Seattle, Washington: Byron Schenkman & Friends (BS&F) is one of nearly 390 nonprofit arts and culture organizations serving 32 Washington counties that received funding in recent rounds of CARES Act funding in Washington State.
The one-time grants were made available to nonprofit arts and cultural organizations, including tribal organizations, and fiscally sponsored groups impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Funds can be used to cover pandemic-related losses during the 2020 calendar year.
General Manager, Margy Crosby stated, “BS&F quickly used these funds to pay for the videography and audio recording of our December concert, Bach & Baroque Virtuosity, available to view at no charge on the BS&F YouTube Channel.”
“Nonprofits are essential to supporting a vibrant creative economy in good times, and the pandemic has stretched many to the breaking point,” said Lisa Brown, Commerce Director. “These grants provide a lifeline to both struggling artists and the organizations that support them, helping to strengthen part of the very fabric of our communities.”
To help Commerce and ArtsWA fund more applicants, OFM provided a second pool of CARES funds, in the amount of $2 million dollars, to ArtsWA. These additional funds allowed ArtsWA to provide grants to the 138 organizations from the first round that were not funded and increase the awards for the 249 previously funded organizations.
“We are grateful that the governor, Commerce and the budget office recognize the importance of the arts and culture sector to Washington’s economy,” said Karen Hanan, Executive Director of ArtsWA. “Providing relief funding to these organizations, which have all been enormously impacted by the pandemic, will allow them to move toward a post-COVID world and continue to contribute to the vibrancy of their communities.”
The grants will support organizations all throughout the state. Approximately 58% of all grants went to organizations outside King County. In addition, 165 organizations that were funded had never received grants from ArtsWA before. To view a complete list of organizations that received funding, please click here.