❤️ Sponsor the Awards

Sponsors make this celebration of Washington’s cultural landscape possible. Sponsors also make it possible for student artists and honoree family members to attend the ceremony.

Arts and heritage patrons are among the most sought-after markets for advertising. GAHA sponsors will have exposure to hundreds of arts patrons. Approximately 400-500 artists, arts and heritage organization leaders, culture bearers, elected officials and sponsors are expected to attend the 2025 Governor’s Arts & Heritage Awards.

🎤 Emcee – Tony Gomez

Antonio M. Gomez works at the intersection of education, the arts, and public media. As Director of Community Engagement & Extended Learning at Tacoma Arts Live, he creates accessible cultural experiences. A former K-12 teacher, he’s designed curricula for PBS and nonprofits. Tony serves as VP of the Western Arts Alliance, collaborates with the Center for Washington Cultural Traditions, and is a former speaker for Humanities Washington. A percussionist and co-founder of Trío Guadalevín, he curates Deep Roots, New Branches for Early Music Seattle. He holds an MA in Education from UC Berkeley.

🏆 Arts Champion Award: Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam, one of the most influential rock bands since their debut in 1990, has consistently used their platform to champion social, political, and environmental causes. Known for their emotionally charged music and activism, the band addresses important issues such as inequality, political corruption, and climate change. Through the Vitalogy Foundation, Pearl Jam has raised significant funds for organizations focused on homelessness, women’s health, education, and environmental protection.

🏆 Tribal Arts and Heritage Award: Philip H. Red Eagle

Philip H. Red Eagle, of Dakota and Puget Sound Salish heritage (Sisseton-Wahpeton-Mdewakanton-Yankton and Steilacoom/S’Klallam), has been an artist for over 40 years. A Vietnam veteran, Red Eagle is a carver, graphic designer, metalworker, author and photojournalist, and art and museum curator. He has spent 30 years working with Tribal journeys, bringing traditional canoes and journey back to the Pacific Northwest. Red Eagle is the Native Knowledge in Residence Coordinator for the Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies at the University of Washington.

🏆 Organization Award: 206 Zulu

206 Zulu, based in Seattle, has used Hip Hop culture as a platform for community empowerment, education, and social justice. Since its inception in 2004, 206 Zulu has developed a broad array of programs such as all-ages events, concerts, festivals, educational programs, music mentorship programs, and more. They are an anchor partner at the historic Washington Hall, helping to provide important space for events and community functions within the Central District. Their work to preserve hip hop history has been recognized with a governor’s proclamation for Hip Hop History Month.

🏆 Organization Award: Look, Listen & Learn

Tukwila-based Look, Listen & Learn TV was founded in 2008 and is the region’s only children’s educational television show intentionally created by a Black producer for BIPOC children and their families. Their goal is to reduce the early-learning racial and ethnic educational gap. Look, Listen & Learn TV has won five Telly Awards, and received two Emmy nominations. The show is in its fifth season of production. Season five will feature 12 thirty-minute episodes that highlight the talents of community leaders, chefs, authors, musicians, athletes and artists of color. 

🏆 Community Impact Award: Inspire Washington

Inspire Washington is a statewide arts, culture and science advocacy organization. Led by Manny Cawaling, Inspire Washington has worked over the past several years to help secure critical funding for the cultural sector. The team travels extensively across the state, to both urban and rural communities, to build awareness of the importance of Washington State’s cultural sector. In 2018, Inspire Washington supported the passage of Tacoma Creates, the first vote-approved cultural access fund in Washington, and similar, subsequent efforts in Olympia in 2022 and King County in 2024.

🏆 Educator Award: Danh T. Pham

Dahn T. Pham currently serves as the Director of Bands and Orchestras at WSU in Pullman. Pham has headed up several programs that benefit students of all levels, including the WSU Orchestra Festival, WSU WindBand Festival and Cougar Summer Music Camp. He actively teaches future educators, setting them on a path to pass the love of music along to their students. He also serves as the music director of both the Washington-Idaho Symphony Orchestra and the Coeur D’Alene Symphony Orchestra.

🏆 Young Leader Award: Dennis Robinson Jr.

Dennis Robinson, Jr. is the Director of Programs and Partnerships for the Seattle Opera. An opera director turned administrator, Robinson works to change how Seattle Opera is perceived in the region. His work focuses on making opera a community-based art form accessible to everyone. Robinson is an integral part of the Black arts and culture community in Seattle, working with several Seattle-based organizations such as the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, Jewish Family Services and Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce.

🏆 Legacy Award: Consuelo Soto Murphy

Consuelo Soto Murphy is an artist from the Yakima Valley. Born to a migrant worker family in Burley, ID, Murphy learned English at age 9. She has been a high school art teacher in Richland School District for 33 years. Her paintings are full of bright colors and iconic positive imagery of the migrant worker in the Pacific Northwest. Her recognizable style has received many accolades, including as 2023 Artist of the Year for the Governor’s Mansion, where the foundation purchased one of her artworks to be hung permanently at the Capitol.

🏆 Individual Award: John Furniss

John Furniss, a woodturner based in Washougal, is a testament to the transformative power of creativity and resilience. After a suicide attempt at age 16 left him blind, Furniss struggled for years with mental illness and addiction. In 2010, he discovered woodworking at a school for the blind in Utah, which ignited a spark within him, providing a creative outlet and a renewed sense of purpose. He turned this outlet into a profession, becoming a celebrated woodturner, motivational speaker, author, and teacher.

🏆 Individual Award: Joe Feddersen

Joe Feddersen is a member of the Colville Confederated Tribes and lives in Omak, Washington. His career has spanned forty years, during which time he has worked in printmaking, painting, basketry, glass sculpture, ceramics, photography and computer-generated imagery. Feddersen is a retired faculty member of Evergreen State College, teaching there from 1989 – 2009. He has participated in numerous exhibitions and residencies, and his work has been featured at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.