As a small awards program, our smART ventures grant encourages innovation and widens cultural participation, particularly by individuals, organizations, and communities that may not qualify for other funding programs.

Accepting applications year-round, smART ventures is flexible, inclusive, and simple. It provides funding ranging from $500 to $1,000. The Seattle Office of Arts & Culture encourages small active investments that can have big impacts.

Here are the 2018 smART Ventures awardees:

• Beverly Aarons, $925 – Economic Utopias and Dystopias is a literary event and community conversation about the current economic system and how literary visions of future economies could transform our society. The event will feature diverse perspectives and take place at Tashiro Kaplan Artists’ Lofts.
• African American Writers’ Alliance, $850 – Celebration of Black History Month multigenerational community celebration to take place at Southeast Senior Center that will feature music, spoken word, dance and African American history.
• The Ambrielan Foundation, $700 – The Ambrielan Grimoire is a film project that will showcase artistic talents in the local community, with special emphasis on representing art and writing by Queer, Trans, and differently abled people from the Seattle area. The project will also include some crowd sourced material at various stages that will be a part of the final film.
• Amigos de Seattle, $850 – Guatemalan and Mexican Card-Making Workshops is a series of workshops in English and Spanish on paper crafts and card making to Latino youth in South Park which will culminate in a celebration on Mother’s Day that will feature a performance by Folklore Panama.
• Art of Resistance & Resilience, $850 – The students of the art club will help design and paint the Seattle Black Panther 50th Anniversary Commemorative Mural in collaboration with the community, the Franklin HS Black Student Union, and founding members of the Seattle Black Panther Party Chapter. The mural will be installed on the fence of the Athletic Field.
• Asian Counseling and Referral Service (ACRS), $850 – ACRS Art Program 10 Year Celebration is a community-wide anniversary celebration. The activities leading up to the celebration will include the repair and enhancement of a “community quilt” by artist Marita Dingus and visual art classes for behavioral health clients, led by Chau Huynh. The artists will also lead workshops for all ages at the event at ACRS.
• BAYFEST Youth Theatre, $925 – An hour-long show of R&J, based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, to take place at the Pathfinder School and the Delridge Community Center. This performance will feature sound, rhythm, and vigorous contemporary movement (Hip Hop, Step and African rhythms) to tell the story, which has common appeal across cultures, in a modern framework that emphasizes the all-too contemporary themes of prejudice and hatred of the “other”.
• Beautiful. Powerful. Love., $500 – To support two events taking place at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute around the themes of Renew and Nourish, focusing on supporting the mental and physical wellness of women of color. Beautiful. Powerful. Love. Event Series will feature artists teaching workshops and performing.
• Brazil Center, $925 – The Brazil Center will be inviting Brazilian and American artists, educators, and art administrators as guest speakers to share their knowledge and research on current events taking place in Brazil. The goal of the discussion at Brazil Fest will be to touch on specific topics, such as racism, classism, and the activism that has been ignited by leaders such as Zumbi and Marielle Franco. From Zumbi to Marielle Franco will be taking place at the Seattle Center Pavilion.
• Erin Elyse Burns, $500 – Gather is a one-day site specific performance arts event that will take place on a walking path loop in Discovery Park. The participatory performance will evoke the metaphors of solitude and togetherness that are part of the mourning process.
• Cambodian American Community Council of Washington, $1,000 – In the Art of Survival, ten artists will present work in different disciplines that acknowledge the impact of genocide on the Cambodian community to help the healing process for survivors and their families. The event will take place at City Hall.
• Lacy Katherine Campbell, $900 – Scheherazade’s Suitcase: Episodes 1-5 is a live-cast, weekly series that combines the artistry of theater with the accessibility of the internet to celebrate Islamic art, poetry, and storytelling and will be an international collaboration between a Seattle theater artist, a Pakistani playwright, and an Iranian puppetry designer.
• Cascade Neighborhood Council, $700 – Cascade Recycled Arts Project is a series of art-making booths for Cascade neighborhood events that will feature activities that are made out of recycled and upcycled materials.
