Local Arts & Culture Headlines
The following are recent articles in the local media in metropolitan Portland
(and at times around the State) dealing with arts and culture issues. Each article is summarized; for the complete article please click the link provided:
10/5/08 Exhibits serve as portals to Christine Bourdette. An interview with artist Christine Bourdette is a frustrating encounter for a reporter. Bourdette, a warm, charming and gracious pixie of a woman, possesses the rare ability of answering your questions without really revealing much about herself. "They're trying to tell the story of all of us, not just me," Bourdette says about her sculptures, an ingenious melding of folk art, minimalism, conceptualism and plain old smarty-pants thinking. "I'm trying to find a way to say that we are all in this together." D.K. Row The Oregonian
10/2/08 Terry Toedtemeier on "Wild Beauty" at the Portland Art Museum. In case you've forgotten why we live in Oregon, a breathtaking new exhibit and book have arrived to remind us. Opening Saturday at the Portland Art Museum, Wild Beauty: Photographs of the Columbia River Gorge, 1867-1957, surveys 90 years of gorge history through roughly 250 photographs by some of photography's early heroes, including Carleton Watkins, Lily White and Sarah Ladd.
10/1/08 Public art transforms look of former ‘meth store’ . The building on S.E. Division Street, across from Atkinson Elementary School, which started out as a gas station 50 years ago, and ended up being a coffee shop that was actually an illegal drug dispensary, is a step closer to becoming a community center. The former “Drive-thru Wake-up and Deli” is getting an exterior makeover as part of its ongoing transformation into the Tabor Commons Community Center. David F. Ashton, The Bee
9/30/08 Supporters, Alaska Airlines save Portland Jazz Festival. A community group and a new corporate sponsor are reviving the Portland Jazz Festival, which stopped operating in September after the loss of a major sponsor and decreased donations from others left a $100,000 hole in its budget. Luciana Lopez, The Oregonian
9/30/08 Jefferson High's Hidden Arts Treasures. This is Jefferson High School principal Dr. Cynthia Harris with one of the 115 pieces of art that have been hiding in the school's basement since the 1940s. The school is celebrating its centennial next May, and Portland Public Schools is now trying to raise $27,000 to restore all the work for the occasion. Matt Davis, Portland Mercury
9/25/08 Natural Cycles unveils Saturday. Natural Cycles 2008, that wonderful mix of art and nature at Tryon Creek State Park, has its Family Day Opening Celebration this weekend, Sept. 27-28. Besides the unveiling of forest art installations by five Northwest artists, there will be a fundraising dinner on Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m. and a Natural Cycles Family Day on Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. Cliff Newell, The Lake Oswego Review
9/23/08 Musicians, Oregon Symphony ink two-year labor contract. Oregon Symphony musicians have voted to approve a new two-year contract that covers the orchestra’s 2008-09 and 2009-10 concert seasons and increases musician compensation in both years. The agreement provides for a 5 percent musician salary increase this season with a cost-of-living increase at the start of the second year. It maintains the size of the orchestra at its current complement of 76 musicians. Portland Business Journal
9/20/08 A taste of bittersweet incompleteness. The resignation of curator Jennifer Gately leaves unanswered questions. Gately, the Portland Art Museum's first curator of Northwest art, resigned from one of the most prominent art jobs in the region Tuesday. The news that she would step down Sept. 28 -- relayed via a seven-sentence letter by the museum's executive director, Brian Ferriso, to board members and staff -- stunned the local art community for several reasons. D.K. Row, The Oregonian
9/19/08 Scatter, the new generation: On the right-brain revolution. The thing about pep rallies is, sometime there really is something to cheer about. So it was Thursday night inside the Dolores Winningstad Theatre in downtown Portland, where a group no longer called Arts Partners gathered much of the local arts mob for a rebranding celebration — from now on, thanks to the Portland firm North, Arts Partners is The Right Brain Initiative. Bob Hicks, Art Scatter
