4Culture News

Since May 2021 when King County Executive Dow Constantine and the King County Council showed their support of our region’s cultural sector in the form of a $9.4 million appropriation from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) fund, we’ve been working to get those dollars to those in our field who need it most via our Recovery Fund. We’re now delighted to share the King County cultural organizations who have received funding!

Kristen Ramirez was a vibrant part of our community and deeply embedded in the world of public art as both an artist and administrator. Never short on creativity or innovation, she changed the things she touched for the better.

We’re excited to announce the reopening of Gallery 4Culture! Programming will resume on First Thursday, May 5 with Nate Clark’s Squinch. Please join us from 5:00—8:00 pm to celebrate Nate and this momentous occasion, our inaugural exhibition after more than two years of a pandemic hiatus.

We are thrilled to announce the recipients of our 2022 Arc Artist Fellowship!

Continuing her work to restore Grandfather’s Wisdom, the large-scale sculptural installation at Brightwater Treatment Plant near Woodinville, artist Andrea Wilbur-Sigo recently welcomed the Longhouse back to her studio. In 2020 the artist recreated the project’s paddles in red cedar. Now focusing her attention on the surface and longevity of the longhouse, Wilbur-Sigo will be both re-carving and re-painting as needed. The new longhouse is expected to return to the site in late 2022.

Public Art 4Culture consulted with international hotel chain citizenM to curate and commission original artwork for their highly anticipated historic Pioneer Square location at the corner of Yesler Way and Post Avenue.

4Culture is happy to introduce great King County talent joining the Touring Arts Roster in 2022. After a live audition at Carco Theatre, nine new performing artists were juried into our lineup by a peer panel composed of presenters and local arts agency administrators. Spend some time visiting their profile pages and keep them in mind when planning your upcoming events!

Whether you’re a professional grant writer or totally new to applying for funding, it always helps to plan! As 2022 gets underway, we’ve put all our annual grant and artist call deadlines for the year in one, easy-to-reference place. Check out the image above or download a printable PDF.

We are thrilled to announce big news from the Public Art 4Culture team!

Josh Tuininga is an author, artist, and designer based in North Bend, Washington and is a recipient of our 2020 Heritage Grant and Art Projects grants. His latest project is a historical graphic novel set in the multicultural Seattle Central District of the 1940s which explores the unique situation of Japanese and Jewish Americans living side by side during World War II. The project has been picked up by Abrams Comic Arts and will be released in Spring of 2023.

In this joint post, curators Maggie Kase at the Log House Museum and Heidi Bohan from the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center share the history behind the new exhibit The Spirit Returns 2.0: A Duwamish and Settler Story, which was supported by 4Culture grants:

Marilyn Montúfar is a recipient of our 2021 Art Projects grant and exhibited her photography at Gallery 4Culture in February 2018. Here, she shares how she’s putting her grant funds to work:

King County Metro’s Northgate Transit Center opened to the public on June 6, 1992. Artist Cris Bruch was a member of the original design team. He worked closely with architects Zimmer Gunsul Frasca of Portland and Barbara Oakrock of Seattle to influence the overall look and feel of the site. In addition, he created fifteen free-standing Corten steel sculptures for the urban landscape – eight larger animal silhouettes and seven smaller animal cutouts. These Silhouettes and Cutups represent his first-ever public commission.

To offer a capacity-building and professional development opportunity during the pandemic, our Heritage department implemented the King County Heritage Virtual Internship Program as a 3-month virtual program. Three host organizations were selected through a competitive panel process in early 2021: StoryBoards in Sammamish, the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park in Seattle, and the Kenmore Heritage Society. Interns have been working on their projects since June; as they near the end of the program, we asked them to share what their experience has been like this summer.