Night Lights, RACC’s outdoor public art series, continues its 2018-19 season with Megan Mckissack’s Untitled work on February 7 at 5:30pm. Mckissack’s Night Lights work was inspired by the current Presidential Administration’s deletion of climate data. Mapping and generating visualizations of Oregon LIDAR point cloud data from the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries and […]

by Anthony Hudson Art & Power panelist The next time a white Portlander proudly and publicly identifies as a “Native Portlander” or a “Native Oregonian,” ask them what Tribe – and then watch their brain paint itself into a corner. These “Native Portlanders” are the same Native Portlanders that say to me, “I was wondering […]

What an exciting month it’s been since we announced Madison Cario as the Regional Arts & Culture Council’s incoming Executive Director come January 2019! Madison is joining us from Atlanta, Georgia, where they served as the inaugural Director of the Office of the Arts at the Georgia Institute of Technology. While Madison will be making […]

Our outdoor public art event series, Night Lights, will feature Roland Dahwen and Stephanie Adams-Santos in December! Happening on December 6 at 5pm, Dahwen and Adams-Santos will present Three Moons/Tres Lunas/3つの月, a two-channel video installation and altar, dedicated to, and made alongside, our elders. In conjunction with the video and text projections, the artists will build several temporary altars. […]

How Kathleen Lane is working with youth to understand anxiety as a universal human experience by Lokyee Au, Communications Manager It’s estimated that we create anywhere between 50,000 to 70,000 thoughts a day. These tens of thousands of thoughts running through our head every day have the ability to reinforce, dictate, or alter our actions, […]

Local artists channel Día de Muertos in next installment of Fresh Paint, a temporary murals program October 17, 2018 — PORTLAND, OR – Passersby can now see the newest work-in-progress from Fresh Paint, a temporary murals program, on the exterior wall of Open Signal: Portland Community Media Center on NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard […]

Night Lights, RACC’s outdoor public art event series continues with local artists Roesing Ape and Beth Whelan. Following a successful kickoff to the series with Laura Median’s Flying in October, the next Night Lights event will take place on November 1st at 6PM. Titled Windows 11, Ape and Whelan’s work involves a minimalist dance piece inside an architectural projection of […]

by Paul Susi I am a Portland native, the son of immigrants and a person of color. I am the Co-Chair of the Multnomah County Cultural Coalition; I am the Artistic and Executive Director of Portland Actors Ensemble / Shakespeare in the Parks; I am a Conversation Project Facilitator for Oregon Humanities; I serve as […]

by Roshani Thakore As a student in a Master’s of Fine Arts Program focused on art in the public spheres, the accessibility to the various arts communities within Portland has been extremely welcoming and exciting since I landed here a year ago after 18 years in New York City. The most invigorating, inspiring, and complex […]

by Celeste Noche Almost five years ago, I moved to Portland because it was renown for its creative community (and it’s cute af, but that’s neither here nor there). I wanted to brave a career in photography, and after years of failing to connect with other artists in San Francisco, I thought Portland would be […]

by Roya Amirsoleymani To be asked to address the “state of the arts” in Portland is a welcome invitation, and at the same time an arguably flawed frame of reference and impossible task. No single individual can be in comprehensive or equal relationship to the breadth of formal and informal organizations, institutions, cultures, and communities […]

Fall is a time of transition, and while for some it signals a movement into winter dormancy, for us at the Regional Arts & Culture Council, this transition signals a time of cultivation and growth. In the past few months, we welcomed a crew of new faces to RACC, and already they are making connections, creating […]

If you’re around the Foster Powell Neighborhood in Portland, you may have caught a new mural going up at Essex Park on SE 76th and Center St. during the weekend of September 22 and 23. Artist team Rather Severe (Travis Czekalski and Jon Stommel) is heading the mural painting, with design and painting help provided […]

Night Lights, RACC’s outdoor public art event series, is back for five months with local artists/collectives projecting their digital media works onto RACC’s building for several hours starting at dusk. Now in its fourth year, Night Lights is a unique event series that celebrates and highlights the intersections of digital technology, art, and place. Laura […]

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has shuffled some of the City of Portland’s bureau and liaison assignments, and on September 4 Commissioner Chloe Eudaly will become the RACC liaison and arts commissioner. A strong advocate for culture and creativity, Commissioner Eudaly is no stranger to the arts. She has owned and operated an independent bookstore featuring […]

On July 1, Linda McGeady became RACC’s new board chair, succeeding Mike Golub who will serve as Chair Emeritus until June 30, 2019. McGeady is originally from Belfast, Ireland, and became a US Citizen 18 years ago; being involved in Portland’s arts community has been an important part of her life here.  She serves on […]

How do a regional arts and culture organization and a Latinx economic and community development organization intersect? Months ago, RACC and the Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber (HMC) first met to discuss partnering and what that would look like. Together, we asked this question, and the answer was right there: our commitment to the creative and entrepreneurial […]

by Jeff Hawthorne Interim Executive Director June is coming to an end, and so too is RACC’s 2017-2018 fiscal year. Now is a good moment, before a new fiscal year begins on July 1, to ruminate on RACC’s past and present, and what that means for our future. A year ago this week, we celebrated […]