Advocacy & Community Engagement

Helping Hands, David Flores

Building and encouraging support for a strong arts and culture community and ecosystem. Embedded into RACC, we actively promote increased arts funding at all levels, encouraging more private sector giving; connecting artists to opportunities, and organizations to artists and creatives, through an equitable lens.

● Reduce and eliminate barriers to access and promote equity in the arts and culture through support and
promoting among city, state, and federal officials

● Encourage the expansion of the role of arts in community services, especially in health and recovery

● Foster, build, and grow partnerships and collaborations with community leadership in local, state, and
national arts and culture councils, commissions, and committees

● Initiate and support calls to action including state and national legislative initiatives

RACC helps build support for a strong arts and culture community. We actively promote increased arts funding at the local, state, and federal level, while also encouraging more private sector giving.


Advocacy In View


 

Black Portland Matters Art & Placemaking Initiative launches two new projects featuring local photographer Richard Brown and writer Renée Watson

The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) has teamed up with the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) to support local Black-led art projects around the city. Along the median strip on NE Holladay Street, between the Oregon Convention Center and the Hyatt Hotel and parking structure, the temporary public art project that began in 2019, […]

City of Portland Urgency/Stability ARPA Grants Awarded

The Regional Arts & Culture Council has awarded $450,000 to 196 artists through the City of Portland’s Urgency/Stability Support for Artists grant program, a part of the American Rescue Plan: Investing in Portland initiative. The Urgency/Stability program was designed to support artists and other creatives working in the arts who identify as under-served or under-represented, […]

RACC Creative Spotlight: Artist James Enos

Introducing the Regional Arts & Culture Council’s Artist and Organization Creative Spotlight, where we will feature one artist and one organization in consecutive months that have been impacted by the support of programming, training, grants, or other services through RACC, and/or have been nominated for their impact on our community. James Enos was a Make|Learn|Build […]

RACC Responds to SCOTUS ruling on June 24th, 2022: The Overturning of Roe v Wade

The Regional Arts & Culture Council believes that human rights include the rights of women and the right to freedom from oppression. We believe that no one is a second class citizen or resident. We believe that women are equal and should be treated as such. As an arts and cultural non-profit organization we support […]

Change the Conversation About the Arts-AEP6 Now Open

CHANGE THE CONVERSATION ABOUT THE ARTS The arts bring us inspiration and joy, and make our community a beautiful place to live and work. But the arts do so much more.  Portland, Oregon — The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) is pleased to announce its participation in Arts & Economic Prosperity 6 (AEP6), the […]

Fresh Paint Artist Zeinab Saab Reflects On Creating Mural, Benni wa Bennek

First, I would like to thank the members of the Regional Arts and Culture Council and Open Signal projects for this incredible opportunity. I am honored to have been a recipient of this grant, and creating a mural for the first time has been a dream come true. Second, I have to thank my mentor, […]

Artist Zeinab Saab, Pays Homage to Childhood Memories in Fresh Paint Mural

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 6, 2022 Catch the artist at work at Open Signal’s building on NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Artist Zeinab Saab pays homage to the intimacy of porch conversations with their mural Benni wa bennek, now in progress at Open Signal’s building on NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd at Graham […]