Olympia's City Council approved the Grants to Arts and Culture Organizations (GACO) for 2023. The Arts Commission recommended five organizations to be funded - some of whom work with underserved youth.
At a city council meeting held Tuesday, December 6, Olympia Arts Commission (OAC) chair Jim Burlingame said they received 11 applications for 2023.
The five organizations OAC recommended include:
The Bridge Music Project, a community songwriting workshop in Olympia, where youth work as teams to write, record, and perform original music that shares their stories.
"This program will specifically include youth who have faced major life challenges such as foster care, homelessness, and incarceration," Burlingame said, adding it is requesting $4,410 for the project.
Also given a grant was Collaborative Association for Reintegration and Education (CARE), a collaborative project between Lamplighters and CARE. It offers arts-based peer counseling and Olympia Lamplighter scholarships to justice and system-impacted youth and young adults (Y-YAs).
According to Burlingame, CARE is seeking a $5,000 fund to expand its peer navigator program and reach 30 more youth and young adults over the next year.
In its grant application, CARE stated that its arts-based peer counseling sessions utilize a strengths-based psychosocial perspective, highlighting the mind-body connection and emphasizing improved quality of life, social connectedness, and a sense of agency among Y-YAs.
The peer counseling sessions occur in the community and at Olympia Lamplighters' creative workspace. Olympia Lamplighters Scholarships provide Y-YAs with access to an art gallery and fully equipped creative space that offers a resource library, art classes, sound engineering/music lessons, and support in all creative endeavors.
West Central Project (WCP), dedicated to fostering the recreational, educational, economic, and creative needs of the community, was also given a grant.
"This grant will help us provide for the creative needs of the community by presenting 12 music events. The funds will allow us to give stipends to the musical artists and cover the infrastructure costs needed for the event season, June to October," WCP stated in the application.
Burlingame said WCP is seeking a $3,965 fund.
Earthbound Productions requested a $2,130 fund to cover studio rental space for staging and preparing for the two luminary processions, production costs, maintaining and repairing the art pieces, installing new lights, transporting lanterns, creating new landfills for public use in the procession, advertising flyers for events and permits and fees, studio space for art workshops, workshop teacher stipends, art materials and supplies, stipends for musicians, dance group, and volunteers.
They were also given a grant.
Arbutus Folk School which offers hands-on, low-cost art classes to underserved community members of all ages, expanding the number of people. Underserved audiences include people of color, LGBTQ, people with disabilities, people who identify as immigrants or refugees, and people impacted by social and economic inequities, asked for $5,000 but were given only $4000.
In a previous OAC meeting, the commissioners agreed to recommend full funding for the top four applicants. They recommended a $4,495 grant fund for Arbutus Folk School to meet its overall budget of $20,000.
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