This is huge. On Tuesday December 5, the Metropolitan King County unanimously approved the Doors Open program, which will distribute more than $100 million annually to hundreds of regional arts, culture, heritage, and science nonprofits over the next seven years.

Doors Open has been two decades in the making, and the need it serves is more urgent than ever. Ever since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been increasing despair about lack of opportunities and support, especially for young artists, people in rural areas, and global majority-led organizations. Thanks to this new funding from King County through Doors Open, our regional arts scene is going to flourish over the next decade in totally new and exciting ways. Opportunity will come in waves, and King County will become one of the most exciting places to work as an artist.

Carlo and I have been tangentially and periodically involved throughout this initiative’s long and complicated journey, as countless others have; I first touched it 18 years ago. The driving force of this initiative over the years has been Inspire Washington, which has had several names. Along with many others, we were concerned about the inequities in the plan Inspire Washington first put before the people of King County in 2017, which was defeated at the polls.

Since that defeat, the people behind this initiative at Inspire Washington – and particularly their Executive Director, Manny Cawaling – have done great work connecting with small arts and culture organizations led by members of the global majority community throughout Washington state, particularly in King County. Manny deserves a medal for this work, and the arts community in this region should line up for the chance to thank him. 

Many other people contributed to the success of Doors Open: from board members who stubbornly refused to accept defeat, to community members who influenced this legislation along the way, those who supported its journey in conversations at the state and county level, and especially those who criticized the initial, inequitable package put before voters.

One of the most promising features of this new funding stream is that its distribution will be designed and overseen by 4Culture, where the equity-focused Brian Carter and Jonathan Cunningham are ready and eager to provide the highest level of integrity and love for our industry that I have ever seen in government agency leaders. We are in very good hands with this money going through 4Culture under their leadership. 

As we head into the new year, it’s time to celebrate our community. In this time of extraordinary precarity, transformation, and uncertainty for our culture and our society, the leaders of King County have decided that an investment in the arts, culture, heritage and science is an investment in the continued stability, growth and specialness of our region.

From all of us at Scandiuzzi Krebs, we send a tremendous thanks to everyone who worked to pass this legislation, and we enthusiastically join in celebrating the future of newly opened doors.