Sophie Solomon

As the Cultural Partnership Intern, I support a four staff team in their work to run the community-building, funding, and racial equity programs of the Office. Through this work, I conduct research about equity-based funding programs, support efforts to better understand the needs of artists working in Seattle, and provide foundational office support. 

​As the Artist Engagement Intern at Artist Trust, I worked to support organizational efforts to be a resource for Washington State artists. I developed engagement plans to connect and cultivate relationships with artists, organizations, and communities throughout Washington state, prioritizing racial and geographic equity. I assisted in regular engagement events, providing support before the event, and managing data entry and tracking post-event. In this role I also acted in a support capacity during Artist Trust's grant selection panel process.

At Artist Trust, as the Business Practices Intern, I worked to support business practice workshops and training programs for Washington State artists. I assisted in tracking process both before and after workshops -- helping with registration, preparing materials, tracking feedback after the event, and entering new contacts into our database. 

In this role, I was also in charge of the Opportunities Page on the Artist Trust website. Working in the back end of the site, and with community members to edit content and post their calls for artists, funding, residency and employment, and volunteer opportunities. This page has over 100 listings at a time, and is one of the most visited on the site. I also worked on reviewing current content on the Artist Trust Resources Page, a compilation of resources for Washington-state based artists -- from tax help, to available space to work, to continued learning opportunities.

The Student Food Cooperative is a group of students at the University of Washington working to build a community of engaged, empowered students through education about conscious consumption and their right to access nutritious, ethically-produced, and affordable food on campus. As the Manager, I was responsible for holding the cooperative to this mission, and ensure that we were staying on track on projects. As a cooperative, the Student Food Cooperative is run through a horizontal leadership structure. As a Manager, this meant balancing effective project management, of sorts, while ensuring equal representation of all voices at the table, and that all members of the cooperative were on board with projects. 

Projects included: a free cookbook for students with seasonal recipes, basic information about shopping seasonally, in bulk, and locally on a budget, Humble Feast, a bi-annual meal cooked by the Co-op for about 200 students and community members with educational information about food sovereignty and justice based issues, and laying initial groundwork for a bulk buying storefront.