RACC Blog

2nd annual “Día de los Muertos” installation at the Portland Building, October 28th – November 4

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PORTLAND, ORE – The Regional Arts & Culture Council is pleased to present the 2nd annual Día de los Muertos installation at the Portland Building beginning October 28th and running through November 4th. This year the display has been organized by muralist Rodolfo Serna. Known for his large collaborative mural projects, Serna is working with young artists from the Boys & Girls Club to create large scale images on the walls while members of Portland’s Mexica Tiahui Aztec Dance Group set up traditionalofrendas (altar) in the center of the exhibition space adjacent to the Portland Building lobby. The Día de los Muertos holiday is focused on commemorating ancestors, family, and friends that have died, and serves to remind us the natural part death plays in the cycle of life. The holiday originated in Mexico, but has expanded over time and is now celebrated throughout the U.S. and beyond.

“This installation is a tradition we bring from across the border that has been part of the indigenous cultures there for thousands of years…we see this as a day and night of reconnecting with our ancestors, the Mexica people; every year we set up an alter in a community space where we can all gather and celebrate.”

– Rodolfo Serna

 

About the Artists:  Rodolfo Serna is a muralist who works in the tradition of his ancestors, he sees the arts as a way of bringing balance and confidence to people’s lives. Serna has created over 30 youth-collaborative murals in greater Portland, joining forces with numerous service organizations, educational institutions, and local businesses in the process. For the last 10 years Serna has worked extensively with at-risk and homeless youth communities in Portland. Mexica Tiahui is a traditional Aztec dance circle established over 10 years ago in Oregon with the mission of continuing the traditions, ceremonies, and culture related to Mexican indigenous roots. The organization carries its educational commitment to communities in the Northwest with the goal of lifting consciousness by focusing on the importance of retaining cultural heritage.

Viewing Hours & Location: The Portland Building is located at 1120 SW 5th Avenue in downtown Portland and is open 8 am to 5 pm, Monday – Friday. The Día de los Muertos installation runs from October 28th through November 4th.

For more information on the Portland Building Installation Space, including images, proposals, and statements for all projects dating back to 1994, go to www.racc.org/installationspace.

Media Alert: Portlandia’s 30th Birthday Celebration on October 8

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MEDIA ALERT AND PHOTO OPPORTUNITY

WHO: RACC, the City of Portland

WHAT: Portlandia’s 30th Birthday

WHEN: Thursday, October 8, 2015 from 12:00pm-1:30pm. Remarks and singing at 12:30pm.

WHERE: The Standard Insurance Plaza, across from the Portland Building on SW 5th between SW Madison and Main

NOTES: Portlandia, the sculptural icon at the Portland Building, is turning 30 years old and the public is invited to attend a free party in celebration of this milestone. Designed and fabricated by Raymond Kaskey, the statue is made of hammered copper sheeting around a steel armature.

Arts Commissioner Nick Fish will act as emcee and former mayor Bud Clark and current mayor Charlie Hales will be on hand to help celebrate. Rose High Bear from Wisdom of the Elders will provide a Native blessing, and Storm Large will sing “Happy Birthday” to the copper goddess accompanied by the fourth and fifth grade school choir from Chapman Elementary School. Other festivities include games, photo opportunities and music from 1985. Refreshments will be served.

Portlandia turns 30 on October 8; community celebration scheduled

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PORTLAND, ORE — The public is invited to attend a free party in celebration of Portlandia’s 30th birthday onThursday, October 8th from noon-1:30pm at The Standard Insurance Plaza across from the Portland Building, 1120 SW 5th Avenue.

Portlandia, designed and constructed by Raymond Kaskey, is made of hammered copper sheeting about the thickness of a dime formed around a steel armature. She took three years to complete and is one-third the size of the Statue of Liberty, the only larger statue of this kind in the nation. The sculpture was funded through the city’s percent-for-art requirement related to the construction of The Portland Building. The building’s architect, Michael Graves, had suggested a statue of Lady Commerce (from Portland’s City Seal) as part of his design for the building; Kaskey won the $198,000 commission and named the sculpture “Portlandia.”  

