The 2025 Washington State Poetry Out Loud State Finalists. Photo by Pavel Verbovski. | | |
"Poetry Out Loud pushes me to be creative.”
—2023 Washington State Champion Matthew Valentine
Poetry Out Loud is a national poetry recitation competition for high school students. Participating students develop public speaking skills. They build self-confidence and learn to connect with literature in new ways, often discovering a new outlet for creative expression.
There are two ways to participate:
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Poetry Out Loud is open to any school in Washington State serving grades 9-12.
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POL Virtual is open to individual students who meet one or more of the criteria.
📅 Deadline to register: November 21, 2024
| NEW for the 2025-26 School Year: Poetry Forward is a statewide original poetry writing program that supports and celebrates student voices. Poetry Forward will be open to all schools in Washington State serving grades 9–12—regardless of whether they participate in Poetry Out Loud. | | |
Coming up: Native Arts Professional Development Workshops
September 13 & 20, 2025 at the House of Welcome Longhouse
📅 Day 1: Saturday, September 13 | 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
📅 Day 2: Saturday, September 20 | 9 a.m. -4 p.m.
Join us for one or both days of professional development for Native artists looking to start or grow a career as an artist. Meet and learn from RYAN! Feddersen, Dan Friday, Andrea Wilbur-Sigo, and many others about securing funding, starting and running a business, the world of public art, getting into galleries, and vending at markets.
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Grants to Organizations – Upcoming Project Grants
ArtsWA received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to support three small grant programs. ArtsWA will publish the grant applications on October 1, 2025.
Commemorating America’s 250th Anniversary
America 250 – Sharing History - Latine and Hispanic History in Washington State
The histories of Latine and Hispanic communities in Washington State are often overlooked in museum collections and early state narratives, despite dating back to the 18th century. Funded projects should help share and honor these stories—highlighting migration, labor, cultural resilience, community organizing, memory, and present-day voices. Projects may use any creative form and must be fully accessible to the public.
💵 $1,000 - $2,000
America 250 – Power of Place - Support for Free Outdoor Musical Performances
ArtsWA recognizes music’s ability to bring people together and strengthen community ties. To support local celebrations of America’s 250th anniversary in 2026, ArtsWA will provide limited grants to help communities hire local musicians. Funding will support about six to ten projects statewide.
💵 $1,000 - $2,000
Arts and Health
Cultivating Healthy Communities - Arts, Health, and Well-Being in Rural Communities
ArtsWA will launch Cultivating Healthy Communities, a pilot grant program that uses the arts to strengthen social connections and foster belonging in rural Washington. These small grants help communities begin collaborative projects with trusted partners, such as arts and culture nonprofits, libraries, parks, green spaces, community centers, and museums.
💵 $3,000 – $5,000
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September 9: Creatives Get Real
Creatives Get Real will host a night of no-fluff conversations with panelists to dish on the highs, the lows, and the in-betweens of running a creative business in Washington State.
🌎 Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center
📅 Tuesday, September 9, 2025
⏰ 6—8 p.m.
Doors open at 6 PM, program begins 6:30 PM
September 20: SOCO Creative Arts Festival
Join the SOCO Creative Arts Festival in Downtown Kennewick on Saturday, September 20! Kennewick Ave will transform into a lively pedestrian zone featuring local art, live music, craft vendors, outdoor dining, the SEW Inspired Quilt Festival, and a woodworking street sale.
🌎 Kennewick Avenue, Kennewick, WA
📅 Saturday, September 20, 2025
⏰ 10 a.m.—4 p.m.
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“In my experience, poetry is the one place where we consistently address the things that matter most in this life.”
The University of Washington Magazine published an article this month interviewing Derek about poetry, the outdoors, and the ways those worlds intersect.
Read "Exploring the Outdoors with Derek Sheffield"
| | Washington welcomes two new Creative Districts | | The Hillyard neighborhood of Spokane. Photo courtesy of Darya Pilram. | | |
At its August 5 meeting, the ArtsWA Board of Commissioners unanimously certified two new Creative Districts: Hillyard in Spokane and Woodinville.
Hillyard Creative District is rooted in Spokane Tribal ancestral lands and transformed by the arrival of the Great Northern Railroad in 1892. Known for its deep immigrant heritage and resilient spirit, Hillyard has preserved its historic character while embracing new industries and communities. Today, it is home to around 7,000 residents, including vibrant Ukrainian, Marshallese, Vietnamese, and Russian populations, and serves as the eastern terminus of the Children of the Sun Trail.
