b-boying/b-girling and the history of hip-hop culture led by one artist and two guest artists. Choreographed and original works will be performed.
$5,146
Peterson, Andy
Through 168 hours of hands-on introductory, intermediate, and advanced art design, engineering, and electronic projects taught by one artist, 60 southeast middle-school youth will produce and present creations for a community display.
$7,000
Photographic Center Northwest
The program will offer 60 hours of sessions with field trips and instruction in photography linked to core academics for 20 immigrant/refugee teens, taught by two artists. It will culminate in a school showcase and a public slideshow.
$6,652
Pongo Publishing
The program will offer 144 hours of poetry-writing a method of healing trauma guided by three artists for 192 young people in King County Juvenile Detention Center (KCJDC). A collection of poems will be published and shared with the general public.
$6,800
Pratt Fine Arts Center
268 Central area teens will engage in 614 hours of hands-on, multi-visual arts classes plus portfolio development led by 10 artists with specialized equipment and materials. The program will close with two showcases.
$3,000
Reel Grrls
Three media artists will guide 48 teen girls through 90 hours of video, animation, and performance instruction for program screenings with talk-backs.
$6,000
Sawhorse Revolution
The program will engage 12 young people in 82 hours of design, draw, build, and public speaking lessons taught by three artists-architects that produce sustainable mobile structures for homeless clients.
$5,676
Seattle Art Museum
Two artists will teach 170 hours of after-school/Saturday intensive for 30 high school youth to learn field research and fundamentals of architecture that produce models of teen-friendly community space models. Multidimensional pieces will be displayed.
$7,200
Seattle Arts and Lectures, Inc.
Four artists will lead 40 hours of literary arts to 80 middle/high school teens and will pilot a Writing In The Schools summer camp for 80 middle and high school students.
$6,000
Seattle JazzED
Ten acclaimed musicians will guide 150 young people through 420 hours of introductory jazz lessons focused on improvisation and performance that will close with two community concerts.
$5,600
Totem Star Records/Seattle Neighborhood Group
Two musicians will mentor 10 youth through 50 hours of hands-on music production and business workshops featuring guest artists that will close with a live public performance.
$8,000
Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras
The program will offer 64 teens 238 hours of string instrument and ensemble coaching, rehearsals for beginner and intermediate levels by four musicians. Lessons will culminate in fall and spring concerts.
$3,998
Shantz, Michael
50 teen girls will engage in 72 hours of ensemble steel pans from Trinidad and jazz-hip-hop dance taught by two artists for a performance at NW Folklife Festival 2016.
$7,480
Somali Community Services of Seattle
The program will feature a community showcase of traditional Somali art forms generated by 50 young people engaged in 156 hours of multi-arts lessons taught by four artists. Work will be based on Somali films and family interviews.
$4,572
Velocity Dance Center Ten local/international artists will lead 50 teens through 72 hours of dance, choreography, performance, and video production. The series will close with self-produced concerts
$2,288
Wing Luke Memorial Foundation
20 Asian Pacific-Islander youth will be guided by three mentoring artists on after-school/summer art projects including workshops, field trips, and exhibit design studios that will culminate in three exhibitions.
$4,000
Young Shakespeare Workshop
The program will offer a sequential 400 hour-long summer series of Shakesperean instruction and rehearsal by two artists for 40 youth that closes with 10 city-wide, public performances at different venues.
$5,000
Young Strings Project Outreach/Whidbey Island Waldorf School
Two bilingual classical musicians/composers will lead 120 hours of sequential lessons in stringed instruments, their care and ensemble work for 30 immigrant/refugee teens will culminate in recitals and a concert.
$8,982
Youth in Focus
The program will offer 16,200 hours of photography lessons, field trips, gallery visits, and service-learning to 300 teens led by eight artists. Debriefings will be conducted at the close of each session.
$3,000
Youth Theatre Northwest
40 southeast teens will participate in 57 hours of after-school/spring break improvisation residency led by four artists. The residency will close with community performances plus family will receive tickets to YTNW productions.
$1,479

2014-15 Youth Arts Awards

Art with Heart
Two artists will lead 48 sessions of painting, drawing, and creative writing for 30 Ryther female teens to assist in processing trauma through creative expression.
$2,500
Arts Corps
Seven artists will lead 780 hours of after-school arts instruction and leadership training to 165 South Seattle teens. Sessions in music, poetry, and dance will be offered with select students organizing outreach, performance, and event management.
$8,500
Etienne Cakpo
Thirty hours of West African dance and drum rhythms will be taught during spring term by one artist to middle and high school students. Performances will be scheduled at the student's schools, World Rhythm Festival, and at Northwest Folklife Festival.
$1,900
Center for Wooden Boats
Through a 30-hour session on history, traditional re-skinning of an Umiak (boat), and cedar paddle carving led by three cultural specialists, eight youth will learn authentic native methods. A launch of the completed Umiak will close the sessions.
$3,400
Alex Chadsey
A bilingual team of eight Seattle/LA artists will engage 56 youth at the King County Youth Detention Center in 10 hours of songwriting lessons.
$2,500
Coyote Central
Ten middle school adolescents in 20-hour multi-arts courses will engage with 18 artists to learn the skills, techniques, and tools via apprenticeship during Fall/Winter terms.
$5,575
Suzanne Edison
Writer will teach a reading-writing series for 10 teens with chronic or ongoing health issues. A collection of work will be published with a group reading at Odessa Brown Clinic.
$3,000
El Centro de la Raza
Two artists will provide 804 hours of after-school traditional art, crafts, and altar-building sessions to 139 at-risk Latino youth. Teens will design and build the central on-site ofrenda (altar) or create an ofrenda at schools for a community event.
$6,500
Pat Graney
Fifty-five hours of movement, American Sign Language, and visual arts workshops by 3 artists will be offered to 20 Interagency School teen girls that explore personal identity and community. Completed works will be shared with the class.
$4,000
Stephanie Guerra
Forty hours of year-long literacy-building workshops with approximately 200 youth in the King County Juvenile Detention.
$4,500
International Capoeira Angola Foundation
Five artists will lead 40 hours of after-school capoeira dance/movement, music, and reflective journaling sessions for 15 youth for a group community showcase.
$6,500
Jack Straw Foundation
Thirty teens with chronic and critical health needs will participate in 40 hours of hands-on, multi-arts workshops taught by 10 artists and mentors to create audio pieces. Sessions close with public and private presentations.
$8,500
Na'ah Illahee Fund
Twenty Native middle and high school youth embark on 20 hours of out-of-school, multi-disciplinary sessions on Indigenous peoples' traditions. The sessions will include ecological knowledge including the Lushootseed Coast Salish language to create new digital media.
$6,000
Photo Center Northwest
Two artists will lead 55 hours of a year-long, after-school digital-photography program for 30 immigrant and refugee middle and high school youth. Hands-on instruction, field trips, activities, and assignments will culminate in a school exhibit.
$5,900
Pongo Publishing
A 144-hour poetry program in King County Juvenile Detention by two artists for 192 distressed teens to use writing as a tool to cope with difficult feelings.
$8,500
Pratt Fine Arts Center
Eleven artists will lead 926 hours of multi-arts of after-school, weekend, and summer workshops for 224 middle and high school teens for two summer exhibits.
$5,000 
Red Eagle Soaring
Intergenerational workshops for 25 teens led by six artists will include 50 hours of talking circles, dramatic improvisation, traditional and digital storytelling, and music to shape a full production.
$6,000
Reel Grrls
Three media camps led by 3 artists will offer 40 hours of production to fifty girls that produce animated films. Camps serve girls both with and without an incarcerated parent. Screenings for family and friends presented at closing.
$6,500
Richard Hugo House
Sixty teens will engage with 24 writers in 150 hours of intensive creative writing sessions including critiques, field trips, and guest speakers. The series culminates with a published anthology and public readings.
$4,800
Rubicon Foundation
Eight high school teens engage in 63 hours of structural design, woodworking, and carpentry to build a mobile structure for the homeless led by eight architects and carpenters.
$6,400
Seattle Jazz Orchestra
Four jazz musicians lead 720 hours of instruction, preparation, and performance for 170 youth culminating in end-of-year concerts at each school.
$6,500
Seattle JazzED
One hundred and fifty teens from CD and Rainier Valley will participate in 210 year-long, jazz-based sessions led by seven acclaimed musicians to cover basic to advanced and ensemble performances. An end-of-year concert will be scheduled.
$4,200
Seattle Neighborhood Group / Totem Star Records
Two teaching artists will lead a multi-media production and mentorship in Fall term with eight Southwest Seattle youth that culminates in an open mic, film screening, and exhibit.
$6,800
Seattle University
Eighteen Yesler Terrace youth will participate in 186 hours of civic dialogue, photography and documentary film taught by five artists. A youth-driven showcase of the story of the changing neighborhood will close sessions.
$6,000
Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras
In partnership with West Seattle Community Orchestras, this year-long program provides string music training, string instrument coaching orchestra membership to 60 youth by four musicians to close with winter and spring concerts.
$2,700
Southwest Youth and Family Services
During a week-long summer series, one artist will lead 24 hours of visual art and poetry workshops focused on Lichtenstein and Pop Art. Nearly 25 youth will generate work prompted by their own lives. The series culminates with a public exhibition and performance.
$2,000
Centerstone / Urban Wilderness Project
Blue Corps will train 12 youth to engage audiences as environmental artists and performers through intensive workshops and sessions to culminate with a video chapbook and public performance at the Olympic Sculpture Park.
$5,000
Shaudi Vahdat
Four artists conduct 64 hours of performance workshops in performance art for 25 homeless and foster youth. Pieces are based on the youth's own stories and experiences and will culminate in a community showcase.
$1,800
Teen Tix
Two artists will provide 48 hours of critique and culture writing sessions, including guest journalists and editors, to 24 youth. As portals for young people to engage as art critics, work will be sited on social media
$3,500
Vietnamese Friendship Association
To explore cultural identities and gain an appreciation for diversity, 20 immigrant and refugee students will participate in 84 hours of filmmaking sessions with one artist to produce videos for screening.
$2,000
WAPI Community Services
Serving 40 youth, four artists will lead 354 hours of all-year sessions in DJing, breakdancing, graffiti, recording-mixing, and certification-entrepreneurial skills for winter and spring events.
$6,500
Wing Luke Memorial Foundation
Through 242 hours of out of the studio, field trips, and exhibit design sessions, 32 immigrant Asian Pacific American youth will generate original works to be curated teen leaders in the gallery.
$5,575
Young Shakespeare Workshop
A summer series will provide 40 young people with 400 hours of Shakespearean theater led by two artists and two mentors. To close the series, 10-11 public performances will be offered throughout the city.
$7,500
Youth in Focus
Six artists plus mentors will lead a sequential, year-long, 28-session photography-printing series for over 300 youth at all skill levels. Teens will produce final images, self-portraits and artist statements for quarterly shows in Rainier Valley.
$6,500

