RACC Blog

The Right Brain Initiative slated to serve 14,000 children this school year

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In honor of National Arts in Education Week, The Right Brain Initiative has announced that six new public school partners are joining the program for the 2013-14 school year. Between September and June, the integrated arts program will bring music, dance, theatre, visual and media arts to 14,000 K-8 students in 49 schools and six school districts throughout the Portland metro area. This total is up from nearly 11,500 students served last year.

Significantly this year, the Gresham-Barlow School District becomes the first district to involve Right Brain with every elementary school in its district. The Right Brain Initiative entered classrooms in 2009, with a vision of bringing the arts to every K-8 classroom in the region. Gresham-Barlow’s commitment to the program is a powerful landmark in pursuit of Right Brain’s goal of arts education equity.

Right Brain welcomes the following new schools to its list of partners in 2013-14:

• Deep Creek Elementary (Gresham-Barlow School District)
• Hall Elementary (Gresham-Barlow School District)
• West Gresham Elementary (Gresham-Barlow School District)
• Bilquist Elementary (North Clackamas Schools)
• Duncan Elementary (North Clackamas Schools)
• Boise-Eliot K-8 School (Portland Public Schools)

Districts invest $15 per child at each partner school with the program. Every district dollar is leveraged more than four times by other funding sources. Public funding partners include the City of Portland, the Oregon Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts. Private funders include The Collins Foundation, The James E & Marion F. Miller Foundation, the PGE Foundation, Bank of America, and many other businesses, foundations and individuals listed at TheRightBrainInitiative.org/funding. Right Brain’s ultimate target is to serve approximately 110,000 K-8 students in 240 schools and 25 districts.

Read more about Right Brain’s successes in its 2013 Progress Report, released this week. In the 2012-13 school year, 1,127 school staff collaborated with Right Brain teaching artists to design 206 classroom experiences that integrated math with movement, social studies with film, and much more. Download the full report.

About The Right Brain Initiative
The Right Brain Initiative is a sustainable partnership of public schools, local government, foundations, businesses and the cultural community that launched its programming in Portland area classrooms in January 2009. The program’s vision is to transform learning for all children in the Portland tri-county area through the arts, creativity, innovation and whole-brain thinking. The Right Brain Initiative is a project of the Regional Arts & Culture Council. Young Audiences of Oregon & SW Washington serves as Implementation Partner. Read more online at TheRightBrainInitiative.org.

About the Regional Arts & Culture Council
RACC is a nonprofit arts services organization serving the Portland metropolitan area, including Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington Counties. In addition to serving as the managing partner for The Right Brain Initiative, RACC provides grants for artists, arts organizations, schools and other community-based arts projects; conducts workplace giving for arts and culture (“Work for Art”) and other advocacy efforts; provides workshops and other forms of technical assistance; shares printed and web-based resources for artists; and integrates artwork into public places. Read more online at racc.org.

Work for Art’s 2012-13 campaign raises $761,359 for a seven-year total of $4,686,681

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The Regional Arts & Culture Council announced on Thursday evening that the seventh annual Work for Art campaign raised $761,359, bringing its seven-year total to $4,686,681 raised for local arts organizations. More than 1,900 donors participated in the campaign that began on July 1, 2012 and ended on June 30, 2013, mostly through payroll deduction and other gifts in the workplace.

The campaign results were delivered by Jeff Harvey, president and CEO of Burgerville, at a special reception Thursday evening in the KeyBank Club at Jeld-Wen Field. Harvey was the honorary chair of the 2012-13 campaign, and will lead the 2013-14 campaign as well, with co-chair Mike Golub, COO of the Portland Timbers.

“It is a great thing to celebrate arts and culture in our communities,” said Harvey in thanking all those who participated in the campaign. “In today’s business world… there’s no such thing as too much creativity or too much innovation. Investing in a vital arts community is the same as committing to deep and long-term investment in the vitality and innovation of business.”

More than 75 participating companies were acknowledged on Thursday evening, including the top ten Work for Art campaigns in 2012-13:

1. Portland General Electric
2. NW Natural
3. Burgerville
4. The Standard
5. OHSU
6. State of Oregon
7. City of Portland
8. Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects
9. Multnomah County
10. Stoel Rives

Portland General Electric was the top campaign for the second year in a row, increasing their campaign by 6% for a total of $83,530; President and CEO Jim Piro accepted the company’s award and said that PGE employees were enjoying more arts activities thanks to the Arts Card, a benefit of giving to Work for Art. Jack Graves, Chief Cultural Officer at Burgerville, accepted the “top participation” award for the sustainable restaurant chain, which had the most employee donors (410) of any company. Portland Center Stage was acknowledged for raising the most money among nonprofit organizations ($2,442); the award was accepted by development director Charlie Frasier.

