RACC Blog

Kaiser Permanente, The Standard and ZGF Architects win top prizes at Work for Art’s Battle of the Bands

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PORTLAND, ORE — Seven employee bands competed in Work for Art’s first annual Battle of the Bands, which drew more than 400 music fans to the Crystal Ballroom on Thursday night. Celebrity judges Christopher Brown, Steve Pringle and Rindy Ross awarded the top prize – best company band – to Pencil Skirt Paula and The Straight Edge Rulers, from ZGF Architects. The Best Showmanship prize went to Kaiser Permanente’s 1980s cover band, Members Only.

The Audience Favorite award, as determined by the band that raised the most money from the audience, went to The Standard’s Smoke Before Fire. In all more than $75,000 was raised through event sponsorships, ticket sales, a silent auction, a raffle and other cash donations.

Kaiser Permanente’s 1980s cover band, Members Only.

Members Only (Kaiser Permanente), photo by Erica Ann Photography.

All event proceeds will help Work for Art draw closer to its fundraising goal of $1 million by June 30. Work for Art is a program of the Regional Arts & Culture Council that raises money and awareness for local arts and culture organizations, primarily through workplace giving. RACC distributes all campaign proceeds to more than 100 local nonprofit organizations – including Oregon Children’s Theatre, Ethos Music Center, Portland Opera and the Children’s Healing Art Project.

The Standard’s Smoke Before Fire.

The Standard’s Smoke Before Fire.

Battle of the Bands was the first-ever public fundraising event for Work for Art, which is now in its tenth year. The event was emceed by Joe Vithayathil of KPTV Fox 12 Oregon, and by singer-songwriter Merideth Kaye Clarke. The Brothers Jam, led by BodyVox artistic director Jamey Hampton, opened the show, and one of the Timbers Army bands, Greenhorn, played the final set.

Other competing bands included The Legal Limit (Tonkon Torp), The Red Keys (KeyBank), Larry and the Lightbulbs (PGE), and Dystopia (Burgerville). Companies that are interested in competing in next year’s Battle should contact Jeff Hawthorne, Director of Community Engagement for the Regional Arts & Culture Council, at jhawthorne@racc.org, 503-823-5258.

To make a donation that will help Work for Art reach its million-dollar goal, visit workforart.org.

Celebrity judges Christopher Brown, Rindy Ross and Steve Pringle. Photo by Erica Ann Photography.

Celebrity judges Christopher Brown, Rindy Ross and Steve Pringle. Photo by Erica Ann Photography.

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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.

The Right Brain Initiative receives funding from National Endowment for the Arts to catalyze change in public schools

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PORTLAND, ORE — The Right Brain Initiative has received a $30,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to deliver systemic and equitable arts programming to local K-8 schools. Right Brain, a program of the Regional Arts & Culture Council, works in partnership with local school districts to transform learning through robust arts programming that integrates with core curriculum. This is the fifth grant the Initiative has earned from the NEA.

“The arts are all around us, enhancing our lives in ways both subtle and obvious, expected and unexpected,” said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. “Supporting projects like this one from The Right Brain Initiative offers more opportunities to engage in the arts every day.”

Right Brain invests in the professional capital of its partner schools by providing educators with the tools to seamlessly blend the arts with all other subject areas. The grant will help Right Brain bring its four-year hands-on professional development program to more than 1,200 area teachers, arts specialists, principals and teaching artists in the 2016-17 school year. Through collaboration between Right Brain teaching artists and classroom teachers, the program will serve more than 26,000 K-8 students in urban, suburban and rural communities of Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington Counties, Oregon.

The NEA’s Art Works grants support the creation and presentation of work, lifelong learning in the arts, and public engagement through 13 arts disciplines or fields. This award is part of $82 million distributed by the NEA to fund local arts projects across the nation. To join the Twitter conversation about this announcement, please use #NEASpring16. For more information on projects included in the NEA grant announcement, visit arts.gov.

