RACC Blog

Search Update for May 18, 2018

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The RACC board and search committee have fielded several questions in the last few weeks regarding the board’s decision to continue RACC’s search for a new Executive Director. We are grateful to community members for their keen interest in this process, and for asking questions and sharing their points of view.

The RACC board stands by its process and decision to continue the search. More than 40 people – including board, staff and other community members – participated in the vetting of our last round of candidates, which unfortunately did not deliver the end result we hoped for. We are certainly disheartened that when offered the position, the finalist we chose was not able to accept. And although we are committed to transparency throughout this process, we cannot discuss the specific reasons for selecting or not selecting any candidate. If this was an elected position and not a Board appointment, a full public discussion of each candidates’ strengths and weaknesses would be appropriate. As it is, all the candidates asked us to sign non-disclosure agreements so that their current jobs would not be at risk, as is very common when recruiting at the executive level.

Despite this setback, we remain dedicated to hiring an outstanding Executive Director and believe we are following and contributing to best practices for search processes, including:

  • Having a diverse board and search committee;
  • Extensive use of community reviewers;
  • Anti-bias training and equity sessions for the search committee;
  • Careful crafting of the job profile and interview questions to emphasize diversity, equity, inclusion and transparency;
  • Standardization of candidate evaluations;
  • Regular public updates;
  • And above all, a truly deliberative process.  

The search committee has been pared down to five RACC board members (Ozzie Gonzalez, Linda McGeady, Frances Portillo, Alejandro Queral and Steve Rosenbaum) and they will continue to engage the broader group of 40 community members and RACC staff representatives to vet additional candidates as the search continues. We remain open to further comments and critique about our process; the search committee email address is EDsearch@RACC.org.

 

 

The Right Brain Initiative awarded $45,000 grant from National Endowment for the Arts

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PORTLAND, ORE — National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $80 million in grants in its second major funding announcement for fiscal year 2018. Included in this announcement is an Art Works grant of $45,000 to The Right Brain Initiative, the Regional Arts & Culture Council’s (RACC) arts integration program. This generous award will support Right Brain’s innovative, systematic, and equitable approach to arts integrated education in Portland area elementary and middle schools that delivers creative learning experiences through a variety of art forms to teach core subjects like reading, math and science.

The Art Works category is the NEA’s largest funding category and supports projects that focus on the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and/or the strengthening of communities through the arts.

“For the Portland metro area this means that students will experience new ways of learning and find creative ways of demonstrating their knowledge and understanding,” noted Marna Stalcup, RACC Director of Arts Education. “Picture a 6th grader who now understands the water cycle because of a movement experience or a 2nd grader whose writing is ignited through storytelling and puppetry. That’s Right Brain in action.”

This marks Right Brain’s 8th year of funding from the NEA, and is the largest amount the program has been awarded to date. The grant will equip an estimated 1,813 teachers, arts specialists, principals, and teaching artists in the 2018-19 school year with professional development opportunities. By offering education professionals the resources to weave creative thinking into teaching practices, The Right Brain Initiative works toward creating lasting change within our school systems so that students can thrive academically, socially, and artistically.

“The variety and quality of these projects speaks to the wealth of creativity and diversity in our country,” said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. “Through the work of organizations such as The Right Brain Initiative in Portland, Oregon, NEA funding invests in local communities, helping people celebrate the arts wherever they are.”

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The Right Brain Initiative is a sustainable partnership of public schools, local government, foundations, businesses and the cultural community working to transform learning through the arts for all K-8 students in the Portland metro area. Now in its tenth year, Right Brain serves 70 schools and approximately 29,500 students from urban, suburban and rural communities in the Portland area. In fall of 2014, Right Brain released data connecting the program to an above-average increase in student test scores, with greatest results for English Language Learners. Right Brain is a program of the Regional Arts & Culture Council. Operating partners include Young Audiences of Oregon & SW Washington (Residency Partner), Victoria Lukich (Research & Evaluation Partner), and Deborah Brzoska of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Professional Development Consultant). Read more online at TheRightBrainInitiative.org.

The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) provides grants for artists, arts organizations, and artistic projects in Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington Counties; manages an internationally acclaimed public art program; raises money and awareness for the arts through Work for Art; convenes forums, networking events and other community gatherings; provides workshops and other forms of technical assistance for artists; and oversees a program to integrate arts and culture into the standard curriculum in public schools through The Right Brain Initiative. RACC values a diversity of artistic and cultural experiences and is working to build a community in which everyone can participate in culture, creativity, and the arts. For more information visit racc.org.

