Mayumi Tsutakawa

Areas of Expertise:

• Audience Development
• Board/Governances
• Getting Grants for Your Chorus
• Organizational Development

Mayumi Tsutakawa is an independent writer/editor and arts consultant. She was manager of grants to organizations at the Washington State Arts Commission for 14 years. While there, she directed the 10-year Arts Participation Leadership Initiative, funded by The Wallace Foundation to teach and promote new methods of increasing arts participation in view of changing demographics and new social platforms in technology. Her work at the Arts Commission focused on encouraging and enabling arts organizations to unify and redirect their staff and board members toward authentic engagement with diverse audiences, artists and community participants. She advocates for cultural equity and was board member and chairperson of the national advocacy organization, The Association of American Cultures, for 10 years. During that time, she filled a critical need for direction in fundraising, budgeting and program direction for national conferences focused on cultural democracy and held in Pittsburgh, Denver, Chicago and Providence. As an independent curator, and then director of external relations, for the Wing Luke Asian Museum, nationally recognized for its community-based curatorial methods, she organized exhibitions of Asian/Pacific American and other multi-ethnic historical and contemporary artists. Mayumi co-edited several multicultural literary anthologies, including "The Forbidden Stitch: Asian American Women's Literary Anthology" (Calyx Books, 1990) which received the Before Columbus Foundation’s American Book Award. She received her master’s degree in communications and her bachelor’s degree in East Asian Studies at the University of Washington.