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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 eighth year, Right Brain serves 63 schools and approximately 25,000 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 an initiative of the Regional Arts & Culture Council. Young Audiences of Oregon & SW Washington serves as Implementation Partner. Read more online at TheRightBrainInitiative.org.

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.

State of the Arts

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Eloise’s Blog:

Many thanks to all who attended our annual presentation to City Council when we thank Council for their on-going support. While we also talk about how we invested the City’s allocation to RACC over the past year, we focus even more on how powerful the impacts of these dollars are to artists, arts organizations, schools, and arts enthusiasts around our region and beyond.

The Obo Addy Legacy Project opened the event on April 21st with rousing and reverberating Ghanean drumming as people entered Council Chambers. RACC’s Board Chair, Jan Robertson, and I then ran through some highlights of our programs in 2015 and we were all treated to music performed by a quintet from Bravo Youth Orchestra.

These talented Rosa Parks Elementary students are evidence of what magic can happen thanks to their music teacher paid for by the Arts Tax, and an arts organization, Bravo, providing learning experiences inside the school. Jan also described the ever growing Right Brain Initiative and how supportive our City leaders have been since day one.

I ran through images of recent public art projects including a Buster Simpson sculpture in South Waterfront and a wide array of murals funded in part by RACC’s Murals Program and Forest for the Trees, an organization that brings together local artists and others from around the world to create large scale murals around our city. The audience also saw sneak previews of upcoming public art  in the works. To see some of these images for yourselves, click here (slides 27-31).

RACC Board member and Chair of our Grants Review Committee, Susheela Jayapal, described the various ways we award City funds to artists and organizations and the challenges facing RACC and the organizations who benefit from the Arts Tax, which currently is not bringing in the full amount voted approved by Portland voters in 2012. Susheela also introduced jazz musician and PSU professor, Darrell Grant, who described what he was able to achieve thanks to a RACC Project Grant. Literary Arts Executive Director Andrew Proctor explained the phenomenal success of the inaugural year of its Wordstock Festival, newly adopted by his organization, a longtime member of RACC’s General Operating Support program. And finally Luann Algoso spoke about APANO’s Expanding Cultural Access grant, which supported their well-received Cultural Events Series in the Jade District.

RACC’s Board member Mike Golub introduced RACC’s on-going programs which beneficially connect arts and business. When Business for Culture and the Arts closed last summer, RACC was asked to take on two of the organization’s most successful programs. Art of Leadership under George Thorn’s leadership provides seminars to train business people to be Board members of nonprofit arts organizations. RACC now also hosts The Arts Breakfast of Champions, which recognizes top donors and champions of the arts. We hope to expand the event’s scope going forward to celebrate all the ways arts and business can partner to inspire employees and foster creative collaborations.

Mike Co-Chair’s Work for Art, our workplace giving program, which typically raises about $750k a year for arts organizations. In this 10th anniversary year RACC hopes to raise a $1 million, through workplace campaigns and events such as the upcoming Battle of the Bands, May 12th. Part of ZGF’s competing band, Pencil Skirt Paula and the Straightedge Rulers, treated the audience to a musical tribute to Prince.  Finally Ian Mouser of My Voice Music testified about the amazing work his organization can do for kids with City funding, and the grand finale was a moving duet sung by Matthew Gailey and Lea Mulligan of PHAME (below).

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We so value and appreciate everyone’s time and enthusiasm and the long-standing and heartfelt commitment by our supportive City Council!

Media artists invited to apply for RACC’s 2016 fellowship award

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PORTLAND, ORE — The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) is now accepting applications from media artists (including film, video and audio) for RACC’s annual artist fellowship award. Applications are now available through the RACC GrantsOnline system at http://racc.culturegrants.org.

Since 1999, the RACC fellowship award has honored and supported uniquely talented local artists who contribute to the community in very meaningful ways. This year RACC plans to award two fellowships, with each artist receiving a cash award of $20,000. RACC rotates the recognition among four disciplines every year – visual arts, media arts, literature, and performing arts. Past Media Arts Fellows have included Jim Blashfield (2001), Chel White (2004), Joanna Priestley (2007) and Lawrence Johnson (2012).

