2023: A Year with Incredible Growth
We’ve been doing some reflecting on 2023 as we finalize programming for 2024. In effort to bring our supporters along on the journey, an annual report was created for 2023, a common practice among nonprofits. You can read the highlights in this post, or check out the full pdf file:
The Highlights
1. To start, we received our 501(c)3 status from the IRS in March, after applying in August 2022. You can look us up on all the various platforms by our EIN: #87-4147773. This means that donations made to our organization are tax deductible, and we are eligible for lots of institutional grants and other funding. Plus, you can match donations through participating employers: many of the Seattle-area companies use Benevity to accomplish this. Please look into it so you can double your impact!
2. Immediately on the heels of this, we put on a large group show at Slip Gallery in Belltown for the month of April, ‘you are not alone’. Featuring 35 artists and nearly 50 works, it was our first undertaking of that size and required a full planning, curating, and volunteer team to run the many events and gallery hours. 6 original pieces and many prints were sold. So many wonderful connections were made.
Artist Mariya Apostolova discusses her sculpture during the closing reception of the “You are not alone” show in April 2023.
3. Starting in May, we brought on two new fantastic board members: President Annah Nelson-Feeney, a Seattle-based mixed media artist and photographer with a day job as a consultant at Salesforce. And Secretary Geri Silver, newly-arrived Seattle transplant with a background in performing arts, currently working as a strategist at LinkedIn. (We’re looking for another new board member! Check out more info here.)
4. Board President Annah Nelson-Feeney developed a new strategic plan for LAC, which identifies three phases with measurable goals in networking, fundraising, artist business education, digital strategy, and more that we immediately began to execute.
5. Executive Director Alaina Stocker started an arts leaders support group that has been meeting monthly since May with a network of 40+ local arts professionals and volunteers. Each meeting he group members get a chance to discuss what they’re doing well, what they could use help with, and generally network and share resources. Reach if you’re in a position supporting visual artists in Seattle and are interested in joining… alaina@livingartistscollective.org.
The 2nd Friday June 2023 Belltown Artwalk event for “Pride at Slide” Gallery.
6. We released the LAC “Big Pond” artist interview zine, featuring 11 of the artists who had work in our April “You are not alone” show. Interviewer Ren Riley asked the artists questions that shed important light on the state of being an artist in Seattle today.
7. In June, we coordinated a group show for Pride at Slide Gallery, Slip Gallery’s smaller sister space in Belltown, featuring work by 6 queer LAC artists.
8. The fall brought LAC’s last curated a group show of 2023 at Magnuson Park Gallery. Titled “Support artists while they are alive”, the theme brought together powerful works by LAC artists in a beautiful and poignant show.
Opening reception of “Support artists while they are alive” at Magnuson Park Gallery.
9. During the Magnuson Park Gallery show on September 30, 2023, we held our annual fundraiser. We launched and raised initial funds for our pilot Living Artists Grants program, which was fully funded by the end of the year.
Thank you to all the artists who showed work with LAC, the community members who attended our shows, and the donors who generously gave to help us make our programming happen in 2023. This was a huge year of growth, and we anticipate even more fantastic things in 2024.
Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay connected. If you’re interested in getting involved, you can learn more about the current opportunities here.
-Executive Director Alaina Stocker and the Living Artists Collective Team