2013-14 Youth Arts Awards

826 Seattle
Three artists guide ten Proyecto Saber teens through essay-memoir, audio, and photography ready-made college essays Work will be posted on the website with accompanying photos.
$1,537
Kathya Alexander
Two writers offer 100 hours of storytelling with traditional music, dance, costume, and history to 30 Afrique Somali Center teens for a community event recorded by KBCS-FM.
$6,000
Arts Corps
Four artists provide 1,200 hours of hands-on intermediate and advanced multi-arts classes including All Access and Youth Speaks Seattle to 225 youth across the city. Culmination includes public showcases and a slam series..
$6,000
Associated Recreational Council/Yesler Rec-Tech
An archival work about Yesler Terrace will be produced after 160 hours of digital photography and video sessions taught by 5 artists and scholars to 18 youth for public screening and exhibit.
$8,000
Cinema Seattle
Five hundred teens participate in animated storytelling workshops consisting of 1,200 hours led by two artists at seven south Seattle and downtown sites.
$5,300
Coyote Central
500 teens engage in ten-thousand hours of apprenticeship courses with 18 artists to design and create works of art in multiple art forms at a range of studios and community-based locations.
$6,000
Suzanne Edison
Twenty youth with chronic or ongoing health issues publish and read original works about their life with conditions generated from 16 hours of creative writing led by a writer.
$4,512
El Centro de la Raza
Forty Latino/a youth design and build a traditional, central ofrenda (altar) for Día de los Muertos with instruction and history provided by two artists for the annual community celebration.
$8,000
Frye Art Museum
Three artists will lead 12 youth on history and audio documentary workshops focused on Yesler-First Hill-Central District neighborhoods for podcast and museum presentations.
$5,300
Pat Graney
Four artists lead 50 hours of writing, dance, and visual arts for 15 teen girls from Interagency School to produce and screen a thematic performative video and published anthology.
$5,844
Stephanie Guerra
Forty hours of creative writing led by a single artist build self-expression, critique, and literacy skills for 40 middle and high school youth from King County Juvenile Detention.
$6,000
Jack Straw Foundation
Thirty youth with chronic and critical health needs engage with ten artists and mentors on 40 hours of audio, writing, and movement that close with public presentations of original work.
$8,000
Jazz Night School
Three musicians offer 82 hours of summer introductory to intermediate improvisational and ensemble jazz to 15 teen girls. With Jazz Big Sisters, ensembles present public concerts.
$4,012
Tracy Rector
Fifty-five Native youth engage in 72 hours of cross-cultural, film making, media literacy, and indigenous culture with 35 artists and mentors for a screening at the Seattle Film Festival.
$5,300
Lauren Marshall
Interpersonal skill development for 8 youth with Asperger's-autism-ADHD via scripting, improvisation, and theater games led by 1 artist with a closing showcase at end of each term.
$928
Moon Paper Tent
Three artists lead 456 hours of empowerment and multi-arts to an all-girl plus co-ed middle-school groups for a showcase at end of each term.
$3,500
Daniel Pak/Totem Star
Ten Seattle youth including at-risk teens engage in 60 hours of music production and hip hop performance about transformation stories led by two artists. Stories conceptualized at post-dinner sessions with closing public performances.
$5,300
Andrew Peterson
A year-long, after-school program led by one artist offers 186 hours of robotic arts to 60 South Shore and Mercer youth for a community exhibit.
$6,000
Photo Center Northwest
An after-school program offers 30 refugee and immigrant teens basic photography with literacy and language acquisition sessions by two artists for a public exhibit.
$5,700
Pongo Publishing
One-hundred forty-four hours of poetry-writing by teaching artists and mentors to 192 youth in juvenile detention center generate an in-house reading plus booklet for promotion at NW Folklife Festival and Bumbershoot.
$4,505
Pratt Fine Arts Center
Thirteen artists offer 1,017 hours of out-of-school, hands-on visual arts lessons to 217 teens on-site. Summer intensives culminate in a public exhibit.
$8,000
Red Eagle Soaring
A theatrical remaking of the traditional Salish First Salmon Ceremony will be produced via 25 hours of performance workshops by four artists to empower 25 Native youth as advocates for salmon survival.
$10,000
Reel Grrls
Thirty middle school girls from the YMCA Girls First program engage in thirty-six hours of animation production led by three filmmakers for a public screening.
$5,300
Rubicon Foundation
Three artists lead 48 hours of structural design, fine woodworking, and building lessons for 15 teens to create a play space at the Children's Play Garden for children with/without physical or developmental disabilities. After completion, a neighborhood celebration is planned.
$7,951
Michael Schantz
Fifteen teens participate in 75 hours of steel drum history and lessons to form one ensemble. Four musicians lead sessions, rehearsals, and culminating performances.
$5,445
Seattle Art Museum
110 hours of workshops led by 36 artists on multi-media art-making, leadership, and programming for 1,000 high school teens generate numerous youth-driven events showcasing their work at the museum.
$5,300
Seattle JazzED
A 420-hour jazz technique, composition, and ensemble performance program for 150 youth, directed by six local music educators. Public performances close the series.
$4,800
Seattle Scenic Studios
Four artists provide 112 hours of scenic stage design and management instruction related to specific scripts and theaters for 55 teens. Completed work is incorporated into a variety of local theater productions.
$3,472
Spectrum Dance Theater
Two choreographers offer an after-school dance residency to 55 youth in jazz, Hip Hop, and contemporary styles to enhance skills for school musicals.
$4,320
Vision Loss Connection
Ten blind and low vision youth engage in 45 hours of combined museum tours, theater performances plus textured ceramic sessions with three artists. A library exhibit will be offered.
$4,226
Washington Asian/Pacific Islander Families Against Substance Abuse
Two artists lead 132 hours of urban graffiti art and music production sessions focused on hip hop culture for 40 youth to produce CDs, clothing accessories, and a public performance.
$2,400
Young Shakespeare Workshop
Two artists with alumni lead a 400 hour, summer workshop series in Shakespearean theatre for 40 new and returning teens culminating in public recitals and performances throughout the city.
$6,000

