RACC Blog

Peg Butler’s “People Blind/Prospect & Refuge” installation opens at the Portland Building

Posted on February 5, 2015 at 12:00 pm.

Written by RACC IT

PORTLAND, ORE – Artist Peg Butler’s latest project,People Blind/Prospect & Refuge, will be staged in the exhibition space adjacent to the lobby of the Portland Building. With this installation comes an opportunity for Portland Building visitors to observe and consider their fellow humans from multiple physical and intellectual perspectives, subjectively and objectively. The installation is designed to elicit questions and ideas about humans as a culture, as a species, as individuals, and also draws on the theory of “prospect and refuge.” As defined by Butler, “it is a theory that people have instinctual preferences for places that have a clear view of the surroundings and that allow for concealment and escape.”

The main element of Butler’s installation is a “people blind,” something akin to a bird blind that would be used as cover for wildlife observers. Behind the blind there is refuge and prospect—visitors feel hidden and protected, yet can look through ‘blind spots’ to observe human nature, even as those in the lobby can look in on them. From the lobby perspective there is also a sense of prospect and refuge as passers-by are hidden in the anonymity of busyness and are caught up in the prospects of the day.

“Ideas of prospect and refuge bring in aspects of our social and physical natures and that which makes us feel safe, comfortable and hopeful. The blind gives us windows to observe ourselves as megafauna, connected to nature and each other.” – Peg Butler.

The installation will include a weekly program series called Human-Nature Field Notes to include writing, sketching, and discussion oriented events. Please check the People Blind blog for more details:www.peopleblind.wordpress.com. Peg Butler will also be on-site on Thursday, February 19^th from 3:00pm – 5:00pm to answer questions, greet visitors and discuss her installation.

About the Artist: Peg Butler is an interdisciplinary artist whose work often involves integrating elements of culture, ecology and placemaking. She has a master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Oregon and has been collaborating on public art installations since 2006. Peg is currently eco-director of Black Dog Art Ensemble in Portland, Oregon.

Viewing Hours & Location: The Portland Building is located at 1120 SW 5^th Avenue in downtown Portland and is open 8 am to 5 pm, Monday – Friday. People Blind/Prospect & Refuge runs through March 20^th.

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.

Portland-based arts organizations receive public funding increases

Posted on January 29, 2015 at 12:00 pm.

Written by RACC IT

PORTLAND, ORE – On January 28, the RACC Board of Directors approved $1,471,626 in disbursements to 16 General Operating Support (“GOS”) member organizations that have submitted their FY2014 financial statements and other final reports to RACC. These grants are made possible thanks to $1.28 million in revenues from the city’s voter-approved Arts Education & Access Fund, plus $600,000 in gap funding from the city’s fall 2014 Budget Monitoring Process, or Fall BuMP.

The grants listed below are in addition to RACC funding that each organization received last fall, and their combined allocations bring all GOS organizations to at least 3.8% public funding of their eligible annual revenues – many steps closer to the AEAF goal of providing 5% public funding. RACC directed most of the funding to five “major” arts organizations that have experienced the largest funding discrepancies in the past. Oregon Ballet Theatre, the Oregon Symphony, the Portland Art Museum, Portland Center Stage and the Portland Opera had averaged 1% public funding; now they all stand at 3.8%. Specific allocation amounts include:

Blue Sky Gallery/Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts, Inc., $2,030

Friends of Chamber Music, $7,966

Literary Arts, Inc., $23,553

Miracle Theatre Group, $5,127

Oregon Ballet Theatre, $120,089

Oregon Symphony Association, $398,300

Pendulum Aerial Arts, $1,468

PHAME, $3,327

PlayWrite, Inc., $1,000

Portland Art Museum/Northwest Film Center, $468,538

Portland Center Stage, $207,486

Portland Opera Association, Inc., $193,506

Portland Youth Philharmonic, $8,061

The Portland Ballet, $15,994

Third Angle New Music, $1,000

White Bird, $14,181

“It is tremendously gratifying to begin seeing the impact that the Arts Education & Access Fund can have in our community,” said RACC’s executive director, Eloise Damrosch. “We remain grateful to Portland City Council for referring this measure to the ballot in 2012, and to the voters who clearly understand the many ways that strong and vibrant arts organizations enhance our quality of life, generate cultural tourism and other economic benefits, and improve our children’s education.”

RACC is retaining $410,022 to invest in up to 29 more General Operating Support member organizations that will file their FY2014 reports in the months ahead. Because most of the larger organizations have already been funded, fewer resources will be required to fund the smaller remaining groups, which include:

Artist Repertory Theatre

BodyVox

Cappella Romana, Inc.

