Eloise's Blog

There has been a flurry of updates on the City of Portland’s arts tax, and I wanted to update you all with the very latest.

Thank you arts organization friends, RACC Board members and other advocates for your fantastic response to our recent call to action, which resulted in hundreds of letters, emails, calls and visits to Portland City Council. On April 30th Mayor Hales released his proposed budget and RACC was spared any disproportionate cuts.

Our campaign to raise $25,000 for The Right Brain Initiative by June 15th—The Imagination Fund—is making great progress! I am pleased to report that we are at $18,500, which brings us 75% to goal!

Special thanks to Lisa Wiese, and her team at 1040-Express Tax Services who celebrated the end of Tax Season (Monday, April 15) by presenting RACC/Right Brain with our biggest single donation to the Campaign yet!

On March 27th, Portland City Council considered ways to improve the Arts Education & Access Income Tax, while making it clear that they are honoring the voters’ intent to levy the tax and invest the proceeds in arts education and arts organizations.

Our campaign to raise $25,000 for The Right Brain Initiative by June 15th is in full swing, and I am pleased to report that we have passed the $11,000 mark, which brings us 44% to goal! Huge thanks to new donors Mandy Allen, Becky and Rebecca of our own Right Brain staff, Abbie Hebein and her “Rock Out for Right Brains” event, Gary Maffei, Mary Maletis, and Carole Morse of PGE -- all of you will have your gifts matched by the Maybelle Clark McDonald Fund.

There is a lot going on this month, and I wanted to point out three big happenings in particular.

Our arts integration program, The Right Brain Initiative, is currently working with over 11,000 K-8 students in the region, and their teachers, to infuse music, art, dance and theater into science, math, language arts and social studies lessons. But we won’t rest until every student in the region – 110,000 in all! – has access to this type of arts integrated learning that helps them succeed in school and in life.

Our IT specialist of the last ten years, Chris Bisgard, recently left us for Portland Center Stage – apparently his deep love of theater tugged him too hard to resist! But we are pleased to have found another Chris – Chris Tew – to take over RACC’s technology reigns starting this week.

Last Thursday we had a productive and inspiring board retreat – our first real opportunity to get deep into preparations for the new Arts Education & Access Fund since it passed in November. One of our most important goals this spring is to make sure that all of us, and all of you, understand exactly how this new fund is going to work, and to that end we have posted a new resource online at www.racc.org/aeaf. Here you will find answers to frequently asked questions, along with links to even the wonkiest of legal documents related to the new fund.

We at RACC are happy to introduce our new liaison to the Mayor’s office: Noah Siegel. As one of several policy advisors for Charlie Hales, Noah will have many responsibilities, but we are pleased to know that one of his assignments is to be our go-to guy on arts and culture issues.