RACC Blog

Oregon Artists and Arts Organizations report $56M lost revenue

Survey results forecast 3-month financial impact of COVID-19 on arts & culture community

Portland, Ore – Across the world, life has changed dramatically as the impact of the coronavirus pandemic continues to unfold. The picture of that impact on the arts community came into sharp focus this week as the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) tallied results from a statewide survey conducted last week.

The Oregon COVID-19 Impact Survey is an effort to measure estimated losses during March, April and May 2020 on individuals working in the arts as well as arts organizations. Reported losses include revenues from lost contracts, shows and teaching work that have all been cancelled in order to comply with restrictions on group sizes, gatherings and requirements for social distancing during this health crisis.

RACC, the nonprofit arts council for the tri-county area including Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington counties, collected more than 1,200 responses from individuals and more than 260 arts organizations across 25 counties. Multnomah County-based artists provided the bulk of the data with more than 900 respondents reporting a total of $46 million in losses for the single quarter. Initial analysis of the data show impacts increasing month over month. RACC intends to share the data to support efforts at the state, federal and local levels and to lead advocacy efforts and guide resource collection and distribution for individuals and organizations.

“Thank you to the people who took the time to respond to the survey,” said Madison Cario, RACC Executive Director. “They have collectively confirmed that many individuals and organizations working in arts and culture lack sufficient infrastructure and resources to sustain continued financial and social disruptions.” The information is well-documented in the field, Cario added, “The survey data empowers advocates and funders with specific financial details of what is currently being lost as we work towards solutions.”

As part of the response to COVID-19, RACC is relaxing funding restrictions in order to get dollars out the door faster, and partnering with other grant makers to deepen impact. “We are grateful to have the Oregon Community Foundation and the Miller Foundation at the table with the shared goal of relief for the arts community, said Cario.  “This relief is intended as breathing room so we can be creative about possible pivots and planning adaptations for the long haul.”


RACC updates – staff working remotely and resources

As the country and world respond to coronavirus and the COVID-19 situation, RACC would like to share some information and resources.

First and foremost, RACC is invested in the health and well-being of the artists, arts organizations, and our communities. Please follow all directions and recommendations from your local and state authorities as well as entities such as the CDC and WHO.

Additionally, for information specific to artists and arts organizations, please refer to ArtsReady, the Performing Arts Readiness project, and the National Coalition for Arts Preparedness and Emergency Response. These resources are available with best-practices, updated information, and resources specifically for the arts community. Locally, please also see this new opportunity for emergency funding for artists.

For those of you who are currently operating with grants funded by RACC, we are responsive to individual concerns and necessary changes to the originally-proposed activities. Should you need to modify your grant, please contact your program officer to discuss options. More information for grantees can be found here. Starting today, March 13, RACC staff will be working remotely.

We also want to make you aware of campaigns to include artists and the nonprofit arts community in any federal relief funds that are made available. There are currently campaigns being conducted through both The Performing Arts Alliance as well as the American Alliance for Museums. We recommend reading about these campaigns and, should you feel strongly about the causes, informing your legislators. In addition, RACC will also be working closely with local and regional governments, service organizations, and individuals, as well as local funders and businesses, to develop an emergency fund to support artists and arts organizations through these difficult times.

We recognize the impact that this virus and the necessary reactions may cause. Artists, technicians, administrators, and everyone involved in the arts community are facing an unprecedented situation as events get canceled or postponed. Ultimately, we believe that the arts are about bringing people together. We share emotions and ideas. These connections strengthen us. Looking forward, as we work our way collectively through this pandemic, we are hopeful that the artists, arts organizations, and everyone who make up our arts community will come together and be stronger for it.

Here are some additional ways we can help our community:

Check on older neighbors, colleagues and friends with a call or text – older people seem to be particularly vulnerable to contracting coronavirus, according to health officials – but also are likely staying home and not allowing visitors as a precaution.

Safely drop off food – particularly to anyone who is under quarantine or isolating from others due to their risk factors. Let folks know you’ll be dropping something by – and leave it at the door or on the porch.

Donate money – lots of organizations including food banks, social services groups and others offer direct help to people in need and may be one of the first places people turn if they are hurt economically by the virus.

