RACC Blog

On Thursday, June 12th, Multnomah County adopted a budget that included a $300,000 cut to the Regional Arts & Culture Council’s (RACC) core county community program funding. These cuts are the result of Amendment #11 to the Chair’s proposed FY26 budget, reallocating funds from Program 10200—RACC’s primary County-based funding source—to other County services.

While we recognize the difficult decisions facing our County leaders, we must also speak plainly about what this reduction means: fewer programs, less support, and lasting impact on community access to the arts.

RACC has served as Multnomah County’s designated arts and culture agency. Through leadership, advocacy, and grantmaking, we work to ensure that public investment supports a thriving, equitable cultural ecosystem. This loss of County support has real consequences for the services we provide.

What Will This Budget Cut Impact?

Direct Community Funding

Last year in FY24, RACC awarded $214,000 in Multnomah County funded grants to 54 community-based projects across our service area. These ranged from arts in public parks and classrooms to BIPOC artist retreats and cultural festivals.

Public Art Stewardship

RACC manages over 1,000 pieces in the County’s public art collection. Cuts reduce our capacity to care for, rotate, and restore this vital public asset.

Advocacy & Access

County funding supports RACC’s regional advocacy, policy leadership, and outreach to ensure arts and culture remain a core part of community well-being. Less funding limits our ability to keep Multnomah County’s creative community at the table.

Professional Development Grants

This year, 57 artists and creatives received support through our professional development grants with Multnomah County funding, helping them grow small businesses and gain skills. These grants were made possible by $90,000 in County support, which is now unavailable.

We know many of you—artists, residents, organizations, businesses—want to help. Here’s how:

How You Can Support Now

Make a Donation

Every dollar helps offset this cut and restore programs for the people and places that need them most. Donate to RACC. 

Share Your Story

Let us know what RACC’s support has meant for you or your organization. Submit a 30-second vertical video testimony here. Need a prompt? Answer one the following questions in your testimony:

• Have you or your organization ever received funding, a commission, or attended a workshop provided by RACC? How and why did you choose us in particular?
• What were their/your expectations about working with us? Has the experience you’ve had with RACC measured up to your initial expectations?
• What problems, if any, did we (or are we still) helping you or your organization with through our programming?

Show Up

Civic engagement matters. Look for more conversations to come—about values, investment, and vision for the region.

Arts and culture don’t belong to one county, one agency, or one moment. They belong to all of us. And they need all of us—especially now. Thank you for standing with us and for helping carry this work forward!

Funding from Multnomah County enables RACC to empower local creativity in our county, creating entry points for underserved communities when other resources aren’t available. As a tri-county arts economy, the proposed cuts to Multnomah County’s funding to the Regional Arts & Culture Council will deeply impact artists and arts and culture organizations that reside in and across the borders Multnomah, Clackamas, and Washington Counties. When one county weakens its support, the ripple effects are felt throughout the entire region. 

Sign up today to give in-person or virtual oral testimony for Multnomah County’s upcoming budget meeting. The meeting will take place on Thursday, June 12th from 9:30 am to 12:00 pm PT. Select “Agenda Item” and “R5” on the form.

The deadline to sign up for oral testimony is Wednesday, June 11th at 4 pm PT. If slots fill up for oral testimony, please join us in person! Multnomah County Board meetings take place in the Multnomah Building at 501 Southeast Hawthorne Blvd., Portland, Oregon, in Boardroom 100.

Can’t attend or testify on Thursday morning?  Submit written testimony here. Select “Agenda Item” and “R5” on the form.  Meetings are live-streamed and archived here. 

Show up in person if you can. Signage, apparel, or anything visual that shows your reason for attending makes a difference. Even without public comment, presence is power.

If you live in Clackamas, Washington, