About Us

Accountability and the Arts: December 4

The next installment in our Accountability and the Arts series will focus on grants. Every artist and arts organization wants and needs grants, but first you need to know how they fit into the overall fundraising landscape and how to pick and choose the right grants for you. Our guest speaker will be Melissa Hines, Director of Civic Partnerships at the Mayor's Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs.

Monday, December 4, 7pm. Seattle Center House 4th Floor, Room D. To RSVP for this FREE event, email programs@theshunpike.org. Audio recordings for past Accountability and the Arts workshops are online.

Join the FOTS Brigade by donating to The Shunpike today!

At Shunpike headquarters, we set big goals this year. We said we would substantially increase the number of arts organizations we partner with, and we did. We're currently working with more than 40 arts groups -- large and small, city-wide -- more than half of whom initiated their partnership with us in 2006. We also said that we would make it count -- that we'd work harder to help these organizations succeed. And we're seeing the results there too -- partner organizations with healthier Boards of Directors, sound budgets and planning, and a greater ability to support the art they're bringing to Seattle audiences.

We couldn't do any of this without the support of our individual donors. Gifts from FOTS (Friends of The Shunpike) like you make it so we can keep the costs of our services to these arts groups as low as possible. Join the FOTS brigade. Partner with The Shunpike to build a healthier arts community in Seattle.

Click Here to Donate

Partner Artists: Upcoming Events

365 Seattle is underway! This innovative project will produce 365 plays by playwright Suzan Lori-Parks over the course of one year. The Seattle production is a part of a national festival that is also being produced simultaneously in Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and other cities throughout the United States in what marks the largest theater collaboration in history. Visit the web site for more information.

Stone Soup Theatre presents A Child's Christmas in Wales, Dec. 8 - 23 at their theater on Stone Way. For more information, click here.

Live Girls! Theater presents Whirligig! The Musical Dec. 1-16. Visit their web site for more information.

Sustainable Organizations: Upcoming Events

Circus Contraption will be ending the year with two nights in Seattle followed by New Years' in San Francisco. Visit their web site for more information.

Seattle Public Theater presents The Santaland Diaries, Dec. 1-24. Visit their web site for more information.

Washington Ensemble Theater presents Never Swim Alone, through Dec. 18. Visit their web site for more information.

Also...

Washington Lawyers for the Arts presents a workshop, "The Ins and Outs of Lawsuits," for artists. It will be held on December 18. Visit their web site for more information.

The Factory Party: This Weekend

Once again, The Shunpike takes you back to 1970s New York, where the artists were the art, the vibe was DIY, the clothes were retro right off the rack, and the parties never stopped. Inspired by Andy Warhol's legendary loft, The Factory takes you back there.

When: 8pm, Saturday November 4
Where: All-City Coffee, 125 Prefontaine Pl S (Tashiro-Kaplan Building, Pioneer Square)
Tickets: $15 at the door
Featuring: DJ Dewey Decimal, DJ Thamik, plenty of food and spirits, and an art-making extravaganza
PLUS: Raffle prizes including a Warhol-inspired goodie bag, gifts from Babeland, INTIMAN, and Derby Salon, and a grand prize package of VIP access to art supported by The Shunpike.

Accountability and the Arts: December 4

The next installment in our Accountability and the Arts series will focus on grants. Every artist and arts organization wants and needs grants, but first you need to know how they fit into the overall fundraising landscape and how to pick and choose the right grants for you. Our guest speaker will be Melissa Hines, Director of Civic Partnerships at the Mayor's Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs.

Monday, December 4, 7pm. Seattle Center House 4th Floor, Room D. To RSVP for this FREE event, email programs@theshunpike.org. Audio recordings for past Accountability and the Arts workshops are online.

Upcoming Events

Here are some things our affiliated arts groups are working on this month.

Phffft! Dance Theater presents "a new international-themed performance event featuring four border-transcending companies burning the dance-theater divide" at Broadway Performance Hall Nov. 10-12. For more information, click here.

Manifold Motion presents In Fere, opening November 19 at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center. In Fere, pronounced 'in fear', explores the search for balance in modern life through experimental multimedia performance comprised of dance, live music and film.

Following on their sold-out run of Transylvannia Clockworks, Balagan Theatre Company presents A Dangerous Age, running Nov. 16 - Dec. 2 at the Capitol Hill Arts Center's Lower Level. A Dangerous Age is "a tale of a man whose lover is sent to fight in the Iraq war, and the emotional trauma and anger toward our government that ensues."

Live Girls! Theater presents the premiere of Whacked!, by Stephanie Timm, running Oct. 20 - Nov. 18 at Live Girls in Ballard. More info here.

Rivet Magazine has just released R17: The Fake Issue nationwide. This issue " tips its hat to the masquerades of modern life -- from literary trickster J.T. LeRoy to boob jobs, a charismatic, yet ordinary bank robber, to the sobering theater of war in Iraq."

Stone Soup Theatre presents Alan Ayckbourn's Bedroom Farce, Oct. 25 - Nov. 25 at their theater on Stone Way. For more information, click here.

Accountability and the Arts: October 9

The next installment in our Accountability and the Arts series will focus on People. People make your company run. How do you divide responsibilities for a small company? How do you decide when to pay staff? Pay artists? Whom do you pay first? How do you motivate volunteers to do the work you need them to do? Come share tips and learn about this vital part of running a small arts company. This roundtable discussion will feature arts leaders from several companies around town.

Monday, October 9, 7pm. Seattle Center House 4th Floor, Room G. (NOTE: New Location!) To RSVP for this FREE event, email programs@theshunpike.org. Audio recordings for past Accountability and the Arts workshops are online.

The Factory Party

Shunpike's 2006 fundraising event, The 2nd Annual Factory Party will arrive Saturday, November 4 at All City Coffee in Pioneer Square. Last year's event was great fun and this year will be even better! So put on your best Warhol outfit and get ready.

Creative Conversations for Emerging Arts Leaders

Interested in connecting with emerging arts leaders and discussing models and ideas for a thriving arts community? Join in one or both of two "creative conversations" led by rising leaders in our arts community. 4Culture will host a creative conversation on Networking Organizations and How to Identify New Leaders and Bring Them into Community Dialogue, 3 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 14 at the Tashiro-Kaplan Building. The "creative conversation" continues 6 p.m., Monday, Oct. 30, at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center. The Mayor's office of Arts and Cultural Affairs will co-host the conversation with the theme Shared-Use Facilities and New Models of Collaboration in the Arts.

Upcoming Events

Here are some things our affiliated arts groups are working on this month.

Louis Slotin Sonata. Closing Oct. 7! Produced by The Empty Space in collaborpation with Shunpike Partner Artists Double Duck Productions, this show has been getting a great reception by both audiences and critics. See Seattle TImes, Seattle P-I, and The Stranger.

Fall Off Night. A co-production of Macha Monkey and Live Girls!, see the Northwest premiere of this play by Allison Gregory. The narrative follows Heidi Parker, a somewhat lost thirty-year-old, on a surrealistic journey through a big city on the longest night of the year. The talented ensemble of eight includes Rachel Hynes, Jason Marr, Aaron LaPlante, Jen Moon, Alice Bridgeforth, Gannon Patton, Stephanie Merrow, and Melissa Fenwick. Closes October 7. Visit Live Girls for more info.

Transylvania Clockworks. New Partner Artists Balagan Theatre open their debut performance at CHAC. Playwright Don Nigro investigates the Dracula myth in a powerful, complex, darkly funny and utterly terrifying vampire play unlike any you have ever experienced. Through Oct. 21.

Washington Lawyers for the Arts Brown Bag: Copywright for Writers. What is a copyright? Who owns the copyright in the work you just created? How can you be sure? When is it o.k. to use all or part of someone else's copyrighted work? Join attorney Mark Wittow for some straight talk on copyright ownership, works made for hire, the benefits of copyright registration, our friend the copyright symbol, and the widely misunderstood principles of Fair Use. Thursday, October 26, 2006. Sign up here.