Artist Trust Announces New Phase of Covid-19 Relief Funding

Seattle, WA. Artist Trust has $100,000 in funding available for Washington State artists, due to donors’ endorsements at year’s end. (The nonprofit recently held a zoom community conversation on racial equity seen above.) These funds will create a second wave of emergency support, forecast to fund a minimum of 100 artists at $1,000 each. Cezanne Garcia, Artist Trust Board of Trustees President expressed her gratitude, “Thanks to our donors’ continued generous support, Artist Trust ended 2020 over $100,000 ahead of our fundraising goal for the year.” Release dates for the Relief Fund application cycle can be found posted on the refreshed grant schedule.

Artist Trust continues to listen to the community and pivot through the pandemic to meet artists’ needs. Survey results reported that more than 50 percent of performing artists had been out of work during the third quarter of 2020, in response the Artist Trust team created a list of resources, one being a food bank map, designed as a guide to locate alternative food sources within Washington State.

Meeting the immediate needs of artists remains at the forefront as Kristina Goetz, Acting Director shared, “the pandemic marked a directional shift” and as a service-oriented organization, the focus has been “connecting artists with the resources to best equip as possible to weather the crisis,” which includes: providing funding information, healthcare, housing, support navigating legal issues with webinars, and business development workshops.

As one of the longest-running award programs, having originated in 1987, Artist Trust was honored to release the nine recipients of the 2020 Fellowship Awards on February 8, 2021, which included: visual artists Dan Friday, Tatiana Garmendia, Mary Ann Peters, and Anthony White; performing artist Benjamin Hunter; multidisciplinary artists Jaleesa Johnston and Chris Vargas; and literary artists Rena Priest and Sharma Shields captured below. These merit-based awards provide an unrestricted cash amount of $10,000 to each recipient.

Artist Trust is a 501(c)3 nonprofit grounded in values of being “open, welcoming, transparent, responsive, and forward-thinking – Artist Trust’s mission is to support and encourage artists working in all disciplines to enrich community life throughout Washington State.” Founded in 1986, Artist Trust has invested in individual artists contributing over $11 million through professional development programs and grants. To learn more about getting involved visit: artisttrust.org.