• Catapult Dance, $600 – I Am Not A Small Woman is a concert of dance choreographed and performed by Catapult Dance. This evening of choreography with local dance artists and live music composed collaboratively in rehearsal by Nico Tower has a strong focus on social justice and will be held at the Erickson Theater on Capitol Hill.
• Chamber Music Madness, $700 – Tuned In! is a 6-day summer chamber music festival for students in middle school, high school, and college that play violin, viola, cello, bass and piano, at the Haller Lake United Methodist Church. The student music festival uniquely features artistic direction and coaching by four professional musicians, known as the Skyros Quartet, and provides students with a model of musicianship, leadership, and cooperation required to create a successful ensemble of players.
• COAST | NoCOAST, $700 – COAST | No COAST Literary Journal is an annual print journal of poetry, poetics, and art. With offices in Seattle and Cincinnati, it aims to be a conversation between diverse writers and artists, emerging and established, from these two distinct locales. Workshops and readings held at various locations will accompany the release of the journal.
• Columbia City Beatwalk, $700 – Columbia City Beatwalk 2018 is an annual free, family-friendly music and arts series that offers live local music and multiple venues that happens on the second Sunday of the month from June to September, featuring a lively outdoor scene with a variety of musicians and DJs and opportunities for local youth to perform and develop their art.
• The Core Ensemble, $875 – An adaptation of Don Giovanni will unite the tradition of spectacular classical vocals with innovative contemporary staging to playfully highlight social issues in service of the audience at the 12th Avenue Arts Studio.
• Dacha Theatre, $700 – In Shakespeare Dice: Hamlet, an ensemble of seven actors will learn the entire script of Hamlet and every night, the audience will roll dice to determine which actor will play which part. The performances will take place at the Russian Community Center, Crown Hill Center, and Freehold Theatre.
• Eddie DeHais, $850 – ReShape is a durational immersive performance and artistic installation paired with a performance series surrounding mental health at the Slate Theater.
• Festa Italiana, The Italian Festival, $700 – Opera for Kids will consist of four, free, 30-minute performances of a fun, interactive version of the beloved opera classic, Hansel & Gretel written by E. Humperdinck and performed in English at the Children’s Courtyard of the Italian Festival at the Seattle Center.
• Adriana Giordano, $750 – Seattle Interprets Jobim is the second edition of the tribute to one of the greatest Brazilian composers of the 20th century, Antonio Carlos Jobim. This will be a very special evening of music performed by outstanding Seattle-based artists, led by Brazilian guitarist and composer Marco de Carvalho at the Columbia City Theater.
• GRIEF GIRLS, $825 – CHASM is an evening length performance taking place at Base in Georgetown. The work is a collaborative effort of eight artists from varying disciplines that examines the theme of “otherness.”
• Tess Guerzon, $650 – The Rizal Park Jazz Festival is a music festival organized and started in 2008 and run through 2012 to bring awareness to the Filipino Community at the park that honors the National Hero Dr. Jose Rizal. Back by popular demand, the festival will be featuring local jazz artists of Filipino descent, food trucks, and educational information of the history of the Philippines.
• Horn of Africa Services, $700 – Youth and staff from the organization will work collaboratively to design and paint a mural on the side of their building located in Rainier Beach.
• Rochelle House, $875 – Music Lessons for Youth will consist of free group and private music lessons for low-income youth in the Mount Baker Neighborhood.
• Julz Bolinayen Soriano Ignacio, $1,000 – Equinox Rising is a showcase highlighting LGBTQ artists. Singer-songwriters of different genres will come together to perform as part of Julz Llang-Bulan’s first album release at Massive Monkees Studio on Beacon Hill.
• International Rescue Committee in Seattle, $850 – An exhibit showcasing the artwork and journey of refugee artists now living in Washington. ARTvocacy: Refugee Art Exhibit at Seattle Center’s Art/Not Terminal Gallery hopes to help refugee artists increase their visibility in Seattle’s art community.
• Intersections (Natasha Ransom), $1,000 – Intersections: A Celebration of Seattle Performance is a comedy festival focused on equity, inclusion, and representation. The showcase will feature improv, sketch, stand-up, burlesque, drag, clowning, spoken word, storytelling, music, and dance. It will take place at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute or at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center.
