We are Creative West
At Creative West (formerly WESTAF), we build equitable systems to support and amplify creative capacity — because creativity is essential to us all.
Learn More about Creative West or the State Arts Agencies
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Creativity interrupts our patterns of understanding, startling us into a richer awareness of the world. This is essential work — and it needs to be supported and amplified in our communities.
We’re a nonprofit U.S. Regional Arts Organization that serves a broad and diverse area in the western U.S., stretching from the Arctic Coast to the Desert Southwest, and from the Great Plains to the Pacific Islands.
Photo Credit Cannupa Hanska Luger
The West contains multitudes. Its people are connected and remote, practical and imaginative, and at the forefront of both cultural preservation and cultural transformation, often simultaneously. Creative West is strengthened by this complexity. It connects, challenges, and changes us — much like creativity itself.
To build the capacity of artists and arts organizations anywhere, we develop equitable technology, funding, advocacy, and policy systems for the arts — extending our impact beyond our geography.
We know that creativity is socially valuable and essential to all of us. We support the people and organizations who make it happen — in the U.S. West and beyond.
The Latest
Newsroom
WESTAF Is Now Creative West
2024 marks the 50th anniversary of the Western States Arts Federation. A half-century of history is a lot to celebrate — and we’ve been hard at work reflecting on the past and planning for the future.
Today, we’re announcing a new, inclusive identity to reflect who we are now, five decades later: Creative West.
Newsroom
Notes on a Milestone: WESTAF Turns 50
Sometime early in 2023, WESTAF started to think about its upcoming 50th anniversary in 2024. We had a lot of questions. What should we do? When should we do it? Would anyone even care? Perhaps most fundamentally: Why do we do what we do?
Learn about how the Western States Arts Federation metamorphosed into Creative West in this blog post from Executive Director Christian Gaines.
Newsroom
Announcing the 2024-25 TourWest Awardees and Panelists
We are excited to share the 2024-25 TourWest Awardees. Supported by the National Endowment for the Arts since 1994, TourWest is a competitive grant program that provides subsidies to arts and community organizations within the WESTAF region for presenting out-of-state touring performers and literary artists.
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.