Spokane Arts announces second round of 2020 SAGA grantees

Spokane Arts announced its second round of Spokane Arts Guild Award grantees this week. From a group of 32 candidates, SAGA’s largest submission pool to date, the six-judge panel chose 12 projects in glass, music, professional development, murals, writing, publishing and culture.

Each of these projects stood out to the judges for its potential to serve the community by catalyzing the development of local arts and culture over the course of the next year. The 12 grantees have received a total of $67,000.

Through SAGA, KYRS Thin Air Community Radio secured operational support for continued arts programming. This funding will help KYRS continue its list of arts-focused programs, including “Art Hour,” highlighting local artists, and “Personally Speaking,” sharing the stories of Spokane through a series of interviews with local celebrities and talent.

Supplementing its monthly issue, the SAGA grant awarded to Black Lens News will fund the production of new photos and videos highlighting the lives of African Americans in Spokane and the impact that being Black in Spokane has had on their lives. Twenty such features will be published in the 2021 Black History Month issue of Black Lens News.

With SAGA support, local artist Katie Creyts’ project “Chien de Garde” will examine the dichotomy of domestic and wild animals through carved glassworks. “Chien de Garde” also will highlight “animal domestication, perceptions of animal life and the history and impact of zoonotic diseases.”

Spark Central’s SAGA grant will fund the West Central Publishing Union in its continuing effort to decrease the artistic opportunity gap. Working with young journalists – students in elementary, middle and high school – WCPU will gather and publish reports on life in the West Central neighborhood in an online newspaper.

With SAGA support, Imagine Jazz will produce “Imagine Spokane,” a new livestream concert series and video education program for local students and schools as well as those in more outlying rural areas beyond Spokane. The program will feature new works composed by local musicians while providing educational videos covering an array of musical topics. The program also will be offered in-person once COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.

Terrain will receive operational support, supplementing financial loss due to the current pandemic restrictions. With SAGA support, Terrain will continue to expand the impact it has brought to the arts and culture of Spokane – events like “Bazaar” and “Uncharted” – in the last 11 years.

Artist Jill Smith, owner of Clay Fox Pottery, will use SAGA grant money to begin offering free art classes for local women veterans. “Clay by the Creek” aims to help students “heal and connect through working with clay.”

With SAGA support, Spokane Film Project will provide a series of education panels and workshops led by film industry professionals. Organizers aim to connect filmmakers and digital content creators across the experience spectrum.

CMTV-14, founded in 2007 to offer creators a place to air locally produced programs and shorts, will facilitate and document the series.

Northwest BachFest will use SAGA grant funding to launch “Postcards From Spokane,” a musical postcard program. Organizers aim to expand the reach of Northwest BachFest while reminding listeners that “music will endure.”

Spokane Arts has awarded local artist Hannah Charlton a grant to continue research for her developing collection of re-created illuminated manuscripts, “The Forgotten Book of Women.” She is currently working on seven manuscript paintings, each featuring two to four historically significant women organized by theme. The final product will include more than 100 such entries.

Avenue West Gallery will receive COVID-19 necessitated operational support through SAGA, as well as funding for local artist Aaron Smith’s mural installation on the gallery’s exterior.

And Spokane Print and Publishing Center will use its SAGA grant funding to purchase new equipment necessary for publishing the annual work compendium in-house. The funding also will go toward covering “safe classes” through the 2020-21 operation. SPPC provides resources and expertise in publishing to aspiring writers and bookmakers.

For information about grantees and SAGA, visit spokanearts.org.