Chamber Music Northwest

Children’s Healing Art Project

Disjecta Contemporary Art Center

Echo Theatre Company

Ethos Music Center

Hollywood Theatre

Imago Theatre

Independent Publishing Resource Center

Live Wire! Radio

Metropolitan Youth Symphony

Northwest Children’s Theatre

Northwest Dance Project

NW Documentary Arts & Media

Oregon Children’s Theatre

Portland Baroque Orchestra

Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra

Portland Gay Men’s Chorus

Portland Institute for Contemporary Art

Portland Jazz Festival

Portland Piano International

Portland Taiko

Profile Theatre Project

Third Rail Repertory Theatre

Tears of Joy Theatre

Write Around Portland

Young Audiences of Oregon & SW Washington

PSU’s Robert Bucker and KeyBank’s David R. Lofland, Jr. join the RACC board of directors

Posted on January 28, 2015 at 12:00 pm.

Written by RACC IT

PORTLAND, ORE – Two community leaders were recently elected to the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) board of directors:

Robert Bucker is Dean of the College of the Arts at Portland State University. From 2007 – 2013 he was Dean of the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication at California State University, Northridge, where he also served as the Executive Director of the new, state-of-the-art Valley Performing Arts Center. He began his career as a middle school and high school vocal music teacher and choral director in Missouri. He served as the director of education for the Metropolitan Opera Guild and the voice chairman and choral conductor for the Presidential Scholars in the Arts program.

David R. Lofland, Jr. serves as President for Key’s Oregon and Southwest Washington market, and as such is the senior representative and spokesperson, and leads the organization’s economic and community development efforts. He also oversees the full range of Key Private Bank financial services in the Oregon and Alaska markets. An Ohio native, Dave joined Key Bank in early 2011 with 20 plus years of experience in banking, investment and trust industries, including senior leadership positions with two other major financial institutions.

The Regional Arts & Culture Council is a local arts agency that provides grants and services for artists, schools and nonprofit organizations in for Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington Counties. RACC also conducts a workplace giving campaign for arts and culture (“Work for Art”); manages one of the oldest public art programs in the country; and helps K-8 teachers integrate the arts into other academic subjects through The Right Brain Initiative. Online at racc.org.

The RACC Board is chaired by Jan Robertson, CEO of Norris Beggs Simpson Companies. Max M. Miller, Jr. of Tonkon Torp, LLP is the vice chair; Jennifer C. Cies is treasurer; and Eric Hormel of Perkins & Company is the secretary. All board and staff profiles are available online at http://www.racc.org/about/staff-board

Artists in residence move “The Watcher Files” exhibition to Portland State University through April 7

Posted on January 26, 2015 at 12:00 pm.

Written by RACC IT

PORTLAND, ORE – Artists Garrick Imatani & Kaia Sand have been in residence at the City of Portland Archives and Records Center (PARC) since 2013. In October 2014 they presented selections of their work at the North Portland Library. Now, in the final exhibition of their residency, they have installed artworks in the lobby of the Portland State University Academic and Student Recreation Center (ASRC) with additional works on the fifth floor adjacent to the PARC. The ARSC is open Monday through Thursday, 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.; Fridays from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.; Saturdays from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.; and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m.

In addition, the artists will speak about their work and residency on Wednesday, February 25 at 7:00 p.m. in ASRC Room 001. Admission is free.

Working with PARC files known as “The Watcher Files,” a set of police surveillance files of activists and civic groups from the 1960s through the 1980s, Imatani and Sand created a series of artistic and literary interventions that serve as an addendum to the original files. They responded not only to the documents, but also to the archival materials themselves, such as cabinets, binders, folders, and index cards, which inform the sculptural objects and printed matter in this exhibit. Pull out cabinet drawers to discover framed photography and graphite drawings. Thumb through copper index cards to read a poem. The artists’ residency is a City of Portland Percent for Art Project funded through the building of PARC, administered by the Regional Arts & Culture Council. City Archivist Diana Banning suggested the residency as a way to expand the public’s knowledge of the archives. “We know how historians and academics tend to use the Archives and were interested in how artists might approach them.”

The artists’ work emerged from two threads of inquiry, “Where is anonymity within a public document?” and “Passing It On.”

Where is anonymity within a public document? Surveillance creates a bright threat of attention on private lives. But how is this attention blurred? How might someone’s identity masquerade inside these files? Imatani explored the paradox of anonymity within public documents through photography and graphite drawings housed in a sculptural cabinet inscribed with language. Sand’s exploration took the form of poems embroidered into black textile panels.
Passing it On. Working with several people who participated in decades of activism and civic engagement, Imatani and Sand considered some of what they continue to pass along—programs created, destruction prevented, enduring concerns, and in particular, books they read. In particular, this exhibit launches an ongoing activist bookshelf project, presenting sculptural bookshelves comprised of book selections by Kent Ford, Lloyd Marbet and Joanne Oleksiak. We borrowed the title from Ford’s description of sharing books: “I kept passing it on, passing it on to all my friends.”

Links:

About the project: http://looseleafservices.us/about

City of Portland Archives & Records Center: http://www.portlandonline.com/auditor/index.cfm?c=26978

Jessica Hickey’s “Pliable Planes” installation opens at the Portland Building January 12th

Posted on January 7, 2015 at 12:00 pm.