2012-13 Youth Arts Awards

Arts Corps
600 youth will participate in 684 sessions of multi-arts classes taught by 22 artists at various locations culminating in a spring showcase performance.
$7,000
Center for Wooden Boats
Ten teens will engage in boat design/build classes and construct models for a public showcase at the center.
$1,500
Mary Coss
Using personal stories, 40 East African youth will engage in a five-month series of intensive workshops with traditional Islamic and African artists. Participants will examine life in contemporary America and Islamic traditions to create artwork for an exhibit and panel discussion.
$4,400
Coyote Central
Eighteen teaching artists will lead 470 teens in project-based apprenticeship courses in multiple art forms at a range of studios and community-based locations.
$7,000
Diverse Harmony
Over 40 LGBTQ teens will participate in weekly vocal, staging, and performance training led by two artists throughout the academic year for quarterly public and thematic performances.
$3,600
Freehold Theatre Lab Studio
Two artists will lead 40 hours of theater and spoken word sessions for 14 youth from referred Southeast Youth & Family Services. Participants will produce scripts for two public performances at Youngstown Cultural Center.
$3,000
Gage Academy of Art
Twenty-four artists will offer year-round, weekly, evening art skill-building sessions for 1,288 teens whose body of multi-media work will be showcased at downtown, Southeast, and Capitol Hill sites.
$7,000
Girls Rock! Seattle
Two week-long summer camps led by 10 artists offering 120 teen girls instrumental rock, composition, staging, performance skills plus coaching newly formed/existing bands that close with performances at professional venues.
$4,750
Maria Gitana
Five artists will teach an after-school, fall series of introductory Flamenco dance classes for 15 teens including a field trip to a youth Flamenco festival and culminating with a community performance.
$3,200
Stephanie Guerra
One artist will lead an after-school, fall series of introductory Flamenco dance classes for 14 teens and culminate with a community performance.
$6,860
Jack Straw Foundation
Led by 10 teaching artists, 30 youth with chronic and critical health needs will use accessible audio technology to create original flash dramas—music/soundscapes with movement—for in-studio presentations.
$10,000
The James and Janie Washington Foundation
One artist will lead a month-long screen printing summer residency—including mentoring and portfolio development—for 18 high school teens who will examine the interplay of arts/politics. The residency will culminate in a teen-curated exhibit at the Northwest African American Museum.
$2,500
Thaddeus Jurczynski
Fifteen homeless teens will participate in a month-long series of hands-on workshops to create batik self-portraits from photos that culminate in a group exhibit in a Pioneer Square gallery.
$2,660
Lauren Marshall
Via acting classes, two teaching artists will lead communication skill development for 10 youth with Asperger's-autism-ADHD culminating in the presentation of short original plays.
$1,750
Kathleen McHugh
Two teaching artists from Theater of Possibilitywill lead communication skill development sessions for 10 youth with Asperger's-autism-ADHD culminating in the presentation of short original plays.
$1,000
Orion Out Loud
Actors and a dramaturge will lead 26 homeless and at-risk teens in playwriting workshops that will culminate in one-act plays written by the students and read on stage by professional actors.
$7,000
Andrew Peterson
A year-long, sequential, after-school program offering 30 South Shore K-8 youth hands-on instruction in designing and building robots using electronics, engineering, and art in a peer teaching-learning setting culminating in a community exhibit.
$4,600
Photographic Center Northwest
Two teaching artists will focus on literacy and language acquisition through an after-school photography program for 30 refugee and immigrant teens culminating in a public exhibit.
$7,800
Pongo Publishing
Teaching artists and mentors will offer poetry-writing sessions to 196 youth in juvenile detention. The year-long program will culminate in an in-house reading and a literary book will be produced for promotion at Northwest Folklife Festival and Bumbershoot.
$8,500
Pratt Fine Arts Center
Thirty-two artists will lead 396 out-of-school, multi-visual arts sessions to 78 mainstream/mixed ability youth at on- and off-site locations culminating in public exhibitions.
$7,000
Red Eagle Soaring
Four artists will lead summer drama workshops based on the play The Remember—examining the legacy of Indian Boarding Schools—for 29 Native American youth culminating in a public performance at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center.
$6,760
Reel Grrls
Eight media artists will lead public workshops to produce animated films. The workshops will engage 60 immigrant and refugee middle-school girls and culminate in an annual Spring Showcase.
$7,000
Rubicon Foundation
Three artists will work with youth to create a site-specific wood shelter. The course will include design, modeling, building, videography and photography techniques and culminate in a community screening and presentation.
$4,890
Seattle Art Museum
Thirty artists will offer workshops on multi-media art-making, leadership, and programming for 1,085 high school teens. The year-long program will generate numerous youth-driven events showcasing their work at the museum.
$4,800
Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras
SYSO teaching artists will engage 65 youth in all levels of string music, ensemble, and performance in partnership with West Seattle Community Orchestras, culminating in neighborhood concerts.
$5,000
Spectrum Dance Theater
Thirty Madrona middle school youth will engage in after-school traditional West African and Brazilian dance classes led by two artists with a live percussionist. The dance classes will culminate in one school and one Spectrum studio performance.
$4,000
Abdoulaye Sylla
An African percussion artist will offer weekly drop-in classes on West African drumming for 20 teens at the Orion Center for homeless youth.
$1,400
The Nature Consortium
Three artists will lead quarterly sessions in vocals, graphic design, and landscaping/site-specific arts to 80 youth in Southeast and Central neighborhoods culminating in a showcase of work at the annual Arts In Nature Festival.
$5,000
Velocity Dance Center
Four dance/choreographers will provide 25 teens with master dance classes and media technique workshops to create original movement and video dance pieces for public performances and screenings.
$4,400
Washington Asian/Pacific Islander Families Against Substance Abuse
Three artists will lead urban/graffiti art and music-production sessions focused on hip-hop culture for 40 youth who will produce CDs and clothing accessories. The year-long program will culminate in a public performance.
$3,300
Wing Luke Memorial Foundation
Four artists will engage 34 youth in studio visits and the development of visual arts and curatorial skills. The program will examine relevant social issues and identity. Participants will develop a portfolio of new work for exhibition at the museum.
$7,000
Young Shakespeare Workshop
Two artists, with alumni assistants, will lead a summer Shakespearean theater workshop for 30 new and returning youth culminating in a recital and performances.
$7,000
Youth in Focus
In partnership with one school and one community agency, two artists will engage 45 teens in digital photography classes with a focus on storytelling. The year-long program will culminate in three public showcases.
$5,000

