Arts & Cultural Vitality
Arts and culture are essential to Tacoma – enlivening its downtown core, contributing to the livability of its neighborhoods, and enhancing the quality of life of its residents and visitors. Arts & Cultural Vitality (ACV) supports the cultural sector in Tacoma in a variety of ways including funding programs, public art, professional development, and special programming. The division has two branches: Tacoma Arts and Tacoma Creates.
Strategic Plan Survey
We are currently updating our strategic plan for the first time in a decade, and would like your input. Please take our short, anonymous survey to help us understand how well our programs and services are meeting community needs, how we can deepen equity and access, how we can communicate better, what to prioritize moving forward, and how people are experiencing Tacoma’s cultural landscape.
Take the survey! Thank you for taking a few minutes to share your perspective with us.
2025 Annual Report
We’re excited to share with you the 2025 Annual Report from the City of Tacoma’s Arts & Cultural Vitality Division.
We reached some big milestones in 2025. City Council reauthorized Tacoma Creates, recommitting to the transformative investment in the cultural sector that voters passed in 2018. 2025 also marked the 25th anniversary of the current 1% for Art Program, the 24th anniversary of Tacoma Arts Month, and the 15th anniversary of Spaceworks Tacoma. These long-standing commitments make the city more vibrant every year.
Our annual report highlights the incredible work of our local artists, organizations, and programs—spanning Community Arts Projects and Tacoma Artists Initiative Program (TAIP) funded events, public art projects, Tacoma Creates programming, Spaceworks initiatives, and Tacoma Arts Month. Each page reflects the collaborative energy that fuels Tacoma’s vibrant cultural ecosystem.
Tacoma Arts
The Tacoma Arts Commission and its staff play a vital role in supporting Tacoma’s arts and cultural programs. They encourage the development of the local arts community through the administration of funding programs for artists and arts-focused community projects, managing the City’s public art collection, and producing a variety of public programs including Tacoma Arts Month and the Tacoma Poet Laureate program.
Tacoma Creates
Tacoma Creates is a community-supported initiative to increase access to arts, culture, heritage, and science experiences throughout Tacoma by reducing barriers to access and expanding offerings, particularly for underserved youth. Eligible non-profit arts, culture, heritage, and science organizations are able to apply for funding that helps them expand equitable access to public programs, increase opportunities in neighborhoods throughout Tacoma, expand educational options for youth, and build sustainability for ongoing cultural programs that provide value for people throughout the City of Tacoma. The Tacoma Creates Advisory Board serves in an advisory capacity to Tacoma Creates staff on funding programs.
Arts & Cultural Vitality Staff
-
Rebecca Solverson (she/her)
Division Manager
Phone: (253) 591-5564, (253) 381-5397 cell
Email: rebecca.solverson@tacoma.gov -
Daniel Garcia (he/him)
Community Programs Specialist
Phone: (253) 830-6763, (253) 453-9793 cell
Email: dgarcia2@tacoma.gov -
Clarissa Gines (she/her)Tacoma Creates Program Coordinator
Phone: (253) 591-5174
Email: cgines@tacoma.gov -
Lisa Jaret (she/her)Tacoma Creates Program Manager
Phone: (253) 591-5161
Email: ljaret@tacoma.gov -
Marissa Laubscher (she/her)Public Art Program Manager
Phone: (253) 500-8051 cell
Email: mlaubscher@tacoma.gov -
Kyle Mullins (he/him)Tacoma Creates Program Assistant
Phone: (253) 591-5744
Email: kmullins@tacoma.gov -
Naomi Strom-Avila (she/her)Funding and Cultural Programs Manager
Phone: (253) 591-5191, (253) 453-9983 cell
Email: nstrom-avila@tacoma.gov
Inclusion, Equity, and Access
Arts & Cultural Vitality is striving toward social justice. We are committed to supporting equitable opportunities in all of our work including Tacoma Creates, Tacoma Arts Commission funding, public art, and public programming. We are committed to supporting the entirety of our community.
For more on current and ongoing efforts, please read the City of Tacoma’s Tacoma 2025 plan and Arts & Cultural Vitality’s ArtFull Tacoma (Strategy 2: Promote equity, diversity, and inclusiveness through the arts). Our work is also informed by Tacoma City Council Resolutions 40622, 41627, and 41628.
Additionally, we encourage you to visit the City of Tacoma’s Office of Equity and Human Rights web pages. Interested in learning more about city-wide equity efforts, including the support of diverse artists and diverse voices? Check out How We Got Here: A Reckoning with US and Tacoma History.
Annual Reports
-
Read the 2025 ACV Annual Report to learn about the far-reaching impacts that our collective investments in the cultural sector had on our community.
-
Read the 2024 ACV Annual Report to learn about the far-reaching impacts that our collective investments in the cultural sector had on our community.Lea el Informe Anual 2024 de la División de Artes y Vitalidad Cultural (ACVD) para conocer el impacto significativo que nuestras inversiones colectivas en el sector cultural tuvieron en nuestra comunidad.
-
Read the 2023 ACV Annual Report to learn about the far-reaching impacts that our collective investments in the cultural sector had on our community. -
Read the 2022 ACV Annual Report to learn about the far-reaching impacts that our collective investments in the cultural sector had on our community.
-
Read the 2021 ACV Annual Report to learn about the far-reaching impacts that our collective investments in the cultural sector had on our community.