RACC awards record sum for project grants

The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) announced today that a record sum, $692,268, will be awarded for artistic projects taking place in 2012 – including grants to 76 organizations and schools, and 77 individual artists in Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington Counties.

Demand for project grants has been increasing steadily over the last five years, and RACC received 312 applications in all for 2012 – up 6% over last year. Proposals are submitted to one of three different categories – “artistic focus,” “community participation,” and “arts in schools.” During the months of October and November, 63 volunteers serving on 17 different panels evaluated the proposals based on artistic merit, community involvement and fiscal soundness, and 153 (49%) of the proposals were ultimately recommended for funding and approved by the RACC Board. Funded projects include:

• A number of documentary film and photography and oral history projects documenting communities and families, including Andrea Leoncavallo’s She Inspires 365; Wayne Bund’s Mimesis: Fantasy and Friends; My Story’s We are Portland; and Portland Jewish Academy’s A Journey Through Generations.
• A review panel was formed specifically to review a large number of multi-disciplinary projects that involve both visual arts and literary forms, language or text. Funded projects in this category include Robert Tomlinson’s Portrait of a Process; Sarah Horowitz’s The Dividing Line and Ben Young’s Clouds.

Included in the total, an anonymous donor continues to provide special funding for an annual “Innovation Prize” of $2,500. This year’s award for outstanding, innovative, media-oriented project goes to Edward Davee for the feature length narrative Lost Division.

A complete listing of grants appears below, and short summaries of all funded project grants are available online at www.racc.org/2012projectgrants.

“We were amazed and inspired by the proposals we received this year,” said Eloise Damrosch, executive director of RACC. “With many extraordinary projects in store for 2012, I am especially proud that RACC continues to invest in a diverse mix of new and emerging artists, including 86 grants to artists and organizations that have never received project grant support from RACC before.”

With so many projects to invest in, it is fortunate that increased funding was available this year – 29% more than last year’s total of $535,806. For the first time in three years, local hotel occupancy rates were high enough to trigger a $100,000 allocation of transient lodging tax revenues to project grants; support from the City of Portland was up this year; and RACC continues to build private sector support through its workplace giving program, Work for Art. Multnomah County, Clackamas County, Washington County and Metro also provide funding for RACC project grants.