2011-12 Youth Arts Awards

The 5th Avenue Theater Association
Two hundred youth with a range of experience will participate in a summer musical theater training series including fundamentals, rehearsals, and performance led by 32 professional artists.
$3,000
A Contemporary Theatre
Twenty youth will participate in afterschool playwriting clinics to complete an original play incorporating aspects from their own lives and imaginations. Professional actors will read select scripts at a culminating event.
$2,000
Arts Corps
Six hundred middle and high school youth led by 22 artists at schools, community centers, and other sites will engage in sessions covering a spectrum of art lessons that will culminate in a spring showcase.
$4,000
Nicole Appell
Eighteen middle school youth will design mosaic stepping stones with a community theme for a public entry at McClure Middle School. A neighborhood reception and unveiling of the work will close the project.
$2,000
Asian American Performing Arts Theatre
A master artist will lead an afterschool Chinese ethnic dance program mixed with cultural traditions and language for 20 high school teens. The program will close with three public performances.
$2,000
Asian Counseling and Referral Service
Twenty middle school youth will participate in a summer photography workshop focusing on personal stories, identity, and community. The workshop will conclude with a showcase in the agency's gallery.
$2,000
Toby Campbell
Campbell will collaborate with community partners to offer year-long courses in video production and licensing and music composition for film, television, and video games. Culminating showcases will take place at each partner site.
$3,000
Cinema Seattle
Industry professionals will offer free multi-disciplinary film workshops for 40 teens with all skill levels. Participants will gain insight and experience in the various aspects of filmmaking via hands-on opportunities, panel presentations and film critiques.
$3,000
Coyote Central
More than 300 sessions taught by painters, photographers, writers, cartoon animators, filmmakers, and more will engage 450 youth during fall, winter, and spring terms in the studio and professional art venues.
$4,000
DANCE IT
Social dance lessons including cultural roots of swing and salsa will be offered after school by two artists at five high schools for 150 youth.
$2,000
Experience Learning Community
One hundred teens will participate in hands-on workshops and camps linked to Experience Music Project exhibits and collections and receive instruction in contemporary, improvisational music and performance.
<$3,000
Filipino Community Center
Three workshops covering oral history, documentary, poetry and cartooning will be offered to 40 immigrant teens who will produce a film, write poetry and create comic books about their lives. Their work will be featured at community festivals.
$3,000
Georgetown Arts and Cultural Center
Two artists will lead an afterschool program for 30 youth in printmaking and recycled sculpture based on themes of personal and cultural identity. The students' work will be showcased at the Georgetown Art Walk.
$2,000
Hollow Earth Radio
Forty-eight youth-led by four artists will learn radio theater productions, the broadcast group plays, and learn circuit bending - the modification of electronic toys to make original instruments. A group showcase and performance will close the two sessions.
$2,000
International Capoeira Angola Foundation
Partnering with the Seattle Youth Violence Prevention Initiative, a 10-week class of capoeira, percussion instruction and Portuguese song will be offered to 14 youth. The class will culminate with a traditional 'roda or song circle.
$4,000
Jack Straw Foundation
Thirty youth with chronic and critical health needs will work with mentors to learn and apply accessible theater, radio, sound/music, dance, and video techniques to create new work in a professional studio. Audio pieces will be public via radio, web, or podcast.
$5,000
Northwest Film Forum
A two-week, immersive series of media workshops led by six artists will be offered to 24 teens. The summer sessions will cover essential skills in filmmaking and animation with a showcase at the annual Children's Film Festival presented by the Northwest Film Forum.
$3,000
Orion Out Loud
A two-part program led by 14 playwrights and dramaturgs for 20 homeless youth will include a workshop on playwriting, rehearsals, and staged reading. Youth will also participate in a longer intensive to complete one-act plays for four public performances by actors at a professional theater.
$5,000
Andrew Peterson
Fourteen youth from South Shore School will learn basic concepts in electronics and engineering and employ artistic approaches to build robots. A public exhibit of their creations will close the class.
$3,000
Serene Petersen
Through a hands-on workshop series aligned with museum exhibits, 14 high school youth will produce stop-motion animated films based on facets of their lives. Guest artists will share their work and a culminating screening will showcase the teens' work.
$3,000
Photographic Center Northwest
An afterschool photography program will train 20 multilingual immigrant and refugee middle and high school youth through classes, field trips and assignments incorporating aspects of family and culture. The students' work will be featured in a culminating exhibit.
$3,500
Pongo Publishing
A year-long poetry program at King County Juvenile Detention featuring workshops and readings will culminate with the publication of chapbooks of the youth poetry distributed at the NW Folklife and Bumbershoot festivals.
$6,000
Pratt Fine Arts Center
Free visual arts training for more than 400 middle and high school youth will be offered at the Chinese Information & Service Center and Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle. Youth work will be exhibited at Pratt, Douglass-Truth branch of The Seattle Public Library, and the Downtown YMCA Triangle Art Gallery.
$4,000
Red Eagle Soaring
Twenty American Indian and Alaska Native youth will participate in a 10-week beginning and advanced drama workshop series. A public performance will take place at Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center.
$5,000
Reel Grrls
An after-school and weekend media arts production program will engage 140 youth and close with a public screening. Training topics cover animation, video poetry, cinematography and TV documentaries.
$4,000
Richard Hugo House
Twenty writers will lead 630 young writers in open writing circles, peer-to-peer sessions, open mics and on-site literary events. Participants will read, critique and explore voice and language.
$5,000
Seattle Architectural Foundation
Ninety teens will work with four design professionals to explore architectural and neighborhood design via sketching, computer modeling and sculpture. The teens' models will be showcased at an annual downtown exhibit.
$3,000
Seattle Art Museum
A range of year-long opportunities and activities will engage 900 high school students in multi-arts workshops. The program also includes curatorial, tour guide and leadership opportunities for youth to present museum events and programming tailored to their peer interests.
$3,000
Seattle JazzED
Seasoned musician-composers will lead jazz ensemble sessions for 150 middle and high school youth of all skill levels at three sites. Teen performances will take place throughout the school year with a May showcase.
$3,000
Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra
Six jazz scholar artists will introduce afterschool instrumental music and jazz technique lessons plus a summer combo performance program to 31 selected students at Denny Middle School. Lessons will prepare intermediate students for advanced levels and potential entrance into established district jazz programs.
$5,000
Seattle Public Theatre
Curriculum-based training for 60 teens in behind-the-scenes technical theater disciplines taught by eight theater artists will culminate in a final team design project.
$4,000
Seattle Theatre Group
Under the mentorship of five professional musicians and visiting masters, 35 young musicians will engage in a summer songwriting lab with music business instruction. Concert attendance and a final showcase will culminate the series.
$2,500
The Service Board
Fifty youth will engage in multimedia afterschool learning labs and a summer art service program in glass and mosaics led by eight artists. Public showcases will close each program at The Vera Project and Ouch My Eye Gallery.
$3,500
SouthEast Effective Development
Ten teens, each paired with an artist, will create mosaic pieces reflecting cultural heritage, farming, and the environment for installation and a public dedication at the Lake Washington Apartment Community Garden.
$4,500
Spectrum Dance Theatre
Two master dancers will lead a year-long afterschool residency featuring traditional Brazilian and African dance and traditions for 40 middle school youth at Madrona K-8 School. A costumed production with traditional foods will close the residency.
$5,000
Abdoulaye Sylla
Abdoulaye Sylla, a traditional master artist, will offer weekly drumming sessions for a year for 50 Orion Center youth. The sessions will feature a variety of Guinean percussion instruments.
$1,000
The Talented Youth
Nine media artists will provide advanced workshops and a summer series for 300 teens focused on Danish film techniques and styles. The students' work will be streamed online and their films showcased at the annual NFFTY event in May.
$2,000
Three Dollar Bill Cinema
Seven filmmakers will lead a week-long basic filmmaking course for 15 LGBTQ youth allowing them to express their identity and voice. The student films will be screened at the 17th Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival and submitted to festivals around the world.
$5,000
Urban Wilderness Project
Storytelling based on African, Native American, and Irish traditions will be the focus of a fall-winter storytelling series for 140 teens culminating in two performances.
$2,000
The Vera Project
Year-round instruction, internship, and volunteer opportunities led by 15 artists in music production, recording, engineering, performance, and silkscreen printing for more than 1,000 young people. Participating teens will demonstrate skills and artwork at ongoing events on-site.
$3,000
Washington Pacific Islander
Forty youth will participate in year-long sessions in hip-hop music, break-dancing, zines, and graffiti as urban art via open labs, critiques, and rehearsals. A closing performance led by youth will showcase all work.
$3,000
Washington Ensemble Theatre
Three actors will lead a month-long, summer-intensive theater course that shares the unique perspective of 300 LGBT teens. Each session will produce one theater piece and one installation reflecting their experiences.
$5,000
Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience
Sixty-two immigrant and refugee Asian Pacific American youth will participate in hands-on, museum-based art sessions interwoven with tradition and heritage to produce artwork, exhibits, and programs that address relevant issues. Final work and exhibits will be open to the public.
$4,000
Young Shakespeare Workshop
Two artists and three alumni mentors will lead a summer-long sequential series offering 400 hours of instruction and rehearsal in Shakespearean theatre for 40 new and returning youth. The series will culminate in 10 public performances for all ages at various venues throughout the city.
$5,000
Youth in Focus
Forty teens from five community organizations will develop artistic skills and personal voice via instruction in digital photography led by a professional photographer. Select works will be featured in a public exhibit.
$4,000