Upon her completion in 1985, Portlandia was shipped across the country by rail, from Maryland to Oregon, in eight pieces. After being reassembled in a local shipyard, she rode by river barge and truck to her final destination, welcomed by 10,000 Portland residents along the riverbank, streets, and bridges. 

Portland Mayor Charlie Hales, Arts Commissioner Nick Fish, and former mayor Bud Clark will be on hand to help RACC celebrate. Rose High Bear from Wisdom of the Elders will provide a Native blessing, and Storm Large will sing “Happy Birthday” to the copper goddess with students from Chapman Elementary School. Other festivities include games, photo opportunities and ‘80s music. Refreshments will be served. 

“Thirty years ago, Mayor Bud Clark paddled down the Willamette to welcome Portlandia to the City of Roses,” said Commissioner Nick Fish. “I’m proud to join Bud, the great Storm Large, my Council colleagues, the Regional Arts & Culture Council family, and the community to wish our copper goddess happy birthday.”

Portlandia’s 30th birthday party is presented by the Regional Arts & Culture Council, which maintains the city’s public art collection, and is sponsored in part by The Standard and Cupcake Jones.

RACC accepting applications for “Art of Leadership,” a professional development program, through October 26

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Portland, Ore. – The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) is now accepting applications for Art of Leadership, a training program that prepares business professionals to serve on the boards of arts and culture organizations. The Art of Leadership was first established by Business for Culture & the Arts in 2003, and was transferred to RACC in 2015.

Led by internationally acclaimed arts consultant George Thorn, the Art of Leadership series includes six half-day workshop sessions featuring expert speakers, interactive sessions with arts and business leaders and topical information about the challenges facing arts organizations of all sizes. The program also provides opportunities for internships to observe an arts board in session, and a “speed dating” event to meet with organizations that are seeking new board members.

Over the past 12 years, more than 450 people have graduated from the program. Recent graduates serve on the boards of Young Audiences of Oregon & Southwest Washington, Post5 Theatre, Independent Publishing Resource Center and Blue Sky Gallery. Art of Leadership graduates have chaired the boards of Literary Arts, Oregon Children’s Theatre, Write Around Portland, Portland Youth Philharmonic and others.

Tuition is $800 per person, with a $100 discount for companies that participate in Work for Art, RACC’s workplace giving program. A limited number of partial scholarships are also available. The application deadline is October 26 and up to 40 participants will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. The series begins on November 18th and continues through April. For a complete schedule and curriculum guide, and to register online, visit www.racc.org/artofleadership. 

Deanna Pindell’s “Apothecary for the Anthropocene” at the Portland Building Installation Space

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PORTLAND, ORE – The Anthropocene: a term increasingly used to describe a new epoch in which human activity exerts significant influence on global environmental conditions.

This allegorical apothecary installation by artist Deanna Pindell presents a summons to reconsider our heretofore casual relationship with our mortal existence on the planet. Can the looming climate and environmental crisis we appear to be headed for be cured by self-reflection, personal responsibility, and widespread cultural change? To help explore where we stand as a species with the environment that sustains us, Pindell will present viewers with a set of riddles written on the walls of the Portland Building Installation Space. Clues for these riddles come in the form of over 100 mason jars mounted on shelves. Each jar contains a relic, or some form of physical artifact that references a single environmental choice our society has decided to make, consciously or unconsciously—a jar full of genetically modified corn seeds, a tiny bird skull, coupons from Walmart. The riddles and their enigmatic clues are crafted to provoke us into directly considering these decisions, and whether or not, taken together, they accumulate into environmental disaster.

  • Who was number 316? (clue – a jar that contains an ear tag for a “factory cow.”)
  • How to kill an albatross?  (a jar with spent shotgun cartridge wads consumed by sea birds.)
  • Several slender hopes for the future? (a jar containing organic heritage squash seeds.)

The project will include an intimate journal visitors can examine and add their own comments to while seated in a comfortable vintage chair. Attentive journal readers will also discover a set of answers to the riddles, short poetic essays, and technical information on the jar specimens.

