FREMONT ARTS COUNCIL

Financials

From the e-filed returns the IRS publishes as XML (latest three processing years; amended returns replace the original). PDF copies at the IRS.

Officers, directors and key employees

As listed on the 990-EZ for the year ended December 31, 2025, highest compensation first.

Address and contacts

Address (IRS master file)

3940 FREMONT AVE N, SEATTLE, WA 98103-7700

In care of

% BARBARA LUECKE

Signed the 990-EZ

Darren Linker, Treasurer

Phone

(206) 547-7440

Website

https://fremontartscouncil.org

Mission

The Fremont Arts Council (FAC) is a Seattle-based community arts organization founded in 1979. The FAC cultivates creativity, celebration, and belonging by engaging people of all backgrounds as active participants in the arts. We produce free and low-cost public events; including the Fremont Solstice Parade, Seattle's largest participatory art event, as well as May Day, Luminata, Trolloween, and Petit Troll. The FAC offers year-round workshops, artist grants, and open studio access at our home base, the Powerhouse. The FAC stewards beloved public art, the Fremont Troll. Rooted in the belief that art builds stronger communities, the FAC welcomes everyone, across backgrounds, abilities, and experience levels, to create, celebrate, and connect. The FAC engages community through free public festivals, open workshops, artist grants, and public art stewardship to cultivate a spirit of celebration where everyone is an artist.

Program accomplishments

• Luminata is the Fremont Arts Council's annual autumn equinox celebration, held each September at Green Lake Park in Seattle. A free, all-ages evening of light, music, and community artistry, Luminata invites the public to mark the turning of the season by filling the night with handmade luminaries, illuminated art installations, live performance, and the collective glow of hundreds of participants walking together around the lake. The event is built on a foundation of community participation. In the weeks leading up to Luminata, the FAC hosts free, drop-in lantern-making workshops at the Powerhouse, the organization's home studio at 3940 Fremont Ave N in Seattle. Open to all skill levels and requiring no registration, these workshops give community members the opportunity to craft their own luminaries to carry in the procession. In 2025, workshops ran throughout August and September, welcoming neighbors of all ages to create alongside one another. On the evening of Saturday, September 20, 2025, the Green Lake Park came alive beginning at 5:30 PM, when a lantern shop opened near the Greenlake Boat House. Community members who were unable to attend workshops could purchase a lantern on-site, with all proceeds supporting the FAC's mission and helping to keep the event free and accessible for all. At 7:00 PM, an opening performance set a festive and welcoming tone at the waterfront before the procession began. At 7:30 PM, a lead band launched hundreds of lantern-carrying participants into a luminous, approximately one-mile walk around the lake. The route began at the Green Lake Boat House and concluded at Seattle Public Theater at West Green Lake Beach, where illuminated art installations created by local artists invited the crowd to linger, explore, and celebrate together. The procession welcomed all participants; families with young children, people carrying handmade creations, costumed artists, puppeteers, and musicians, reinforcing the FAC's core belief that everyone is an artist and everyone belongs. Mobile art of any kind - puppets, costumes, lanterns, instruments - was welcome without advance coordination, keeping the event spontaneous and radically participatory. Artist grants were made available to support the creation of both stationary and processional illuminated works, making Luminata a meaningful paid opportunity for Seattle-area artists and performers. Musician grants further extended support to the performing arts community. Luminata is free to attend and designed to be inclusive across age, background, and ability. Through this event, the Fremont Arts Council fulfills its exempt purpose by providing free public arts programming, supporting working artists through competitive grants and paid performance opportunities, and offering no-cost arts education through community workshops. Luminata strengthens Seattle by transforming a beloved public park into a free, inclusive gathering space where thousands connect through shared creativity. It supports local artists through grants and paid performance opportunities, drives community arts education through free workshops, and animates the city's cultural calendar each autumn. By centering participation over spectatorship, Luminata builds social cohesion and affirms that the arts belong to everyone.
  Expenses $16,788
• On Saturday, May 3, 2025, the Fremont Arts Council celebrated with its May Day event at Meridian Park (near the Good Shepherd Center), 4649 Sunnyside Ave N, Seattle. This free, all-ages gathering welcomed the community to mark the arrival of summer with a potluck picnic, flower headdress making, children's crafts and games, live music, giant puppet performances, and a joyful dance around the Maypole. No registration was required. May Day offers Seattle residents a free, participatory public gathering rooted in shared creativity and seasonal tradition. By centering handmade art, communal food, and intergenerational play in a public park, the FAC removes barriers to cultural participation and strengthens neighborhood bonds. The event provides an accessible on-ramp for new audiences to experience the FAC's mission - that everyone is an artist - and builds the civic goodwill that sustains a healthy, connected community.
  Expenses $1,406
• The Fremont Troll is an 18-foot, 13,000-pound concrete and steel sculpture residing under the Aurora Bridge at N. 36th Street in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood. In 1989, the Fremont Arts Council launched a public art contest using neighborhood matching funds to rehabilitate a neglected area under the bridge, and the community chose the troll design. Built in 1990, it has since become one of Seattle's most recognized landmarks, by some reports, second only to the Space Needle as a recognized symbol of Seattle. The Monumentous The FAC maintains ongoing stewardship of the sculpture, including cleaning, maintenance, and the surrounding Troll Knoll area. The Troll is a documented driver of neighborhood tourism, drawing visitors to Fremont's shops, restaurants, and breweries. In 2025, Seattle welcomed 40 million visitors who spent $8.8 billion, generating $12.3 billion in total economic impact. The Troll contributes directly to this ecosystem as a free, highly photogenic destination that consistently generates organic social media promotion of Seattle. On TripAdvisor, it holds a Travelers' Choice designation with over 1,500 reviews. The FAC activates the Troll as a living community gathering place through two annual events. Trolloween, held October 31, 2025, celebrated the Troll's birthday with free live music, a theatrical pageant, and the Haunt of Fremont, a costumed neighborhood procession open to all ages. Petit Troll, held March 2, 2025, was a Mini Mardi Gras parade featuring community-built toy truck floats, brass bands, and a march through Fremont, with the winning float earning a place of honor in the Solstice Parade. Together, these programs transform a public art landmark into a year-round engine for community celebration, local economic activity, and Seattle's cultural identity.
  Expenses $8,435
• The 34th Annual Fremont Solstice Parade, produced by the Fremont Arts Council, took place on Saturday, June 21, 2025, marking the FAC's largest event of the year. This one-of-a-kind, people-powered spectacle featured over 60 community-based ensembles with giant puppets, stilt walkers, dazzling dancers, whimsical floats, jubilant musicians, and free-spirited cyclists transforming the streets of Fremont into a living work of art. The parade is proudly non-commercial; no printed words, logos, or motorized vehicles are permitted - making it a rare, purely human-powered celebration of creative expression. The parade started at 3rd and Leary, cruised along 36th Street, and wrapped near the Fremont Rocket. The celebration continued over the weekend of June 21-22 in partnership with the Fremont Fair, produced by the Fremont Chamber of Commerce. The Solstice weekend draws more than 100,000 people to shop, eat, drink, and enjoy all manners of creative expression in the Fremont neighborhood. This concentration of visitors generates substantial direct economic benefit for Fremont businesses, restaurants, hotels, and vendors. Parking fundraisers at B.F. Day Elementary and Fremont Baptist Church provided additional community benefit. Artists have described the parade as "a bellwether to the health of Seattle" (Seattle Met) - as long as the puppets march through Fremont, the city's creative spirit endures. As Seattle's largest participatory art event, the Solstice Parade fulfills the FAC's core mission by providing free public arts programming, supporting artists through competitive grants, engaging the community as active creators, and generating civic pride and economic vitality for the City of Seattle.
  Expenses $30,006
• Throughout 2025, the Fremont Arts Council offered free and low-cost public art classes and open studio hours at the Powerhouse, 3940 Fremont Ave N, Seattle. The volunteer-run makerspace welcomed the public for low-cost or free registration. Classes covered giant puppet construction, reed luminary-making, sewing, float-building, and costume creation all taught by local artists using recycled and sustainable materials. In 2025, the FAC hosted a sold-out 8-day intensive large-scale puppetry workshop led by Donovan Zimmerman of the nationally recognized Paperhand Puppet Project. No prior experience is required for any program, making classes accessible to beginners, families, and artists at every level. By removing cost and experience barriers, the FAC ensures arts education is available to all Seattle residents, fulfilling its core mission that everyone is an artist.
  Expenses $30,055