2010-11 Youth Arts Awards

Arts Corps
More than 500 middle and high school teens will engage in after-school classes in performing arts, poetry, media, and visual arts during fall, winter, and spring terms culminating in a public showcase.
$8,000
Bridges to Understanding
Ten high school youth will research, photograph, write and create digital stories reflecting their spring 2011 service-learning experiences in Guatemala.
$3,200
Center for Wooden Boats
Haida Master carver Saaduuts will offer 36 Native-American youth hands-on experience of the art, music, and culture of canoe carving. The students create a canoe from a 38-foot cedar log that will be contributed to the United Indians of All Tribes.
$3,824
El Centro de la Raza
A youth committee of ten middle and high school students, guided by professional muralists, will organize community members and 15 other youth to revitalize the neighborhood through a summer mural art project.
$8,000
Filipino Community of Seattle - Kultura Arts
Eighty youth from three southeast high schools will explore their Filipino identity and practice skills and collaboration through winter and summer workshops in photography, poetry and songwriting. The teens will create an exhibit with a soundscape.
$7,346
Gage Academy of Art
A year-round, Friday-night drop-in studio offers 800 teens art supplies, skills training, and a chance to make art and socialize in a safe place. Teen artwork is exhibited at Gage, The Vera Project, and The 2100 building.
$8,000
Girls Rock! Seattle
Third annual rock camp providing 80 teen girls lessons in instrumentation, lyric writing, performance, and promotion, led by seasoned female rock musicians.
$4,846
Maria Gitana
In a 12-week workshop, 16 teens will study the rhythms and techniques of flamenco, as well as the multi-cultural history and influence of this Spanish dance. Students will present their new skills to younger children in a culminating performance.
$3,200
Hollow Earth Radio
Five artists will facilitate workshops for 15 middle school youth covering all aspects of field recording and simple editing techniques. Each student will make neighborhood field recordings and produce a radio segment to air on Hollow Earth Radio.
$2,500
Intiman Theatre
Fifteen diverse Cleveland and Roosevelt High School students will write and rehearse an original play based on issues of The Scarlet Letter. Teens will also attend shows, visit museums, volunteer, receive skills training, and perform their own show for school and public audiences.
$8,000
Jack Straw Foundation
Twenty teens with chronic and critical health needs will work with actors, radio and sound producers, musicians, dancers, and audio engineers to create original audio art using accessible technology.
$8,000
Northwest Film Forum
Through two-week intensive camps and individual workshops, 45 middle and high school students will work in teams with seasoned instructor-artists to learn all aspects of filmmaking and produce media pieces to be showcased at a NWFF festival.
$7,500
Northwest Folklife
A year-long afterschool program offering West African music and dance instruction to 30 immigrant youth at the High Point Community Center, culminating in four public performances.
$8,000
Andrew Peterson
Twenty South Shore Middle School youth will engage in a three-month, afterschool, hands-on robot design program, including basic concepts in electronics, engineering, and art. Finished pieces will be exhibited at the school.
$5,440
Photographic Center Northwest
A fall-spring afterschool program offering 24 immigrant and refugee middle and high school youth fundamentals of photography, with emphasis on developing a creative eye, personal expression, and incorporating aspects of family and culture into photographic work.
$7,600
Pongo Publishing
A year-long program of self-exploration through poetry for 196 youth in detention. Specially-trained artists help youth who are often victims of childhood trauma learn both writing and coping skills and develop self-esteem.
$6,800
Red Eagle Soaring
A 10-week series of beginning, intermediate and advanced drama skills workshops and rehearsals for 20 Seattle urban American-Indian and Alaska Native youth, culminating in a free original performance staged for the public.
$6,035
Reel Grrls
A diverse group of 120 teen girls will participate in afterschool and weekend programs in media arts production. Mentored by women filmmakers, the girls will develop final video projects to be publicly screened through festivals, broadcasts, and school presentations.
$8,000
Richard Hugo House
Fifteen professional writers will offer 190 youth writing workshops in a wide range of literary forms. Teens will create and refine film scripts, poetry, novels, flash fiction and journalism pieces to be showcased in a series of readings.
$7,500
School of Acrobatics & New Circus Arts
Seventeen youth will be introduced to or continue training in circus arts through a year-round track of training and rehearsals. As students develop skills, they create and perform original acts at events citywide and produce their own annual show.
$6,000
Seattle Art Museum
Ongoing, free, art-based activities for 650 youth. Participants gain skills and express their ideas through hands-on art workshops with culminating displays, public discussions and public museum events for their peers.
$7,000
Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra
Nineteen diverse youth with limited music experience will participate in a year-long series of afterschool instrumental music and jazz technique lessons and performances by local jazz scholars. The pilot program will close with youth performance opportunities.
$8,000
The Service Board
A six-month program offering 50 diverse teens artist-led afterschool learning labs in music, multi-media production, performance, and visual arts. Culminating projects range from music videos to photoblogs to a teen artist showcase, fostering self-discovery, creative expression, skill, and community building.
$4,673
Seward Park Environmental & Audubon Center
Twenty teens will participate in a one-week spring or summer nature photography camp to learn basic digital camera operation, introductory art, and composition and how to critically examine nature photography and offer constructive feedback to their peers. Students will photograph nature subjects in Seward Park and other natural sites.
$5,200
SouthEast Effective Development
Twenty southeast Seattle teens will research and fabricate an 8- to 10-foot ceramic mosaic illustrating the history of the Rainier Vista Neighborhood House on the rings of a tree. The mosaic will be unveiled at a community dedication.
$6,376
Spectrum Dance Theater
Twenty youth will participate in an afterschool dance residency linking Zimbabwean history and dance tradition to current hip-hop choreography and spoken word stories. Students will perform with professional African and hip-hop dancers at the end of the project.
$4,800
The Vera Project
Via year-round, out-of-school art workshops, internships, and volunteer opportunities, 1,800 young people will gain skills and experience in music production, live sound engineering, and studio recording, plus silk screen printing and technical staging.
$8,000
Tierra Madre Fund
Fifteen Native-American middle school teens will participate in a pilot program merging traditional Coastal Salish art forms with contemporary Native music and technology skills. Students will design and build a Native version of a popular arcade game where players dance on electronic footpads.
$5,760
WAPI Community Services
Thirty youth will engage in afterschool curricula in either music or urban arts. Sessions such as music recording and emceeing, geometry, written expression, graffiti, and media literacy emphasize hands-on learning, developing tangible products, and developing positive life and career skills. Two showcases of teen work will culminate the project.
$6,400
Wing Luke Memorial Foundation
Through hands-on art activities and workshops, mentorships, field trips, discussions, and lectures, 61 youth will learn about their heritage and develop skills by planning and producing three museum exhibits with related programs that address issues relevant to young Asian-Pacific Americans.
$8,000
Young Shakespeare Workshop
A free, multi-year summer program for 40 new and returning youth offers 400 hours of instruction and rehearsal in the poetry and plays of William Shakespeare, Lope de Vega and Sor Juana Inez. Training includes language, expression, acting, voice, and fencing. The program culminates in public performances in English and Spanish.
$8,000