 

Response: Philip Wolfe

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For the spring 2018 primary election, RACC distributed a questionnaire to all candidates running for Portland City Council; Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington County Boards of Commissioners; and Metro Council. Each candidate was asked five questions on March 13 or 14, and given the opportunity to respond by March 30 when this story was first published.  RACC will continue to publish responses from candidates even after the deadline has passed.

Here are the responses provided by Philip Wolfe, running for Portland City Council, Position 2. All responses are reprinted verbatim from what the candidate sent us on May 1. 

 

 

RACC: In what specific ways have you supported arts and culture in Portland?

PW: I am an artist. I draw, paint, soft pastel, make films, act, dance, photography and so on. I love art. Currently I am employed with Portland Art Museum on board with accessibility task force. I advise architects after viewing the first draft of their drawings on a new building they are planning on building about how to make it more accessible for all. I am so excited and proud to be on their board. I look forward to this project come in fruition.

 

RACC: Artists and arts organizations add measurable value to our region’s economy, our education system and our quality of life. Yet there are a number of pressing needs in Portland that often compete with arts and culture for attention and investment.  How would YOU describe the importance of arts and culture in our community, and what should Portland be doing to support this sector?

PW: Arts and culture is so important because it brings communities together as a part of education, entertainment and appreciation for art. Arts shall receive more funding, not the other way around. All schools shall have arts. Because Portland is the whitest city in the US, racism, sexism, classism, ableism and audism are running amok here in Portland, sadly. Arts and culture is one significant way of ending oppression. I have a big dream of forming a Deaf history month, hopefully next year at the Arts Museum. I basically grew up on stage and that experience made a profound impact on me. Without art, life has no meaning. Simple as that.

 

RACC: The region’s affordability is a serious concern for everyone in our community. What are your plans for making housing and creative spaces more affordable for artists, nonprofit arts organizations and arts-related businesses?

PW: Implement rent control. Tax large corporations. Affordable spaces for local businesses is important and needs support from our city as it promotes economic growth in our city.

 

RACC: The city’s Arts Tax is disliked by some, while 62% of voters approved it. Thanks to the Arts Tax, every K–‐5 student in the City of Portland now as an art, music or dance teacher, and dozens of nonprofit arts organizations are expanding access to the arts by providing free and low–‐cost arts experiences for Portland residents. What changes to the Arts Tax, if any, would you want Portland City Council to consider?

PW: I agree wholeheartedly that Art Tax is very important. City Council shall never remove this tax. I am thinking, why don’t we do more by taxing churches after all they are all about helping the poor? Churches lately feel entitled to discuss politics which shall be separate, while they are tax exempt.

 

RACC: What are some of your other priorities for the City of Portland that would be of interest to artists, arts organizations and arts educators in our community?

PW: I would host forums for all of them to have an opportunity to share ideas, concerns and needs. I will then bring their voices to our table with my team and come up with strategies how we can better support them. We need to stop buying developers from building more buildings and focus on priorities. We need to stop from freeways expanding and focus on other means of transportation, require all public buses go electric. We need to focus on filling the gaps in Portland to make it more accessible. I love the fact that Portland has many art festivals, however with renting space is very expensive. I think we should take a look at this and figure out how we can better support locals as surviving a new local business is brutal. I strongly object City wanting to take cannabis tax and invest in police.

“Not About Us Without Us”

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RACC’s new Art & Power conversation series kicks off with discussion of Cultural Appropriation in the Arts

by Humberto Marquez Mendez

 

“What is the historical and cultural framework which informs your art practice?”

This question by Anna Vo kicked off the series and set the stage for an evening of critical thinking, personal reflection, and discussion of covert racism in the arts.

What is Art & Power? Art & Power is RACC’s newest conversation series that centers and explores the experiences of artists from historically marginalized communities through themes of creative expression and power structures. As an organization invested in furthering arts equity, we are committed to the full scope of this work, to hold ourselves accountable, and to actively seek out, listen, and fully engage in dialogue with those often left out of the dominant narrative. Art & Power is rooted in this philosophy and came out of actively listening to artists of color and others who have not always felt supported by or connected to arts and cultural institutions.

Facilitated by Anna Vo, an artist with years of experience facilitating equity and trauma-informed trainings around the world, our first conversation examined cultural appropriation and how it appears in the arts. Vo led us through concepts including tokenism, fetishization, commodification, white-savior complex, corporate co-optation, and cultural exploitation. Participants collectively defined these terms, and were given time to reflect on how they have directly experienced, perpetuated, and/or observed how they appear in our communities.

