Shoreline-Lake Forest Park Arts Council Programs
24,000 people attend our programs each year.
- Shoreline Arts Festival
- Artists in Schools
- Arts & Culture Events
- Family Performances
- Concerts in the Parks
- Gallery at Town Center
- Shoreline City Hall Gallery
- Arts & Jazz Camps
- Readers' Theater
- Scholarships & Community Project Awards
Here are three successful programs:
The Shoreline Arts Festival (22 years) serves over 10,000. The FREE Festival is the premier arts event in our part of King County. It builds community and celebrates creativity. It brings people to see visual arts, dance, hear music and poetry, make art, interact with artists and authors, and experience diverse cultures. We highlight the cultural arts of several ethnic groups each year. We also invite participation by social service organizations like Hopelink and the library.
Artists in Schools (19 years) serve nearly 4,000 students. Teaching artists work with students for a week to several months on creative activities that also integrate into the curriculum. The program is FREE to the schools, and is our effort to increase the access of arts / creative activities for children. The need / demand for our program increases each year. The bulk of the funding comes from our own fundraising, and foundation grants.
Two art galleries, Gallery at Town Center and Shoreline City Hall Gallery, showcase and support 80+ regional artists per year, and are visited by 9000+ people. They provide a FREE opportunity to experience the work of our regions’ wealth of artists, and generate economic activity at two locations.
Recent Successes and Current Challenges
Recent Success
Artists in Schools (as described above) has seen a steady increase in community support. We are successfully demonstrating the need and the positive impact of the program, and raising more funds from private foundations, and individual donors. The increase funding allows us to keep pace with the increased demand from schools.
Current Need
Build back up some of the programs that have been partially cut back during the economic downturn: Arts & Culture Events, Family Performances, Concerts in the Park, Readers’ Theater, and portions of the Arts Festival.
The main reason is that the number of businesses participating has still been comparable, but their level of support has dropped.
We’d also like to launch an exciting new pilot initiative to create mini video arts lessons that teachers can access FREE through YouTube / Vimeo, similar in concept to Khan Academy for science and math. These arts lessons will be easy to follow, and use only basic school supplies. Examples include brain dance, drawing, singing, knitting, and drama. Our long term plan is to create a full spectrum of arts lessons covering many disciplines, available FREE to anyone with a computer.