RACC Blog

Help Stop Cuts to the Arts in Oregon

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Issued by the Oregon Cultural Advocacy Coalition on May 4, 2017

We need your help. While legislators work to address budget and revenue challenges, the relatively small budget for the Oregon Arts Commission faces substantial cuts. Current proposed cuts to the commission’s budget of 12% could result in reduced funding in grants for arts organizations of up to 30 percent. Proposals at the federal level to eliminate funding for cultural agencies in FY18 could result in crippling shortfalls in state funding and direct grants to arts, public broadcasting and the humanities. The potential adoption of these federal proposals, combined with potential cuts at the state level, places arts and culture in Oregon at grave risk.

We are asking advocates to use the link below to send a message to their legislators immediately, to ask that they work with their colleagues to restore funding to the Arts Commission and protect Oregon culture.

Thank you for taking the time to act now.

Click the link below to log in and send your message:
https://www.votervoice.net/BroadcastLinks/pktLUadBBD0z7XQtGCY3pQ

Congress Gives the Arts a Funding Boost

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Issued by Americans for the Art on May 1, 2017

Congress has reached a bipartisan agreement on a bill to fund the nation’s federal agencies and programs for the remaining balance of the current FY2017 fiscal year, which ends on September 30, 2017.  None of the nation’s arts and cultural agencies nor programs incurred a budget cut. In fact, many of them received funding increases for this year (see chart below).

Special thanks:

Special thanks to House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Ken Calvert (R-CA) for initiating a funding increase for many of these cultural programs in the House Interior bill and to Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) for matching the funding increases in the Senate version of the bill. Many thanks to Congressional Arts Caucus co-chairs Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and Rep. Leonard Lance (R-NJ) and Senate Cultural Caucus co-chairs Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) for keeping member pressure on Congressional leaders to increase funding for these critically important cultural agencies. Huge thanks to our 350,000 Arts Action Fund members for contacting their Members of Congress, signing our petitions to the White House, and sharing their stories on social media and with traditional media.

Key Federally Funded Arts & Culture Agencies/Programs FY 2016 Enacted Appropriations
(in millions)		 FY 2017 Omnibus Proposal
(in millions)
National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) $148 $150
National Endowment for Humanities (NEH) $148 $150
Assistance for Arts Education through U.S. Department of Education $27 $27
New ESSA Well-Rounded Education grants — $400
Corp for Public Broadcasting (forward funded) $445 $445
Office of Museum Services $31 $32
Smithsonian Institution $840 $863
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum $54 $57
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts $36 $36
U.S. Commission of Fine Arts $2.65 $2.8
Nat’l Capital Arts & Cultural Affairs Program $2 $2
National Gallery of Art $148 $155.5

Next Steps:

  • FY2017:  Both chambers of Congress will next vote on this bipartisan Omnibus Appropriations bill before it proceeds to the President’s desk for him to sign/veto by this Friday, May 5th.  Despite the President recently proposing funding cuts to many of these cultural programs (i.e. $15 million cut to NEA), it appears that he will sign the bill.
  • FY2018:  Please note that the FY2018 appropriations bill for funding the federal government from October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018 is still very much in play and going through the legislative process. This is the bill that the President recommended eliminating the NEA, NEH, IMLS, CPB, etc.  We remain focused on getting all of these agencies fully funded as well in the coming months.

Our #SAVEtheNEA campaign continues to go strong to advance the FY2018 message to Congress and the White House.  Please consider sending a #SAVEtheNEA message to your Congressional delegation as well as supporting our advocacy campaign efforts with a contribution.

Search Committee Finalized

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POSTED ON APRIL 28, 2017.

The search committee has been finalized. The members are:

We continue to encourage broad community participation in our Executive Director Search Survey, open through May 10. An executive summary of our findings will be posted on this page shortly thereafter.

 

Executive Director search update

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The search committee has been finalized. The members are:

We continue to encourage broad community participation in our Executive Director Search Survey, open through May 10. An executive summary of our findings will be posted on this page shortly thereafter.

 

Previous updates:

POSTED ON APRIL 18, 2017 AT 9:12 AM.

