🎉ArtsFund congratulates Rita Meher and 2024 Allocations Grantee Tasveer for receiving the 2025 Mayor's Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film. "In 2024, Meher led the organization’s efforts to create the Tasveer Film Market. This global initiative connects filmmakers, producers, distributors, and industry professionals for project pitches. In 2025, Meher led efforts to transform the Ark Lodge Cinemas in Columbia City into the Tasveer Film Center. This new space will be the permanent home for the festival and market, strengthening Seattle’s role as a global center for film. The Film Center will also serve as a community gathering place, showcasing independent and international films from around the world." Read more about this honor at https://bottomline.seattle.gov/2025/05/15/rita-meher-and-tasveer-film-festival-and-market-honored-with-2025-mayors-film-award-for-outstanding-achievement-in-film/. Photo by Alabastro Photography (fb)

There's still time to apply for the 2024 Community Accelerator Grant, a $10M arts and culture granting program funded by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation and administered by ArtsFund Roger Tang from Pork Filled Productions, a 2024 grantee, noted that the unrestricted nature of the Community Accelerator Grant funding had proved especially helpful, allowing the company, which had already budgeted for actor and designer stipends when it received the grant, to also pay its up-and-coming producers and artistic administrators for their work in casting, public relations, and community outreach efforts, all of which helped make the show more accessible to Vietnamese Seattleites. "This kind of support is like water for a small organization like mine. Even though we don’t have paid staff, we still want to pay our artists, and having dependable grant opportunities from year to year is key to being able to make plans. Thanks to this second year of funding, we get to be ambitious," said Roger. To submit an application, please visit https://bit.ly/3FoFmHI. The deadline to apply is Friday, June 6 at 5:00 p.m. Photo Credits: Vietgone, Pork Filled Productions, photo by Roger Tang. (fb)