ArtsWest produces artistic events so fiercely compelling that they require conversation, improve the imagination, and promote cultural vibrancy as a core value for the communities of
Seattle.

ArtsWest’s mission is outward-facing, one that measures success by response and not by the simple production of art.  We believe that it is not enough simply for an ArtsWest artistic event to be artistically excellent, an “art for art’s sake” argument.  Rather, we believe that art is the most vibrant, nimble exercise in evoking discussion.  Requiring conversation from the production of art constructs a perfect confluence of tolerance, understanding, and intellectual growth.   ArtsWest’s mission is at the center of every decision, and at the same time, our mission allows us to set goals to increase diversities of age, race, sex, sexual orientation, and region.

ArtsWest is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary arts organization located in West Seattle with programs in theater, visual art, and education.  Since the late 1980s, this organization has presented works throughout West Seattle in various locations.  We opened a 149-seat theater and visual art gallery in November 1999 and have since presented over 550 different performing arts productions and gallery exhibitions, to over 225,000 visitors.

As of this writing, ArtsWest is governed by a 13-member volunteer board of trustees; maintains a staff of 8 FTEs, several part time employees, and hundreds of volunteers; and operates on an annual budget of approximately $800,000.  We are proudly supported by hundreds of individual donors and volunteers, the city, county and state arts commissions, foundations and numerous corporate sponsors.

As a theater company, we are proud members of Theatre Puget Sound, a service organization founded to promote the spiritual and economic necessity of theatre to the people of the Puget Sound region. ArtsWest’s theater work is based on the premise that good art inspires good ideas and encourages the kind of healthy, non-harmful debate that builds a sense of community. 
We rally around
the idea that producing plays and musicals that fit our mission by
inducing conversation is more important than the simple production of the plays.  We adhere to the notion that for theatrical art to be significant, it has to be a means to an end, rather than the end itself.

As an art gallery with a free admission policy, we exhibit and sell the works of artists from across the region for the enjoyment and engagement of people from all over the Puget Sound area.  The ArtsWest Artists Association (AWAA) developed in 2001 out of the interest and enthusiasm of several local artists who believed that a visual artists group would benefit our local community and act as an additional enhancement to ArtsWest as an organization. 

As an arts education leader, ArtsWest is nationally renowned for its summer youth programs.  ArtsWest is one of only three arts organizations in the United States to receive three successive grants from the National Endowment for the Arts in support of the Summer Musical Theater Program.  ArtsWest's Summer Musical Theater Program serves area youth of all demographics. 

As a community center and economic attractor, ArtsWest has served to build business in West Seattle, specifically in the Junction.  Using studies prepared by the University of Washington and GMA Research, ArtsFund has calculated that the economic impact of the arts on the communities of greater Seattle exceeded $1 billion dollars in 2003.  On average, ArtsWest’s arts patrons spend about $20 per person outside the cost of the ticket.  That allows a billowing positive economic impact within a community.  From 1999 - 2008, ArtsWest has provided an estimated direct positive economic impact of over $4 million.  And, because ArtsWest is by far the most prominent arts organization in West Seattle, that $4 million might have a) been spent in other parts of the city; or, likelier, b) not been spent at all.  ArtsWest’s financial well-being is crucial to the financial well-being of the Junction and of West Seattle.

For more information on the fundamental tenets of ArtsWest, as well as its programs and practices, please click the link below (Adobe Reader required) to view an excerpt from ArtsWest's Strategic Plan, 2008-13.

Photo credits:  "Love Song" (world premiere production at ArtsWest), and "The History Boys," courtesy of Matt Durham Photography. "Mezzo" from the gallery exhibition, Relics of Light, by Susan Bari Price.