About the Artist: Deanna Pindell practices permaculture with a plethora of critters and conifers in Port Hadlock, Washington. A graduate of the Interdisciplinary Art M.F.A. program at Goddard College, she is the veteran of numerous public art projects and exhibitions throughout the US. She currently teaches at Olympic College in Bremerton, and was the Environmental Artist-in-Residence at the McColl Center for Visual Art in Charlotte, North Carolina in 2012.

Viewing Hours & Location: The Portland Building is located at 1120 SW 5th Avenue in downtown Portland and is open 8 am to 5 pm, Monday – Friday.  Apothecary for the Anthropocene opens September 28th and runs through October 23rd, 2015.

For more information on the Portland Building Installation Space, including images, proposals, and statements for all projects dating back to 1994, go to www.racc.org/installationspace.

David Eckard and Ellen Lesperance receive RACC fellowship awards for excellence in visual arts

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PORTLAND, ORE — Two Portland-based visual artists have received RACC’s 2015 Fellowship Awards. In addition to being recognized for their artistic excellence and achievements in the visual arts, David Eckard and Ellen Lesperance will each receive a cash grant of $20,000.

David Eckard was selected for a RACC Fellowship on the strength of his personal studio work, public performances and his dedication to the arts community both at PNCA and in his activism on behalf of artists. Many of his elegantly and well-crafted sculptures are choreographed into his performances. His work is layered, complex, and simultaneously intriguing and accessible. He will use fellowship funds (and take a sabbatical from PNCA) to research, design and begin implementing plans for a “creative compound” on his property, which will be populated with exhibitions, screenings, conferences, neighborhood events, workshops, residencies and mentoring opportunities.

Ellen Lesperance creates art in various media but often employs the visual language of knitting, having once worked for Vogue Knitting as a pattern knitter. Her work is socially responsible and poignant yet inclusive – for example, she has created memorial paintings (“death shrouds”) for young women activists who have died while fighting for “causes greater than themselves.”  The RACC Fellowship will help Lesperance take a semester off from teaching to commit solely to a full-time studio practice. She will also attend two residency programs: the MacDowell Colony, and the American Academy in Rome’s Visiting Artist Program. She will also use some of the funds for materials for upcoming shows.  

“We congratulate David and Ellen on receiving these fellowship awards, which honor two of our community’s most extraordinary visual artists this year,” said Eloise Damrosch, RACC’s executive director.  “RACC is committed to supporting artists at every stage in their careers, and these fellowships are designed to help artists take major steps forward in their artistic development.”

Established in 1999, RACC’s Artists Fellowship Award remains one of the largest and most prestigious grants to individual artists in the Pacific Northwest, supporting exceptional artists who exemplify RACC’s mission of enriching the local community through arts and culture. RACC rotates the disciplines it honors each year—performing arts, visual arts, literature and media arts. 

To be eligible for consideration, professional artists must have worked in their field for 10 years and have lived in the Portland tri-county area for five years. Applications, which include three narrative questions, artist resumes, two letters of recommendation, and examples of the artist’s work, are reviewed through a panel process of community representatives from the discipline being honored. This year’s panelists included Yaelle Amir, Ben Buswell, Gabe Flores, Lisa Jarrett, Joanna Priestly, Blake Shell and Eric Stotik.

Eckard and Lesperance join a prestigious group of local artists who have been named RACC Fellows in the past, including Mary Oslund, Obo Addy, Christine Bourdette, Terry Toedtemeier, Jim Blashfield, Michele Glazer, Tomas Svoboda, Keith Scales, Judy Cooke, Michael Brophy, Chel White, Craig Lesley, Thara Memory, Henk Pander, Joanna Priestley, Kim Stafford, Robin Lane, Eric Stotik, Lawrence Johnson, Sallie Tisdale, Linda Austin and Anita Menon. All RACC fellows are listed at  www.racc.org/grants/individual-artist-fellowships. 

Work for Art launches million dollar campaign

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PORTLAND, ORE — The Regional Arts & Culture Council has announced plans to raise $1 million during Work for Art’s 10th anniversary campaign benefitting local arts and culture organizations. Mike Golub, President of Business Operations for the Portland Timbers, announced the goal on Thursday evening in front of 100 business and arts leaders at the Gerding Theater at the Armory.