• Eirik Johnson, $500 – PINE LIVE CONCERT is a one-night live performance event featuring diverse musicians who have contributed to a collaborative photo book and record which features photographs of tree carvings. The event will take place at Oxbow Seattle.
• Rohena Alam Khan, $850 – My Bae: America is an art exhibit at Flutter Studios for and about minorities, giving marginalized populations in the US a voice and a safe space to explore their personal relationships to America.
• Paul Kikuchi, $700 – Cherry Blossom Festival Presentation will include excerpts from the film 9066 that features archival footage from Japanese American concentration camps with an original musical score that uses sound samples from community-donated material. In addition to the film, there will be an artist talk and exhibition featuring photographs and 78 rpm records brought to the US by early Japanese immigrants. The event will take place at Seattle Center.
• Eunice Kim, $600 – Nature Stories will use reclaimed wood from a demolished barn to create pieces that use nontoxic printmaking techniques. The artwork will be featured in a solo show at Davidson Gallery in Pioneer Square.
• Kanani Koster, $925 – The New Frontier is a short film that explores and honors people of color’s histories and contributions to our country during the Old West. The film will be told in vignettes written and narrated by local artists of color.
• Angelica Langley, $825 – WHAT’S POPPIN’ LADIEZ?! Is a low-cost street-style dance program that supports young womxn/girls* of color who will perform as a dance team at a number of local community performances to help support equitable opportunities for youth.
• Carl Lawrence, $500 – aaaa is an evening length theatre piece that explores the rule of law and authoritarian power through classical work and modern events. The set will include kinetic sculpture and project and take place at BASE in Georgetown.
• Susan Lieu, $950 – 140 LBS: Episodes 3 and 4 is a solo performance that is based on the true story of how the performer’s mother went in for plastic surgery and died due to a medical malpractice incident. The performance will also explore the prevalence and impact of plastic surgery within Asian media and will be performed at On the Boards and the Pocket Theater.
• Lauren Linder, $800 – Duets in Dance is an evening length dance show that presents four live performance duets and one duet film short at the YAW Theater in Georgetown.
• Live Music Project, $700 – Spontaneous Free Tickets will help design a system to help manage the distribution of free tickets from Seattle-based arts organizations to individuals from underserved communities.
• Rosie Llewellyn, $850 – Sustenance and Book Release Event is a self-published collection of poems that shares the artist’s experience as a Haitian and adoptee. The collection will be shared at a public event that will feature a documentary screening and Q&A with the artist.
• Make Music Seattle, $850 – Make Music Day is a worldwide holiday celebrated every summer solstice across 120+ countries and 800+ cities. Make Music Seattle will be facilitating music and performances to diverse audiences in multiple public spaces.
• Iain Mangum, $800 – BFA Exhibition is an exhibit of large-scale works at Cornish that relates to themes of disability, personal loss, catharsis and a desire for acceptance. The exhibit will be accompanied by an artist book, personal essay, and a gallery walk-through and artist talk for disabled students.
• Allison Masangkay, $1,000 – For FAHM: Filipinx Arts & Culture in Seattle is a series of three curated intergenerational pop-up events centering Seattle-based Filipinx artists to take place during Filipino American History Month. The events will take place at the Filipino Community Center, Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, and Theatre Off Jackson.
• Neve Mazique-Bianco, $1,000 – Bet Ya UnGodly Things is a solo dance theater piece that is semi-autobiographical, semi-mythical and grounded in physically disabled innovations and translations of contemporary dance, aesthetics and principles of ballet, vogue, and African Dance. The performance will take place at Gay City Arts.
• Juliet McMains, $800 – Imperfect Map is a dance piece in collaboration with composer Ben Thomas and inspired by two poems, The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats and A Map to the Next World by Joy Harjo. The piece will be performed at Cornish Playhouse.
• Domonique Meeks, $825 – No Blueprint is a podcast that will highlight entrepreneurs and artists of color in Seattle’s Central District and South Seattle neighborhoods in hopes of inspiring future business owners.
• Gerard Menendez, $700 – IMAGINARY OPUS scenic design will support the design and construction of a set for a sensory experience performance. The set will feature the work of Latinx artists across disciplines as well as a gallery. The performances will take place at the Center Theater at Seattle Center.
