2021 Event Supporters of the Year

Kate Becker, King County

Building sustainable creative communities has been at the core of Kate Becker’s career. Since 2019, Becker has been leading King County’s first creative economy initiative. Just prior to this, Kate served as the Director of Seattle’s Office of Film + Music for five years, spending her days (and nights!) working to build Seattle’s creative economy, keenly focused on the film, music, nightlife and special events industries. She is now expanding upon this work at the regional level. Prior to 2014, Kate served in leadership roles at Seattle Theatre Group, Art Share LA in Los Angeles, and The New Art Center in Boston, MA. She co-founded legendary Northwest all ages venues The Vera Project and the Old Fire House, talent pipelines for the music industry. Kate has produced more than 1,000 all ages shows, and numerous large-scale events and fundraisers. She founded the Old Fire House Media Lab, ensuring that emerging filmmakers and musicians have access to a studio. Kate loves start up culture, and founded two businesses, and two nonprofits. Kate was a charter member of the Seattle Music Commission and currently.

Karen Hanan, ArtsWA

Karen Hanan is a senior executive with 25+ years of success providing leadership and managerial direction to state and regional arts service and presenting organizations. She was appointed Executive Director of ArtsWA by Governor Jay Inslee in 2014. As the agency’s head, Karen’s role is to grow the organization’s capacity, services and potential for positively impacting the arts field, arts in education and the State. Previously, Karen was Executive Director of Arts Northwest, the regional service organization for performing arts organizations, arts presenters, artists, agents and associated organizations. During her tenure there, Karen was the driving force in re-positioning the non-profit for growth, artistic vitality, profitability and a commitment to mission. She achieved this through effective planning, vision, partnership building and operational savvy. Karen oversaw the doubling of the organization’s membership and its budget.

Prior to her tenure with Arts Northwest, Karen was the founder and Executive Director of the Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts. She is a well-respected member of a number of industry organizations, and sits on several Boards of Directors. She enjoys opportunities to be a speaker, panelist or event participant where the focus is an arts-related topic, or the creative economy.