“I am gratified that Work for Art has raised more than $6.2 million over the past nine years, and we are excited to be raising the bar for our tenth anniversary,” said Golub, who will co-chair the 2015-16 campaign along with Dave Lofland, President of KeyBank Oregon and SW Washington. 

“We thank and congratulate the companies that helped Work for Art raise $750,369 last year,” Lofland said. “Our past supporters are stepping up with extraordinary commitments for this year’s million-dollar campaign, which will help local arts organizations provide even more exceptional programs and services in the future.”

Nearly 2,000 employees at 76 companies currently participate in Work for Art. The Standard, NW Natural, state employees, ZGF Architects, OHSU, KeyBank, the City of Portland, and Stoel Rives were among the largest workplace giving campaigns for the arts in 2014-15, and Golub and Lofland extended special recognition on Thursday night to the following:

  • Portland General Electric was the #1 campaign, raising a total of $98,730 from employees and the company’s matching gift program.   
  • Burgerville had the most employees participate in the campaign – 403.
  • The Oregon Cultural Trust was named outstanding community partner for providing several grants that have funded critical program expenses since 2007.

The 2014-15 campaign raised a total of $750,396, and all proceeds will be awarded to arts organizations in Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington Counties through RACC’s established grants process. For the 10thanniversary milestone, Golub and Lofland reiterated the importance of renewing last year’s donors while developing new strategies and revenue streams for 2015-16:

  • $342,500 has been secured thus far for a Matching Challenge Fund that will double all individuals’ gifts up to $5,000. Participating donors to date include the City of Portland; Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington counties; KeyBank, Portland General Electric, the Portland Timbers and The Standard; and several individual donors.
  • Securing new participating companies will continue to be a priority. Century Link, Daimler Trucks North America, Providence Health & Services, The Commerce Bank of Oregon and Washington Trust Bank are examples of companies that have recently joined the ranks of Work for Art.
  • A new special event, a “Battle of the Bands,” will debut in May, 2016. Employees from eight local companies will compete in front of a live audience and panel of celebrity judges to win the title of Best Company Band in Portland, with all proceeds benefiting the 10th anniversary campaign. Sponsors (and competing companies) include KeyBank, Portland General Electric, Portland Timbers and The Standard.

Although Work for Art is primarily a workplace giving program, anyone can participate by making a donation online at workforart.org. Donors who pledge $60 or more receive an Arts Card, which provides a full year of two-for-one tickets at hundreds of local arts events.

Company leaders who would like to establish an employee giving campaign for the arts, or provide Arts Cards for their employees, or contribute to the 10th Anniversary campaign in other ways, are invited to contact Kathryn Jackson, Work for Art Manager at 503-823-5424 or kjackson@racc.org.

RACC accepting applications for Artist in Residence project with Portland Archives and Records Center

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Pre-application tours in early September, application deadline September 28, 2015

PORTLAND, ORE — The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) in Portland, Oregon, invites artists living in the Portland metropolitan area and producing work in visual, performing, literary and/or media arts to submit qualifications for an artist-in-residence project at the City of Portland Archives and Records Center (PARC). This project is part of RACC’s public art residency program, Intersections.

This is the second in a series of residencies for PARC and the selected artist/team will be asked to explore records related to 82nd Avenue. For many years 82nd Avenue served as the eastern-most boundary for Portland, with portions annexed early in the 1900s and other areas annexed as late 1990. For some areas that are now part of the City, historic records do not exist in the City alwaysvaltrexonline.com Archive. The city has grown and expanded far beyond this area, and yet 82nd is still perceived by many as the boundary to East Portland. The artist/team will create work in any media that engages and/or is a result of working with the collections and staff at PARC.

The project budget is $15,000. The application deadline is Monday, September 28, 2015. To download the RFQ, click here. Pre-application tours of the PARC are encouraged and will occur on September 8 & 11; space is limited and reservations are needed. Send reservation request to intersections@racc.org with subject line “Visit Archives”.

Intersections residencies explore the “art of work” and the “work of art.” The program encourages artists in all disciplines to explore new working methods and develop socially engaging, interactive art experiences in community settings.