The James & Janie Washington Foundation receives a generous grant from the Jacob and Gwen Knight Lawrence Foundation to support the Artist in Residence Program 2011.  This is the second grant from the Knight Lawrence Foundation and it builds upon the success of current arts programming.

This grant allows the Foundation to continue its ambitious initiative to give Statewide support to visual artists, an initiative that began in 2008 with the first grant from the Knight Lawrence Foundation.  Ten artists a year from around Washington State participate in the Foundation’s Artist in Residence Program. They live in the Washington house and work in the studio during their one-month residency. Artists are given a stipend and technical studio support during their stay. When they are done, they take their new direction and renewed creative energy back to the communities in which they live.

The Wyman Youth Trust

The Judith Rothschild Foundation Grant
The New York City based, Judith Rothschild Foundation will support the conservation and digitilization of papers, objects, audio, and video from the James W. Washington, Jr. home, studio, and art collection in order to produce documentary interactive media that will be made available to the public on the Foundation's website.

Heritage 4Culture
Awarded Grant to The James & Janie Washington Foundation Heritage 4Culture awarded the Foundation Special Projects Grant for the second year in a row. The grant will partially fund an ongoing project to catalog and preserve the historically significant papers, letters and Photos of James and Janie Washington. Long term, this rare and complete collection of Dr. Washington's personal papers will be preserved as an educational and research resource for historians, art historians, social and cultural historians into perpetuity. Ongoing research will allow these historically significant and comprehensive holdings to further illuminate the personal, technical and interpretive aspects of Dr. Washington's artwork.

Heritage 4Culture funding comes from a small part of the King County Lodging Tax, a credit on the state sales tax charged on every hotel, motel, inn and B&B room occupied throughout the County. They are committed to provide heritage organizations with critical program and operational support. Through four Heritage Grant Programs, they serve dozens of groups and heritage specialists to build and improve facilities, develop new exhibits, deliver educational programs to the schools, produce publications and videos, expand web sites, and preserve invaluable collections and resources that relate to King County history and heritage. They help the heritage community bring cultural services and citizen involvement opportunities in creative projects to every corner of the County.
→ To learn more, please visit the 4culture.org website.

Jacob and Gwen Knight Lawrence Foundation 
The James & Janie Washington Foundation has been awarded a generous gift of $50,000 by the Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation toward the  inception of an Artist in Residence Program. The program, based in the Washington House and Studio, will allow artists from around the country to live and work at the historic site. Currently the Studio is being renovated for a spring 2008 launch.

The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation is devoted to the creation, presentation and study of American art, with particular emphasis on the work of African American artists.
James Washington Sculpture Exhibit at Seattle City Hall February 1st -March 22nd, 2007

The Mayor's Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs in partnership with the Dr. James Washington, Jr. and Janie Regella Washington Foundation present an exhibition of sculpture by renowned 20th century African American artist James W. Washington, Jr. The show will feature sculptures, paintings and photographs of the artist at work. Washington's connection to the city of Seattle stretches back to the mid-1940s. Originally from rural Mississippi, Washington moved to Seattle to work as a civilian electrician for the Navy and settled in the Central District. He gained international recognition as a member of the "Northwest School" of artists for his paintings and prints. As an advocate and spokesman for civil rights, many of Washington's early paintings reflect his belief in social justice. He began working as a sculptor in the '50s after finding a stone that called to him during a trip to Mexico. His success allowed him to leave his civil-service job and become a full-time artist. He continued to sculpt, teach, exhibit and lecture over the next 40 years of his career.