Honoring Tacoma’s Arts & Cultural Community

Please meet the 2026 AMOCAT Arts Award recipients. Each year, these awards honor the individuals, organizations, and groups whose contributions have made a lasting impact on Tacoma’s arts and cultural community.

THEResa Pan Hosley

Theresa Pan Hosley is a community leader, entrepreneur, and advocate for education, cultural understanding, and social justice. She co-founded and leads the Chinese Reconciliation Project Foundation, which developed Tacoma’s Chinese Reconciliation Park to honor the city’s Chinese American heritage and advance cultural reconciliation.

Hosley served on the Bates Technical College Board of Trustees from 2002 to 2015, including multiple terms as board chair. She has also held leadership roles with the Tacoma Chinese Cultural Association. She has served on the boards of the Pike Place Market Foundation, Annie Wright School, Korean Women’s Association, Communities in Schools, Tacoma Public Library, and other civic and nonprofit organizations. Her work has created opportunities for youth, strengthened cross-cultural understanding, and advanced inclusive community leadership.

Her contributions have been recognized with the City of Tacoma’s City of Destiny Award for Adult Leadership, Business Examiner’s Woman of Influence honor, the 2016 Greater Tacoma Peace Prize, an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Puget Sound, and recognition as a 2019 Star of Destiny Honoree.

Born and raised in Taiwan, Hosley earned her degree from Chinese Culture University and built a career as an international travel executive. She is proud to have called Tacoma home for more than four decades and is grateful to continue to see the community evolve and thrive.

The Chinese Reconciliation Project Foundation’s work includes the Tacoma Moon Festival, Walk for Reconciliation Against Racism, Our Communities Our Neighbors, and Music at the Park.

Angela Jossy

Angela Jossy has been part of Tacoma’s media, arts, and community landscape for more than two decades. In 2010, she founded Speakeasy Arts Cooperative, and she later directed Art on the Ave, which was voted Best Art or Music Festival in 2011, Best Community Festival in 2013, and Best Street Fair in 2014.

Her civic work includes six years on Parks Tacoma’s Arts & Heritage Advisory Council. She currently serves on the New Tacoma Neighborhood Council board and is editor of Tacoma Weekly. In 2023, she purchased Weekly Volcano after its 2020 closure and rebuilt the publication. Its Newspaper Box Challenge has since engaged more than 50 local artists in creating public art displayed throughout the community

TED BROWN MUSIC

Ted Brown Music was founded in Tacoma in 1931 and is still family-owned, marking 95 years in 2026. With more than 140 employees and six locations across Washington, Ted Brown Music offers instruments, lessons, repairs, rentals, and pro audio and video services. Its mission is to create more music makers.

The Ted Brown Music Outreach Program was established in 2007 and has donated more than 1,600 instruments. Its nonprofit, Ted Brown Music Outreach, also runs Live It OutLoud, an eight-week summer music program for teens. Live It OutLoud is supported by partners including ArtsFund, ArtsWA, the National Endowment for the Arts, the City of Tacoma, Tacoma Creates, and the Greater Tacoma Community Foundation.

 Ted Brown Music received the Better Business Bureau Torch Award for Ethics in 2024. In 2026 it was a finalist for the BBB International Torch Award for Ethics and for the Association of Washington Business Excellence in Family-Owned Business award. It has been named a NAMM Top 100 Retailer 14 years running and was Music Inc. Magazine’s Retailer of the Year in 2021. It has been an Alliance of Music Merchants Top Dealer nine years running, and has been named that group’s Dealer of the Year three times since 2019.

RAINBOW CENTER

Through education, advocacy, and celebration, Rainbow Center provides lifesaving programs, services, resources, and safe spaces for LGBTQIA2S+ and all marginalized communities across the South Puget Sound. Rainbow Center believes that lasting change happens when people have both practical support and meaningful connection. Its work is guided by a simple framework: educate to build understanding and awareness, advocate to advance equity and access, and celebrate to honor identity and community.

For 29 years, Rainbow Center has served as both a resource provider and a community hub. It works to ensure LGBTQIA2S+ individuals and marginalized communities can access the support they need. It also creates safe spaces and events, such as the Tacoma Pride® Festival and the Gayla, where people can build relationships, celebrate identity, and find belonging. Rainbow Center has served more than 100,000 people across the South Puget Sound through transportation, housing, mental health support, lifesaving programs and resources, and direct and mutual aid.

The Tacoma Pride® Festival won the 2025 Pierce County Annual Event award and is nominated again in 2026. Rainbow Center is also a 2026 nominee for Best Nonprofit in Pierce County.

The Arts & Culture Coalition of Pierce County

The Arts & Culture Coalition of Pierce County represents more than 30 arts, culture, science, and heritage organizations, as well as key regional stakeholders, and is one of the most influential collective voices for cultural vitality in the South Sound. The Coalition strengthens sector relationships through convenings, member spotlights, and consistent information-sharing that helps organizations collaborate, problem-solve, and learn from one another.

Membership is offered on a sliding scale, and monthly meetings, both remote and in person, ensure broad, equitable participation. Engagement never requires membership, reinforcing a culture of openness and shared purpose.

Its impact is both deep and lasting. Through coordinated advocacy, strategic partnerships, and decades of persistent organizing, the Coalition has helped secure major policy wins that reshaped the region’s cultural arts landscape. It championed Washington State’s Cultural Access legislation in 2015, led the community campaign that established Tacoma Creates in 2018, and supported its successful reauthorization in 2025. In partnership with Inspire Washington, it has mobilized advocates, resulting in unprecedented state investment in Pierce County’s cultural institutions.

By elevating shared goals, amplifying local voices, and expanding access to cultural experiences, the Coalition strengthens Tacoma’s creative identity and ensures cultural arts remain essential, well-supported public assets.