• METHOD Gallery, $600 – In Grab a Plate, first nations artist Natalie Ball will create an exhibit that is an Indigenous visual genealogy by exploring complex historical and racial narratives that have been neglected through previous colonial-centric perspectives at METHOD Gallery.
• Lauren Moore, $650 – Quiet Tourist is an audio and performance series that combines mindfulness, Audio Sensory Meridian Response, and recovery strategies as part of guided meditations, walking tours, and sound installations.
• NAMI Washington, $500 – The Brainpower Chronicles: Mental Health Stories is an annual storytelling event where individuals share their stories of how they have been affected by mental illness and their journeys toward recovery which will take place at Isaac Studio Theatre.
• Othello Block Party, $825 – Othello Block Party is celebrating the inaugural year of this community arts and heritage festival. This event will be occurring near Othello Light Rail Station, with the goal to build relationships and spotlight the vibrant music, visual arts, culture and activism that defines South Seattle.
• Pacifica Writers’ Workshop, $750 – The Bards of Bayview is a three-part project that includes an 8-week poetry workshop, a printed anthology, and a public reading. Participants will be primarily senior residents of Bayview Retirement Community, and senior citizens living within the Lower Queen Anne area.
• Coleman Pester, $950 – PYLON III is the final work of a trilogy of evening-length performances choreographed by Coleman Pester in collaboration with a 10-person interdisciplinary team examining complex systems of control using movement, architectural set-pieces and a variety of analog and digital technologies. The performance will take place at Cornish Playhouse main stage.
• Jake Prendez, $700 – Genetic Memory is an art exhibition and series of lectures by the artist to take place at a West Seattle location that focuses on Chicanx/Latinx culture, identity, and art as a tool for social change and ancestry.
• Rad Care, $875 – The first stage of the story collection project that will reveal experiences of sex workers through storytelling and dance at Merchant’s Cafe. HR 3244, SESTA, FOSTA & anti-trafficking: a sex workers perspective will include stories from those most marginalized and those who are trans, queer, disabled, drug users, experiencing homelessness and/or people of color.
• Rajana Society, $925 – Spean Rajana Community Report Back is an opportunity at the Mount Baker Village Community Room that provides a participatory and educational community report back on the Society’s trips cumulatively through films, presentations, and an artist panel. This project is intended to help Seattleites and residents locally to understand how arts and civics has been married to create a generational and cultural bridge, connecting a diaspora that has been displaced through war during the 1970s – 1980s.
• Rockland Residency, $1,000 – 2018 Rockland Panel is a series that will curate panelists to support artist residents around the topic of their choosing. This year the panels will focus on indigenous and queer/trans artists and their shared experiences, the second will focus on the transient qualities of our landscapes and will take place at 18th and Union art space.
• Russian Chamber Music Foundation of Seattle, $750 – A classical piano recital by an internationally recognized artist. Ms. Karpukhova will play pieces from Beethoven, Schumann, Liszt, and other iconic classical artists at the Frye Museum auditorium. She will be giving brief descriptions of each piece before playing them.
• Abigayle Scobee, $950 – Teen Arts and Opportunity Fair is a fair created by teens for teens, their friends, and families to connect them with opportunities and teen-specific programs at arts organizations.
• Seattle Peace Concerts, $700 – 2018 Seattle Peace Concert Series is an outdoor free music concerts established to promote a culture of peace and reconciliation to take place in Green Lake, Fremont, Capitol Hill and Magnuson Park.
• Seattle World Percussion Society, $950 – World Rhythm Festival 2018 Grand Opening Tribute to Babatunde Olatunji is a performance by the Puget Sound Rhythm Section band paying tribute to the historic contributions of Babatunde Olatunji as part of the World Rhythm Festival at Seattle Center.
• Seattle Young Artists Music Festival Association, $500 – 2018 SYAMFA Music Festival is an annual week-long music festival held at UW campus School of Music, bringing music educators from top level music schools, to work one-on-one with local music students.
• A Sensible Theatre Co., $600 – Pageant, the Musical is an interactive musical that puts a high-heeled drag spin on the competitive pageant scene. This performance will take place at ACT Theatre.