2009-10 Youth Arts Awards

826 Seattle
Thirty youth will participate in a series of artist-led workshops, where they will draw and write about themselves in comic book form.
$3,207
American Asian Performing Arts Theatre
Thirty-two immigrant youth will participate in Chinese traditional, contemporary and ballet dance lessons, including cultural traditions, language, costume and music.
$5,000
Arts Corps
After-school art classes in all art forms, including performing, visual, literary and media arts, will engage 500 youth at schools and community centers across Seattle.
$7,500
Associated Recreation Council
The South Park Community Center's late night teen program will offer training in Super 8 filmmaking, stop-motion animation and music production to 45 youth.
$8,120
Bridges to Understanding
Digital technology and storytelling instruction will help 45 youth broach cultural topics via an interactive Web site with their peers in Peru, Guatemala, South Africa, Cambodia and India. The projecet will culminate in a film fest.
$4,000
Toby Campbell
Fifty teen girls will attend a week-long, summer rock-music camp, where they will form bands; take music lessons; and learn music production, audio engineering and programming.
$2,500
Center for Wooden Boats
Master carver Saaduuts will lead 36 youth in carving a 38-foot cedar log into a canoe for the United Indians of All Tribes. Participants will also learn traditional Haida drumming and singing.
$2,000
Cinema Seattle
More than 50 youth, most of Native American heritage, will participate in a two-day filmmaking intensive resulting in several short films that will be featured at the Seattle International Film Festival.
$10,000
Coyote Central
More than 400 youth will participate in interactive workshops across multiple artistic disciplines. The sessions, led by experienced teaching artists in professional studios, will culminate in showcases of the students' work.
$10,000
El Centro de la Raza
Thirty Latino youth will present a Fandango dance celebration following a series of lessons in traditional Son Jarocho dance and song with African, Spanish and Mexican roots. Mexican artists will offer hands-on instruction in the art form's unique instruments, lyrics and costumes.
$7,000
Gage Academy of Art
A year-round, Friday-night drop-in studio offers 700 teens art supplies, lessons and a chance to socialize in a safe place. Participants will showcase their work at a public exhibit.
$10,000
Jack Straw Foundation
Twelve youth with critical health needs will work with a team of artists, radio producers and audio engineers to write, interview, create and present audio stories.
$10,000
Music Northwest
A week-long chamber music camp will engage 50 student musicians in ensemble performance techniques, movement and rhythm and master classes. The camp will culminate in one in-house recital and two public recitals.
$1,875
Northwest African American Museum
Fifteen teens from Garfield, Franklin and Rainier Beach high schools will create a semi-permanent public artwork from recycled materials at Jimi Hendrix Park. The summer session will include field trips, guest speakers, and lessons in planning, fabrication and installation.
$3,208
Northwest Dance Network
More than 40 high school students will participate in after-school swing dance lessons culminating in a showcase at the 2010 NW Folklife Festival to live music by the Garfield Jazz Ensemble.
$5,000
Northwest Film Forum
A series of workshops will offer 300 hours of hands-on instruction in basic and intermediate film production and animation for 100 youth who will write scripts and tell stories through digital film and traditional animation. Their work will be screened at a youth film festival.
$7,500
Northwest Folklife
Two master African artists will lead after-school sessions in West African polyrhythmic drumming, culture, costume, dance and singing for 25 immigrant youth from Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia. culminates in four community performances.
$4,500
Pacific Northwest Blues in the Schools
Twenty middle school students study blues music and its history, with instruction in guitar, drums, bass, harmonica and percussion. Lessons will incorporate the poetry and lyrics of Langston Hughes, Jimi Hendrix, Ray Charles and Ernestine Anderson, and culminate in a community concert of the students' work.
$1,882
Photographic Center Northwest
Twenty immigrant/refugee youth will engage in 470 hours of after-school photography training encouraging them to capture their family life and culture through photography. The course will culminate in a group exhibit.
$7,000
Pongo Publishing
Nearly 200 teens in King County Juvenile Detention will participate in poetry and creative writing sessions to encourage self expression and offer a positive outlet for difficult experiences and emotions. A publication will feature pieces by the participants.
$7,000
Pratt Fine Arts Center
Nearly 500 teens from the Central and International districts will participate in a series of after-school and Saturday classes in glass art, painting/drawing, bookbinding and printmaking at Pratt. The program will result in multiple community exhibits at schools, libraries and youth service agencies.
$10,000
Reel Grrls
Animation documentary techniques, camera operation and scriptwriting are the subject of a year-long program for 115 teen girls. Participants will work in small groups led by teaching artists. The program will culminate in a screening of the students' work.
$10,000
Richard Hugo House
A team of professional writers will offer writing workshops for 300 teens in a wide range of literary genres, including scriptwriting, poetry, songwriting, fiction and journalism. The students' work will be featured at readings and in publication.
$7,500
Rubicon Foundation
A summer series will introduce 15 high school youth to printmaking and its artistic and practical applications. Students will learn to garden, cook and can, as well as study design, linoleum-woodblock, silkscreen, and letterpress. They will incorporate what they learn to produce jar labels, posters and T-shirts for two summer exhibits.
$7,500
School of Acrobatics & New Circus Arts
Fourteen youth will participate in a year-long series of theatrical workshops and coaching to create, rehearse and perform original acts, including acrobatics, juggling, human pyramids, stilt walking and aerial performances. The young circus artists will perform at public events and festivals.
$3,550
Seattle Art Museum
The museum will offer drop-in art activities and workshops for 1,350 youth on weekends and during the summer and school breaks. The programs range from creating art to an advisory teen group that develops youth programs that culminate in showcases.
$8,000
Seattle Chamber Players
Members of the Seattle Chamber Players and composer Janice Giteck will lead a series of composition workshops for 15 student musicians who attend South End high schools. The students will write quartets, and the Seattle Chamber Players will perform the students' original scores at school performance.
$3,208
Seattle Theatre Group
Forty youth from the national Black Achievers Program (BAP) will receive music, theater and dance training by local professional artists, culminating in a workshop performance.
$10,000
Southeast Effective Development
Fifteen Rainier Valley youth will participate in an after-school project combining public art and business training. The students will design 25 vinyl street banners that will later be turned into 50 recycled tote bags they will market and sell.
$4,500
The 5th Avenue Theatre Association
Nearly 700 Seattle high school students with an interest in musical theater will get the chance to meet with leading theater professionals involved in the 5th Avenue Theatre's season productions. Nine sessions will cover topics such as voice/vocals, choreography, and stage presence, and will include a dinner and post-show talk back with each cast.
$2,950
The Service Board
Eighty youth from Southeast and Southwest Seattle will participate in introductory art classes and three art leadership labs on music and multimedia production, performing, and visual arts. Student artworks will be part of a community art show.
$5,000
The Vera Project
Via an annual, comprehensive series of sessions, internships and experiential learning opportunities, 980 youth will learn skills including silkscreening, podcasting, live sound engineering and studio recording, while working on shows and the underage music venue.
$7,500
Washington Asian/Pacific Islander Families Against Substance Abuse
Three artists will offer a year-long training intensive for 20 youth who have completed or are in drug treatment. The program will include 180 hours of instruction in writing lyrics or stories, recording and editing, graphic design and social media. Participants will produce portfolios and a group performance of their original works.
$7,500
Young Shakespeare Workshop
Two actors with three alumni mentors will lead a summer session for 40 youth offering 400 hours of instruction in works by plawrights William Shakespeare, Lope de Vega and Sor Juana Inez. Students will receive instruction in acting, voice and fencing. The summer workshop culminates in public performances in English and Spanish.
$7,500
Youth Media Institute
Youth will examine the changing and diverse High Point neighborhood in West Seattle via a multi-media presentation. A sereis of after-school small-group trainings for 130 youth will cover audio/video production, print media, digital photography and media literacy. The students will host a community screening, and SCAN TV will broadcast their finished piece.
$3,000
Youth Speaks Seattle
Spoken-word artists will offer weekly workshops for 360 youth in performance poetry, creative writing, storytelling, and playwriting. Writing-circle sessions will take place at the Central Library and a Southwest rehab center. The writing exercises will culminate in a publication and/or community performances.
$10,000

