The Tacoma Arts Commission has announced this year’s AMOCAT Arts Award recipients: Arts & Culture Coalition of Pierce County (Arts Patron), Rainbow Center and Ted Brown Music (Community Outreach by an Organization), and Theresa Pan Hosley and Angela Jossy (Community Outreach by an Individual). The AMOCAT Arts Awards honor the people and organizations that positively impact the community with their passion, innovation, and commitment to the arts.
Arts Patron Award
The Arts Patron award recognizes the Arts & Culture Coalition of Pierce County for bringing the region’s cultural organizations together and advocating for lasting public investment in the arts.
The Coalition represents more than 30 arts, culture, science, and heritage organizations, as well as key regional stakeholders. It strengthens sector relationships through convenings, member spotlights, and consistent information-sharing that helps organizations collaborate, problem-solve, and learn from one another.
Through coordinated advocacy, strategic partnerships, and decades of persistent organizing, the Coalition has helped secure major policy wins that reshaped the region’s cultural landscape. It championed Washington State’s Cultural Access legislation in 2015, led the community campaign that established Tacoma Creates in 2018, and supported its successful reauthorization in 2025. In partnership with Inspire Washington, it has mobilized advocates, resulting in unprecedented state investment in Pierce County’s cultural institutions.
Community Outreach by an Organization Award
The Community Outreach by an Organization award recognizes Rainbow Center and Ted Brown Music for their work connecting Tacoma residents to arts and culture through community programming and partnership.
Rainbow Center provides lifesaving programs, services, resources, and safe spaces for LGBTQIA2S+ and all marginalized communities across the South Puget Sound. For 29 years, it has served as both a resource provider and a community hub, guided by a framework to educate, advocate, and celebrate.
Rainbow Center has served more than 100,000 people through transportation, housing, mental health support, and direct and mutual aid. It also creates spaces where people can build relationships, celebrate identity, and find belonging, including the Gayla and the Tacoma Pride Festival, which won the 2025 Pierce County Annual Event award.
Ted Brown Music was founded in Tacoma in 1931 and remains family-owned, marking its 95th year in 2026. Guided by its mission to create more music makers, Ted Brown Music established its outreach program in 2007 and has since donated more than 1,600 instruments to the community. Its nonprofit, Ted Brown Music Outreach, runs Live It OutLoud, an eight-week summer music program for teens.
This past year, Ted Brown Music installed audio and video equipment at the Cora Whitley Family Center and showed up for community events across the city, including Tacoma Heritage Days at Job Carr Cabin Museum with Tacomarama and the First Friday South Tacoma Block Party.
Community Outreach by an Individual Award
The Community Outreach by an Individual award recognizes Theresa Pan Hosley and Angela Jossy of the Weekly Volcano for their decades of leadership in Tacoma’s cultural and civic life.
Theresa Pan Hosley is a community leader, entrepreneur, and advocate for education, cultural understanding, and social justice. She co-founded and leads the Chinese Reconciliation Project Foundation, which developed Tacoma’s Chinese Reconciliation Park to honor the city’s Chinese American heritage and advance cultural reconciliation. The Foundation’s work also includes the Tacoma Moon Festival, the Walk for Reconciliation Against Racism, Our Communities Our Neighbors, and Music at the Park. Hosley served on the Bates Technical College Board of Trustees from 2002 to 2015, including multiple terms as board chair, and has held leadership roles with the Tacoma Chinese Cultural Association, Tacoma Public Library, and other civic and nonprofit organizations. Her contributions have been recognized with the City of Tacoma’s City of Destiny Award for Adult Leadership, the 2016 Greater Tacoma Peace Prize, and an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Puget Sound. Born and raised in Taiwan, Hosley has called Tacoma home for more than four decades.
Angela Jossy of the Weekly Volcano has been part of Tacoma’s media, arts, and community landscape for more than two decades. In 2010, she founded Speakeasy Arts Cooperative, and she later directed Art on the Ave, which was voted Best Art or Music Festival in 2011, Best Community Festival in 2013, and Best Street Fair in 2014. Her civic work includes six years in Parks Tacoma’s Arts & Heritage Advisory Council. She currently serves on the New Tacoma Neighborhood Council board and is editor of Tacoma Weekly. In 2023, she purchased Weekly Volcano after its 2020 closure and rebuilt the publication. Its Newspaper Box Challenge has since engaged more than 50 local artists in creating public art displayed throughout the community.
Awards Presentation
The 2026 AMOCAT Arts Awards will be presented following the Tacoma Arts Month Proclamation at the Tacoma City Council meeting on Tuesday, October 6, 2026, at 5 p.m. in Council Chambers at the Tacoma Municipal Building (747 Market Street, 1st floor). This year marks the 25th anniversary of Tacoma Arts Month. Each honoree will be presented with an award handcrafted from recycled glass by Hilltop Artists.