9/19/08 Oregon-based architect unveils re-imagined New York City landmark. The lollipop building had been a part of New Yorkers' memories for more than 40 years, a strange, mysterious place with Venetian whisperings, an impenetrable marble skin, tiny portal-like windows and loopy-topped columns evoking its candy-sweet nickname. Situated at the edge of Columbus Circle, it began life as a gallery devoted to the art collection of a supermarket heir, eventually passed into the hands of the city and finally, was abandoned and closed-up, an enigmatic white bunker. Inara Verzemnieks, The Oregonian
9/10/08 Don't let the blue notes fade away. The Portland Jazz Festival is in a jam, and we're not talking about the sort that occasionally gives birth to The Cool. Even if you can't tell one jazz temperature from another, swing from fusion or Dixieland from bebop, you should care about this festival. It's a top-notch cultural event that puts Portland on the map -- in the dead of winter, no less. Scattered around town in intimate clubs as well as bigger venues, the festival is syncopated to the sound of cash registers ringing. Editorial, The Oregonian
9/8/08 Oregon College of Art & Craft lands $1.25 million. Students will get more space at the Oregon College of Art & Craft once it finishes its expansion plans in several years. Sometimes the math works in strange ways in the world of arts patronship. Today, for example, the Oregon College of Art & Craft will announce a $250,000 gift from art patron and businessman Jordan Schnitzer, but that gift immediately morphs into $1.25 million without even a day's toil in the stock market. D.K. Row, The Oregonian
8/30/08 Does Portland need a contemporary art center? The beginning of the school year at Oregon's colleges and universities makes me think about the one crucial planet missing from Portland's expanding art universe: A nonprofit contemporary art center blessed with courageous, world-class leadership. D.K. Row, The Oregonian
8/14/08 Regional Arts & Culture Council: General Support Grants. The Regional Arts & Culture Council recently awarded its general support grants for 2008-09. The list of grant recipients is far-ranging: theater companies, dance groups, museums, symphonies, radio shows and more. D.K. Row, The Oregonian
8/8/08 Grace and greatness. Portland artist Lee Kelly has been experimenting with color, form and ideas for 50 years -- proving that a distinct kind of brilliance can develop away from the salons of New York. Portland may be thousands of miles away from the world's art capitals -- not to mention more financially humble -- but the Rose City is, and has been, well situated to witness the evolution of the contemporary artist. And that evolution doesn't simply present the artist as a modernist or postmodernist provocateur, but as a humanist. D.K. Row, The Oregonian
8/7/08 Stiffed artists win suit against downtown Portland gallery. A judge rules that the co-owners of the former City Arts must pay money owed to a sculptor and a painter. Two fed-up artists got their due this week when a Multnomah County judge ordered a gallery that sold their work but kept the money to pay up. Sculptor Michelle Gallagher and painter Margie Lee predict the ruling could pave the way for as many as 45 other shortchanged artists to get paid for work sold at City Arts LLC. They say artists have been hounding the owners, Tracie Van Ness and Toni Christensen, for months. Aimee Green, The Oregonian
8/2/08 Cultural Trust pays out $1.65 million. The grants represent an increase of 21 percent to organizations in Oregon. There's a credit crisis right now, but that hasn't stopped Oregonians from giving to the Oregon Cultural Trust, which, in turn, is dispersing its funds in record amounts, according to three simultaneous news conferences held Friday in Portland, Eugene and Salem. The trust announced $1.65 million in grants for 2009, an increase of about 21 percent, say trust officials. The grants were distributed to a large variety of nonprofits, county and tribal coalitions and five of the trust's statewide partner organizations, including the Oregon Arts Commission. D.K. Row, The Oregonian
7/25/08 Gresham Breaks Ground On Arts Center, Sports Park. On a sunny field in downtown Gresham Thursday, city officials and developers broke ground on the site of a new arts plaza. An hour later, the City held a similar celebration at the future location of the Gradin Sports Park. Katie Arrants was there. Katie Arrants, OPB