Woodinville Creative District blends rural charm with a growing, walkable downtown. Once a logging and agricultural hub, it now thrives with farm stands, wine tasting rooms, outdoor concerts, and a strong creative sector. With nearly 24% of residents foreign-born and 30% speaking a language other than English at home, Woodinville’s diversity fuels its cultural vibrancy. The Woodinville Arts Alliance will serve as the district’s administrative organization.
| | ArtsWA joins WDVA, ESD at the 2025 Serving Those Who Served Conference | | Left to right: Wellness, Arts, and the Military (WAM) Program Manager Bryan Bales and Administrative Assistant Gabriella Smith at the 2025 Serving Those Who Served conference. | | |
The Department of Veterans Affairs, ArtsWA and Employment Security Department recently put on a two-day conference for veterans and veterans resource providers. The annual event helps veterans and veteran resource providers a chance to connect and collaborate. Representatives from state agencies, community partners and organizations had lots of time to meet with attendees and discuss their programs and services.
The conference, which took place in Yakima, included speakers from the agencies that sponsored the event, as well as special guest speakers. State poet laureate Derek Sheffield and celebrated veteran author Shannon Huffman Polson, who was one of the first women to fly an Apache helicopter in the U.S. Army, kicked off each days’ activities.
This conference also included 20 breakout sessions with experts covering a variety of topics relating to veterans. Attendees could also sign up to receive free professional headshot photos.
ArtsWA's Wellness, Arts, and the Military (WAM) opened the Self-Directed Arts Practice (SAP) Grant and General Operating Support Grant on August 20, the opening day of the conference.
| | Announced: The 2025-2029 Public Artist Roster | | | | |
The 2025-2029 Public Artist Roster is our most diverse Roster. We are pleased to share this brief snapshot of the incoming Roster. A complete list of artists can be found on our website.
The Public Artist Roster (PAR) is the primary tool used by the Art in Public Places program (AIPP) to select artists to create new works for the State Art Collection. Art Selection Committees, made up of community stakeholders, choose an artist from the Roster through a series of meetings managed by AIPP staff. Every four years, AIPP manages a call for artists to apply for a new PAR. Successful applicants are eligible for projects at K-12 public schools, colleges, universities, and state agencies throughout Washington. Selected artists remain on the Roster through its four-year term. We will hold a midterm call for applications in 2027; selected artists will serve on the Roster for its final two years.
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Get ready: ESSB 5814 and Tax Increases
Attention Washington Arts, Humanities, Heritage, Festivals, Events & Creative Sector! Upcoming tax changes from Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill (ESSB) 5814 may affect your organization's budget and operations, starting October 1, 2025.
The new law expands retail sales tax to several services, including:
- Information technology services
- Custom website development
- Advertising services
- Live presentations
Why this matters:
- If you purchase these services, you may see increased costs
- If you sell them, you will be responsible for collecting and remitting sales tax
We know you have questions. ArtsWA is working closely with our colleagues at Department of Revenue (DOR) to offer specific guidance that will be published in September 2025. If you can, we recommend waiting for that information before taking final actions.
Find resources like special notices and FAQs on the official ESSB 5814 webpage that includes a detailed and evolving set of FAQs:
| | Recent public artwork installations | | Mandala (2025) by Blessing Hancock. Photo by Matty D Photography. | | |
Blessing Hancock, Mandala
Clark County Residential Treatment Center, Vancouver, WA
In partnership with the Department of Social and Health Services
Mandala is a circular freestanding sculpture located on the grounds of a mental health facility. As the artist states, “the artwork encourages a meditative state to silence the inner critic and calm the mind.” Internal LED lighting within the sculpture changes, creating a warm and contemplative space throughout the day. “Mandala” means “circle” in the Sanskrit language, and the sculpture represents a safe, contained, healing space.
| Arcana (2025) by Monika Bravo. Photo by Everything Time Studio. | |
Monika Bravo, Arcana
University of Washington, Interdisciplinary Engineering Building, Seattle
Arcana is a wall-mounted multi-panel artwork. Inspired by Oskar Schlemmer's "Triadic Ballet" (1912), it creates a dynamic, stage-like wrap-around environment. Bright glass panels interact with metal silhouettes. The human form is reimagined as spheres, cones, and cylinders, translating this geometry into an architectural language of structure, motion, and perception for UW’s newest engineering building.
| Space Poem #15 (To the Remembered Earth)(2025) by Renée Green. Photo by ArtsWA. | |
Renée Green, Space Poem #15 (To the Remembered Earth)
Western Washington University, Bellingham
This 3-part artwork is installed in three locations across WWU’s campus. Space Poem #15 is part of a series the artist has explored at other locations. She describes them as “suspended banner installations, visually animated as the perceiver ‘reads’ and extracts meaning from combined sign and symbol systems, while moving through space. . . Space Poems continue my engagement with language, knowledge transmission and recuperation, complex histories, color, perceptual movement, and split attention, an ideal site for my aesthetic forms and thoughts.”
| Launch(2025) by Lynn Basa. Photo by ArtsWA. | |
Lynn Basa, Launch
Grays Harbor College, Student Services and Instructional Building, Aberdeen
Installed on the façade of a new student welcome center, Launch evokes a flowing river, or meandering smoke plume, and is a metaphor for the journey of a student.
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