Awesome Seattle

Once upon a time, Tracy Hartford and her friend Juha Kuikka were searching Downtown Seattle for an elusive spot of afternoon sun. The day was ripe for it – it was one of the hundred and sixty-four (or so) days a year in Seattle that are not completely overcast – but the looming shadows of skyscrapers made the search far harder than it should have been.  It is not known whether Tracy and Juha found their sun that day, but from their search was born an idea: why not create a mobile application which would combine information about the sun’s current location and the heights and shapes of buildings to help future seekers to find the nearest spot of elusive sun?

This idea lay dormant for many months, like a seed waiting for rain.  Fortunately rain is something we have plenty of in Seattle, and when Tracy saw the November call for proposals for our monthly grant, she submitted the application for Sunny Spot.

(Now, I don’t want you to get the idea that the Seattle Awesome Foundation is fixated on light.  Yes, last month we awarded our grant to the festival of lights Onn/Of, but that doesn’t mean we’re obsessed.  Why would we be obsessed?  Just because it’s cloudy or partly cloudy an average of 294 days a year here, just because as I write this it’s been 43 days since we’ve had a clear sky, doesn’t mean we’re obsessed.  Frankly the idea that we, as Seattleites, would spend all our time thinking about light – scarce, precious, glorious light – is a stereotype, and an offensive, unrealistic one at that.  We sometimes think about coffee, Thai food, and antidepressants too.)

Our initial reactions to the Sunny Spot application were mixed: some of us thought, “that would be awesome!” while others thought “that would be awesome… but is it possible?”  Tracy is a software engineer for Cray, a Seattle-based manufacturer of supercomputers, and has previous experience working on location-aware mobile applications.  After our intrepid team of technical experts discussed the idea with her at length, we decided the answer to the question of “can this actually work?” was a definitive “probably.”  But then, in Tracy’s own words, “awesome is sort of by definition outside of what is considered to be feasible.”

After reviewing over 50 applications (thanks everyone for submitting), our November trustee group is very pleased to introduce the world to our newest grantees, the multi-talented and awesome Sierra Stinson and Susan Robb (see more about the artists below)!

Seattle winters are dark, and this project wants to address that by turning on the light.  In late January, they plan to debut their project, Onn/Of, a festival of lights that will take place over 2-3 days, bringing local artists, and drawing  the public out of hibernation to celebrate all things light.   Thus far the project is scheduled to take place in Ballard, and we’ll have more info about the schedule and participating artists and as we get closer to the event.  We’re super excited!

Here’s their statement:

ONN / OF
Seattle’s first festival of lights
a curatorial collaboration between Sierra Stinson and Susan Robb

We hope to occupy a building with multiple light installations created by artists from Seattle, Vancouver and Portland. It would take place over 2-3 days at the end of January
with a series of events open to the public

About Sierra Stinson:

Sierra Stinson is the founder and curator of Vignettes, an alternative exhibition space in Seattle. The one night only exhibitions take place in her studio apartment on a biweekly basis and feature artists in many stages of their process and practice. She enjoys exploring the sense of urgency behind concept, creation and exhibition. The transition from the studio to gallery, as well as exploring and re-evaluating what it takes to live, work and create here and now.
Sierra has curated exhibitions at Joe Bar, Vermillion, Cornish College of the Arts as well as co-curating a mobile pop-up gallery ‘Show and Tell’ this August in NYC with Victoria Howe. Sierra attempts to enable art wherever she is at the moment as well as watch every episode of The Cosby Show and Roseanne.

About Susan Robb:

Susan Robb studied at Syracuse University before moving to the Pacific coast and receiving an MFA from University of Washington. Along with receiving a Pollock Krasner Grant, a Stranger Genius award, two Artist Trust Fellowships, and numerous public commissions, Susan owned a restaurant, played in a band, and was a bike messenger. Susan is also currently working on a film that could use your support.

Yesterday, we handed out Awesome Foundation flyers at the NEPO 5k Don’t Run. It was a lot of fun. We met some fantastic folks, like the people behind Sprout (another super grassroots funding group in town).

And we were asked a lot of questions.  Some of them were about where the money is coming from (answer: from the pockets of these lovely Trustees), and also about the basics like the deadline (answer: September 30) and how to apply.

But we got the most head scratching around the ever popular “what is awesome?” What, exactly, are we going to fund, and how will we know when we something awesome comes through the application form?

While there’s a little risk in talking the awesome to death, there is a great post from the Toronto chapter that we wanted to share, sort of 9 points of awesome.  You can read the whole post here, or get the overview below…

Please offer your take on what is awesome in the comments.

9 awesome indicators

Rich Cooper, from AF Toronto, has put together a phenomenal list that we think helps define what is awesome. If you’ve got a little side project on the go and you think it’s totally awesome, you should apply here.

1. Newness – Is this idea totally new?

2. Niceness – Is this idea one that makes people happy or helps people?

3. Bigness/Inclusion – Potential to reach many people – Can anybody join?

4. Hilarity – Does it make us laugh?

5. Wow-ness – Does it make us say “Holy crap, that’s awesome”?

6. Utility – Does the $1000 make the difference between the project
happening or not?

7. Value – Is the awesome foundation getting real “Bang for its buck”?

8. Staying Power – Can the project endure? Will it start a movement, annual event?

9. Environmental Impact – Needless waste is not awesome.

Awesome projects from the past

We know that awesome is as awesome does, right? If you’re still not sure what makes something suitably awesome enough to apply then check out some of these initiatives that have been funded previously.

Random Swings of Joy

Connect the T-Dots

Cardboard Fort Night!

Mapping Woolomooloo

The first grant cycle of the Seattle chapter of the Awesome Foundation is now open!

Further details below, but the basic idea is that a small group of Seattleites have committed to showing up together each month, pooling $1,000, and giving that $1,000 to the person we think has the best chance at achieving something awesome.

This isn’t traditional philanthropy.  No reporting, no strings, no oversight. Just $1,000 to do whatever it is you think is worth doing.  We’re calling out to artists, scientists, activists, geeks, entrepreneurs, environmentalists, and you!

Deadline for submission is September 30th. Then we’ll do it again every month, for at least 6 months.

So let’s get going! Tell us what amazing thing you’d do with a grand.

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Connect with us and help us spread the word:
@AwesomeSeattle on Twitter
Awesome Seattle on Facebook
Our announcement list (hot tip: we’ll be having parties to celebrate grantees)

For those of you who refuse to believe it’s that simple:
How it works. Who we are. A detailed FAQ. The founding concept.