Inspire Washington: Cultural Futures

About Cultural Futures

Cultural Futures is our FREE funding, policy, and advocacy workshop for cultural businesses and supporters!

This spring, we invite you to join your local partners for Cultural Futures! Cultural Futures is Inspire Washington’s annual post-State Legislative Session tour when we visit communities to share what has happened in government within the last year that pertains to the cultural sector. It’s our job to alert you to new funding and policy opportunities. All our in-person events are held in public spaces with ADA accessibility and will include live closed captioning.

Why is this work important?

The 2025 State Legislative Session has been a challenging one due to budget restrictions, new lawmakers, and changes in the Federal government. We anticipate many new objectives for each of our sectors—science, heritage, and the arts for the 2026 Session and without new advocates and active engagement across the state, these large goals will be very challenging to achieve. Our work with the Federal government has grown substantially and requires a chorus of voices. We will update you on the pertinent information to know and provide easy ways to participate in our advocacy efforts in Washington DC.

If you have thought about getting involved in the past but haven’t yet participated, now is the time! With Inspire Washington, cultural advocacy is easy, fun, collaborative, and inspiring!

On the agenda:

• New Funding & Policies – We will break down the wins and successes of the State Legislative Session and the opportunities for your work.
• Overview of Washington’s Cultural Access Program and next steps for your community.
• Federal Advocacy – there’s a lot going on in the Federal space right and we want to be sure you have the most current and accurate information.
• Grant opportunities – ArtsWA, Humanities WA, USDA, community projects, Capital Funding, Federal Opportunities, and much more!
• Listening – What do you need and what should we advocates for? How do you get involved? It will take a broad coalition to secure future funding.
• Coalition Building – Do you want to be more involved in policy development and advocacy or learn about partnership? Now is the time! There are so many threats and opportunities on the horizon for the cultural sector and we need every voice at the table. We’ll plug you into future activities so that your community is represented.

About Inspire Washington:

Cultural Access Washington and the Washington State Arts Alliance have joined forces. With an energized vision and new name, Inspire Washington aims to build a broad and powerful statewide coalition to champion advocacy and resource development for Washington’s cultural sector. Our powerful union of science, heritage, and the arts, creates extensive reach, profound impact and innovative opportunities.

MISSION/VISION STATEMENT

Our Mission:

Inspire Washington nurtures the human spirit and strengthens communities by increasing access to science, heritage, and arts programming through advocacy, resource development, education, and coalition building.

Our Vision:

We envision vibrant communities where:

• Our unique and shared histories bring people together, lift them up and empower them to succeed;
• Everyone in our society has the ability to benefit from and be inspired by the cultural experiences available in our state;
• Our arts, science, and heritage organizations, from the smallest grassroots enterprises to the largest institutions, have sustainable resources to create wide and deep human impact through their work.