The Seattle Symphony Announces Five Recipients of the Community Stages Fund

The Community Stages Fund helps to share Benaroya Hall with broader groups of artists and audiences through supporting presentations like Key to Change's Solo String Festival in April 2021 (above) that gave young viola and violin students an opportunity to showcase their skills and talent onstage. Photo by James Holt / Seattle Symphony.

The Seattle Symphony announces five grant recipients of the Community Stages Fund (CSF), which provides support to local artists from a variety of diverse backgrounds, allowing the Symphony to help amplify the voices of those who shape and grow Seattle’s vibrant artistic and cultural landscape. The Fund was created in 2021, and due to the overwhelming interest to participate and community support, the Symphony extended the CSF for a second year. Since its inaugural year, the CSF’s reputation has steadily grown, and last fall, applications for the program’s second round of funding more than doubled. The selection committee, made up of community leaders and Seattle Symphony staff, have just announced this year’s exciting lineup of grant recipients: Key to Change, Movimiento Afrolatino Seattle, Puckduction, Sharon Nyree Williams and The Rhapsody Project. 

The CSF works to share Benaroya Hall with the entire community and open its stages to more diverse groups of artists and audiences, bringing performances across a variety of media. The CSF selection committee prioritized applicants’ demonstrated level of need as well as groups from racially diverse communities; these five CSF grant recipients represent many facets of Seattle’s unique creative community, including underserved youth of South King County, Afro-Latino performers, BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ creators, and Black artists working to establish racial and cultural equity. The grants are set up to allow each artist and organization flexibility to fulfill their individual missions, and this year, CSF grants will collectively bring a broad range of music, dance, poetry, culture and storytelling to Benaroya Hall.

Key to Change inspires underserved youth through world-class music instruction and support of their development as self-aware leaders.

Movimiento Afrolatino Seattle (MÁS) raises awareness about the history and cultural contributions of artists of Latino and African descent. MÁS supports Afrolatino arts and culture coming together to ensure the sustainability of ongoing Afrolatino-focused cultural and education arts activities.

Puckduction supports BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ creators, with a focus on neo-burlesque, cabaret and film. Puckduction offers education about these art forms while providing space and financial compensation for marginalized performing artists.

Sharon Nyree Williams is an Emmy Award-winning voiceover artist, storyteller, producer, presenter and teacher. She believes in experiencing life through the artistry of storytelling and leadership and loves telling stories about her life, the lessons she’s learned and the things she’s observed. Sharon’s hope is that she will reach at least one person, and that her stories will act as a bridge in bringing communities closer together.

The Rhapsody Project creates a community that explores and celebrates music and heritage through an antiracist lens, providing music instruction and sharing cultural events, virtual programs and consulting services that establish racial and cultural equity. 

Through the Community Stages Fund, awardees are able to receive a full suite of support from the Symphony, including fully sponsored or highly subsidized use of any of the performance spaces at Benaroya Hall, along with in-house digital streaming equipment and production crew support. Continued support for the Fund helps each artist and organization better connect with their audiences, and for the Seattle Symphony to unite arts organizations across the region and grow together as one cultural community.

The Seattle Symphony's Community Stages Fund is generously underwritten by the Tagney Jones Family Fund at Seattle Foundation.