Guidelines and applications are available in RACC’s GrantsOnline system. To be considered, applicants must submit an Intent to Apply form no later than 5:00 pm, July 6, 2016.

A panel of community representatives with expertise in the media arts reflecting the disciplines of the applicants will select the two fellowship winners. An artist’s involvement in the community will play a significant role in evaluating each application. In addition, applicants must meet several strict criteria in order to be eligible for these highly competitive awards:

  • The applicant must be a professional artist, as recognized by their peers, with a minimum of 10 years of experience in the media arts.
  • The applicant must have been an Oregon resident for a minimum of 5 years and a current resident of Clackamas, Multnomah, or Washington Counties.
  • The applicant must demonstrate sustained high artistic quality of artmaking.

Other RACC fellows are listed at racc.org/fellows, and they include: Mary Oslund, Obo Addy, Christine Bourdette, Terry Toedtemeier, Michele Glazer, Tomas Svoboda, Keith Scales, Judy Cooke, Michael Brophy, Craig Lesley, Thara Memory, Henk Pander, Kim Stafford, Robin Lane, Eric Stotik, Sallie Tisdale, Linda Austin, Anita Menon, David Eckard, and Ellen Lesperance.

For more information about the fellowship award and other RACC grants visit racc.org/grants.

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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.

Work for Art announces line-up for Battle of the Bands competition on May 12

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PORTLAND, ORE — Bankers, lawyers, surgeons and engineers will be among the unlikely musicians competing in Work for Art’s first annual Battle of the Bands on Thursday, May 12 at the Crystal Ballroom. Tickets are only $10, on sale now at the Crystal Ballroom box office and online. A limited number of VIP tickets are available for $100 each, including reserved seating, hosted food and beverage, and validated parking. All proceeds benefit Work for Art and its tenth anniversary campaign to raise $1 million for local arts and culture organizations.

Seven bands, made up of employees who play music on the side, will compete in front of family, friends, coworkers and a panel of celebrity judges. Several prizes will be awarded including the title of Best Company Band. Audiences will select an “Audience Favorite” as determined by the band that receives the most donations the night of the event.

Doors open at 6:00 p.m. Food and beverages are available for purchase, and guests will have an opportunity bid on 10 exciting silent auction packages to help raise money for the cause. As a warm-up act, Brothers Jam will perform at 6:45 p.m., featuring BodyVox artistic director Jamey Hampton and his brother David, both of whom work at Hampton Lumber.

The main event begins at 7:00 p.m., emceed by KPTV Fox 12 Oregon feature reporter Joe Vithayathil and local musical theater star Merideth Kaye Clark. The competing bands include:

  • Burgerville, Dystopia
  • Kaiser Permanente, Members Only
  • KeyBank, The Red Keys
  • Portland General Electric, Larry and the Lightbulbs
  • The Standard, Smoke Before Fire
  • Tonkon Torp, The Legal Limit
  • ZGF Architects, Pencil Skirt Paula and The Straight Edge Rulers

The judging panel includes three local music industry celebrities:

Dave Allen is founding member and bass player for Gang of Four and Shriekback, owner of the World Domination record label, and current Director of Artist Advocacy for Beats Music.

Christopher Brown is the drummer and bandleader for the Christopher Brown Jazz Quartet.  He has performed and/or recorded with Beyoncé, Esperanza Spalding, the Marsalis brothers and many others.

Rindy Ross is the lead singer and saxophonist of Quarterflash and The Trail Band. She was inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame in 2007 and serves as a mentor of young artists.

At approximately 9:00 p.m., while the judges deliberate and the cash is counted, the Portland Timbers Army band Greenhorn will perform. Timber Joey and Portland City Commissioner Nick Fish will be on hand to help announce the winners at the end of the evening.

This is the first event of its kind for Work for Art, which is an annual campaign to raise money and awareness for local arts and culture organizations. Last year, the campaign raised $750,396, primarily through workplace giving. This year, in celebration of Work for Art’s tenth anniversary, organizers aspire to raise $1 million by June 30.