Fight discrimination and stigma – fear and anxiety can lead to social stigma when people associate an infectious disease, such as COVID-19, with a population or nationality, even though not everyone in that population or from that region is specifically at risk for the disease (for example, Chinese-Americans and other Asian-Americans living in the United States). Stigma hurts everyone by creating more fear or anger but we can fight this type of discrimination and help others by providing social support.


Regional Arts & Culture Council sets course for new decade

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

>>Reorganization will focus resources and programs on artists and underserved communities

PORTLAND, ORE – The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) today announced organization-wide changes to reflect a new vision and priorities. Under the new vision, RACC will continue its core grantmaking programs, public art projects and arts education while expanding its advocacy and fundraising programs with a deeper focus on reaching underserved communities. As part of the changes RACC will eliminate 5 positions that are currently vacant, lay off an additional 15 employees, and hire 15 new positions to support RACC’s new focus areas.

The rollout comes after a year of planning led by RACC’s executive director, Madison Cario, and with the support of the board of directors. Additionally, the proposed changes are responsive to the City of Portland’s audit of RACC in 2018 and the city’s current budget priorities. The changes are effective immediately.

“We take this transition very seriously and deeply appreciate the work of RACC employees, especially those leaving the organization. These changes respond to what we are seeing and hearing from our community, and position RACC to better serve our region today and in the future,” said RACC board chair Linda McGeady.

“When RACC connects artists with resources, opportunities and each other, our communities become stronger. We have a vision of establishing RACC as a champion for arts and culture locally, regionally, and nationally,” stated the City of Portland’s Arts Commissioner, Chloe Eudaly. “The organizational changes proposed by RACC will help us all better achieve that vision.”

Additional details about the restructure include:

• Enhancing public awareness and engaging community members in culture, creativity and the arts through strategic investments and partnerships
• Creating an advocacy team to make the case to the public and partners about the value of arts education and the city’s Arts Education and Access Fund
• Increasing engagement in public art projects and collections, grantmaking and other publicly-funded arts programs and investments managed by RACC
• Demonstrating how the arts build livable communities by connecting to politics, education, economics, development, planning, and civic engagement
• Strengthening relationships with regional elected officials and policymakers at all governmental levels
• Advancing racial equity, diversity, inclusion and access both within the organization and in our work with community partners
• Better measuring and demonstrating the benefits to residents of investments in public art, arts education, arts and culture organizations and individual artists
• Applying best practices from around the country to measure public participation in and perception of the arts as a means of gauging effectiveness and making improvements.

“To achieve this vision, RACC needs to become more fiscally sustainable, diversify our funding sources and streamline our organization,” stated Cario, who took the helm of RACC one year ago following an 18-month national search. They added, “I’m excited to see what we can do when we focus on incubating new ideas, innovating the role of an arts council in today’s world. I am inspired by our staff and board’s commitment to ensuring the arts are accessible to everyone in our community.” The detailed plan was presented this week by Cario to community partners, city officials, board members and staff outlining the changes and reasons. Changes include:

• Shoring up or eliminating unsustainable cost centers – including sunsetting RACC’s workplace giving program
• Moving management of The Right Brain Initiative, an arts integration program, to RACC’s long-time partner Young Audiences of Oregon & SW Washington, a nonprofit organization
• Creating a dedicated development team at RACC with clear fundraising goals to help increase and diversify revenue
• Better leveraging public dollars to secure new national and local funding
• Reorganizing staff positions to align with organizational changes, simplifying work groups and reporting relationships.

RACC’s year-end report was released in December, highlighting accomplishments in 2019 and celebrating the artists, arts workers and arts educators who make our community stronger. RACC will present its next “State of the Arts” report to the Portland City Council on February 27 at 2:00 p.m.

For more information, contact Heather Nelson Kent at hnkent@racc.org or by phone 503-823-5426 or mobile 503-860-6145.