2008-09 Youth Arts Awards

911 Media Arts Center
A third-year program will offer a series of multimedia intensives led by four artists for 12 at-risk youth in the South Park Late Night Teen Program. The students will design, produce and showcase animation, Super 8 film, circuit bending, and game design.
$9,236
American Asian Performing Arts Theater
A year-long traditional arts program led by two master dancers/choreographers will offer dance lessons from different regions of China and adjacent countries for 30 new and continuing immigrant teens. The lessons culminate in three public performances.
$7,500
Arts Corps
A winter-quarter series of multi-disciplinary arts classes serving 250 youth, in collaboration with schools, service agencies, and community centers, targeting underserved neighborhoods. The series culminates in a public showcase.
$7,500
ArtWorks
An eight-week, after-school series in mural design, painting, and installation for eight adjudicated/at-risk youth. Students will study the American quilt tradition, then each create their own design to incorporate into a large "quilt" mural that they will paint and install in the Urban Arts Corridor in Sodo.
$4,035
Coyote Central
A year-long, continuing program offers 440 youth sessions in multi-arts study to master the skills and techniques of each art form. The sessions are held in professional artist studios or workspaces.
$7,000
El Centro de la Raza
A summer program offers filmmaking sessions incorporating the social-justice mission of El Centro de la Raza into an original work by 10 Latino-Hispanic youth. The program culminates in a television screening on "HipHop 101."
$8,000
Intiman Theatre
Fourteen youth will create an original production based on All the King's Men as part of an after-school, cross-city school exchange between Roosevelt and Cleveland high schools. The students will explore socio-economic differences through performances and post-play discussions.
$10,000
Jack Straw Productions
Eight blind or visually-impaired high school youth will work with a team of artists and producers to create audio art using accessible technology. Students will participate in a summer intensive followed by individualized mentorships, workshops, and projects, including recording an interview with blind musician/engineer and role model Todd Houghton. Work will be showcased on radio, Web, and podcast.
$10,000
Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center
Professional artists will lead 85 diverse youth through the development of a musical production during an intensive, summer musical theater training series. The production will reflect cultural content and relate to the everyday lives of young people.
$7,500
Live Girls! Theater
A collaboration with the organization Powerful Voices, this eight-month workshop encourages 15 teen girls to seek out positive female role models and learn to express themselves effectively. The workshop focuses on research, scriptwriting, and presentation of an original script in a public reading and audience discussion.
$2,500
Jessica Lurie
A two-week summer workshop will introduce visual and musical techniques to 20 international and at-risk youth with limited arts experience. The students will work in pairs to transform an idea into a musical composition and a poster. All participants will receive a booklet and CD containing a collection of their original work.
$7,500
Music Northwest
Top professional musicians will engage 45 youth in three-tiered levels of chamber music instruction in a week-long music camp. Working in groups of three to five, students will develop music and ensemble skills as well as performance techniques. The camp will culminate in a free public recital.
$2,500
Nature Consortium
A program of free culturally and environmentally themed instruction in piano, guitar, drums, and music recording for 80 youth from lower-income neighborhoods and subsidized public housing communities. The program culminates with a group performance.
$7,500
Northwest Folklife
A year-long, after-school instructional series on the history, dance, music, and song from West Africa for 25 youth in a transitional Seattle school district program for immigrant/refugee students. The program culminates in four public performances.
$8,930
Pat Graney Company
Thirty Washington Middle School youth with no artistic experience will engage with professional artists in a four-week workshop series to produce dance/movement, sound and visual installation pieces focused on memory. Student work will be included in the November premiere of Pat Graney's new production, House of Mind.
$5,000
Photographic Center Northwest
"Club Photo" offers two 10-week after-school workshops in fall 2008 and spring 2009 in which professional photographers provide hands-on lessons and field trips. The workshops cover the fundamentals of photography for 20 immigrant middle and high school youth with limited English skills, culminating in a school/community exhibit.
$9,740
Power of Hope
Three six-week series of sequential workshops build skills in writing music, hip-hop lyrics, and spoken word; rapping/DJ; and recording, mixing, and producing. The series targets 60 at-risk youth from Central/Rainier neighborhoods and culminates in performances of original songs at community events.
$10,000
Pratt Fine Arts Center
A year-long, quarterly series of seven courses offers a range of visual arts, from glassblowing and fusing to printmaking and metalsmithing, for 485 youth from the Central and International Districts. The program culminates in numerous teen exhibitions.
$10,000
Richard Hugo House
A year-long, quarterly series of Saturday writing classes in multiple genres are held on-site for 180 youth from citywide neighborhoods. The series culminates in publications and numerous readings.
$9,000
Seattle Center Academy
Artists from leading Northwest arts organizations teach a two-week summer arts program for 300 diverse middle school youth, including students with disabilities. The students explore art-making in all disciplines, and the program culminates in a performance and exhibition.
$10,000
Seattle International Film Festival
In an annual three-day filmmaking/screening intensive, professional artists pair with 50 mostly Native American youth to create short media pieces breaking down the negative stereotypes of Native peoples. The projects are screened at Seattle International Film Festival.
$8,000
Seattle Public Theater
A two-week, summer playwriting and production program focuses on the effects of climate change on our immediate environment. Twenty youth from citywide locations will learn the basic tenets of theater and develop five 10-minute plays to be performed at the end of the program.
$3,000
Seattle Repertory Theatre
In a 10-week, after-school theater residency at Meany Middle School, an ensemble of 12 youth will create a short, original play exploring the challenges of transitioning into middle school. The group will perform the play for 5th-grade students and their parents at T.T. Minor Elementary School.
$5,600
Seattle Theatre Group
A year-long performing arts residency reinforcing African-American traditions offers 20 youth from the YMCA's Black Achievers Program training, mentoring and interaction with mainstage artists from season productions.
$6,224
SouthEast Effective Development
A six-month public art workshop series offers 15 teen residents at Rainier Vista an opportunity to design, fabricate and install a glass tile mosaic for a seating wall in the entrance of the newly constructed Boys & Girls Club.
$7,500
The Bend-It Extravaganza
A year-long series of multi-arts workshops led by local LGBTQ artists and speakers for 80 queer youth and their allies of mixed backgrounds. The original work will be showcased at the annual Bend-It Extravaganza festival.
$4,700
The Right Brain Center for the Arts
Twenty at-risk youth at two partner youth centers will explore the issue of teen truancy through a five-month digital photography and writing series. The series will teach hands-on skills in equipment, composition and Adobe Photoshop. Students will develop a portfolio of work and mount exhibitions at each youth center.
$5,850
The Service Board
A six-month, multi-arts, after-school mentoring program enhances The Service Board's core job/life-skills/diversity curriculum with artist residencies and cultural field trips. The program is for 50 diverse and at-risk urban teens and culminates in a student showcase.
$5,850
Urban Wilderness Project
Poet/playwright Jourdan Keith leads an 11-week, after-school writing/storytelling workshop for 15 youth in Southeast Seattle. The workshop integrates cultural identity, writing, and performance. Storytelling will be shared with younger children and families in agencies such as First Place. Youth may earn required high school service-learning credit.
$7,335
Young Shakespeare Workshop
A sequential summer program offers 400 hours of training and performance in Shakespearean theater for 40 new and returning youth, especially low-income and immigrant students. Professional artists and youth alumni mentors lead the program, which includes a bilingual group of students performing works in Spanish by playwrights Lope de Vega and Sor Juana Inez. The program culminates in 10 public performances.
$10,000
Youth in Focus
Seventeen at-risk youth from Rainier Valley and South Park will participate in a two-part, artist-led photography/creative writing workshop. High-school teens from the first phase will mentor middle school youth in the second. Participants will explore and document stories of seniors in their families or community, and each phase will close with an exhibit.
$7,500