7/19/08 Review: "pdXPLORE" at PNCA. Five designers and architects think about Portland's future at PNCAWhat will become of Portland after this Gilded Age of carton-shaped condominiums, voguish retail development and nouveau riche housing barons? D.K. Row, The Oregonian
7/17/08 Bank of America Charitable Foundation Gives $600,000 to Support Free Admission for School Tours. Today, the Portland Art Museum announced a major gift to its Art Access Endowment to fund free admission opportunities. The Bank of America Charitable Foundation has pledged $600,000 towards free Museum tours for school groups, grades K through 12. Each year the Museum welcomes more than 20,000 children through school groups and field trips. artdaily.org
7/15/08 Downtown art holes up during Transit Mall work. TriMet plans to move some of the pieces around once construction is completed. Downtown Transit Mall art work is in storage during TriMet’s construction project. The pieces will again be placed on the mall — not necessarily in their original locations — when the project is complete. Renovation of the downtown Transit Mall prompts a parade of questions from many Portlanders: Which streets will be closed today? Who is paying for all of this? When will the downtown traffic nightmare end? Mariah Summers, Portland Tribune
7/2/08 OBT’s Banner Year. Kennedy Center debut caps breakout year for maverick ballet company. "This is us!" That’s how Anne Mueller, in excited tones, describes the scene: 17 dancers, eight staffers and a phalanx of supporters from Portland’s Oregon Ballet Theatre, all arriving in Washington, D.C., with sweaty palms and one heady ambition—to blow the roof off Kennedy Center in the company’s debut performance there. Stephen Marc Beaudoin, Just Out
6/20/08 Portland's art gallery scene suffers a loss with the closing of Small A Projects. The conduit for contemporary artists into the national scene is moving to New York. The richness of the local art gallery scene has suffered a loss, one that strangely reconfirms the strengths and weaknesses of the Portland art world. Small A Projects, the Southeast Portland gallery with the city's most rigorous program for directing contemporary artists onto the national stage, is ending its Portland run, according to owner Laurel Gitlen. At the end of June, Gitlen will close the gallery located under the Hawthorne Bridge and reopen in the dealer's home state of New York. Gitlen says she's just signed a lease on a storefront location in Manhattan's Lower East Side. The New York gallery is scheduled to open in September. D.K. Row, The Oregonian
6/16/08 Contemporary Northwest Art Awards at PAM. The Portland Art Museum's changeover from the Oregon Biennial to the Contemporary Northwest Art Awards to showcase home-grown talent is like a dinner party with the guest list being downsized to a more intimate dinner for five. The Biennial, held more or less every two years by the museum through 2006, will be missed for its broad survey of in-state artists and artworks. It was also an ideal way to showcase, among other possibilities, the wave of emerging talents migrating to Portland in recent years. The egalitarian approach of a survey, whatever its shortcomings, even seemed to fit our area's noncompetitive atmosphere. Even so, the CNAA ultimately proves both a better viewing experience and a greater opportunity for the artists involved; there's just a lot fewer of them now. Not only does $10,000 go to the winner of the Arlene Schnitzer Prize, which was awarded to Whiting Tennis in a ceremony Saturday night, but each of the five finalists -- Jeffry Mitchell, Marie Watt, Cat Clifford, Tennis and Dan Attoe -- is being showcased in the museum's corresponding exhibit through Sept. 14. Brian Libby, The Oregonian
6/13/08 Contemporary Northwest Art Awards to Open at The Portland Art Museum. This summer, the Portland Art Museum proudly presents the inaugural Contemporary Northwest Art Awards. Developed to honor emerging and nationally under-recognized professional artists living in the Northwest, this dynamic special exhibition of recent and new work by the award recipients — Dan Attoe, Cat Clifford, Jeffry Mitchell, Whiting Tennis, and Marie Watt — is at the core of the Museum’s summer program. The exhibition presents a unique opportunity for visitors to experience the diversity of contemporary art thriving in the region and to gain a deeper understanding of the artists’ concerns and creative practices. Art Daily