“This new event will help us take Work for Art to the next level,” said Mike Golub, president of business for the Portland Timbers and co-chair of this year’s Work for Art campaign. “Through our workplace giving campaigns over the last nine and a half years, we have raised more than $7 million and built Work for Art into a strong mechanism for employees to support arts and culture in our region. Now we get to put some of those same employees in the spotlight and we invite the community to come cheer them on.”

Battle of the Bands is sponsored by headliners Burgerville, KeyBank, Portland General Electric, The Portland Timbers and The Standard. Co-sponsors include Alpha Media/KINK 101.9 FM, NW Natural, The Oregon Cultural Trust, Portland Business Journal and Willamette Week.

“We are excited to sponsor this event because we know how important it is to support arts organizations and arts education in our community,” said David R. Lofland, president of KeyBank Oregon and SW Washington and co-chair of this year’s Work for Art campaign. “This is also proving a fun way to celebrate the creativity of our employees – even bankers have some amazing hidden artistic talents!”

In a related fundraiser, event goers and the public at large can purchase tickets to be entered into a raffle to win a handcrafted electric guitar, built by Burgerville president Jeff Harvey. The guitar is valued at $3,000 and the winning ticket will be drawn at approximately 9:00 p.m. on May 12. The winner need not be present to win. Raffle tickets are $20 each and are available at workforart.org/raffle.

Work for Art is a program of the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC), which distributes a full 100% of all Work for Art donations, including Battle of the Bands proceeds, to arts organizations in Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington Counties. For more information visit workforart.org.

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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.

Every Portland elementary school now has an arts teacher, thanks to the arts tax

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Find stories about the impact of the tax online in April at #pdxlovesart

PORTLAND, ORE —In November 2012, 63% of Portland voters overwhelmingly passed Ballot Measure 26-146 to create the Arts Education & Access Fund, now known as the “arts tax.” The tax directly funds 72 K-5, music, dance and visual art teachers in the city’s six school districts: Centennial, David Douglas, Parkrose, Reynolds and Riverdale School Districts and Portland Public Schools. Thanks to the $35 income tax, every elementary school in the City of Portland currently has at least one art, music or dance teacher on staff.

“The arts tax has nearly tripled the number of elementary arts teachers in Portland and we’re so proud of this early success. On that score, Portlanders got what they voted for,” said Eloise Damrosch, executive director of the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC). “Cities all over the nation are eager to replicate this sustainable funding stream for arts education.”

Arts Tax by the Numbers

  • In the 2012-13 school year – before Portland districts began receiving arts tax funds – City of Portland elementary schools had 31 arts teachers. By 2015-16, the total number of K-5 arts teachers has increased to 91.
  • Ballot Measure 26-146 ensures one arts teacher for every 500 students. As of 2015-16, districts have beat that promise, providing one arts teacher for every 398 students across the City.
  • Portland Public Schools has more than quadrupled its number of elementary arts teachers, jumping from 15 teachers in 2012-13 to 64 in 2015-16.

A total of $6,820,136 in arts tax funding went to Portland elementary schools in 2015-16. Broken down by district, total allocations are:

$4,558,212 – Portland Public Schools
$956,169 – David Douglas School District
$541,171 – Centennial School District
$393,788 – Reynolds School District
$324,847 – Parkrose School District
$45,950 – Riverdale School District

In addition to the arts tax dollars funneled to school districts for teacher salaries, $139,000 of the fund goes to RACC for arts education coordination expenses. RACC now offers professional development workshops for music and arts teachers hired through the arts tax, at no cost to districts. This training helps arts teachers connect their work to Common Core State Standards, and collaborate with colleagues in their buildings. RACC is also building new ways to connect the cultural resources of Portland to local schools.

The remaining dollars raised through the tax funds much-needed general operating expenses for local arts organizations, and projects that increase access to the arts for underrepresented communities. As tax collections increase, RACC will allocate additional funds to these causes.