The results reported on Thursday night are down 7.7% from the 2011-12 campaign total (and all-time high) of $824,648. A variety of factors contributed to the downturn, including general anxieties about the economy last fall, and typical fierce competition for contributions during a presidential election cycle. Work for Art leaders remain confident that the campaign will rebound in 2013-14; already several new companies have signed up to participate this year, including Cambia Health Solutions, Gerding Edlen, and Tri-Met. Other company leaders who would like to learn about conducting an employee giving campaign for the arts and culture sector are invited to contact Kathryn Jackson, Work for Art Manager at 503-823-5424 or kjackson@racc.org.

Work for Art is a program of The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC), which distributes 100% of all proceeds to more than 100 arts and culture organizations based in Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington counties through a competitive grant application process. Although Work for Art is primarily a workplace giving program, anyone can participate by making a donation online at workforart.org. The strength of the campaign has been in its ability to accumulate a high volume of smaller gifts; most donations are $150 or less, and $60 is the amount most commonly donated. Donors who pledge $60 or more receive an Arts Card. Most donations are matched dollar-for-dollar by a matching challenge fund that includes contributions from The City of Portland, Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington counties, the Firstenburg Family Foundation, Sunshine Dairy Foods, and other private donors.

The 2013-14 campaign is now underway; the goal is to raise $775,000 by June 30, 2014.
 
 

Michael Sell presents “Untitled Photoswatch 2” at the Portland Building Installation Space August 12 – September 6

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Project Background: Photographer Michael Sell’s current work explores the point at which fine art intersects with décor, and investigates how one supports or subverts the other:

“I have recently begun a body of work that samples colors from famous photographs and collapses the visual elements and meaning of each photo into a single swatch of color. These color swatches can then be used as the basis for custom paint colors, allowing viewers (or “users”) to incorporate famous photographs into their home décor without addressing the photograph’s subject, concept, or emotional content.”

Beginning August 12th Sell will make his “photoswatch” work site-specific by creating a large-scale swatch grid on the main wall of the Installation Space. Each individual color panel will reference its specific source material—in this case an actual work of art currently hanging somewhere in the Portland Building. The color panels, or swatches, will be labeled with the title and location of the source artwork, for example: Purple Fields, 9th floor, reception. As the viewer approaches the installation the multiple swatches will resemble the grid of color one sees in the paint aisle of a hardware store. On the floor in front of the grid a set of small sample size canisters of paint—all mixed to match their particular swatch color—will be offered to visitors to take home and use as they see fit.

Sell’s reduction of the artwork displayed in the Portland Building into single swatches of color calls attention to the compartmentalization of art as it is typically presented in office spaces and highlights the modest range of creative expression we’re exposed to in these settings. Allowing viewers to take home that same bit of color further underscores the idea of artwork commodification and begs the question of whether the art in commercial settings is simply décor or something more; likewise the take-away souvenir—is it just a small can of paint, or does its provenance make it something more?

About the Artist: Born in Detroit, Michigan, Michael Sell now lives in La Grande, Oregon where he is Assistant Professor of Art and Media Arts Communication at Eastern Oregon University. His media-centric imagery has been exhibited throughout Michigan and Oregon, and in select shows in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. He has presented his work at multiple Society for Photographic Education conferences and at the 2013 Far West Popular Culture and American Culture Association conference.

Viewing Hours & Location: 8 am to 5 pm, Monday – Friday. The Portland Building is located at 1120 SW 5th Avenue in downtown Portland.
For more information on the Portland Building Installation Space series, including images, proposals and statements for all the installations since 1994, go to www.racc.org/installationspace.
 
 

Portland public art project wins national award

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The Public Art Network of the Americans for the Arts (AFTA) has named a local project, “Dekumstruction,” to its 2012 Year in Review, which highlights the 50 most outstanding public art projects in the United States last year.

The PAN Year in Review is the only national program recognizing projects of excellence in public art. From over 350 applications, three national public art professionals selected 50 outstanding projects that were completed in 2012. The panelists were Justine Topfer, curator, Out of the Box Projects, San Francisco, CA; Norie Sato, artist, Seattle, WA; and John Carson, artist and head of the School of Art, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA.