2007-08 Youth Arts Awards

826 Seattle
Picturing Change, two artists will offer a nine-week comic book workshop series providing 30 hours of training for 45 youth culminating in a published anthology and reading.
$8,200
911 Media Arts Center
Reel Eyes, a 15-week, after-school series offering 60 hours of digital filmmaking/media literacy workshops led by four artists for 12 youth who will produce short films focused on personal and community experience culminating with a public screening.
$8,487
Arts Corps
Winter After-School Program, offering free, eight-week, community-based arts classes led by 15 artists in sites all over the city, who will provide 340 hours of multi-arts training for 250 diverse and at-risk youth culminating in a community showcase.
$6,000
Arts in Motion
2nd Line Drum Corps, a seven-month after-school program in which an artist will offer 15 South Seattle youth 180 hours of jazz drumming classes and field trips culminating in three community performances.
$8,910
Coyote Central
Coyote Reach, a series of fall/winter, after-school, and weekend, mixed-media workshops at multiple sites, totaling 8,000 hours led by 18 artists for 400 youth culminating in two showcases at the end of each session.
$10,000
Gage Academy of Art
Teen Art Studio, a year-long, free, weekly drop-in series serving 400 youth with a safe, creative art studio environment and 150 hours of mixed-media instruction by 12 artists, culminating in at least one public exhibit of the teens' work.
$10,000
Isaac Hernandez Ruiz
Polvos de Colores, the artist will teach three two-month sessions offering 48 hours of instruction in traditional Mexican sand painting (tapete de arena) for 90 youth culminating with showcases at three school and community sites.
$9,800
Jack Straw Productions
Blind Youth Audio, a summer series offering eight visually-impaired youth specially-accessible audio technology and 35 hours of sequential, hands-on audio creation and production training led by eight artists. Students will create their own audio art presented at a public event, and on radio, Web, and a podcast.
$10,000
Music Northwest
Chamber Music Camp, a week-long summer training offering 210 hours of individual and group music instruction by six artists for 45 youth at all levels culminating in a free recital and awards ceremony.
$2,000
Pacific Northwest Blues in the Schools
Five artists will offer a five-week after-school workshop for 30 Beacon Hill and Georgetown youth, culminating in a community concert. Forty-eight hours of training in singing, playing and writing are integrated with the blues, Langston Hughes' poetry, African American history and culture.
$10,000
Phffft! Dance Theatre Company
Dance Empowerment, a four-month series offering 50 hours of dance and choreography with tech production and marketing instruction led by four artists for 10 youth culminating in a public performance inspired by participants' life experiences.
$8,435
Pongo Publishing
Pongo Teen Writing, three artists will offer 156 hours of creative writing/poetry instruction over three months for 318 youth in detention or foster care, with two culminating events. Pongo will also publish the teens' work and present at one or more literary festivals.
$8,000
Pratt Fine Arts Center
Youth Art Works, a four-quarter, after-school/weekend series offering 4,080 hours of hands-on, multi-arts instruction led by six artists for 246 youth culminating in community exhibits after each term.
$10,000
Rainier Vista Cambodian Youth Program
Photography Project, a three-month weekend series offering 26 hours of digital photography training led by one artist for 12 youth and culminating in two public exhibits highlighting the essence of the Cambodian community.
$5,177
Reel Grrls
Reel Grrls, a three-part, winter/spring/fall series led by eight artists and mentors offering 95 hours of media literacy/filmmaking training for 85 diverse young women, and culminating in three public screenings of their work.
$10,000
Richard Hugo House
Scribes, a three-part, year-long series offering 400 hours of written/spoken word training. Led by 12 artists for 1,000 youth, the workshops focus on playwriting, poetry, zines and short fiction for publication and readings.
$6,000
Seattle Center for Book Arts
Book Arts Workshop, a year-long session led by three artists offering 1,160 youth over 100 hours of bookmaking and bookbinding techniques and formats and culminating in numerous exhibits at branch libraries citywide.
$7,869
Seattle Chamber Players
SCP Meets the Boombox, a six-week after-school residency workshop for 20 diverse students with no formal experience with music who, with the guidance of six artists, will develop their own compositions to be performed by the Chamber Players in an informal concert.
$10,000
SIFF
Superfly Filmmaking, a two-day intensive workshop, in which 20 artists will offer 60 hours of digital filmmaking training and hands-on mentoring to 50 youth grouped in teams. The teams will produce and screen four short films, all based on the same script.
$6,500
Seattle Scenic Studios
Technical Internship, six theater artists will lead a nine-week session offering eight youth 90 hours of scenic and prop design instruction and mentoring using state-of-the-art tools and showcasing sets at local theater productions.
$5,820
SouthEast Effective Development
Public Art Workshop, a year-long after-school program with three artists offering 45 at-risk youth 100 hours of multi-media design and fabrication art training culminating in the creation, installation and unveiling of a site-specific work.
$8,412
Washington Ensemble Theatre
Queer Teen Ensemble, 15 artists will lead a two-month after-school series offering 100 hours of scriptwriting and ensemble theater workshops exploring identity and building community for 20 youth and culminating in four public performances.
$6,000
Young Shakespeare Workshop
Summer Program, two artists will lead a summer-long sequential series offering 400 hours of instruction and rehearsals in Shakespearean theater for 40 youth culminating in ten public performances for all ages.
$10,000
Youth in Focus
Time (k)NOW, a two-phased after-school series offering 228 hours of skill-building classes in digital photography and written/oral texts led by four artists/peer mentors for 17 youth culminating in two public exhibitions.
$10,000
Youth Speaks Seattle
Spoken Word Residency, a five-month after-school residency offering 35 hours of poetry/spoken word workshops and rehearsals exploring self-identity led by three artists/peer mentors for 25 youth culminating in four preliminary slams and one final slam.
$5,390

2006-07 Youth Arts Awards

826 Seattle
Drawing Your Family Comic Book, a six-week graphic novel workshop for 18 youth culminating in a book reading and signing.
$3,900
Arts Corps
A two-month spring program offering 260 hours of multi-arts training culminating in a public showcase.
$10,000
Cambodian Traditional Music
A seven-month weekend series of Cambodian music instruction for 12 youth culminating in showcases.
$6,000
Coyote Central
Coyote REACH will provide two 10-week sessions of multi-media arts classes taught by 18 artists to 40 youth.
$7,000
Eleventh Hour Productions
Emerging Voices, a four-month series offering 30 hours of poetry/spoken word lessons for 150 youth culminating in a poetry slam.
$8,000
Goodwill Development Association
Lullabies by Teen Mothers, a six-month series offering 90 hours of lullaby lyrics/vocal instruction for eight homeless teen mothers culminating in a community performance with local choirs.
$6,000
Intiman Theatre
Rough Eagles, a three-month series offering theater classes that explore equity and race issues culminating in a performance with post discussion.
$6,500
Jack Straw Productions
Blind Youth Audio Project, a three-month series offering audio production and radio theater training for eight blind youth culminating a public showcase.
$10,000
Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center Advisory Council
Youth Theater Project, a nine-week summer program offering musical theater training for 85 youth culminating in a public performance.
$10,000
Northwest Film Forum
Youth Voices, four programs offering film, animation, and music/video training to 60 youth with showcases at the end of each program.
$3,500
Northwest Folklife
Rhythm & Moves, a five-month series offering Sengalese West African drumming and dance instruction for 30 youth culminating in two public performances.
$4,000
Pacific Northwest Blues in the Schools
Blues in the Schools at St. George Parish, a six-week series offering lessons in blues music, voice, and history for 25 youth culminating in a community concert.
$8,500
Phffft! Company, Inc.
Empowering Youth at Risk in Dance, an eight-week Saturday series offering dance, choreography, production, and management lessons for 12 youth culminating in a public performance.
$9,000
Photographic Center Northwest
Club Photo, provides two 10-week sessions offering photography, darkroom, and exhibit instruction for 20 youth culminating in a public show.
$4,420
Pongo Publishing
Pongo Teen Writing Project, two 13-week sessions of poetry workshops for incarcerated and foster care youth culminating in showcases.
$8,000
Pottery Northwest, Inc.
Seattle Youth Sculpture Collaboration, a two-week summer session focused on the design and creation of a site-specific sculpture for 12 selected youth culminating in a public unveiling of the artwork.
$4,000
Power of Hope
Hip Hop Hope in the City, three six-week series offering spoken word/hip hop and recording workshops for 60 youth culminating in numerous performances.
$8,500
Pratt Fine Arts Center
Four, eight-week sequential visual arts classes and field trips for 300 youth culminating in public showcases.
$8,500
Red Eagle Soaring Native American Theater Group
Seattle Indian Youth Arts & Performance, a two-week session featuring a drama intensive workshop for 18 youth culminating in two community performances based on teen life experiences.
$5,000
REEL GRRLS
Girls in the Directors' Chair, a five-month series offering filmmaking workshops for 60 youth culminating in a public screening of the work.
$5,000
Seattle Center Academy
A two-week summer program featuring multi-arts classes serving 300 youth and culminating in a public showcase.
$5,160
Seattle Children's Theatre
Two-Roads After-School Program, two 11-week series of interactive drama classes for 30 youth culminating in two performances.
$4,500
South Park PhotoVoice
A nine-week series offering 60 hours of photography and graphics training for eight youth culminating in an exhibit.
$6,000
SouthEast Effective Development - Public Art Workshop
Public Art Workshop, a yearlong after-school series offering 1,000 hours of the site-specific public art training for 36 youth culminating in three public showcases.
$9,000
Spectrum Dance Theater
Experiencing African Dance & Culture, a three-month series of African dance for 40 youth culminating in one school and one public performance.
$8,000
Washington Asian Pacific Islander Families Against Substance Abuse
Katalyst Project, a yearlong weekly series offering music and music business workshops for 15 youth culminating in a public performance.
$8,000
Young Shakespeare Workshop
A sequential summer series offering Shakespearean theater lessons in English and divish for 40 youth culminating in five community performances.
$9,000
Youth Speaks Seattle
A three-month series offering 60 hours of poetry/performance workshops for 30 youth concluding with a poetry slam.
$4,500

Arts & Culture

Gülgün Kayim, Director
Address: 303 S. Jackson Street, Top Floor, Seattle, WA , 98104
Mailing Address: PO Box 94748, Seattle, WA , 98124-4748
Phone: (206) 684-7171
Fax: (206) 684-7172
arts.culture@seattle.gov

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The Office of Arts & Culture promotes the value of arts and culture in, and of, communities throughout Seattle. It strives to ensure that a wide range of high-quality artistic experiences are available to everyone, encourage artist-friendly arts and cultural policy.