What it must file and when

IRS records say it files Form 990 or 990-EZ. Based on its last return; a smaller organization may file the 990-N. Its accounting year ends in December, so each return is due on the 15th day of the 5th month after that.

IRS record

EIN

91-1641451

Tax-exempt status

501(c)(3): Charitable, religious, educational or scientific organization

Foundation status

Publicly supported organization (509(a)(2))

Donations deductible (Pub 78)

Public charity, 50% deduction limit

Exempt since

1997

Accounting year ends

December

Files

Form 990 or 990-EZ

Category (NTEE)

Arts, culture and humanities (A91Z)

Assets (IRS master file)

$212,624

Income (IRS master file)

$93,951

Filing history

990-N: the IRS bulk file holds only the latest e-Postcard per organization; earlier years come from archived copies of that file since 2020 and can have gaps (the IRS e-Postcard search lists every one). 990, 990-EZ, 990-PF, 990-T: every e-filed return in the IRS e-file index since 2019; XML for the latest three processing years, amounts from the IRS Statistics of Income extracts before that. PDF copies and determination letters at the IRS (search EIN 91-1641451).

Questions about FREMONT ARTS COUNCIL

What is the EIN of FREMONT ARTS COUNCIL?

The employer identification number (EIN) of FREMONT ARTS COUNCIL is 91-1641451.

Is FREMONT ARTS COUNCIL tax-exempt?

Yes. The IRS lists it as tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) since 1997.

Are donations to FREMONT ARTS COUNCIL tax-deductible?

Yes. It is listed in IRS Publication 78 (Public charity, 50% deduction limit).

Which annual return does FREMONT ARTS COUNCIL file?

Form 990 or 990-EZ. Based on its last return; a smaller organization may file the 990-N.

When is the next return of FREMONT ARTS COUNCIL due?

The return for tax year 2026 (the year ending December 31, 2026) is due May 17, 2027. Form 8868 extends it by six months; the 990-N cannot be extended.

When did FREMONT ARTS COUNCIL last file with the IRS?

The latest return in the IRS public files is the 990-EZ for the year ended December 2025.

Who are the officers and directors of FREMONT ARTS COUNCIL?

The 990-EZ for the year ended December 31, 2025 lists 8 people; 0 received compensation from the organization.

How much revenue does FREMONT ARTS COUNCIL have?

On its 990-EZ for the year ended December 31, 2025 it reported revenue of $93,951, expenses of $98,429 and total assets of $212,624 at year end.

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