Dekumstruction is a sculptural artwork integrated with a custom bike rack designed by the artists Buster Simpson and Peg Butler located at the intersection of NE Dekum & Durham, adjacent to the Breakside Brewery. Twenty halved oil barrel planters stenciled with the names of depleted oil fields and painted with an iridescent sheen allude to the culture of big oil. The planters are planted with native species and receive water run-off from the adjacent private property. All of the water then flows through a downspout onto an upended oil barrel that quite literally “beats” the drum on rainy days. The installation celebrates the displacement (deconstruction) of two former car parking spaces with a multifunctional sculpture that accommodates ten bicycles while conveying shifting attitudes about consumption, energy, and stormwater management.

This collaboration was initiated by the Portland Bureau of Environmental Services as a part of their Sustainable Stormwater “green street” program to address stormwater management issues in Portland. They in turn brought in the Transportation Options folks from the Bureau of Transportation to help with bike parking to give the project an aesthetic and augmented conceptual twist, and then turned to the Regional Arts & Culture Council, which hired artists Buster Simpson and Peg Butler. Simpson and Butler helped choose the site, worked the adjacent building owner and the stormwater engineers, designed the prototype for the bike rack and then artwork and its relationship to the adjacent building, and oversaw the fabrication and installation of the above ground work. The overall project budget was nearly $60,000. Funding came from a grant from the US Environmental Protection Agency with additional funds from all of the other partners.
 
 

Student show celebrates national arts education partnership

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Who: The Right Brain Initiative and King PK-8 School
What: Student art show
Where: Community Room at North Portland Library, 512 N Killingsworth
When: Reception Tuesday, July 23, 5-7 p.m. Show on view through Aug. 31, 2013

Starting Tuesday, July 23, the North Portland Library will feature stunning black-and-white images of local 1st and 2nd graders and their neighbors. All work was produced this spring by students at Northeast Portland’s King PK-8 School during an arts education program facilitated by The Right Brain Initiative.

This display celebrates the partnership between Right Brain, a Portland non-profit arts-in-schools program, and King, one of eight public schools in the nation selected for the Turnaround Arts initiative. Turnaround Arts is a new public-private partnership of the President’s Committee for the Arts and the Humanities, chaired by Michelle Obama. It is determined to boost achievement at some of the lowest performing schools in the country by providing students with full access to high-quality arts experiences.

Right Brain partnered with King this year to provide an essential part of the school’s new arts offerings. Right Brain provided artist residencies to all classrooms and professional development for King staff, which gave teachers tools to naturally integrate the arts into their daily teaching.

“It was an obvious choice to link King School with Right Brain’s dynamic arts programming,” said Katy Mayo-Hudson, the Portland-based Implementation Coordinator for Turnaround Arts. “Right Brain and Turnaround Arts share a commitment to integrated arts education and a belief that creative experiences are non-negotiable for every child. This is a natural and symbiotic partnership.”

The work on view at the North Portland Library was created by 1st and 2nd graders. Partnering with King staff, Right Brain teaching artist and Portland Creative Laureate Julie Keefe integrated the students’ International Baccalaureate curriculum about neighborhoods into a photography project that investigated identity and community. Students interviewed each other and adults from the neighborhood, using portraits and writing to explore how individuals fit within their greater ecosystem.

The program was a perfect match for King School, a community in transition. In recent years, King has struggled with low test scores and student enrollment which dropped from 458 in 2006 to 288. Under the guidance of Kim Patterson, the school’s energetic new principal, King leaders have made the arts an essential part of student learning and community development. Right Brain’s programming has seamlessly supported King’s achievement goals.

The opening reception on July 23 will feature video documentation from King’s first year working with Right Brain. King students and staff, Right Brain leaders and other community partners will be in attendance to celebrate a productive and creative year.

 

The Right Brain Initiative is a sustainable partnership of public schools, local government, foundations, businesses and the cultural community, which launched its effort to bring the arts to every child in the Portland area in January 2009. The program’s vision is to transform learning for all children through the arts, creativity, innovation and whole-brain thinking. The Right Brain Initiative is a project of the Regional Arts & Culture Council, with Young Audiences of Oregon & SW Washington serving as Implementation Partner. Read more online at www.TheRightBrainInitiative.org.

The Regional Arts & Culture Council is the local arts agency for Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington Counties, providing grants for artists, schools and nonprofit organizations; conducting workplace giving for arts and culture (“Work for Art”) and other advocacy efforts; presenting workshops and other forms of technical assistance; providing printed and web-based resources for artists; and integrating art into public spaces. Online at www.racc.org.

