Seattle art has never looked so good—hell, so existent—abroad. The Seattle-run fair Aqua Art Miami usually gets the credit for that. But if you lift the hood on the places where Seattle art intersects with the larger art universe, you'll find a different engine: Creative Capital.

CC was founded in 1999. It's based in New York and funds up to $50,000 for individual artist projects. It is also adviser and network, even after projects are realized. "It's more than just throwing money at a project, and that's where Creative Capital stands out—they're like your really knowledgeable art parents," says Susan Robb (a Stranger Genius winner).

Robb is one of 12 artists from Seattle (out of a nationwide 611) who have advanced to round two in this year's competition. Only 40 awards will be given. In September, a select few will be invited to go to New York to present ideas to the panels that make the final decisions.

The first Seattle artist to win one was Zhi Lin, in 1999, for his Five Capital Executions in China, seen at Howard House this spring. The other two Seattle art winners, both in 2005, are Lead Pencil Studio (another Stranger Genius, for last summer's outdoor installation Maryhill Double) and Deborah F. Lawrence (for her intricate Utopia collages, shown at Catherine Person).

CC doesn't release the names of the shortlisted, but gallerist Scott Lawrimore revealed that three of his artists are included: Robb, Tivon Rice, and SuttonBeresCuller. Robb's proposal is Sea-Ice Lifeboat, which would equip Alaskan polar bears with a large-scale raft made of recycled oil drums. Rice's is a digitally manipulated inflatable wall. (SBC wasn't available for comment.) Alex Schweder (who says Gretchen Bennett is also on the list) is proposing This Apple Tastes Like a Living Room Smells, a sculpture made of biodegradable plastic loaded with seeds that turns into a garden as it decomposes in the Seattle rain.

Lawrimore Project and Suyama Space bring together artists from Seattle and elsewhere—and are hubs for CC. Lead Pencil Studio introduced Lawrimore to Capital winners Liz Cohen of Phoenix and Kerry Skarbakka of New York. Sabrina Raaf of Chicago is another Capitalist on Lawrimore's roster. Suyama curator Beth Sellars has shown several winners: just this summer, Pennsylvania artist Caroline Lathan-Stiefel.

L.A.-based Olga Koumoundouros, the artist inaugurating the ambitious Bellevue gallery Open Satellite, is another connection. It might be like a mafia if it weren't so great.

Lawrimore says he thinks Seattle—typically treated like an outpost—gets its due from CC in part because Sean Elwood is director of grants there, and Elwood knows Seattle: He was curator for Seattle Arts Commission and co-owned Seattle gallery Fuller/Elwood (FUEL) in the '80s and '90s.

Whatever it is, keep it coming. Congratulations to the chosen dozen, and good luck. recommended