For the fourth consecutive year, the City of Burien accepted applications for the Neighborhood Grants Program to support community-led improvement projects. The City awarded up to $5,000 per project, and community members were required to match the City’s contribution with local resources of volunteer labor, donated materials, donated professional services, or money.
City staff looked for projects that fostered a sense of community and created local improvements in an equitable manner. Project applications were evaluated on the quality of the project, equitable impacts, neighborhood participation, visibility, and benefit to the public. Projects were required to be freely accessible for all.
Three projects were selected to receive funding. One of the community projects involved educational programming and focusing on sustainable practices, while the other two focused on community events.
Mural Masters – Celebrating Burien with Urban Art
A group of Burien residents and business owners was awarded funding to hold an annual street art festival, which intended to celebrate diverse styles of large-scale urban art and honor the artist behind them. Mural Masters has been held since 2014, and each year over 20 international and local artists come together to transform the cityscape with stunning large-scale murals. Mural Masters originated in 2014 as a project of the B-Town Beat. Despite the pandemic-related interruptions, the annual event has continued throughout the years.
The art alley (see below) is located between Southwest 152nd and 153rd Streets, spanning from Fourth Avenue Southwest to Ambaum Boulevard Southwest. This space continues to evolve and serves as a dynamic canvas for the annual event. By incorporating and celebrating vibrant murals, the group aimed to deter graffiti and cultivate community, knowledge, and joy within Burien. The event showcased the mural-making process with the hope of demystifying the process and inviting spectators to witness the creation. Be sure to check out the murals created in 2024!
Project neighborhood liaison Angelina Villalobos shared, “The artist panel at Highline Heritage Museum was so enlightening and engaging. We filled up all the seats and although I was a participant, I learned so much from the other panelists. I can’t imagine how the audience must’ve felt with all of our shared experiences! Saturday, I had so many compliments and comments on how the art market and art activation really connected the whole event together. It gave a central location for people to talk about, learn more, and engage with art directly.”
The photographer that attended the event, Catherine Anstett, added, “Excellent work, and such a diversity of genre, culture and scale in the artwork.”
Bee Keeping at Shark Garden
The New Start Community Garden (Shark Garden) is a nonprofit school, community, and botanical garden in Burien. Shark Garden members partner with volunteers and at-risk youth to grow organic produce for the White Center Food Bank, donating over 2,000 pounds each year. Additionally, Shark Garden offers both learning and work opportunities to participating Highline School District students, eighty-five percent of whom are Black, Indigenous, and other youth of color, and many who have also faced court involvement and other challenges. The garden is focused on teaching organic gardening, cultural cooking traditions, and environmental science to the community and students for free.
Shark Garden applied for funding to create an educational feature in the garden, a honeybee hive enclosure, also known as an apiary. The new enclosure is located near the orchard in the northern part of the garden, and there is an interpretive sign in front of it. The enclosure will have multiple hives and hive styles to help educate members of the community about the vital role of pollinators to ecosystems and food systems.
By bringing greater awareness to the importance of honeybees as an agricultural asset and by using the fun, exciting, and interactive activity of beekeeping, the intention is to inspire people to become more aware of pollinators, making the survival and protection of pollinators a greater priority. The Shark Garden was recognized in 2023 by the Burien City Council as a leader in pollinator advocacy with a proclamation in support of Pollinator Month, which proclaimed that Burien celebrates its natural resources and pollinators. This new garden feature will help to further that intent and build community awareness, while providing a space for community to gather and learn together.
Lunar New Year Celebration
Burien community members collaborated with the City’s Community Connectors to apply for funding for a Lunar New Year Celebration. The Lunar New Year Event hosted a variety of games and prizes, delicious food, and a lion dance performance. Vietnamese Cultural Center Program Director Đức Ly Bùi supported and advised the program. Hosting culturally-significant events provides an important educational opportunity to learn about other cultures and practices.
Burien is a diverse community, and the Lunar New Year Celebration provided Burien community members with an opportunity to learn about and engage with Vietnamese culture. It also created community connections and provided a space for the community to have fun and relieve stress together.
“It’s important to provide a space where Vietnamese residents in Burien can come together to connect and celebrate Vietnamese culture,” said Nha Khuc, Burien Community Connector. “I have been living in Burien for about 11 years, and finally seeing this event held in Burien brings me a sense of belonging. This Lunar New Year (Tết) event is not only a holiday celebration but also an opportunity to foster connections between people in our community.”
The Burien City Council presented a Lunar New Year proclamation on January 27, 2025 to recognize Burien’s Asian community, which represents more than 7,000 residents within the city. More than 10 volunteers assisted with the event, Discover Burien played a vital role in the application and event coordination, and multiple partners worked together to bring the event to the Burien community.
Learn more about the Neighborhood Grants Program and how to apply at burienwa.gov/NeighborhoodGrants. Information is available in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Amharic. Contact planning@burienwa.gov with questions or to set up a meeting for more information.