• PAC/Simposio de Mujeres Latinas, $1,000 – Simposio de Mujeres Latinas is a symposium that is conducted entirely in Spanish and brings leaders past and present to celebrate the accomplishments of and to inspire Latinas. The event will take place at North Seattle Community College and include music performances, lectures and workshops.
• Somali Family Safety Task Force, $500 – In working with the community, an artist will design a picture book to help families decrease the language barrier that exist between immigrant/refugee parents and their US born, English speaking children. Somali Book II will be distributed in libraries and community organizations.
• The Sound Ensemble, $650 – You Didn’t Know They Composed is a family-friendly classical concert featuring the music of composers mostly known for their work as pop/rock musicians or university professors that will take place at Good Shepherd Center.
• SPLAB (Seattle Poetics LAB), $500 – Becoming Cascadian is a weekend intensive workshop with three free public events, where poets and bioregionalists will have the opportunity to explore their role at this time of ecological crisis as it relates to Cascadia.
• St. Sava Serbian Language School, $875 – Serbian Children’s Cultural Festival is a one-day festival to celebrate Serbian heritage and culture to take place at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute.
• Eli Steffen, $875 – WAR Belly is an interactive drag performance exploring male socialization and violence from a trans-feminine perspective. The show will be performed at Gay City.
• Khadija Tarver, $800 – A circle made by walking is a performance-based sculpture that engages gallery visitors and serves as a site to process grief. It will feature an installation of a path of grass in the shape of a circle at METHOD Gallery. The installation will be accompanied by an artist talk and performance by guest artist, Dani Tirrell.
• Nick Thompson, $800 – A Port Angeles Photobook is a book of photographs of Port Angeles residents from all walks of life and age groups that were taken on 35 mm film. The book will be published by a local company and sold in various local bookstores along with an artist presentation.
• Thriving Artists, $1,000 – U.S. Premiere of Juan Palmieri by Antonio Larreta is the staging of an in-school presentation of Juan Palmieri by influential Uruguayan playwright Antonio Larreta, shared amongst 400-600 students at Cleveland High School.
• Tint Dance Festival, $950 – The first annual Tint Dance Festival will take place at Erickson Theater and will feature new modern and contemporary works from five local choreographers of color. The festival seeks to support diversity in dance.
• Unfollow Media, $1,000 – The publication and launch event of Nope: The Magazine of Glamorous Refusal that is a pop art exploration of the word “no” as way to demonstrate female power and choices. The event will feature diverse female-identifying models, poetry, short fiction and journalistic contribution from underrepresented artists. The launch event will take place at LoveCityLove on Capitol Hill.
• Unkitawa, $925 – Circle of Indigenous People is a four-day event at Seattle Center that will feature traditional culture sharing including a ground blessing, traditional prayer songs of the Lakota, dancing from the Aztec, as well as canoes and traditional teaching from the Muckleshoot.
• Arnoldo Valencia, $700 – Pulp Magazine Show will support the publication of PULP Magazine and a release show. The Magazine and release event will explore the themes of modern-day social constructs that have negatively impacted individuals including gender, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, etc. The event will feature performances and visual arts from diverse artists.
• Gia Valente and Jax Braun, $600 – It’s Hard but I Try is a community engagement board around seasonal and general depression and anxiety, specifically within the trans and queer community. The interactive piece will be installed at Gay City on Capitol Hill.
• Lorna Velasco, $950 – Tagalog Seattle is a table reading that will feature original works by Filipino playwrights written entirely in Tagalog. The public readings will take place at Theatre Off Jackson.
• Vanessa Villalobos, $900 – Poetic Translations is a multi-disciplinary dance and arts event that responds to the visual art of Peruvian painter William Hernandez to take place at ArtXchange.
• Gina Williams, $800 – Summer Classics is a concert of the artist’s original compositions and more well-known songs to take place at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute.
• Petra Zanki, $850 – A new work for five dancers that explores the idea of immigration and womanhood through the individual experiences of the dancers involved in the pieces. FREIGHT will be accompanied by a trio of string musicians as well as collected audience stories around immigration.