You’ve likely heard the exciting news that last month, the King County Council unanimously passed Doors Open, a piece of legislation that will increase funding to King County cultural organizations by an estimated $90 million per year. Learn more about this landmark investment here.

To put this into better perspective, 4Culture’s current annual budget is roughly $10 million—this nearly 10-fold increase brings significant change to our organization! As we quickly get to work creating an implementation plan, a top priority is maximizing all of our grant revenue: Doors Open, Lodging Tax, and federal COVID-19 relief funds from the American Rescue Plan Act.

To that end, we’re sharing information about a change to our usual grant calendar. To best serve King County by taking full advantage of the funds available to us over the next two years, we have decided to postpone our 2024 Projects grant program. In its place, we will focus our efforts on getting roughly $1.1 million in remaining COVID relief funding out the door to individual cultural producers in King County, which federal law requires us to do by the end of 2024. The program will open in the spring, and details on eligibility, award amounts, and more will be available soon. 2024 funds for Art Projects, Heritage Projects, and Preservation Special Projects will roll over when the program resumes, creating a pool of roughly $2 million for Projects in 2025.

We’re keenly aware that Doors Open does not include funding for individuals. Supporting King County’s dancers, historians, writers, painters, researchers, sculptors, preservationists, performers, curators, and more is central to our mission. As we craft an implementation plan for Doors Open over the next six months, ensuring that these dollars positively impact individuals as well as organizations will be a priority. We hope organizations planning to apply for a Projects grant will take advantage of the Doors Open one-time facility and operating grants that will open in August 2024. More information on those programs to come soon.

Our Projects grant is a longstanding cornerstone of 4Culture funding. We know its impact in the King County cultural community and that this will represent a significant shift in many people’s plans for 2024. This decision was not made lightly, and we thank you for your flexibility as our entire sector navigates the early months of Doors Open. As always, our staff are available to answer any questions you might have—we know this is a lot of information! Please don’t hesitate to contact us. As we collectively embark on a new year, we could not be prouder to be entrusted with these resources in service of the King County cultural community.