The RACC search committee has hired executive search firm Aspen Leadership Group to lead the process to find the successor to outgoing executive director Eloise Damrosch, who will be retiring June 30. The committee considered several search firms and was most impressed with Aspen’s diversity experience, extensive network and impressive track record of high level arts searches, including many successful arts appointments in Oregon.

Aspen Leadership Group’s lead project manager, Anne Johnson, will be in Portland on May 1 and 2 to meet the Search Committee and representatives of RACC staff and the arts community to begin the formal due diligence process. In addition the search committee has just released an online questionnaire, open to anybody interested in providing input on the search for RACC’s next Executive Director. You can participate in the survey here.

 

POSTED ON MARCH 29, 2017 AT 12:37 PM.

With the retirement of our longtime executive director Eloise Damrosch, the RACC board has begun the process of finding her successor. We are committed to a transparent and inclusive search process resulting in the appointment of an outstanding individual to lead RACC into the future and continue to realize our mission of enriching our communities through arts and culture.

The RACC Board has appointed a Search Committee to steward the process of identifying and hiring the new executive director. In April the Search Committee will select an executive search firm who will help us manage the process of identifying, screening, interviewing and recruiting the new ED from a wide and diverse pool of candidates.

In the coming weeks we will be sharing in this space and in correspondence with our many constituents, the job posting, job description and ways to provide input on the search and selection process. There will be many opportunities for comment and suggestions, including a questionnaire, direct contact with the search committee at EDsearch@racc.org and regular progress reports in our newsletter and on the RACC website.

Once a finalist or finalists have been chosen there will be opportunities for community members to meet them and provide feedback to the Search Committee before a final choice is made. We are hopeful to have a new executive director in place late Summer or Early Fall.

We thank you for your ongoing support of RACC and our wonderful arts and culture community. We are excited about this new chapter of RACC and are grateful for your interest and input.

 

POSTED ON FEBRUARY 8, 2017 AT 4:40 PM.

RACC’s executive director Eloise Damrosch announces plans to retire June 30. Read the press release here.

PGE Employees Support RACC with a Day of Service

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On April 21st, PGE employees supported RACC’s Public Art department and volunteered to perform maintenance on the Oregon Holocaust Memorial in preparation for Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Through a variety of public-private partnerships, RACC helps acquire and maintain community-owned artworks in public places. The Oregon Holocaust Memorial is part of the City of Portland’s Public Art Collection and was funded by the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education which donated to the City.

Volunteers helped to hand wash and dry the black polished granite “Memorial Wall”, wash and dry the large plaques, and wash and wax a number of smaller bronze works located on the approach to the memorial wall.

A big thank you from RACC to all of the volunteers from PGE that came ready to work with both care and vigor!

If you are interested in volunteering with RACC you can learn more here.

 

 

 

State of the Arts

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I spoke with a colleague the other day who works at the National Endowment for the Arts where people are soldiering on every day not knowing whether or not they have a future there. I am reminded of how lucky we are here in the Portland region that support for RACC,  and all the artists, arts organizations and arts lovers who count on us, is strong and committed. We would, of course, love for it to be greater, but we rarely worry about its very existence.

Every Spring we report to Portland’s City Council on how we invested general fund dollars during the past year and the impact of allocations to the field. We open our presentation with a surprise performance designed to start on a high note and then we move on to tell our stories. We ask individuals – artists, arts leaders, arts advocates – to testify and share their own accounts of how a RACC grant affected their lives and/or careers. We hear from teachers or students who have benefitted from having art and music teachers back in their schools – thank you voters for the Arts Tax! We celebrate new dollars raised through Work for Art, new public art commissions for our public spaces, new applicants for Arts Equity, Project and Professional Development Grants, informative technical assistance workshops for artists, and new schools added to the Right Brain Initiative.

We also shine a light on some of the results of our Equity and Inclusion work, our deeply held commitment to making RACC reflect the communities we serve and to ensure RACC opportunities are readily available to as many people as we can.

Every year we try to pack the house with people eager to thank City Council for support and to make the case in person that Portland REALLY cares about our arts and culture communities. They are at the heart of who we are as a city and region.