Two new public art murals underway and one mural restored

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Two large scale mural projects are underway in Portland this summer – all recipients of grant funding from the Regional Arts & Culture Council. RACC’s public art mural program, financed by the City of Portland, provides funding for community murals that reflect diversity in style and media and encourages artists from diverse backgrounds and range of experience to apply. Murals approved through this program become part of the City’s public art collection. The new murals include:

North Tabor Neighborhood, Penumbra Kelly Building
StarCraft: Mission to Arts, artists
4747 East Burnside; RACC Funding: $8,925; 10’H x 133’L

Photo: Courtesy of SpaceCraft: Mission to Art

Photo: Courtesy of SpaceCraft: Mission to Art

Fresh off of completing a large scale mural for the Albina Maintenance Yard wall on N. Mississippi, three artists from SpaceCraft: Mission to Arts – Jakub Jerzy Kucharczyk, Matthew Allen Wooldridge, Maxwell Humphres – have begun another mural with community participation for the south and west facing walls of the Penumbra Kelly parking structure. The building houses the Portland Police Bureau’s Property Crimes Task Force, and personnel from the Office of Neighborhood Involvement Crime Prevention & Graffiti Abatement Programs and Water Bureau Rangers. The mural wraps around onto the west wall and extends to the end of the city’s property along that wall.

The artists worked extensively with the North Tabor neighborhood and the Police Bureau to identify highlights from the neighborhood’s past, present and possible future. You’ll find residents of various cultures socializing, walking dogs, and enjoying the annual soapbox-derby down Mt. Tabor. Old and new modes of transportation – including jet-pack powered pets merge into landscape scenes and images of firefighters, police, transit drivers and postal workers. Through these scenes flows a ribbon of fabric coming from women sewing in the historic Shogren House. Over the next few weekends, the artists welcome neighbors from the North Tabor neighborhood to assist with painting. For more information, go to www.northtabor.org/mural. A celebration will be scheduled for some time in September.

Vespa Portland Mural
Larry Kangas, artist
2318 NW Vaughn; RACC Funding: $7300; 14’H x 65’L

Photo: Richard Roderick

Photo: Richard Roderick

 
The 12’ x 65’ mural on the east wall of Vespa Portland will feature, at first glance, a vibrant street scene in an Italian village that includes a produce stand, bakery shop, coffee shop, and sidewalk cafe. Upon closer inspection, you’ll find well-known landmarks from this Northwest Portland neighborhood. Kangas designed the mural in collaboration with Paul and Maggy Henry, owners of Vespa Portland, with the purpose of creating a neighborhood mural that is colorful and fun and whose details can be discovered over time.

Kangas writes “The project is seeking donations or sponsors to cover costs. Larger sponsors will be recognized in some way on the wall.”

Kangas has completed numerous public and private commissions in the Northwest. His 200-ft.long mural for Parkrose High School in Northeast Portland, features the history of the horse in different cultures and was completed in 2007 with the assistance of students from Parkrose.

Mural Restoration Project

In addition to these new murals being added to the city’s landscape, for nearly a year the Beaumont Wilshire Neighborhood Association has been working on gathering the resources and person-power to restore a 2008 mural by

 located in the Wilshire Park Pavilion (NE 33rd Avenue and Skidmore Street). After numerous tagging and graffiti incidents and removals, the mural was in much need of a facelift. This past Sunday and Monday, a crew consisting of the artist and her sister, neighbors and Portland Parks and Recreation staff spent hours applying a fresh coat of paint. Subsequently, Graffiti Removal Services applied an anti-graffiti coating to protect the mural for years to come. This successful project was made possible through the diligence and commitment of a group of neighbors and city employees committed to making this a successful collaborative project. 

 

 

Regional Arts & Culture Council elects new board members and officers

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The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) board of directors has re-elected Lina Garcia Seabold as the Chair of the board for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2014, and Bonita Oswald, has been elected as Vice-Chair.

Lina Garcia Seabold is owner and partner of Seabold Construction Co., Inc.; Cornell Estates Living Center; Rosewood Park Retirement and Assisted Living Center; Rosewood Specialty Care; and Avamere at Bethany. She is also an active artist. Lina is past president of MANA de Portland, which provides education and advocacy to Latinas. Past professional experience includes working on the Eastside and Westside Light Rail Projects with Tri-Met as well as a stint in the Governor’s Office creating and developing the Office of Minority, Women and Emerging Small Business.

Bonita Oswald is a graphics designer for Washington County’s Department of Land Use & Transportation. Bonita has served as a board member of the Westside Cultural Alliance and continues to serve on RACC’s Executive Committee, Equity Task Force, and Grants Review Committee.