6/9/08 Arts Partners gets a leader. Arts Partners, the important and under-recognized by the press arts initiative, has named a governing chair, Carol R. Smith. Sponsored by the Regional Arts & Culture Council, Arts Partners is trying to do something quite important: Instill arts education -- and ultimately, appreciation -- in Portland area schools. D.K. Row, The Oregonian
6/5/08 Art at the Hotel Modera. One of the amenities of the new Hotel Modera is the art. A lot of art. Local artist William Park had an impressive show of paintings last month at Mark Woolley Gallery called "Life Is Good," which fused colorful abstraction with wildlife portraiture. But it's arguable that the acclaimed Park's best recent work is on view more permanently down the street from Woolley's space, as part of the dilapidated former Days Inn City Center's transformation into the chic Hotel Modera. Brian Libby, The Oregonian
6/5/08 Portland City Council approves $3.1 billion budget. Money is freed up for projects favored by Mayor Tom Potter as well as those of Mayor-elect Sam Adams. Portland City Council members have unanimously approved a new budget that offers something for everyone, but also increases the city's debt heading into uncertain financial times. The $3.1 billion spending plan includes cash to build a new center for domestic violence victims, provide cops and other emergency workers with new radios and computers, and establishes a rainy day fund to lessen the impact of potential cuts in coming years. Anna Griffin, The Oregonian
5/26/08 Kids create films at crossroad of art, science. < Documentary Explorers Camps with Northwest Documentary Arts & Media and OMSI's Science Camps When: July 13-24 (Redwoods), Aug. 10-21 (central Oregon). > OMSI and a nonprofit give teens a challenge: spend a week, do the research, produce a documentary. A few months ago now, on the same night as the Academy Awards, a special screening took place at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, a cookies-and-punch celebration of youth-made documentaries that, on close examination, revealed some pretty experimental fare. Inara Verzemnieks, The Oregonian
5/22/08 Washington County plan trims budget Fiscal year. Commissioners help the homeless and give themselves a raise. Washington County's budget committee gave a little more money to the arts and to homeless programs Thursday before approving a budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year that is 3.1 percent less than the current spending plan. The panel added $5,000 to the $85,000 budgeted for the Regional Arts & Culture Council, less than the $125,000 the group wanted. The committee also set aside $100,000 for homeless programs after hearing from several advocates, including the Interfaith Committee on Homelessness. Kathleen Gorman, The Oregonian
5/21/08 Mayor-elect will keep his job as culture czar. Sam Adams still pitching his idea that the arts are essential to Portland’s future. City Commissioner Sam Adams told supporters Tuesday night that as mayor he would continue his interest in the city's arts and culture scene. As the clock struck midnight Tuesday, incoming Portland Mayor Sam Adams enjoyed a late meal with friends and associates at the Doug Fir Lounge, which made perfect sense. As a city commissioner, and before that as chief of staff to former Mayor Vera Katz, Adams has advocated creativity as a key component in Portland’s economic health. Eric Bartels, Portland Tribune
5/21/08 Adams as Mayor: What does it mean for the arts? Will Sam be good for the arts? Sam Adams will be Portland's next mayor. He won in a landslide over travel agency owner and goodwill ambassador Sho Dozono last night. Adams has been a big arts supporter during his tenure as a city commissioner. But how will he frame a discussion on the arts and support for the arts as mayor? Go here to read an interview I did with Sam a few years ago. How much has he accomplished since then? D.K. Row, The Oregonian
5/13/08 Robert Rauschenberg: 1925-2008. Robert Rauschenberg, the extraordinarily influential artist whose humanity and generosity touched artists across the world, including the Portland art community, died Monday evening at his home in Florida. He was 82. The cause of death was not announced. The 20th century might have produced better individual sculptors, painters, photographers and printmakers. But no one, except perhaps Marcel Duchamp and Pablo Picasso, embraced the range of art processes, materials and philosophical possibilities that Rauschenberg did. By challenging the boundaries of what an artwork could be, Rauschenberg expanded the imagination itself. (Robert Rauschenberg is survived by his son Chris Rauschenberg, Portland resident and co-founder of Blue Sky Gallery). D.K. Row, The Oregonian