So what is cultural appropriation and why is it a problem? Cultural appropriation can be defined as the use of traditional work and art forms from a culture other than your own, stripping off their original meaning, and reducing it to an “exotic” aesthetic. Consequently, appropriation leads to cultural exploitation, where the appropriator benefits from the art form without acknowledging its origins or significance, and does not share the profits or acknowledgement with the communities the art originated from. People perpetuating cultural appropriation, whether intentional or not, adopt elements of a culture, get rewarded for it, and can move on when it’s no longer convenient or interesting. Whereas for people of color, this luxury of choosing what, when, and how to embrace our cultural identity does not exist in the same way.

How can people appreciate the cultures of communities of color without perpetuating an oppressive system? “Not about us without us!” This short but powerful statement, which resonated with RACC staff, highlights the importance of talking with and listening to folks of color. Most importantly, many avenues already exist for anyone to support the work of communities of color and immigrant communities. Ori Gallery, Tender Table, My People’s Market, and IntersectFest are only a few of the many efforts led by artists of color in Portland to create platforms for and showcase their work from their experiences and identities.

We so appreciate the vulnerability and engagement that participants showed that evening for these types of challenging conversations and hope attendees continue the conversation with others. Here at RACC, in addition to holding spaces like this for our communities, staff meet to reflect on the conversations to critically think about and change our systems and practices.  As a regional arts and culture institution, this program is but one of the ways we work to hold ourselves accountable to the diverse communities that we serve.

We also know this is a process for us, and that there is a long road ahead. For artists and arts administrators on this same journey, here are some questions that we have been asking ourselves that may help you navigate this journey:

  • How are we creating safe and honest spaces for artists of color to talk/share/create directly about their own racial perspectives?
  • When artists of color highlight barriers or biases in our practice, how are we listening and responding to them? Do we begin with “I understand” or with “But I’m don’t/not…”?
  • How can we change internal and external expectations of what artists of color create in their art practice?
  • How are we addressing our individual and organizational white-savior complex? How are we building genuine relationships with historically marginalized communities and including them in our program planning?
  • How is our organization perpetuating tokenism with our staff, our board and the artists we serve?
  • What are ways we can shift from acknowledgement to action?

As we continue in holding these intentional spaces for dialogue, we hope you join us! If you would like to learn more about Art & Power or ask questions, please contact Humberto Marquez-Mendez at hmarquezmendez@racc.org.

Art & Power is RACC’s newest conversation series focused on the experiences of historically marginalized communities in the arts to engage in safe and intentional dialogue. These conversations are free and open to the public.

New Mural Imagines the Process of Choosing a Non-Partial Jury

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Working with King School students, Ralph Pugay’s installation is up on the pedestrian walkway to Hawthorne Bridge

A Long Line of Non-Partial Jurors is now installed in the temporary pedestrian walkway along the SW Main Street entrance to the Hawthorne Bridge. This public art mural was created collaboratively between Ralph Pugay as the lead artist and students from the King School Museum of Contemporary Art (KSMOCA) project at MLK Jr School in Northeast Portland.

Before this project’s creation, lead artist Ralph Pugay sat in on Judge Nan Waller’s presentation to students at MLK Jr School on her experience being a judge. Pugay, having never gone through the experience of being a juror for a case, found it interesting to imagine how the process of picking a non-partial jury worked. Assuming the student collaborators also have never been through the selection process first-hand, Pugay and the students drew a collection of characters they thought might be able to judge a case in a non-partial manner.

Pugay says, “Looking at all of the drawings, I am excited to see some of the students portraying themselves along with a diversity of other characters who might be different from who they are.” With the students’ images superimposed onto the environment of a courtroom, the now-installed mural is open to the public and can be viewed along the pedestrian walkway along the SW Main Street entrance to the Hawthorne Bridge until early 2020.

You can learn more about Ralph Pugay at ralphpugay.com and KSMOCA at ksmoca.com.

Find more public art pieces around the region by using RACC’s Public Art Search

The Search Continues

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(Posted on April 20, 2018)

On April 11 the RACC Board met and authorized a job offer to an outstanding candidate who was the Search Committee’s unanimous recommendation. Unfortunately, the candidate was unable to accept RACC’s offer due to the needs of a family member that surfaced last-minute.

The RACC Board convened again on April 18 and voted unanimously to continue the search with Koya Leadership Partners and a new search committee of five board members, including two previous search committee members. The composition of the new search committee will be announced next week.

Approximately 50 members of the community participated in the previous process. We will be inviting all previous participants to meet and review additional candidates, likely sometime around July.

We are committed to continuing a process that is accountable, transparent, equitable, and one that listens to the community.