Joining Seabold and Oswald as officers on the RACC Board are treasurer Jennifer C. Cies, a marketing and product development professional whose prior experience in financial services includes several years as VP Director of Product Strategies with Umpqua Bank.; and secretary Alan Alexander III, the owner of Dub Squad Music, BMI, which produces and licenses original music compositions for film, video and the performing arts.

In addition, two new members have been elected to the RACC board:

  • Lew Frederick is currently a two-term Oregon State Representative representing House District 43 in North and Northeast Portland and focusing on public safety, education, and economic health. He is also currently a Strategic Communications Consultant, former member of the Oregon State Board of Education, former Board member for OMSI, Oregon Bus Project, Geneform, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He was a long-time reporter for KGW TV, Director of Public Information for Portland Public Schools, teacher, actor and ranch hand. We welcome this multi-talented individual.
  • Jodi Delahunt Hubbell has over 25 years of banking experience working in many different facets of the banking world. She has also done consulting with a highly regarded firm where she specialized in helping her domestic and international clients leverage their resources. She has been with The Commerce Bank of Oregon first as Chief Financial and Operations Officer and now as Chief Executive Officer. She brought her sound financial knowledge and experience to the Literary Arts Board, which she chaired, and to Oregon Ballet Theater. She volunteers with other non-profits as well, such as Dove Lewis and the American Heart Association. She recently was recognized as a 2013 Women of Influence Orchid Award Winner by the Portland Business Journal.
    Continuing RACC Board members for FY14 include: Jesse Beason, Nik Blosser, Verlea G. Briggs, Jay Clemens, Eileen L. Day, Daryl Dixon, Mike Golub, Kira Higgs, Phillip Hillaire, Eric R. Hormel, Karen Karbo, Joe Krumm, Max M. Miller, Jr., Joanna Priestley, Brian Rice and Jan Robertson. Board and staff profiles are available online at www.racc.org/about/staff-board.

Carol Smith Ed.D. and Peg Malloy have rotated off the RACC Board after serving eight and six years, respectively. RACC greatly appreciates their long and committed service to the organization and the arts community.
 

“Queering Portlandia,” by Anthony Hudson at the Portland Building 7/9-8/2

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Project Background: Despite her notoriety and our love for her, Portlandia is irrefutably rooted in European sculptural tradition. The 35 foot high hammered copper statue that graces the façade of the Portland Building depicts the image of a classical female figure with European features. In that sense she represents only a portion our city’s diverse population. Artist and performer Anthony Hudson, who identifies as a “queer Portlander, a native Oregonian, and a Grand Ronde Indian,” will offer up a series of alternate Portlandias that embody the diversity that exists in Portland today. “Queering is essentially to make something queer, different, to make it anti-oppressive; queering here is to make Portlandia accessible again, giving an underprivileged audience a chance to recreatePortlandia in their own image.”

During set hours each week (noon to 2 pm Monday – Thursday, or by appointment via ahudson@pnca.edu), Hudson will transform the Installation Space into a photo booth/performance set complete with a selection of costumes and props. The project is open to anyone who wishes to take part, participants are invited to pose or perform on camera to create their own version of Portlandia. In the artist’s words “Queering Portlandia will allow for a multitude of new Portlandias: Portlandia as a person of color, Portlandia as queer, Portlandia as a person with disabilities, Portlandia as a true, living Portlander. Queering Portlandia will demonstrate our community’s commitment to providing visibility, safety and opportunity to all its citizens.”

About the Artist: Anthony Hudson is an Oregon native and received his BFA in Intermedia from Pacific Northwest College of Art in 2013. His work draws on mythology, theatre, popular culture, and critical theory; he has been featured in Hand2Mouth Theatre’s Risk/Reward Festival, Conduit Dance’s Dance+ Festival, and Performance Works NW’s Richard Foreman Mini-Festivals. Hudson is perhaps best known as Portland’s drag clown Carla Rossi, “an immortal trickster whose attempts at hegemonic realness almost always result in fantastic failure and revelations of her own mutability and vulnerability.”

About the Installation Space: Each year the Portland Building Installation Space series reserves several exhibition opportunities for advanced students in fine art. The format and presentation requirements for the student installations are identical to those for established professional artists, the Regional Arts & Culture Council created this separate eligibility category to help introduce emerging talents to the world of public art. Anthony Hudson is the 3rd student artist to present work this season.

Viewing Hours & Location: 8 am to 5 pm, Monday – Friday. The Portland Building is located at 1120 SW 5th Avenue in downtown Portland. Admission is always free. Queering Portlandia runs through August 2nd.

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