5/13/08 Commissioners gird for city budget battle. Wednesday’s meeting on an ‘alternate budget’ could produce fireworks. The latest battle at City Hall is about to erupt as commissioners Sam Adams and Randy Leonard plan to propose an alternate budget for next year to the City Council on Wednesday. It would replace the one proposed by Mayor Tom Potter, which was previewed at a community budget forum on May 8 and had been set for approval Wednesday morning, May 14, at 9:30 a.m. in Council Chambers. The alternative budget would add millions of dollars for art, transportation and social service programs not included in Potter’s budget. Jennifer Anderson, Portland Tribune
5/9/08 Meet the dynamos who make Portland's art music snap and crackle. Four who are scene-shifting classical musicians talk about why they came to Portland, and why "a big small town" can be a more promising place than bigger Seattle for an art-music revolution. Stephen Marc Beaudoin, Crosscut
4/28/08 Talking With. Cynthia Kirk, the communications manager for the Oregon Cultural Trust moved to Sherwood from New York City several years ago and spends her days working as an advocate for the state’s unique arts and culture funding mechanism. Imagine asking a New Yorker what she likes best about living in Sherwood. Kelly Moyer, Sherwood Gazette
4/25/08 Sellwood school loses art. Elective not a choice unless cash found to fund half-time post beginning intermediate art class at Sellwood Middle School. Capps is retiring from teaching there, and her art classes may go with her due to budget cuts. As the Portland Public Schools budget winds its way toward approval Monday, parents, teachers and principals across the district are dreading some of the program and staffing losses their schools will feel next year. Jennifer Anderson, The Portland Tribune (reprinted in Sellwood Bee)
4/24/08 An absence of vision for Portland's future. (Op-Ed by Chris Colemen, Artistic Director of Portland Center Stage) T he first time I heard a mayor address the relationship of the budgeting process to a city's future, it was Maynard Jackson, the first African American mayor of Atlanta in 1991. He said, "If you want to understand a city's priorities for its future, look at the budget. That's what matters." So it was pretty disappointing to search through Mayor Tom Potter's latest (and final) spending plan for the city of Portland. After four years of asking everyone within hearing distance what the vision for our future should be, this mayor produced a budget that lacks, well, vision. I'm particularly struck by the complete absence of leadership in funding for the arts. Sure, there's a 10 percent increase for the Regional Arts and Culture Council ($309,000) -- and after a public outcry, the mayor on Wednesday added another $150,000 for Arts Partners. But that doesn't even get the agency back to its 2000 funding level. And it still means that Portland-area arts organizations will receive about 2.1 percent of their funding from government sources -- about half the national average. The Oregonian
4/23/08 Meet the Contenders: Race for Commissioner Seat #2. This will be our second to last question, as ballots go out so very soon. Given the earlier-today news that the mayor has restored some arts funding to the proposed budget, it’s slightly out of date. But we’re still behind when it comes to arts funding! In a year with $33 million in additional revenue to work with, Mayor Tom Potter’s proposed budget did not include any funding for new arts related requests—like a $200,000 request for Arts Partners, which funds art programs in schools. Moreover, despite Portland’s reputation for arts and culture, we’re far behind other cities in per capita funding of arts. Are the arts a priority for city funding? Should we increase that funding? If so, what would you do as a city commissioner to make that happen? Amy Ruiz, Portland Mercury
4/16/08 Potter's budget snubs mayoral candidate's pet projects. For fiscal 2008-09, the mayor wants to upgrade services and infrastructure before the economy worsens. Portland Mayor Tom Potter rolled out his final city budget Tuesday with two messages, one direct and one more subtle. The direct one: The good times we've enjoyed for several years are at an end, and it's time for city leaders to get serious about preparing for a rainy day that appears right around the corner. To that end, Potter wants to use the city's $33 million surplus -- money from tax revenues that rose above projections -- to shore up basic services, starting with replacing aging radios and computers used by police and first responders. He wants to help women recover from domestic abuse and make sure schoolchildren in one of Portland's long-ignored neighborhoods don't get hit by cars on their way to class. Anna Griffin, The Oregonian