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The Regional Arts & Culture Council is a local arts agency serving 1.8 million residents in the Portland, Oregon metro region including Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties. RACC provides grants and technical assistance for artists and nonprofit organizations, with more than 5,000 grants totaling $44 million in the past two decades. RACC also manages a widely-celebrated public art collection of more than 2,200 artworks for the City of Portland and Multnomah County; conducts employee giving campaigns that have raised more than $8.5 million for local arts organizations since 2007; organizes networking events, forums and workshops; and integrates the arts into the broader curriculum for K-8 students through The Right Brain Initiative, serving more than 27,000 students a year. Online at www.racc.org.

MEDIA CONTACT: Heather Nelson Kent, Communications Manager, hnkent@racc.org, 503.823.5426


Hank Willis Thomas and Intisar Abioto featured in a new public art project, In—Between

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December  16, 2019 

Portland, Ore – A new temporary public art project has been installed along the median strip on NE Holladay Street between the Oregon Convention Center and the new Hyatt Hotel and parking structure. As part of a new series called In—Between, the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) invited Portland-based artist Intisar Abioto and Brooklyn-based artist Hank Willis Thomas to create ten banners, each 10 feet tall, featuring the artists’ words and images. The banners will appear on five posts along NE Holladay Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and 1st Avenue through May 31. 

Funding comes from the city’s Percent-for-Art ordinance, which sets aside 2% of the construction costs for Prosper Portland’s new parking garage to create public art. Kimberly Branam, executive director of Prosper Portland, commented, “Art teaches us about ourselves and our community, and we are proud to play a role in honoring the history and culture of the neighborhood through this work.” 

 RACC assembled an artist selection panel composed of community members, artists and representatives from Prosper Portland, the Oregon Convention Center, and Mayer-Reed Landscape Architecture. The panel agreed that goals for the project should include bold artwork that connects to the area’s communities and reflects the general concepts of movement, change, adaptation – addressing a general statement of “where are we going.” 

With this pilot exhibition, the panel seized on an opportunity to feature both internationally acclaimed multi-disciplinary artist Hank Willis Thomas, whose first major retrospective is currently on view at the Portland Art Museum through January 12, and Portland-based artist and storyteller Intisar Abioto.  A Memphis native, Abioto moved to Portland nine years ago with her mother and sisters, and has since gained recognition for her photography and her blog, The Black Portlanders. The intention of her portrait work is to allow the complexity of people’s natures to unfold in the work.   

Julia Dolan, the Minor White Curator of Photography at the Portland Art Museum, reviewed Thomas’s body of work with Abioto, who quickly gravitated to Thomas’s text-based series “I AM A MAN,” inspired by a 1968 Ernest C. Withers photograph showing a large group of protesters bearing the same message. Thomas’s series of paintings plays with the orientation and wording of the text (A Man I Am, I Be a Man, I Am Many, I Am The Man, etc.), ending with a painting that says, “I am. Amen.” Thomas states, “The greatest revelation should be that we are.”   

In responding to Thomas’s workAbioto stated that her goal was “to honor the lived history and origin of the I AM A MAN statement as expressed through the work and trials of those living through the 1968 Sanitation Worker’s Strike. It was also to illustrate with images the I AM statement as lived in and by Black people in diaspora today.” Abioto selected images from her vast archive that “communicate a deep and internally rooted sense of I AM emanating from the individuals themselves. I AM. WE ARE. These statements are timely, timeless, and true, regardless.” 

Future installations of In—Between will evolve in focus, but will continue to reflect the overall theme of “where are we going.”  This will be the first of a series of temporary installations.  For opportunities to apply for future installations, artists can follow racc.org on Facebook or Instagram, or sign up to receive public art opportunities in their inbox at racc.org/public-art/public-art-email-list/.  

 

The artworks by Intisar Abioto and Hank Willis Thomas are on display along NE Holladay Street, between Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and 1st Avenue, through May 31. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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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; 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. 

MEDIA CONTACT: Jeff Hawthorne, Director of Community Engagement, jhawthorne@racc.org, 503.823.5258.


Munta Mpwo paints new mural at Open Signal

The artwork is the sixth to be commissioned as part of the “Fresh Paint” temporary murals program, in partnership with the Regional Arts & Culture Council

 

Portland, Ore. — A new mural is going up on the exterior wall of Open Signal: Portland Community Media Center on NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard at Graham Street in Portland. Titled bboys make some noise, artist Munta Eric Mbungu Mpwo’s mural will remain on display through April 2020.

Originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mpwo is now based in Portland. He cites comic books, breakdancing and hip hop as their sources of inspiration.

“I’m a breakdancer and have been doing it for about 20 years,” Mpwo says. “I have connected with many different cultures and backgrounds through dance. To help motivate the next generation, I would like to dedicate [this mural] to all dancers to show what the power of dance can bring to the soul.”

This is the sixth temporary mural created in the last two and a half years as part of the Fresh Paint program, a partnership between Open Signal and the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC). The goal of the program is to provide emerging artists of color the opportunity to paint a mural in a high-traffic setting for the first time, helping artists learn new ways of creating art in public spaces, and to build their portfolio.

For a time-lapse video with the painting of the previous Fresh Paint mural—Let’s Talk by artists Maria Rodriguez, Bizar Gomez and Anke Gladnick—please visit https://youtu.be/Zfkv0hizF90. The next artist to be featured in this program will be Limei Lai in April 2020.

 

Artist Munta Mpwo started painting Open Signal’s new mural facing NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd. on October 2, 2019. Painting is scheduled to resume on Saturday, October 5.

 


Michihiro Kosuge’s installation Contemplative Place has been relocated to Leach Botanical Garden; public dedication event planned for September 6

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 27, 2019

Portland, Ore – The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC), Leach Botanical Garden and Portland’s Russo Lee Gallery are pleased to announce a dedication event for Northwest sculptor Michihiro Kosuge’s Contemplative Place installation at Leach Botanical Garden. The dedication, which will be held in the Upper Garden at Leach on Friday, September 6 at 10:30 a.m., offers a unique opportunity to meet the artist and experience the scale and setting of the this newly relocated basalt stone installation in a lush forest setting.

 

About Contemplative Place: In 1996 artist Michihiro Kosuge designed and installed a striking set of carved and shaped stones in the northwest corner of East Portland’s Ed Benedict Park. The installation was designed to provide a place where park visitors could sit and quietly contemplate the relationship between the massive basalt blocks and the points of the compass marked by the tallest stones. The landscaped park setting around the stones worked in concert with the artist’s thoughtful layout to foster a sense of quietude and spirituality. The installation was also meant to provide a spot for the 911 call operators—who worked next door in Portland’s Emergency Communications Center—to decompress whenever needed. Changes in traffic volume along Powell Boulevard, and the subsequent placement of a skateboard park directly adjacent to Contemplative Place, led to conditions that worked directly against Kosuge’s intent.

 

The major renovation of Leach Botanical Garden which is now underway presented a remarkable opportunity to relocate this important work of public art to a spot where it can once again serve its original purpose. The wooded grove Contemplative Place now inhabits allows the installation to once again work in concert with its setting and provides for the addition of a significant work of public art to this marvelously evolving garden. Those who attend the dedication will also have a chance to learn more about the renovation of the Upper Garden at Leach.

About the Artist: Known for his sculpture and stone installations throughout the NW and beyond, Michihiro Kosuge was born in Tokyo and studied sculpture at Tokyo Sumida Technical School of Architecture. After coming to the United States in 1967, he continued to focus on sculpture and received an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1970. After moving to Portland in 1978 Kosuge began teaching at Portland State University. He remained at PSU until he retired from teaching in 2003 as Chair of the Department. Always prolific, Kosuge’s studio practice remains active  as witnessed by his current exhibition at Russo Lee Gallery which runs through August 31.

Dedication Time and Place: Join the artist, staff from Leach Botanical Garden, RACC, and the Russo Lee Gallery for the dedication of Contemplative Place in its new location at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, September 6.  Leach Botanical Garden is located at 6704 SE 122nd Avenue in Portland. The event will be held in the Upper Garden. Due to construction, parking is limited to the Creekside Parking lot with the dedication site accessed vis the Manor House entrance.

For more information about the event and the art, contact Keith Lachowicz klachowicz@racc.org. For information about parking visit the Leach Botanical Garden website or contact Jo Shintani, jshintani@leachgarden.org. You can find out more about the renovation of the Leach Upper Garden here.

Michihiro Kosuge’s Contemplative Place installed in its new location at Leach Botanical Garden

 

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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; 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.