Please join us Thursday May 4th at 2 p.m. at Portland City Hall, 1221 SW 4th, Council Chambers 2nd floor. And bring your friends!

Thank you.

 

RACC launches pilot program for temporary murals

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fresh paint, a temporary mural pilot project, begins in mid-May, 2017- April 2018 as part of a new professional development initiative of RACC’s Public Art Murals programming.

For the first year, three artists have been selected to paint a mural on an area of the exterior west wall of Open Signal, 2766 NE Martin Luther King Blvd., Portland.

Each mural will be up for a period of four months and then painted over in preparation for the next mural. The pilot program is a partnership between RACC’s Public Art Murals program and Open Signal: Portland Community Media.

The selected artists will receive a stipend for their participation and are offered the opportunity to engage with the myriad of resources at Open Signal.  Local artist Molly Mendoza will begin painting in May.

Pochas Radicales presents “Nuestrx espacio; soy otro tú” at the Portland Building Installation Space, May 2 – May 26

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Click here for a Spanish version of this press release.

PORTLAND, ORE – Pochas Radicales, a queer Latinx art collective located in Portland, will present a timely, site specific installation in the exhibition space at the Portland Building beginning May 2. The project, titled Nuestrx espacio;soy otro tú, will transform the compact gallery adjacent to the building lobby into a platform that offers an engaging narrative of a young, queer Latinx living in Portland.

Visitors will immediately recognize the layout and furnishings in the room as something familiar, comfortable, and warm. Upon entering, we are lead into the narrative of the young person that created the space. As visitors contemplate the room’s story, the narrative unfolds and we are taken into the mind of this youth, seeing the world as they do and learning the rhythm of their heart. Entonces—who’s room is this?

“We invite the public, employees of the building, and visitors to interact with the space by entering the room, having a seat and making themselves at home. On designated days, there will be café de olla and pan dulce available for participants to enjoy in communion with the artists. The intention of this installation is to personalize the stories of so many people whose lives go unnoticed because they are often reduced to a flash on the evening news with very little context. We want participants to care about this young person as though they were someone very dear to them. They are young, they are queer, they are Latinx, and their story is worth sitting down and listening to. This person could be me, and they could be you. We are highlighting the power of the self-told narrative, and the precious, often overlooked details of human beings that we share space with at work, in our neighborhoods, and throughout our lives.” –Pochas Radicales

About the Artists: Pochas Radicales works to foster community engagement and social justice through art & activism. The collective was founded by Blanca Stacey Villalobos while she was at Portland State University to build community and support for queer Latinxs. Villalobos, along with Andrea Elena Telles form the heart of Pochas Radicales today and the collective has completed an impressive number of projects in a variety of mediums. In 2016 they received a Precipice Fund grant and worked throughout the year on their project echo/hecho. The project included starting a podcast, remodeling a camper trailer and converting it into a mobile gallery, and curating a 3 day event at the end of the year in which featured numerous artists from across Portland. Pochas Radicales also focuses on creating safe spaces for queer and trans people of color throughout Portland and are constantly working to educate themselves and their communities on ways to uplift themselves and one another. Their work challenges archaic notions of gender and sexuality and embraces, validates, and champions the richness of Latin American diaspora. (The term pocha is slang for a Mexican-American person who blends American and Mexican culture; alternately it is a reclaimed term used with pride to validate place and experience in a diverse North American culture.) pochasradicales@gmail.com

Meet the Artists: Join us for a chance to meet Pochas Radicales and discuss their installation in person at the Portland Building on Tuesday, May 2nd at 4 PM.

Drop in Tuesday Mornings: As a way for community and artists to engage in conversation. all are welcome to stop in for hot drinks and sweets with Pochas every Tuesday from 8:15 am – 9:15.

Viewing Hours & Location The Portland Building is located at 1120 SW 5th Avenue and is open 8 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday. Nuestrx espacio; soy otro tú opens Monday, May 2 and runs through Friday, May 26. For more information on the Installation Space series go to www.racc.org/installationspace.

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The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) provides grants for artists, nonprofit organizations and schools 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.