RACC has awarded $444,861 in project grants to 43 artists and 45 nonprofit organizations. These grants are funded by a combination of public and private investments, including the City of Portland’s general fund, the city’s Arts Tax, Multnomah County, Clackamas County, Washington County and Metro. Additional funding comes from RACC’s workplace giving campaign, Work for Art, and proceeds from RACC’s summer fundraising event, “In the Garden of Artistic Delights.”
“There are so many creative ways that local artists and nonprofit organizations are building connections between cultures, entertaining and inspiring us, and addressing important civic issues,” said interim executive director Jeff Hawthorne. “We are thrilled to invest in such a wide variety of projects, and I am especially delighted to see that 65% of the individuals receiving awards this year, and 27% of the organizations, are first-time Project Grant recipients. That’s a great reflection of our ever-evolving community.”
As part of its ongoing focus on equity and inclusion, RACC has established a goal of directing at least 30% of its programs and resources to culturally specific communities and people of color. In this round of project grant awards, 29% of the funded individual artists identify as people of color—the largest percentage since RACC began tracking this data in 2010. RACC is still working to quantify the cultural identity of organizations and to measure the demographics of their audiences.
“We are excited to be making progress,” Hawthorne said, “but there is still much work to do.”
A total of 197 grant requests were evaluated by peer review panelists who were organized by discipline and tasked to assess the artistic merit, public access, community impact and financial viability of each proposal. “We continue to engage new community members in our grant review process,” said Helen Daltoso, RACC’s grants director. “This year 32 artists, arts administrators and creatives participated in nine panels, and the vast majority of them were new to this role. We couldn’t do this work without them.”
The RACC Board of Directors unanimously approved all panel recommendations on December 13, with awards in three categories: Artistic Focus, Arts Equity & Access, and Arts Services.
Artistic Focus projects help artists realize their vision, and help organizations support their artistic mission. Examples funded in this round include $6,150 for Ropa Vieja, a fashion show and book launch presented by the multicultural collaboration “cvllejerx,” Angelica Milan and Maximiliano Martinez; $1,315 for Stacey Tran’s ongoing storytelling series Tender Table about food, family, and identity featuring women and gender non-conforming people of color; and $4,815 to Corrib Theatre for their production of Quietly, a play presenting a powerful scenario of truth and resolution in present day Northern Ireland.
Arts Equity & Access grants support programs and services with a strong community engagement component, including festivals, arts education projects, and programs that expand arts experiences for underserved communities. World Stage Theatre is receiving $6,500 to lead a city-wide Black History Festival in February in locations spanning as far east as Troutdale and west to Beaverton. Jeffrey Thompson will be leading his “Stay Sharp” drawing for life workshops at an assisted living facility in North Portland for seniors with his award of $5,596. Pacific Youth Choir will continue their outreach choir classes at two neighborhood elementary schools with their $6,500 award, with high school age student mentors, field trips, and a series of concerts.
Arts Services grants include projects that provide professional development opportunities for the arts community, including workshops or conferences. In this category, PDX Puppet Collective and the Secret Knowledge conference will be receiving funding to provide training programs that provide artistic growth for participants.
Project grants, which had been offered only once a year, are now available three times per year. The next project grant deadline is February 7. Grant orientations to be held: 1/18, 25, 30, 31. The next project grant deadline is February 7. Guidelines and orientation RSVP can be accessed at
racc.org/grants/project-grants.
A complete list of project grants appears below, and more detailed summaries of each grant are available at http://bit.ly/2CBoGra (PDF).
RACC project grants for individuals, December 2017
Note: (*) denotes Clackamas County applicants, and (**) denotes Washington County based applicants. All other applicants are based in Multnomah County
Submission Title | Project Type | Discipline | Award |
Ezekiel Brown | Artistic Focus | Media Arts | $5,600 |
Tamara Carroll | Artistic Focus | Theatre | $5,120 |
Srijon Chowdhury | Artistic Focus | Visual Arts | $6,300 |
Kindra Crick | Artistic Focus | Visual Arts | $5,569 |
Lori Damiano | Artistic Focus | Literature | $3,750 |
Marico Fayre | Artistic Focus | Visual Arts | $4,285 |
Josh Feinberg ** | Artistic Focus | Music | $5,600 |
Jon Garcia | Artistic Focus | Media Arts | $7,000 |
Jared Goodman | Artistic Focus | Multi-Discipline | $1,715 |
Allie Hankins | Artistic Focus | Multi-Discipline | $3,943 |
