Introduction

The Creative Advantage is a partnership between Seattle Office of Arts & Culture and Seattle Public Schools to increase student access to arts learning.

The Creative Advantage Community Arts Partner Roster is a list of artists, teaching artists, and community arts and culture organizations approved to receive compensation through The Creative Advantage in Seattle Public Schools. Arts partners from the Roster provide integrated and/or cultural arts residencies for students and/or professional development for teachers.

The Creative Advantage Community Arts Partner Roster is maintained by the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture as a resource for schools seeking partners to help them meet their arts education equity goals.

The Roster opens for 2025 on November 1, 2024, and will stay open year-round for new teaching artists, community arts organizations, and cultural institutions to apply. Applications will be vetted and approved by Creative Advantage Advisors, through a panel process three times annually (March, June, October). Roster Advisors are Seattle Public School teacher leaders and current Roster partners.

Deadlines for 2025 Submissions:

• Applications submitted between 11/1/24 and by 5 PM (PST) 2/28/25 will be reviewed during the March review cycle.
• Applications submitted between 3/1/25 and by 5 PM (PST) 5/31/25 will be reviewed during the June review cycle.
• Applications submitted between 6/1/25 and by 5 PM (PST) 9/30/25 will be reviewed during the October review cycle.

Eligibility

Open to teaching artists, community arts organizations, and cultural institutions serving students, teachers, and schools in Seattle with three (3) or more years of teaching experience. Applicants must be over the age of 18.

An applicant can apply to provide integrated/cultural arts residencies for students and/or professional development opportunities for teachers. Applicants must indicate whether they want to be considered for one or both of these options.

Application Components

All applications must be submitted online through Submittable.

Documents to Submit: Applicants will upload documentation of their work as an individual artist, teaching artist, or arts organization: 

• Individual artist biography or organizational history & teaching artist biographies
• Sample lesson plan(s) or class outline(s)
• Work samples
• Professional development plan (if applicable)

Narrative Questions: Applicants will complete questions that provide information on the following: 

• Teaching philosophy and approach
• Equity & access
• Culturally responsive strategies
• 21st Century Skills development
• Lesson plan development
• Teacher collaboration

Review Criteria

Applications for Arts Residencies for Students will be reviewed using the following criteria:

• Approach & Collaboration: Clear approach and experience teaching art to young people
• Lesson Planning: Ability to develop a lesson plan or class outline
• Equity & Access: Experience and skills working with participants of diverse racial, cultural, and economic backgrounds; experience working with communities experiencing oppression and inclusion of culturally responsive teaching practices 
• Integrated & Cultural Arts: Experience teaching effective integrated arts and/or cultural arts to young people
• 21st Century Skills: Ability to articulate clear arts learning objectives and assessment criteria that include one or more 21st Century Skills (creative and critical thinking, communication, collaboration, perseverance, and growth-mindset)
• Work Samples: Samples demonstrate abilities, experience, and/or achievements as a teaching artist or teaching artist organization

Applications for Professional Development for Teachers will be reviewed using the following criteria:

• Approach & Collaboration: Clear approach and experience leading teacher professional development 
• Professional Development Planning: Ability to articulate clear arts learning objectives for adult learners 
• Equity & Access: Experience and skills working with participants of diverse racial, cultural, and economic backgrounds; experience working with communities experiencing oppression and inclusion of culturally responsive teaching practices
• Integrated Arts: Ability to develop a professional development outline for teachers for integrating the arts
• 21st Century Skills: Activities that support teachers to foster 21st Century Skills with students in their own classrooms
• Work Samples: Ability to evaluate/assess and demonstrate impact of professional development on participants

Notification of Results

All applicants will be notified of panel decisions by email, after each round of panel reviews (end of March/early April, end of June/early July, end of October/early November).

The Seattle Office of Arts & Culture reserves the right not to select any of the applicants.

Questions About This Opportunity?

Please contact the Arts Education Project Manager Tina LaPadula, at tina.lapadula@seattle.gov

Tips:

1. Read the guidelines, online instructions, and, if need be, contact Submittable for any technical questions.
2. Schedule a 1:1 mentoring session with the Arts Education Project Manager (Tina LaPadula - tina.lapadula@seattle.gov) for support completing the application or to talk through the basics of a class outline or learning plan.
3. Submit your application early to avoid errors or technical difficulties. Please do not wait until the last minute.

How to Use Submittable

Submittable maintains a list of frequently asked questions (FAQ) and offers step-by-step guides on their help platform here. For further assistance with the Submittable online application, please contact Submittable tech support at support@submittable.com

Additional Opportunities

The Creative Advantage is one way that the Office of Arts & Culture supports arts education and creative youth development. Join our mailing list to learn about professional development, arts funding, and innovative creative youth program opportunities.

Privacy Notice:

Information that you provide in your application will become part of a record that is subject to public disclosure. The Office of Arts & Culture will not publish this information, but we are legally bound to provide it upon request. For more information, see the Public Records Act, RCW Chapter 42.56. To learn more about how we manage your information, see our Privacy  Statement at www.seattle.gov/tech/initiatives/privacy.

Grant Overview  

The Seattle Office of Arts & Culture invites individual artists, cultural producers, arts administrators, creative workers, community groups, and arts and cultural organizations of all sizes to propose projects activating public spaces in Downtown Seattle in 2026. 

With the unifying theme of We Still Dream a Future, this call invites arts proposals of two types:

• Exhibitions inside ARTS at King Street Station (KSS)
• Activations and installations at King Street Station Plaza, Union Station Plaza and other public spaces in the Chinatown-International District, Pioneer Square, and Stadium District

Grant funds up to $50,000 are available for creative worker wages and project expenses.  

Unifying Theme 

We Still Dream a Future is the marshaling of our collective imagination within and beyond our current circumstances, and despite the obstacles before us. It is the celebratory declaration of our communities that they are still here and will be for many years to come. In conversation with each other, we build upon the idea that our flourishing must be and is possible.

The arts are essential to creating what comes next. When we see what could be, hear it, touch it, experience it, then what we imagine becomes something more: Through art, all that is possible takes a step towards becoming real. We Still Dream a Future.

You are needed. Where does your work enter this conversation or diverge from it in important ways? A discussion of the future is also a discussion of our past and our present, of who we have been and who we might be. Is your work an exploration of identity? Do you reveal or reflect upon larger systems at work in our lives? Do you set forth visions of what lies just beyond the horizon of who we are? We can’t yet see all that you imagine in responding to this theme. Show us what is possible.