Anthro Northwest

Anthro Northwest
Location	Seattle, Washington, USA
Website	https://www.anthronw.com/
Status	Ongoing
First iteration	November 9-12, 2017
Organizer(s)	Anthro Northwest Charities
Charity	Ongoing
Subject	Furry
Resources	Photos, videos, reports: Anthro Northwest resources

Anthro Northwest (ANW) is an "Anthromorphic Art Convention" held in Seattle, Washington, USA.

Overview

ANW was founded to promote charity, hospitality, and creativity through art, education, and building community in the Anthropomorphic Arts Fandom. ANW is known for having a strong humanities focus and being family-friendly. Since its inception, it has partnered with Sarvey Wildlife to provide educational opportunities about wildlife rescue and provide funding to support their work. As of the end of 2020, the convention has raised $16,531 in support of Sarvey Wildlife.

Some of the distinguishing features include a Thanksgiving feast, the Anthro National Film Festival, Andy's Adventureland, fine arts panels, a 24/7 art jam room, a large children's track, and a fursuit exhibition.

Anthro Northwest Charities, is a 501(c)3 organization that operates and organizes the convention.

In a Meetup.com event page for "Anthro Northwest Convention - Forming the Vision",

Anthro Northwest strives to be an art-centered, community-focused, all ages convention formed to promote, develop and support the best attributes and talents found in the anthropomorphic community. The convention strives to complement and exist in harmony with other anthropomorphic organizations and events.

A video "The Dream of Anthro Northwest" was posted on YouTube on August 14, 2016, stating that the dream of ANW is built upon the best attributes of the anthropomorphic arts community. Currently, we have defined those to be: creativity, charity, beauty, and hospitality." The focus of ANW is art, education, and building community.

ANW is a family-friendly event, with a maximum rating of PG.

2017

The first iteration was held at the Seattle Renaissance Hotel November 9-12, 2017.

The convention started with a catered opening celebration event at GameWorks Seattle. For the first time, full costumes were allowed. The attendees enjoyed playing games together and the complimentary buffet.

By the time the convention had ended, they had 162 events on their schedule, 54 vendors, 76 panelists, and 58 volunteers. Attendance was 809+.

The GoH was Telephone, who was chosen for extraordinary contributions to charity and anthropomorphic art.

The charity partner was Sarvey Wildlife, which specializes in large avian rehabilitation. $3.1K was raised for them.

Panelists included Uncle Kage, Fox Amoore, Pepper Coyote, DJ Recca, NFT, Dreamvision Creations, Crystunes, Dandylions, Kenket, Balaa and Sunny Valley Creations. Vendors room capacity was 55 tables, all of which sold out by March 2017.

In 2017, Lisa Ling, host of This Is Life with Lisa Ling‎ from CNN, filmed a documentary called Furry Nation, about the socially transformational aspects the fandom. The documentary was a positive portrayal of some of the social healing aspects of the fandom. The personal stories of Captain Boones, Leilia Spaniel, and Ashaeda were featured in the production.

2018

ANW 2 was held at the Seattle Renaissance Hotel on November 8-11, 2018, with a theme of "Exploration".

The convention sold out and had an attendance of 1051+ people. The convention raised $5394.61 for their charity Sarvey Wildlife. The GoH was Leilia Spaniel.

One week after this iteration, Lisa Ling's documentary on furries was aired.

2019

ANW 2019 poster (Panda Paco)

The theme for ANW 3 was "Growth Beyond Self" and was held on November 21–24, 2019 at the Hyatt Regency Seattle. A Thanksgiving feast was provided to all attendees on November 23rd, which contained the typical Thanksgiving delicacies including turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, and gravy. To make the feast possible for all attendees, the dinner was included as part of the convention registration with each attendee given a time-slot to eat at random. Attendees were then encouraged to swap time-slots with each other so that they could sit with their friends during the feast.

The convention raised $6571 for the charity Sarvey Wildlife. Attendance was 1612. The Guests of Honor were Kijani and Kitwana Lion.

2020

Anthro Northwest held a virtual reality convention with a custom Pacific-Northwest-themed VRChat world, charity auctions, live-streams, and panels. Attendance was estimated to be around 1250. The theme was "Hope".

The physical iteration of ANW was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The theme and plans were moved to 2021.

2021

ANW 4 was held on November 18-21, 2021 at the Hyatt Regency Seattle. The theme was "Friendship".

The convention raised $11,565 for the charity Sarvey Wildlife. Attendance was 1374. The GoH, Matrices, who was chosen for her exceptional contributions to the fandom through continued public service, chose not to attend due to the ongoing pandemic, and was rescheduled to be GoH for Anthro Northwest 5, in January of 2023.

2023

ANW 5 was held on January 5-8, 2023, once again at the Hyatt Regency Seattle, with a theme of "Love", building off of a story started at ANW 4 regarding the two mascots. Total attendance was 2151 attendees, 208 contributors, including 105 volunteers; as per closing ceremonies.

2024

ANW 6 was held on January 4-7, 2024, again at the Hyatt Regency Seattle, with a theme of "Family",. In addition to the two existing mascots, Andy and Cove, three more mascots - Storm, Geo, and Sprout - were introduced.

Future dates and themes

• ANW 7 to be held on January 2-5, 2025 at the Hyatt Regency with the theme of "Remembrance"

External links

• Anthro Northwest on X

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