Megan Hanley | Artistic Focus | Visual Arts | $3,222 |
Wayne Harrel | Artistic Focus | Theatre | $4,474 |
John Akira Harrold | Artistic Focus | Multi-Discipline | $5,216 |
Megan Haupt | Artistic Focus | Music | $6,300 |
Jennifer Kim | Arts Equity & Access | Literature | $5,250 |
kathleen Lane | Arts Equity & Access | Literature | $5,292 |
Shayla Lawson | Artistic Focus | Multi-Discipline | $5,165 |
Tonya Macalino ** | Artistic Focus | Literature | $3,642 |
Elizabeth Malaska | Artistic Focus | Visual Arts | $5,250 |
Christine Martell ** | Arts Equity & Access | Visual Arts | $5,560 |
maximiliano martinez | Artistic Focus | Visual Arts | $5,900 |
Angelica Millan | Artistic Focus | Multi-Discipline | $6,150 |
Matthew Minicucci | Artistic Focus | Literature | $5,929 |
Stephen O’Donnell | Artistic Focus | Multi-Discipline | $5,250 |
Gabe Ostley ** | Artistic Focus | Literature | $4,725 |
Jayanthi Raman ** | Artistic Focus | Dance/Movement | $5,440 |
Kaia Sand | Artistic Focus | Multi-Discipline | $6,300 |
Bryan Smith | Artistic Focus | Multi-Discipline | $4,200 |
Jennifer Springsteen | Artistic Focus | Literature | $3,096 |
Melanie Stevens | Artistic Focus | Visual Arts | $3,825 |
Jack StockLynn | Artistic Focus | Multi-Discipline | $6,339 |
Shilpa Sunthankar ** | Artistic Focus | Media Arts | $5,600 |
Norman Sylvester | Arts Equity & Access | Music | $6,300 |
Ariella Tai | Artistic Focus | Media Arts | $5,250 |
Kim Taylor Blakemore | Artistic Focus | Literature | $3,123 |
Barbara Tetenbaum | Artistic Focus | Multi-Discipline | $7,000 |
Jeffery Thompson | Arts Equity & Access | Visual Arts | $5,596 |
Stacey Tran | Artistic Focus | Social Practice | $1,315 |
Danielle Weathers ** | Artistic Focus | Theatre | $5,600 |
Damaris Webb | Artistic Focus | Theatre | $6,006 |
Ezra Weiss ** | Artistic Focus | Music | $4,360 |
Ryan Woodring | Artistic Focus | Media Arts | $3,908 |
Jennifer Wright | Artistic Focus | Music | $4,500 |
RACC project grants for organizations, December 2017
Note: (*) denotes Clackamas County applicants, and (**) denotes Washington County based applicants. All other applicants are based in Multnomah County.
Submission Title | Project Type | Discipline | Award |
Architecture Foundation of Oregon | Arts Equity & Access | Visual Arts | $6,282 |
Art Gym at Marylhurst University * | Artistic Focus | Visual Arts | $5,600 |
Artback * | Artistic Focus | Visual Arts | $4,500 |
A-WOL Dance Collective | Artistic Focus | Dance/Movement | $5,600 |
Beaverton Civic Theatre ** | Arts Equity & Access | Theatre | $5,448 |
Big Horn Brass * | Artistic Focus | Music | $2,828 |
Boom Arts Inc. | Artistic Focus | Theatre | $7,000 |
Caldera | Arts Equity & Access | Visual Arts | $5,120 |
Choral Arts Ensemble | Artistic Focus | Music | $3,000 |
Circus Cascadia | Arts Equity & Access | Folk Arts | $5,250 |
Classical Up Close ** | Arts Equity & Access | Music | $5,600 |
Corrib Theatre | Artistic Focus | Theatre | $4,815 |
Creative Music Guild | Artistic Focus | Music | $2,700 |
defunkt theatre | Artistic Focus | Theatre | $6,039 |
Disability Art and Culture Project | Arts Equity & Access | Media Arts | $5,100 |
en Taiko | Arts Equity & Access | Music | $6,300 |
Fear No Music | Artistic Focus | Music | $6,300 |
India Cultural Association ** | Arts Equity & Access | Multi-Discipline | $3,600 |
Live On Stage | Artistic Focus | Theatre | $5,159 |
Mask and Mirror Community Theatre ** | Arts Equity & Access | Theatre | $4,128 |
Media Project | Artistic Focus | Media Arts | $5,250 |
Northwest Animation Festival | Artistic Focus | Media Arts | $6,300 |
Pacific Northwest College of Art | Artistic Focus | Multi-Discipline | $7,000 |
Pacific Youth Choir | Arts Equity & Access | Music | $6,500 |
People-Places-Things LLC | Arts Equity & Access | Literature | $2,160 |
Portland Chamber Music | Artistic Focus | Music | $2,300 |
Portland Community College | Artistic Focus | Literature | $1,675 |
PETE (Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble) | Artistic Focus | Theatre | $7,000 |
Portland Puppet Lab/PDX Puppet Collective * | Arts Services | Theatre | $4,170 |
Prequel Artist Program | Artistic Focus | Visual Arts | $3,488 |
push/FOLD | Artistic Focus | Dance/Movement | $5,250 |
QDoc: Portland Queer Documentary Film Festival | Artistic Focus | Media Arts | $7,000 |
Risk/Reward | Artistic Focus | Multi-Discipline | $7,000 |
Rock Dojo | Arts Equity & Access | Music | $5,108 |
Secret Knowledge | Arts Services | Multi-Discipline | $5,250 |
Signal Fire | Artistic Focus | Literature | $5,250 |
The Library Foundation | Arts Equity & Access | Multi-Discipline | $6,300 |
The Old Church Society Inc. | Arts Equity & Access | Social Practice | $5,250 |
The Vanport Mosaic | Arts Equity & Access | Multi-Discipline | $5,600 |
Viva La Free | Arts Equity & Access | Theatre | $5,536 |
Washington County Cooperative Library Services ** | Arts Equity & Access | Multi-Discipline | $5,600 |
Water in the Desert | Artistic Focus | Multi-Discipline | $6,300 |
Willamette Light Brigade | Artistic Focus | Multi-Discipline | $4,580 |
World Stage Theatre | Arts Equity & Access | Multi-Discipline | $6,500 |
Zoulful Muzic | Artistic Focus | Theatre | $4,160 |