RACC Blog

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.


Sallie Tisdale named RACC’s 2013 Literature Fellow

The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) is pleased to announce its 2013 Literature Fellow: Sallie Tisdale. This fellowship honor carries a cash award of $20,000.

“Sallie Tisdale is a pillar of the writing community,” said Eloise Damrosch, executive director of RACC. “Her work is honest, authentic and clear, and she doesn’t waste a word. We are thrilled to recognize her as a master of her craft, and to honor her with this award.”

Tisdale has written everything from short memoirs to books, from personal poems to complex essays. She has already compiled a mature body of work which has appeared in the finest magazines in the country (The New Yorker, Harper’s, The New Republic, and Salon). She has published seven books, including Stepping Westward which was named to two best nonfiction book lists of the West. Her other books include Women of the Way, The Best Thing I Ever Tasted, and Talk Dirty to Me. She has received various awards including an NEA Fellowship in Belle Lettres, the James Phelan Award for Creative Fiction and a Pushcart Prize. She has taught or presented at New York University, Northwestern University, Omega Institute, University of California-Davis, and Antioch University. She has also taught writing at prisons, elementary schools and churches. In addition to her writing career, Tisdale has worked as a nurse and raised a family. More information can be found at her website sallietisdale.com.

Tisdale has been working for some time on a book about our reflex toward charity – what it means to do good, how one knows what good is, how many ways it can go wrong – in the context of a small clinic in Africa founded by Oregonians. She also has several essays in various stages of completion.

“RACC’s Fellowship will give me the gift of time to pursue this long and complicated work,” Tisdale says. Her goal is to write free of commercial or contractual demands over the next year. “The energy to write is powerful,” she says, “the curiosity to explore and get lost and find my way out again is as strong as it has ever been. What I need is time.”

The RACC Artists Fellowship Award, established in 1999, is one of the largest and most prestigious grants to individual artists in the Pacific Northwest, supporting exceptional artists who enrich the communities in our region. One fellowship is awarded each year, rotating through four artistic disciplines.

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.

Dan DeWeese, Kathleen Holt, Karen Karbo, Flavia Rocha, and Elizabeth Woody served as panelists for the Literature Fellowship this year.

Tisdale joins 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 and Lawrence Johnson. All RACC fellows are listed at racc.org/grants/individual-artist-fellowships.
 
 


RACC seeks submissions for the “Visual Chronicle of Portland”

The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) is seeking works on paper—prints, drawings, paintings on paper and photographs—to purchase for the Visual Chronicle of Portland collection. The budget for the purchase and framing of artwork is $10,000. The deadline for submissions is Monday, July 15, 2013

Background: The Visual Chronicle of Portland is a collection of original works on paper that portray artists’ perceptions of what makes the City of Portland unique. TheChronicle is owned by the City, and exists as a subset of its Public Art Collection. Since its beginning in 1985, theChronicle has grown to 303 works by 179 different artists and has established itself as an important archive of daily life in Portland, Oregon. RACC oversees the day-to-day management of the Visual Chronicle for the City and insures that the collection remains available to the public by rotating works throughout public spaces in City of Portland and Multnomah County buildings. The collection strives to reflect a diversity of populations, artistic disciplines and points of view.

Until I served on the Visual Chronicle Selection Panel I had no idea what a diverse and talented group of artists was at work in Portland. This collection is a testament to the fact that there is not just one Portland, but many—and that we need the artists’ perspectives to get a glimpse of those aspects of the city.
               – Former Visual Chronicle Selection panel member Judith Barrington 

Images and details of the entire collection can be seen by going to www.racc.org/visualchronicle 

Theme for 2013: As in the past, purchase selections will be made based on how well the work matches the purpose and spirit of the Visual Chronicle—conveying perceptions of what makes Portland unique. This year however, the selection panel would like to encourage work that documents, describes, or evokes areas, communities and issues that are under-represented in the Chronicle. The bridges, the Rose Parade, Washington Park and other Portland icons, are all well cataloged, but the collection has fewer works that represent people and places that exist beyond downtown and outside of the mainstream. While no absolute boundaries or subjects are mandated or excluded, the panel hopes to add range to the Chronicle and better represent vital neighborhoods, communities and artists that contribute to a fully textured view of Portland.

Selection and Purchase Process: Additions to the Chronicle are supported each year by a fund of $10,000 which covers the purchase of new artwork and archival matting and framing. The Chronicle is restricted to works on paper no larger than 24” x 30”; this keeps the cost of individual pieces modest and allows the selection panel to purchase multiple works.

The selection panel is composed of an independent group of artists and curators. This year’s panel includes Yoonhee Choi, artist and teacher; Gabe Flores, artist, curator; Roll Hardy, artist; Grant Hottle, artist, teacher; Blake Shell, artist, curator. The selection process will take place in two parts—an initial review of digital images followed by a final review of actual artwork.

Submission Details: Works on paper—prints, drawings, paintings on paper and photographs—from professional artists familiar with Portland are eligible. For more information and to download guidelines in English or Spanish, visit the RACC website at www.racc.org (direct link: http://www.racc.org/public-art/racc-opportunity-2013-call-visual-chronicle-portland), or contact program manager Keith Lachowicz at klachowicz@racc.org or 503-823-5404.

Information Session: To assist artists with the submission process and to provide additional
in-depth background on the Visual Chronicle collection RACC staff will hold an information session on Tuesday, June 25th from 5:30pm – 6:30pm at RACC offices, 411 NW Park Avenue, Suite 101.  Email Keith Lachowicz atklachowicz@racc.org to reserve a spot. RACC staff is also available to speak off-site to groups of artists who would like to learn more about this purchase opportunity.

Submission Deadline: The deadline for all submissions is Monday, July 15, 2013 at 5pm.

For more information contact project staff:
Keith Lachowicz
klachowicz@racc.org
503-823-5865

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