4/14/08 PNCA lands Goodman building, donations. Oregon art school gets three $1 million gifts. Less than a month after it snapped up, for free, a historic building through a special government-sponsored education transferral, the Pacific Northwest College of Art has completed another stunning coup. During a gala for patrons and trustees Saturday at its Pearl District campus, Oregon's flagship art college announced three historic developments that assure its future as a Pearl District arts force, events that also clarify and resolve several intriguing plotlines of the past year. The college has reached an agreement with the family of the late Edith Goodman to buy the main building on its campus, a 65,000 square-foot structure that occupies the block between Northwest 12th and 13th avenues and Johnson and Kearney streets. The college also publicly launched a historic capital campaign targeting $32 million in pledges by the end of June 2009, when the college celebrates its centennial. D.K.Row, The Oregonian
4/3/08 Handmade bicycle exhibit opens at Portland, Oregon, airport. Handmade bicycle exhibit opens TODAY at PDX. More than three million airline passengers are expected to see the showcase of frames designed and built in Oregon. Starting April 3 and running through early October, ten custom bicycles will be on display at Portland International Airport’s artOBJECTS showcase in Concourse E. The bikes, all created by Oregon builders, demonstrate a combination of engineering skills, precision metal craftsmanship, cutting edge design, and a passion for cycling shared by the represented bike builders. The ten examples on display represent only a few of the builders working in Oregon, but they share the common goal of providing a one-of-a-kind, hand-crafted machine that is both a unique ride and a functional work of art. Velo News
4/2/08 Portland artists need unified voice. Momentum for the arts can be sustained only when musicians, sculptors, painters and other creative types figure out a way to work together for their greater good. During an art show last month at a Pearl District bank lobby, those who came to gaze at the portraits painted by a Portland artist named "Mo" were also treated to performances by poets, singers and positive hip-hop rappers. So when one of the musicians had a CD release party last week at a Northwest Portland bar, Mo also painted live a 3-by-5 foot piece of art, which was raffled to help raise money for art scholarships at Portland State University. Thursday evening, the multiracial collaborative, called Artists 4 The Community, will open its third First Thursday season at Albina Community Bank, 430 N.W. 10th Ave. All who participate are asked to collect donations for a charity of their choice. S. Renee Mitchell, The Oregonian
March, 2008 In Mid-Career Professional Development: Long-Term Asset or Short-Term Liability?, the second of a two part series (see Fall 2007 issue for the first installment), Victoria Saunders continues the exploration of what it means to be a mid-career arts and culture professional today. In this issue Saunders completes her analysis of feedback received from surveyed arts and culture professionals working at a stage in their lives in which they feel both committed to the cause of moving the arts forward in society yet stuck in a static career. Saunders then addresses possible solutions for mid-career burnout including rejuvenation and renewal through career development, professional coaching, and sabbaticals. CultureWork
3/31/08 Gift a plum for PNCA. A $1 million endowment advances the college's bold agenda. The Pacific Northwest College of Art continues its ascent to become more than Portland's modest art college in the Pearl District. Today, in the midst of extraordinary physical expansion and programmatic change, the college will announce its latest coup: a $1 million endowment gift from Ed Cauduro, the reclusive art collector and patron. DK Row, The Oregonian
