Artist Trust Announces Increased Support of Washington State Artists Who Identify as Trans* and Indigiqueer

SEATTLE – October 11, 2022 – Artist Trust, a nonprofit that supports working artists of all disciplines in Washington State, continues its work to advance art and equity with a new Fellowship Award focused on Trans* and Indigiqueer artists, thanks to a new five-year partnership with The Lillian Miller Educational Foundation, Inc (LMF). 

The Lillian Miller Foundation Fellowship for Trans* and Indigiqueer Artists is a $10,000 unrestricted cash award newly offered by Artist Trust for Washington State artists of all disciplines who self-identify as trans in its most inclusive sense. This includes transgender, indigiqueer, Two-Spirit, genderqueer, or nonbinary people, and anyone whose gender identity is nonconforming and/or different from their gender assigned at birth.

With the addition of this new award, Artist Trust will offer sixteen $10,000 Fellowship Awards for Washington State artists in 2023, the most in the organization’s history.  Visit www.artisttrust.org/grants/fellowship for more information or to apply.

Providing a light

Seattle artist Anthony White, who serves on the board of The Lillian Miller Educational Foundation, Inc., was instrumental in the creation of this new Award. Anthony stated, “The LMF's five-year gift to Artist Trust will hopefully sustain and continue to build the artist population in the Pacific Northwest and shine a light on individuals and communities that far too often go unseen and under-acknowledged. My hope is that the Lillian Miller Foundation Fellowship Award for Trans* and Indigiqueer Artists will provide opportunities for individuals (recipients of the award and beyond) who are making important and potentially impactful work, and who feel like they've been working in the dark for far too long.”  

Artist Trust and White began communicating about the potential for this new award around the time that Roe V. Wade was overturned by the United States Supreme Court, right before Pride weekend in June 2022. “That was a dark day,” said Artist Trust Executive Director Kristina Goetz, “and it became clear that we could work together to create at least one bright spot.”

After that initial meeting, a proposal for the new Fellowship Award was vetted by the Artist Trust staff team and Strategic Vision Committee. In September, the Seattle LGBTQIA+ Center offered the training Insights into Trans Inclusion as part of Artist Trust's annual retreat.  A group of trans, queer, and non-binary artists were convened to give input on the award before it was finalized. They recommended increasing the inclusiveness of the language around the award by including an asterisk after the word Trans and adding Indigiqueer to the title. The focus group included artists Sam Choi, Indigo Magenta, Fabian Romero, and June T. Sanders. 

Submission deadline

Applications for Artist Trust Fellowship Award including the new Lillian Miller Award, are currently open, with a deadline of November 7, 2022,11:59 pm. A total of $160,000 will be awarded to sixteen artists of all disciplines in the first quarter of 2023.