Written by RACC IT

PORTLAND, ORE – In 1957 iconic Bauhaus weaver Anni Albers wrote a piece titled The Pliable Plane; Textiles in Architecture. Her work begins, “If the nature of architecture is grounded, the fixed, the permanent, then textiles are its antithesis. If, however, we think of building and the process of weaving and compare the work involved, we will find similarities despite the vast difference in scale.”

Like Albers, artist Jessica Hickey sees a number of hidden parallels in textiles and architecture—both originated as a means to protect and insulate that which they enclose, both developed geometric and decorative designs for aesthetic and symbolic purposes (“fashion” and “style” are used to describe trends in both disciplines), both often rely on patterned grids and lines for their visual language. Capitalizing on this common ground, Hickey, a skilled weaver and textile designer, will present a scaled-down, quilted version of the Portland Building that will cover the entire entryway of that building’s lobby exhibition space. Her soft façade promises visitors a tactile and accessible environment that will bring the form and style of Portland’s famous post-modern landmark to a scale all can see and explore up close.

“A continuity resides within interior spaces of architecture throughout history from the small portable hide to the gigantic concrete structures of a city. These spaces, regardless of scale or material, protect and insulate the body. However, possibly more important than the direct physical defense, is the social function architecture provides. Interiors of built planes have housed and facilitated growth of families, communities, and cities shifting in scale with time. This installation depicts the direct relationship between textile and architecture as one in the same within the Portland Building Installation Space.

“A quilted version of the building’s facade will cover the entryway and side openings to the installation except for an opening and seating space. This will transform the interior room into the scale of a textile tent structure. Quilted from pliable materials from ancient to contemporary, in hide, woven, and printed form, the abstracted and shrunken facade recreates a new, small scale environment more readily associated with the protective and interactive social elements both architecture and textile can provide.” – Jessica Hickey

About the Artist: Jessica Hickey lives and works in Portland, Oregon. She received her MFA in Contemporary Art Practice from Portland State University and her BFA from the University of Oregon in fibers and ceramics. She is currently the Fibers Studio Manager at Oregon College of Art and Craft and has taught textile, ceramic, and mixed media courses for the University of Oregon Craft Center and the Eugene Metropolitan Parks District. Her work, which has been shown nationally and internationally, utilizes hand woven textiles in combination with a wide variety of sculptural methods.

Viewing Hours & Location: The Portland Building is located at 1120 SW 5^th Avenue in downtown Portland and is open 8 am to 5 pm, Monday – Friday. The exhibition runs through February 6.

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.

RACC announces new grant opportunities for expanding Portlanders’ access to arts and culture

Posted on January 5, 2015 at 12:00 pm.

Written by RACC IT

PORTLAND, ORE – With funding from the City of Portland’s voter-approved Arts Education and Access Fund, the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) plans to invest approximately $50,000 in nonprofit organizations that are making arts and culture more accessible for communities of color, immigrants, refugees, underserved neighborhoods such as East Portland, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ communities, and other under-represented populations.

“Expanding Cultural Access” grant application materials are available online now at www.racc.org/ecagrants. Applicant organizations must be based in Portland and offer arts-related programming for underserved communities between July 1, 2015 and June 30, 2016. All proposals due by March 3 at 5:00 pm, and awards will be announced in May.

The Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC) values a community in which everyone can participate in arts and culture, and these grants are specifically designed to support programs and projects that create more equitable access to arts and culture. Examples of programming that would be competitive for these grants include:

An event or program that gives underserved artists increased outlets to promote and market their work;
A technical assistance/learning/training program for artists in underserved cultural communities;
An event that highlights and promotes the art and culture of one particular community;
Ongoing programming that serves these goals.

For more information, visit www.racc.org/ecagrants. Application materials are also available in Spanish, with other languages available upon request. Applicants whose primary fluency is in a language other than English can call 503-823-5071 to receive live, over-the-phone interpreted assistance from RACC.

To help potential applicants understand the application and guidelines, RACC will host two free information sessions in Portland. RSVPs are encouraged but not required; contact ttoler@racc.org,
503-823-5866.

Saturday, January 31, 2015, 12:00 noon – 1:30 pm at Midland Library, 805 Southeast 122nd Avenue
Wednesday, February 4, 2015, 12:00 noon – 1:30 pm at RACC, 411 NW Park Ave., Ste. 101

The Arts Education and Access Fund (AEAF) was approved by voters in November, 2012. The AEAF provides funding for art and music teachers in Portland’s six school districts, plus funding for RACC to bring arts, culture and creativity to life for every Portland resident. By law, RACC sets aside at least 5% of all its allocations from the AEAF to provide grants and programs that help make arts and culture experiences available to Portland residents, with particular emphasis on programs directed to communities who are underserved by local arts providers. For more information, visit www.racc.org/aeaf.