Fourteen organizations in Island County received an average of $7,500 in funds from the Community Accelerator Grant last week, according to a press release.

The Camano Arts Association, Hedgebrook, Island County Historical Society, Island Shakespeare Festival, Northwest Designer Craftartists, Oak Harbor Music Festival, Otherworld Children’s Media, OutCast Productions, Pacific Northwest Art School, Saratoga Orchestra of Whidbey Island, Ballet Slipper Conservatory of Oak Harbor, Whidbey Island Arts Council, Whidbey Island Center for the Arts and Whidbey Island Dance Theatre received varying amounts of grant money.

The funding is distributed as a means to increase arts spending in Washington, which “frequently falls behind the national average.” Overall, the grant allocated $10 million in unrestricted funds to 930 arts and culture organizations across the state.

Approximately 74% of this year’s grantees have annual budgets of less than $500,000, the release states, making the need for a “low-barrier, unrestricted grant program” like the Community Accelerator Grant vital.

Larry Heidel, executive director of the Saratoga Orchestra, said in an email that the Langley-based nonprofit professional orchestra was “thrilled and grateful” to receive $12,500 from the grant.

“With diminishing governmental funds available to nonprofits, particularly in the arts sector, this grant is a lifeline for smaller organizations like ours to maintain day-to-day operations and plan for future programming and events,” Heidel said.

Heidel shared that the Orchestra plans to use some of that $12,500 “to cover from frontend expenses” for their Oktoberfest event at Greenbank Farm on Oct. 4, and the rest to fund “day-to-day expenses, music licensing and rental, venue and production costs” and their “outreach and educational programs.”