 

MEDIA CONTACT: Jeff Hawthorne, Director of Community Engagement, jhawthorne@racc.org, 503.823.5258.


RACC launches new Project Grants category: Catalyst

>>The goal is to provide a new entry point and a simpler application for artists and organizations that have not yet received a RACC project grant.

 

One of RACC’s most important responsibilities is to help facilitate the creation of new art, and to support the public’s access to culture and creativity. Every year, RACC invests hundreds of thousands of dollars through Project Grants, which are available three times annually — and the next deadline is coming up on June 5.

RACC encourages applications from Individual artists and nonprofit organizations in Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington Counties to support the creation or presentation of performances, exhibits, and other publicly accessible creative endeavors. We will award grants of up to $7,000 in every artistic discipline — including dance, music, theater, visual art, media arts, multi-disciplinary and more.

New this year, RACC has created a special category of Project Grants specifically designed for applicants who have never received a RACC Project Grant. This new Catalyst category features a shorter and simpler application, and all Catalyst grants are fixed at $3,000 each. These grants also come with enhanced RACC staff support to help recipients administer their grants.

Our goal for this new Catalyst category is to provide new grant applicants with a helpful first experience with RACC – which in turn can help them successfully apply for other RACC grants in the future and build their grantwriting skills. We are also working intentionally to support first-time grant awardees in successfully implementing their projects and meeting all the administrative requirements.

We invite community members to come learn more about RACC’s Project Grant program, including this new Catalyst category, at one of four upcoming information sessions.

For more information on RACC’s Project Grant Program, visit www.racc.org/grants/project-grants.

 

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Fresh Paint brings new mural to Northeast Portland

Artists Maria Rodriguez, Bizar Gomez and Anke Gladnick have finished painting a new mural on the exterior wall of Open Signal: Portland Community Media Center on NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard at Graham Street in Portland. “Let’s talk” is the fifth temporary mural created in the last two years as part of the Fresh Paint program, a partnership between Open Signal and the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC).

“We observe that in today’s political atmosphere, as more marginalized groups are speaking out about their plights and injustices towards them, there is a tendency for us to focus on the problems that only affect us most directly,” the artists said. “We get tunnel vision and don’t always look at the struggles faced by others outside of the spheres of identity that we occupy, be it race, nationality, sexuality, gender, etc.

“It is important to communicate to others that our fight is not more important than someone else’s fight, that rising tides lifts all boats and that through intra-community building, we can create positive change for everyone. With this in mind, we created this mural we that illustrates a scene [that] displays and encourages the growth that can occur when marginalized groups open up dialogues between themselves.”

The mural will remain on display through September 30, 2019. Two additional murals will be painted through Fresh Paint by artists Munta Mpwo and Limei Lai in October 2019 and April 2020.

 

About the Artists

Anke Gladnick is an illustrator who grew up in California and somehow found their way to Portland, Oregon. Through a mix of collaged analog and digital elements, Anke’s work is both visually and conceptually layered with a focus on the surreal and is inspired by dreams, nostalgia, and a sense of poignancy.

Raised in the desert of Phoenix, AZ and now living among the trees in Portland, OR.
Bizar Gomez is an illustrator and painter who is doing all he can to continue existing. Working primarily in Gouache, Graphite, Ink and digital media, his work involves mixing urban world iconography, dreamlike surrealism, stylized figures,and social consciousness to create interesting visuals and narratives.

Maria Rodriguez is a Mexican-American artist living in Portland, OR getting her BFA in illustration at the Pacific Northwest College of Art. Through shape and color she often explores themes of identity, culture, and nostalgia while also creating work that is playful and light hearted.

 

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Media Contact
Yousef Hatlani, Marketing Manager, Open Signal  |  yousef [at] opensignalpdx.org  |  (503) 536-7622
Jeff Hawthorne, Director of Community Engagement, Regional Arts & Culture Council  | jhawthorne [at] racc.org  | (503) 823-5258

 

Fresh Paint is a professional development program, now in its second year, that provides emerging artists of color the opportunity to paint a mural in a high-traffic setting for the first time. The goal is for each artist to learn new ways of creating art in a public space, as well as to build their portfolio.