About Us
Our History
Founded in 1974, Creative West has aspired to be a force in advancing arts and culture across the western United States. As a nonprofit arts service organization founded on the belief that place is important to the creative process, Creative West works to strengthen the creative economy, support artists and cultural organizations, and advocate for arts funding and policy.
Over the last five decades, Creative West has developed innovative programs, fostered regional and national partnerships, and continually evolved to meet the changing needs of the arts sector. This rich history reflects our unwavering commitment to enhancing the vibrancy, health and accessibility of creative communities throughout the region and beyond.
Celebrating 50 Years
Take a look back on our first half century through our 50th anniversary documentary series.
1979
79
First Biennial Arts Exhibition, including 13 Western states and 28 participating artists
1984
84
The WESTAF Book Awards launches, awarding $5,000 to writers and presses.
1995
95
Launch of 900Arts, a phone number artists could call to give and receive coaching. 144 contracts are completed in its first year.
1997
WESTAF emerges from a reorganization as an entrepreneurial nonprofit committed to delivering solutions–from software to symposia–across the arts spectrum and funded by earned income and fee-for-service projects.
WESTAF launches its first website, which includes arts resources and shared information for the West.
1999
Launch of ArtJob.com, a website listing job opportunities in the arts, including full- and part-time employment, and fellowships. Within a few months, the site has over 25,000 user sessions per month.
WESTAF’s Multicultural Task Force is formed, comprising individuals from arts organizations, artists and diverse voices from arts communities across the West. It is charged with making multicultural awareness a core value of WESTAF and its members.
20
2000
00
WESTAF recognizes the need to seek new audiences and develop arts leaders among younger and more diverse communities. As a first step, it commissions a research report by Hispanic and Asian Marketing Research/Cheskin: Summary of Qualitative Research Among Target Audiences for Expansion.
2001
01
ArtistsRegister.com launches as a marketing tool for visual artists, with a searchable online database connecting artists with collectors, galleries, corporate art buyers, and public art administrators.
2002
Launch of CultureGrants Online, an affordable grant software to allow organizations to move away from paper applications Software allows arts agencies to manage the grants process from submission to disbursement of funds.
TourWest Arts Participation Initiative is created. The NEA set aside $25,000 to apply presenter-based commercial-sector marketing practices to help attract multicultural communities to presenting series. In FY23, WESTAF’s TourWest program granted a total of $1,225,347 to organizations across the West.
2003
WESTAF signs partnership agreement with major art fairs and the National Association of Independent Artists to create a universal application for fairs, creating the forerunner of ZAPPlication™
Post-9/11, at a crucial time of crisis for state arts agencies facing deep budget cuts, WESTAF hosts a symposium titled “Re-envisioning State Arts Agencies” to assess their strengths and weaknesses and propose ways to become more resilient in the future.
2004
ZAPPlication launches, within a few years of major visual art fair administrators asking WESTAF to develop software allowing artists to submit visual materials for jurying
WESTAF agrees to manage research for a Washington State University project “designed to create an index of cultural vitality.” It evolves into the Creative Vitality Index™ and eventually the Creative Vitality™ Suite.
2005
2006
06
The WESTAF board establishes the Advocacy Funds project, which provided $10,000 to each state arts agency in the West to work with their state arts advocacy organization in support of advocacy work in their state.
2007
2008
08
CultureGrants Online™ (CGO™) becomes Grants Online™ (GO). The software is in use in 20 states and a major rebuild is completed that involves a new software platform that will be applied to other WESTAF projects.
2009
Great Recession: WESTAF’s earned income strategy pays off! “If WESTAF no longer received NEA funding, it could continue operations because demand for its earned-income services afforded efficiencies to clients even in a weak economy.”
WESTAF allocates $300,000 of the approximately $800,000 in NEA touring funds to exhibitions of regional visual artists. Awardees receive up to $50,000 for exhibits originating in WESTAF region and touring two other states.
2010
Launch of Public Art Archive, the only free, online database of completed public artworks throughout the U.S. at the time.
WESTAF co-hosts a symposium event as part of the Inaugural Denver Music Summit, in collaboration with the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs (DOCA). The Summit is an extension of research WESTAF conducted in partnership with DOCA (the Creative Vitality Index™ and its supplemental report, Listen Local: Music in the Mile High City).
2011
11
WESTAF hosts its first Arts Leadership and Advocacy Seminar (ALAS) in Washington, DC, inviting WESTAF trustees and a group of arts leaders from the West to engage in briefings, meet with members of Congress, and join in a discussion of ways to generate more state government support for the work of the state arts agencies.
2012
WESTAF’s hosts its first Dinner-Vention, a project developed in collaboration with Barry Hessenius, longtime editor of Barry’s Blog.
Launch of Independent Music on Tour/IMTour™, an independent music project designed to pair independent musicians who need exposure and nonprofit presenters who need new audiences.
2013
WESTAF conducts an assessment for the Alaska Arts and Culture Foundation on the feasibility of establishing a cultural trust in the state. The results of this research were documented in “A Plan for the Alaska Cultural Trust.
YouJudgeIt™ launches, a web-based service for organizers of competitions of all types to easily and cost-effectively manage application and jury processes. It was also used to expedite hiring activities, gather and organize data and images related to competitions, and as an archiving tool.
2016
16
WESTAF hosts a symposium focusing on the status of state arts advocacy organizations in the United States entitled “The Status and Future of State Arts Advocacy.”
2019
19
Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy line item vetoes the FY2020 budget for Alaska State Council on the Arts, eliminating all funds for the agency, leaving the agency without an operating budget and requiring all personnel to be released from state employment. WESTAF’s support for legislative advocacy is instrumental in reinstating the agency’s budget.
2020
20
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, WESTAF establishes the Western Arts Advocacy Network (WAAN) to bring together leaders from statewide arts advocacy organizations and other key advocates from across the region. The network continues to provide support, practical tools, and information to arts advocates across the West.
2021
21
Western arts advocates successfully secure over $830 million in state relief and recovery funding for the arts and culture sector.
2023
WESTAF launches the Greater Bay Area Arts and Cultural Advocacy Coalition initiative, a milestone in support of city, county, and local advocacy in the region.
After a five-year hiatus, WESTAF reintroduced its reimagined Arts Leadership and Advocacy Seminar in Washington, D.C., where 73 advocates from 13 states and one Pacific jurisdiction engaged with 55 Congressional offices.
Web Services powered by
Creative West
CaFÉ is an online application submission system that strives to make art opportunities available to all by offering arts organizations an affordable submission platform and artists an easy way to apply.
GO Smart is an affordable grants management software that offers pre- and post-application forms, panel reviewing, and data reporting for grantmakers.
The Public Art Archive (PAA) is a free, searchable, and continually growing online database of completed public artworks throughout the U.S. and abroad, with a suite of resources and tools built for managing public art collections.
ZAPP provides art fair and festival administrators with a suite of tools to digitally collect and jury applications, manage booth payments, and communicate with applicants all in one easy-to-use digital platform. Artists can apply to hundreds of shows nationwide through a central website.