The current job prospectus can be found here: https://koyapartners.com/search/racc-executive-director-21/.  Interested parties who wish to apply or recommend a candidate should contact Koya Leadership Partners.

We welcome your questions/suggestions/ feedback. Contact us at EDsearch@racc.org.

 

 

Response: Greg Malinowski

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For the spring 2018 primary election, RACC distributed a questionnaire to all candidates running for Portland City Council; Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington County Boards of Commissioners; and Metro Council. Each candidate was asked five questions on March 13 or 14, and given the opportunity to respond by March 30 when this story was first published.  RACC will continue to publish responses from candidates even after the deadline has passed.

Here are the responses provided by Greg Malinowski, running for Washington County Commissioner, District 2. All responses are reprinted verbatim from what the candidates sent us on April 11.

 

 

RACC: In what specific ways have you supported arts and culture in Washington County?

GM: I have been a strong supporter of Washington County’s funding for the arts. Two years ago, RACC was provided with $115K, an additional $20K was given last year, and this year we hope to add another 10K. All of the recent increases were directed to Tualatin Valley Creates, which provides workshops for artists and helps connect them with grants and other opportunities. I was also a supporter of the Capital campaign through the county for Bag and Baggage’s new venue in Hillsboro.

RACC: Artists and arts organizations add measurable value to our region’s economy, our education system and our quality of life. Yet there are a number of pressing needs in Washington County that often compete with arts and culture for attention and investment. How would YOU describe the importance of arts and culture in our community, and what should Washington County be doing to support this sector?

GM: Art has the power to inspire individuals and our entire community. Research has clearly shown that children who have a strong arts education tend to do significantly better in other subjects, including science and math. There are real economic benefits too – a study published by the Regional Arts and Culture Council shows that the nonprofit arts and culture sector in the Greater Portland Area generates millions of dollars in economic activity and provides over 11,000 jobs. Yet at the same time, arts programs in most of our schools are severely underfunded, especially those in low-income communities. Artists are our innovators, and as we plan for the future of Washington County we need to make sure that opportunities for artists are not limited only to wealthy schools and neighborhoods. To create equitable access to the arts we will need to generate more funding locally because the legislature is unlikely to act on this anytime in the near future. With a new progressive county commission, I believe Washington County will be well-equipped to take on this challenge.

One approach would be to establish a small percentage, say at least 1% of capital cost in construction or reconstruction, to make sure that public projects dedicate some funding for art installations. Portland recently established a small Arts Tax to support art and music teachers in their schools, and with a more progressive county commission we may be able to refer a similar measure to the ballot. Washington County Kids, a local organization working to increase investment in afterschool programs, has proposed a special district for children’s services which could also be a way to support arts and music in low-income communities. This would also need to go to the ballot. I think the county can make substantial improvements in funding for local arts programs by implementing these kinds of policies.

RACC:  Washington County is currently moving forward with development of a $46 million events center at the Washington County Fairgrounds. Do you believe there is a place for the arts in future development of the fairgrounds site?

GM: Artists should absolutely be included in future development of the fairgrounds. We have incredible artistic talent in Washington County and the event center is an ideal place to highlight it. Our institutions should reflect our culture and diversity; local art can help us express this to fellow community members and visitors. That being said, most of the installations for the main plaza, formerly called the veterans plaza, have been cut because of budget constraints. This is one reason I like the idea of requiring 1% of construction costs on public projects to be dedicated for art projects. That way, if something has to be cut, art projects are not eliminated.
Washington County does not currently have a percent-for-art program. Would you support the development of a program to support more art at public facilities?

GM: A percent-for-art program would create more opportunities for artists to be a part of the legacy of Washington County. As noted above, I would be very supportive of this type of measure, especially if we could ensure that local art is prioritized.

RACC: What are some of your other priorities for Washington County that would be of interest to artists, arts organizations and arts educators in our community?

GM: Right now, we have 72,000 people who make $21 an hour or less and commute into Washington County for their jobs, and for many, this is simply because they cannot afford to live in the communities where they work. Teachers, including arts educators, understand this problem well. It is unacceptable that the people we trust with our children’s education are being priced out of the neighborhoods they nurture. Instead of building affordable housing on the edges of our county where the transportation infrastructure cannot sustain rapid growth, and farther from where most of our jobs are, I want to rezone old commercial lots for mixed residential-commercial use along major roads like TV Highway. If folks are closer to the heart of the county, it will be less difficult to connect them with public transportation and other neighborhood services. Allowing more residents to live closer to their workplaces means that they can spend less time on the road and more time creating a better life for themselves, their loved ones, and their communities.