The arts tax is due Monday, April 18 for City of Portland income earners at bit.ly/pdxlovesart. Read more about the arts tax at http://bit.ly/ArtsTaxFAQ.

Stories about the impact of arts tax-funded teachers can be found online throughout the month of April at #pdxlovesart.

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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, a workplace giving program; 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.

It’s Advocacy Season!

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Eloise’s Blog:

Clearly spring is here and with its glorious arrival come our annual rounds of budget advocacy. Over the past five months a highly convincing group of arts leaders and advocates from the private sector, ably led by Chris Coleman, has visited with Mayor Hales, Commissioners Fish, Novick, Fritz and Saltzman as well as the two leading contenders for our new Mayor, Jules Bailey and Ted Wheeler. These meetings focused on the vital role the arts play here and the need to fill the gap in the Arts Tax funding so that all the benefits voters supported actually come to fruition.

This same group also met with Multnomah County Chair, Deborah Kafoury, and soon RACC will be checking in with our other friends at the County during their budget process. We were thrilled last year when the Chair included in her budget (with urging from Commissioners Shiprack and Bailey)an increase to RACC to support the Right Brain Initiative and arts services to underrepresented communities.

In Washington County interest is high to coordinate arts services better going forward, to clarify funding processes and sources, and to increase the County Commissioners’ investments in arts and culture, through RACC and several key arts organizations in the county.

The main thrust in Clackamas County is to restore a $20k cut from several years ago in order to strengthen arts education and specifically the Right Brain Initiative, a favorite program of this Board of Commissioners.

And last but not least we are meeting with Metro Councilors to hopefully invigorate our relationship and mutual interest in the region whose footprint we share.

This is time consuming work, but rewarding to have meaningful discussions with the talented people who are serving in elected office.

What can you do to help? Please mark your calendars and join us for our annual State of the Arts presentation to Portland City Council! Thursday, April 21 @ 2:00 pm. We promise a lively event if you will help us pack City Council Chambers once again!  Thank you.

Jenna Reineking’s “Temporal Ecologies,” March 21 – April 15, heads up a new season of installations at the Portland Building

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PORTLAND, ORE – Artist Jenna Reineking’s upcoming installation in the lobby of the Portland Building, Temporal Ecologies, is designed to transform the architecture of the exhibition space into an activated environment; her choice of materials to accomplish this—the humble brown paper lunch bag: “I recently have become interested in creating systems using forms repeated in incremental units that can range from finite to infinite based on the constraints of the space.”

The choice to use inexpensive, readily accessible materials allows the artist to create environments that ask the viewer to revalue the mundane. Reineking’s process includes carefully manipulating or “sculpting” each bag and adhering them one by one to fit and transform the geometry of the Installation Space. She expects to use over 300 individual bags, “They will grow from the corners and utilize the walls, ceiling, and floor…and will be recycled upon completion of the exhibition.” In the process the artist hopes to transcend the “thing-ness” of these simple, overlooked manufactured goods and create a new set of biomorphic forms—design elements that are reminiscent of nature and living organisms but do not aim to directly reproduce them.

The Portland Building is located at 1120 SW 5th Avenue and is open 8 am to 5 pm, Monday – Friday. Temporal Ecologies opens March 21st and runs through April 15th.


A New Season at the Installation Space:  Jenna Reineking’s installation kicks off a new season of exhibitions at the Portland Building. Over the course of the next year, nine artists will present installation based and experimental media installations in the small gallery space adjacent to the building’s lobby. Each four week long installation has been chosen by the program selection panel to present challenging and diverse work that encourages visitors to reexamine their expectations of what art is and can be.

New Season Schedule and Project Descriptions:

Jenna Reineking  March 21 – April 15, 2016

Temporal Ecologies – Description above

Larry Yes  April 25 – May 20, 2016

Radical Positivity – Picked for its punch of color and upbeat message, the selection panel said “yes” to Larry, an artist who’s work focuses on love and human connection and can be described as a meditation on color and joy. The installation will cover the walls of the space from floor to ceiling with positive words and symbols rendered in every color of the rainbow.