3/28/08 Portland's DIY Listening Experience. The third Thursday of every month, a little group gathers at the Waypost, a coffee house in North Portland, for something called a listening party, which turns out to be exactly what it sounds like: For half an hour, everyone sits quietly with a glass of beer or a cup of chai and simply listens. In this case, to a radio show and podcast called "DIY, Portland," hosted by 27-year-old Julie Sabatier (funded in part by a RACC Project Grant). Inara Verzemnieks, The Oregonian
3/27/08 Red Ink: Local Gallery Owes Thousands To Artists. And Some Are Pissed. When City Arts LLC opened at 902 SW Morrison St. in November 2006, hopes were high that the gallery could be like Saturday Market with a roof. But after just 14 months, City Arts LLC owners were three months behind on their $4,000 monthly rent to the city and owed $10,000 to artists. Lillian Hogan, Willamette Week
3/21/08 Arts council offers encouragement, but not funds for ‘Parkrose Triangle.' Parkrose business people and neighbors have worked diligently over the past year to clean up the overgrown – and, frankly, unsightly – large traffic island where Northeast Sandy Boulevard crosses Northeast Killingsworth Street. After days of backbreaking work, these volunteers transformed this plot of land into the beautifully landscaped “Parkrose Triangle.” And, they prepared a large, concrete pad on which they plan to mount a display of public art – such as a statue or sculpture – that would be changed out every year or so. With this in mind, members of the Parkrose Business Association welcomed Eloise Damrosch, executive director of the Regional Arts & Culture Council, to their general membership meeting not long ago. David Ashton, The Gresham Outlook.
3/12/08 Two more promising new arts groups in Portland. KO & Co., a dance troupe, and Portland Vocal Consort strut their stuff in a city that is spawning many new companies. The performances, however, left our critic feeling a little stranded. I was sitting next to a prominent Portland arts administrator, and we were having that typical post-concert sort of non-conversation: speaking in broad generalities, averting our eyes, avoiding the subject of the concert itself (a newish chamber choir, which we’d both just heard). Stephen Marc Beaudoin, Crosscut, online news of the Great Nearby
3/10/08 New Yorkers connect with MK Guth's braid project at Whitney Biennial. The opening weekend of the prestigious Whitney Biennial found Portland artist MK Guth basking in a national spotlight. Strands of the braid, each representing a different city from its tour of the country in December and January, extend from a central hub.Her work, a massive and ever-growing braid of artificial gold hair and red ribbons called "Ties of Protection and Safe Keeping," was featured prominently on the cover of the New York Times' Weekend Arts section. Throngs of art fans showed up to engage with the piece, writing on the ribbons their answer to the question "What is worth protecting?", which were then incorporated into the braid. Grant Butler, The Oregonian
3/7/08 Dreamers + Builders. Portland is a hotter commodity today than at any other time in history. The New York Times loves our restaurants. Others in the media rave about our bike lanes, indie rock bands and, most of all, our forward-thinking "green" lifestyle. In short, they love the city itself -- its culture and how it's put together. The connecting thread in this Portland renaissance is design. Maybe we don't have many individual works of illustrious architecture attracting attention like our larger West Coast neighbors. But instead, Portland has created for itself a great city. And that comes back to the men and women who dream and build it. Brian Libby, The Oregonian
3/3/08 Making art, creating community. The day after Ben Pink graduated from Portland State University with a major in fine art, he woke up in his Southeast Portland home and realized he had no idea how to make a living. "I hadn't learned anything about how to approach a gallery or put together a portfolio, and there wasn't a community of artists who could help me," says the 31-year old New York native. Across town, a juvenile advocate, Joy Leising, and an art therapist, Beth Ann Short, were getting fed up with trying to help people from within a restrictive institution. In yet another part of the city, Adrienne Fritze was growing weary of her career in advertising and technology. "I was making lots of money, and I was depressed," she says. What she really wanted to do was to pursue her main passion in life: the arts. D.K. Row, The Oregonian
