Up to three organizations will be selected to participate throughout the 2026/2027 season. The following grants will be awarded:
Selections will be prioritized based on demonstrated need of the applicants as well as their service to racially diverse communities. Selected grantees for the previous year are not eligible to be selected for this current year.
Fundraising activities supported through your Community Stages Fund project may be permitted in limited circumstances. If you are seeking to raise funds in conjunction with your use of Benaroya Hall, please note this in your application and we will be in touch to explore in greater detail. Visit the “ Funding and Support Details Page” page for more information.
To help you in creating a strong application, we will offer four open houses for the Community Stages Fund that will include information sessions, during which we will respond to your questions and offer onsite visits of Benaroya Hall stages. In-Person Open Houses are held at Benaroya Hall's Octave 9, located on the corner of Second Avenue and Union Street.
Fundraising activities supported through your CSF project may be permitted in limited circumstances. If you are seeking to raise funds in conjunction with your use of Benaroya Hall, please note this in your application and we will be in touch to explore it in greater detail.
To adequately produce and market your event, if your project is selected, all details of your project will need to be confirmed 12 weeks prior to your event date.
One grantee will receive a fully funded Octave 9 Residency (up to $4,000) for the 2026/2027 season. Octave 9: Raisbeck Music Center is an immersive, experimental and educational performance arts venue at Benaroya Hall. Through state-of-the-art technology and design, Octave 9 creates an immersive yet flexible environment for truly unique concert experiences, its Meyer Sound Constellation Sound System allowing the space to feel acoustically as reverberant as a concert hall or as compact as the 2,000-foot room it actually is.
From its inception, Octave 9 was guided by a desire to serve communities equitably. The project provides access to experimentation and creates an incubator for demographics that have been historically omitted from the traditional symphony format. Octave 9 expands on the Seattle Symphony’s well-established educational focus while serving as an experimental, transformable space for artists and composers, with numerous options for interactive videos, including nearly 360-degree projection screens that can help create an immersive experience.
The residency would occur during the 2026/2027 season and would include the following:
More about Octave 9 here.
For more information about the Community Stages Fund, please contact us at community.stages@seattlesymphony.org or 206.336.6650. The Arakawa Foundation proudly supports the Seattle Symphony’s Youth Education Partnerships. Additional support is provided by Delta Air Lines. The Seattle Symphony’s Family, School & Community programs are supported by 4Culture, ArtsFund, the Merriman-Ross Family, and individual contributions to the Seattle Symphony Annual Fund. Free or reduced cost access is supported by 4Culture.
