King County will send about $70 million in funding to 720 local arts, science, history and heritage nonprofits next year; 4Culture, the county’s cultural agency, announced the grant recipients Wednesday.
The funding — largely drawn from a sales tax increase that began accruing in April — is part of a blockbuster new program expected to inject $700 million into the cultural sector over the next seven years.
The new cultural access program, Doors Open, is run by 4Culture, the semipublic county organization that distributes public funds to arts and culture projects. For context, 4Culture usually sends out about $10 million to $15 million per year. With Doors Open, the agency’s 2025 grants are increasing to $70.1 million across 720 organizations.
Organizations are receiving unrestricted “sustained support” funds for day-to-day operational costs — the kind of unsexy back-office stuff that doesn’t get funded as much by philanthropists, like rent assistance, utilities, payroll and other basic expenses, as well as funding to build, buy or remodel properties.
Doors Open is funded by a 0.1% sales tax increase that began accruing in April. The Metropolitan King County Council approved the levy in December 2023 after decades of advocacy, joining the state’s other cultural access programs in Tacoma and Olympia, as well as similar initiatives in St. Louis and Denver.
Expected to generate roughly $100 million annually for museums, zoos, science and heritage organizations, and smaller community nonprofits through at least 2031, the program is meant to expand access to culture and education, increase quality of life and boost the economy. It’s been hailed as a game-changer for the arts and culture sector, which is still struggling to recover from the pandemic.
Doors Open recipients stretch all over the county, including the Woodland Park Zoo and ACT Contemporary Theatre in Seattle, the Federal Way Symphony, the Highline Heritage Museum in Burien, STEM Paths Innovation Network in Renton and Village Theatre in Issaquah.
Facility grant recipients include Seattle nonprofits The 5th Avenue Theatre (for plumbing improvements), the Pacific Northwest Ballet (to renovate its Phelps Center), Indigenous arts organization yəhaw̓ (which plans to spruce up its greenhouse), and Central District arts center Wa Na Wari (for an artist studio), as well as the Kirkland Arts Center, SeaTac’s African Community Housing & Development and the Pacific Bonsai Museum in Federal Way.
Some organizations received both operations and facility grants.
Seattle nonprofit Pacific Science Center received $369,100 in sustained funding. PacSci president and CEO Will Daugherty said the funding will help PacSci continue and expand programs like digital workshops, its “science on wheels” STEM programs and free field trips for low-income schools. The science center also plans to sustain and increase its financial aid for summer camps as well as free and deeply discounted family memberships for low-income families.
PacSci will also receive $1,048,425 for the institution’s planned $20 million Maker & Innovation Lab, a creative building where people of all ages will be able to try their hand at designing a robot, 3D printing or textile production.
That total of $1.4 million represents one of the largest sums awarded to a Doors Open beneficiary. While a dozen larger organizations received more than $1 million, most were awarded $50,000 or less, as the bulk of the funding went to organizations with smaller budgets.
The funding is likely to be transformative for organizations of all sizes.
“It means huge things for the people of King County who have depended on our outreach programs to be able to fill gaps in their educational experiences and their enjoyment,” Daugherty said. “What it means for the Science Center: It’s wind in our sails.”
And, he highlighted: It’s not a one-time cash injection. Rather, “with the confidence that the funding is going to be sustained, it’s much easier for institutions to take risks and to be innovative and then to plan long term,” Daugherty said.
The funding comes amid an uneven and slower-than-expected return to a “postpandemic normal” for the cultural sector — which is realizing that no such thing exists, especially as expenses continue to mount, inflation pinches wallets and audiences lag behind prepandemic levels.
With this in mind, County Councilmember Claudia Balducci lobbied to pad the 2025 installment with an additional $17.5 million, which was originally earmarked for disbursement the following year.
“What I heard pretty clearly, virtually unanimously, from people in the cultural sector, was: ‘If you’re thinking about a rainy day, the rainy day is now,’” she said.
Balducci championed the Doors Open implementation plan, a blueprint that guides how the tax money will be spent and how the program will be monitored over the next seven years.
Doors Open is “a long-term investment in King County’s future,” said Councilmember Girmay Zahilay, who co-sponsored and helped shape the implementation plan.
Zahilay said that arts can act as a convener and a way to foster hope in hard times, and that his office focused on economic revitalization with the goal of activating commercial centers. “Through this initiative, we can boost local economies, reduce crime, strengthen our communities, build a thriving arts workforce and cultivate resilience,” he said.
And the program is only getting started: The 2025 awards are based on nine months of tax collections. Next year, the first full year of tax collections, the revenue is expected to increase to about $100 million.
In an effort to provide a stable and predictable revenue source, the organizations that received “sustained support” funding in 2025 will continue to receive funding over the following two years (estimated at roughly $47 million in 2026 and $49 million in 2027). Next year, 4Culture plans to roll out additional programs under the Doors Open umbrella, including ones aimed at increasing access for public school students and free and reduced programming.
Doors Open will be in place for seven years, after which it will have to be reapproved by council vote.
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This coverage is partially underwritten by the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust. The funder plays no role in editorial decision making and The Seattle Times maintains editorial control over this and all its coverage.