3/3/08 New gigs for former Portland Art Center heads. Gavin Shettler and Kelly Rauer, former executive director and programs director of the now-defunct Portland Art Center, have landed new gigs in the local art scene. Both start their new jobs today. Shettler is creative director for nascent live-work development Milepost 5, and Rauer is working on a special project with the Heidi McBride Gallery and Art Consultancy. Richard Speer, Willamette Week
2/29/08 Film Action Oregon and Box Office Tickets Launch Local Ticketing Network. Film Action Oregon (FAO) and Box Office Tickets Inc. (BOT) have teamed up to provide a community box office solution for Portland area organizations -- the PDX Ticket Network(TM). Now, local Portland organizations can sell tickets over the Internet and offer their patrons walk-up services 7 days a week, through the FAO-staffed office at the Hollywood Theatre -- all at no charge to their organization. The Earth Times
2/27/08 The End of the Affair. On the heels of last week’s announcement that the Affair at the Jupiter Hotel art fair has been indefinitely canceled, the Jupiter Hotel co-owners Kelsey Bunker and Tod Breslau report that they are in discussions with local art-world figures, exploring options for mounting a new fair, unaffiliated with Affair co-directors Stuart Horodner and Laurel Gitlen. Richard Speer, Willamette Week
2/20/08 The Jupiter Hotel's art affair breaks up after four years. Scene changes - With other fairs to choose from, the art world's just not that into Portland, but the event may find a suitor with cash. On Monday afternoon, organizers Stuart Horodner and Laurel Gitlen told The Oregonian that Portland's annual art fair at the chic Jupiter Hotel on East Burnside won't be happening a fifth time in September. That ends a popular event with an influence that extended beyond the local art scene: The Jupiter fair projected Portland artists outside the city and attracted galleries and artists from other cities. Its closure is a blow to the city's art world ecology, and many still want it to continue without its organizers. D.K. Row, The Oregonian
2/1/08 Quest for fire. James Lavadour fuses a reverence for landscape, native culture, Expressionism and American jazz in paintings that transcend a single category. You will be awed: 12 painted panels of Oregon's majestic Blue Mountains, each one varying in its representative qualities and clarity. Some are blurred renderings of the land, overlaid by spurts and droplets of paint. Others are abstract geometric structures, topped by fuzzy contours of soil and stone. D.K. Row, The Oregonian
1/23/08 Experts: Not all art thefts can be linked to drugs. January hasn't been the kindest month for art made of valuable metals in Oregon. In Portland, a security guard and her boyfriend stand accused of chopping up and trying to sell two large sculptures taken from a private estate to a local scrap yard. Meanwhile, at Fort Clatsop, police are looking for clues in last weekend's theft of a 5-foot-tall bronze statue of Sacagawea and her baby Jean Baptiste Charbonneau. Scrap metal has become a red-hot commodity among thieves, police say. It's "coin of the realm" in the criminal underworld, they say, where any kind of metal that doesn't attract a magnet and can be easily melted down can be exchanged for quick cash. Joseph Rose, The Oregonian
1/18/08 The Lowdown. Arts Partners is a collaborative initiative to bring arts education to every student in the Portland metropolitan area. This effort is a systemic approach intended to address the inequity in delivery of arts services to the children of our community. The emerging vision – arts resources for every school and integration of arts and culture into every elementary classroom in the tri-county area. The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) is the convening partner. Portland Metro Arts Partners Intitative.
1/16/08 Pacific Northwest College of Art Launches FIVE Idea Studios. Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) announced today the launch of Idea Studios as the leadoff program of the College's recently established Ford Institute for Visual Education (FIVE). Idea Studios premieres February 16, 2008 with a talk by James Turrell, MacArthur Award winning light and space artist, followed on February 29 with a lecture by Jacques Rancière, influential philosopher, critic and political theorist. PR Web.
RACC Staff to Contact
Mary Bauer
Communications Associate
503.823.5426
mbauer@racc.org
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