Press Release
For Immediate Release
Contact Information
Otts Bolisay, Communications Director
Phone: 206-733-9591
Email: Otts.Bolisay@seattle.gov
Grant for Seattle Artists/Curators Now Open
Dance, music, theater, and playwrights should apply
SEATTLE, WA (June 17, 2026) – The Seattle Office of Arts & Culture grant for Seattle-based artists/curators is now open. This cycle of the CityArtist grant focuses on dance, music, theater, and playwriting artists. Awards of $8,000 are available.
“Through this project, I was able to bring contemporary and experimental dance to my community in Southeast Seattle,” said Bennyroyce Royon, a 2025 CityArtist recipient. “It allowed me to present to a new audience, cultivate support for my work, and build community through dance.”
By sustaining individuals who are at the core of the cultural sector in Seattle, this grant supports creative careers and work so they can develop and adapt over time. This is critical to artists’ professional growth and business insight. Providing financial support for creative entrepreneurs contributes to the broader economy and quality of life in neighborhoods across the city.
Apply for CityArtist before it closes on July 14 at 5 PM Pacific. The guidelines are also available in Chinese (Traditional), Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese. A recorded information workshop is available to help you turn in your best application.
Rose Cano, 2025 CityArtist grantee
“My Narrative Medicine workshop brought in eight healthcare professionals and two theatre professionals, providing a rich and unusual cross section of participants. These communities rarely exchange ideas in a candid forum. It was gratifying to witness a creative discussion on the social determinants of health using a theatre text as a catalyst.”
Samantha Boshnack, 2025 CityArtist grantee
“Some of the young people in the audience were jazz students themselves. Many of them told me how inspired they were by the concert. They found it exciting to hear new music in the jazz genre—they’ve only had the opportunity to play standard repertoire.”
"A Practice of Return" by Nia-Amina Minor, photo by Chloe Collyer
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The CityArtist grant supports Seattle-based individual artists/curators in the research, development, and presentation of creative work. By sustaining individuals who are at the core of the cultural sector, we ensure that creative careers and work can develop and adapt over time, which is critical to artists’ professional growth and business insight. Providing financial support for creative entrepreneurs contributes to the broader economy and quality of life in neighborhoods across the city.
Awarded artists will need to offer a public presentation within Seattle city limits. We encourage a broad range of artistic and cultural expression that reflects the Seattle’s diversity.
This program is open to specific discipline clusters in alternating years:
- Odd Years: Dance, Music, and Theater (including Playwriting)
- Even Years: Literary, Media/Film (including Screenwriting), and Visual Art
Formed in 1971 with a mission to activate and sustain Seattle through arts and culture, the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture (OAC) manages the City's public art program, cultural partnerships grant programs, The Creative Advantage arts education initiative, and cultural facilities such as the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute and ARTS at King Street Station.
In alignment with the City's Race and Social Justice Initiative, we seek new solutions that use arts as a strategy to drive not only our office, but the City as a whole toward racial equity and social justice. We will continue to break barriers and build arts-integrated tools that challenge the status quo and push us toward the inclusive society we envision.
OAC is supported by the 16-member Seattle Arts Commission, citizen volunteers appointed by the Mayor and City Council.
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