Full Speed Ahead Capital Campaign

Seattle, WA - ArtsWest announced at its 9th Annual Gala & Auction that it has launched a new style of capital campaign, titled “Full Speed Ahead.”  With a goal of $626,500, Full Speed Ahead will provide funding for the completion of facility financing.  In a decision announced by their executive committee, the Seattle Foundation has committed $35,000 to the effort, bringing total contributions to $485,000, or 77% of goal.

“Because of the funds already raised for Full Speed Ahead, ArtsWest is now free of its accumulated deficit, a figure that peaked at $300,000 and was still over $200,000 when I started less than 3 years ago,” said Alan Harrison, ArtsWest’s executive director.  “We’re certainly not awash in money, but at least we are free from the albatross of accumulated deficit.”

In addition to completing facility financing, funding from Full Speed Ahead will pay for crucial maintenance projects, payment of no less than minimum wage to actors and other artists, and enhancing the administrative infrastructure to assist with customer service issues, all allowing for successful strategic growth for ArtsWest.

“Full Speed Ahead marks a paradigm shift from the traditional capital campaign,” said Harrison. “Over the years, in dozens of cases in the Puget Sound region, nonprofit arts organizations with facility or capacity issues have chosen to move into a new facility, and consequently, a new neighborhood. We love our neighborhood. ArtsWest wants to stay, maintain its facility, and grow its artistry and its impact.”

“We don’t believe the answer to every capital issue is a new building,” said Phyllis R. Nomura, the President of the ArtsWest Board of Trustees.  “How can you ask a community to invest their time, their money, and their goodwill in an organization that holds it hostage with the threat of leaving?  Full Speed Ahead is a capital campaign designed to clear the decks for ArtsWest’s stirring mission while creating a less-expensive option for capital needs with a priority of remaining in the West Seattle Junction. That’s why this is such a smart investment, and why the city, county, state, the Norcliffe Foundation, and now the Seattle Foundation have signed on.”

 “The Seattle Foundation is proud to make a grant of $35,000 to ArtsWest’s Full Speed Ahead campaign,” said Phyllis Campbell, the President and CEO of the Seattle Foundation. “ArtsWest is a valuable community-based organization in West Seattle. Their education programs are nationally recognized and their mainstage performances continue to be artistically strong. We are pleased to see the continued growth of ArtsWest.”

“In a few short years, ArtsWest has grown from a tiny neighborhood theater to a regional asset,” said Charlie Rathbun, the executive director of 4Culture/Arts, King County’s Cultural Service agency. “Its reach extends well beyond its West Seattle community, attracting artists and audiences from throughout the Northwest. ArtsWest has surely and steadily built a solid foundation for producing some of the finest theater in our region.  Inside its friendly neighborhood facility is some of the hardest hitting drama around. And a dedicated audience to appreciate it.”

“What we seek now,” said Harrison, “is support from other foundations and their directed funds, civic-minded corporations who value the arts in Seattle, and individuals who want to either make a special, substantial one-time gift to ArtsWest in support of Full Speed Ahead or want to designate a planned gift toward the effort.  Obviously, any special contribution for Full Speed Ahead would be in addition to any that they already make to ArtsWest; otherwise, we’d just be taking donations out of one pocket and putting it in the other.”

For more information about how to participate in Full Speed Ahead, contact Alan Harrison directly at (206) 938-0963, ext 105, or email him at alan@artswest.org.