Hannah Hertrich  May 31 – June 24, 2016

Delicate Home – Many of us think of home as our foundation, an extension of self that is a base of stability, but is that perception based on reality? Hertrich’s Delicate Home explores the “fragility of self” by focusing on our notion of home. The installation stages a series of model houses constructed out of mirrors perilously set below gathering clouds of stone.

Yalena Roslaya  July 5 – August 5, 2016

Visual Sound – Roslaya will record sounds that occur within the Portland Building and translate them into sound waves sketched visually on the wall and rendered aurally via ceramic sound wave sculptures. Five of these sculptures will fill the space, each with a mp3 driver enclosed in the heart of the vessel. “The idea of visually displaying sound is inspired by my experience with hearing-motion synesthesia…I would like to share this experience with viewers through my installation and hear their response.”

Bukola Koiki  August 15 – September 9, 2016

JJC (Journey Just Come) – Koiki highlights the challenges immigrants face by spotlighting the linguistic slang and vernacular that people often need to learn and employ when navigating the spaces between and within disparate cultures. “As a Nigerian-American immigrant myself, I am particularly interested in pidgin, which is a grammatically simplified means of communication that develops between two or more groups that do not have a language in common…In Nigeria, a country of over 500 known languages, communication can be truly daunting at times.” To explore this idea of communication and miscommunication, the artist will fill the Installation Space with a profusion of brightly colored flags that showcase Pidgin English sayings extracted from the local language in Lagos, Nigeria.

Benz and Chang  September 19 – October 14, 2016

The Bridge, 1910 – Based on an archival photo of the Hawthorne Bridge under construction, Benz and Change offer a thoughtful and dynamic homage to the crews that built Portland’s oldest existing Willamette River crossing. The Bridge, a set of four, 8 foot by 6 foot, hand cut silhouettes crafted in wood, will extend from the back wall of the exhibition space to render a life-sized composite image of the historic photo.

Alex Luboff  November 14 – December 9, 2016

Pipeline Obstruction Pathway – Takes the form of large (one foot diameter), hand-build pipelines installed to purposefully obstruct and obscure entry into the exhibition space—a project that will get viewers thinking about all the energy infrastructure in our lives. Are the pipes, deftly assembled from plywood, a network of interlaced craft objects? Or are they elements of a dystopian “extractive energy landscape” we may be headed for?

Emily Myers  January 17 – February 10, 2017

Mechanical Rituals – A comment on just how industrial our food production cycle has become. Myers will install a set of computer controlled mutoscopes—mechanized flipbooks mounted on rotating cylinders—on a prominently positioned dining room table. The mutoscopes, which show scenes of the food we eat as it travels from farm to table, are animated automatically as viewers approach. “My proposal for Mechanical Rituals brings the process of industrialized agriculture, which is so far removed from society’s consciousness, into the modern dining room.”

Stephanie Simek  February 21 – March 17, 2017

Following on her work with optical illusions, holograms and science themes, Simek will create a custom built “table of holograms.” Optics hidden within her table will reflect images of common minerals upwards and cause them to appear to hover above the table surface. Simek sees her structure as a vitrine or a container for a kind of t​able of elements. ​“The choice of content is based on my previous work and interest in basic, elemental materials and their inherent potential. This often includes unusual and interesting physical properties like magnetic, electrical, and optical capabilities.  For example, I have built sculptural objects that are also simple radios, an invisibility cloak, a compass, and a levitating sculpture, all reliant on the special properties of familiar minerals.”

Location and Hours: The Portland Building is located at 1120 SW 5th Avenue and is open 8 am to 5 pm, Monday – Friday.

A preliminary mock-up of Emily Myers’ Mechanical Rituals. This installation, along with eight others, is part of the new season of exhibitions at the Portland Building.

A preliminary mock-up of Emily Myers’ Mechanical Rituals. This installation, along with eight others, is part of the new season of exhibitions at the Portland Building.

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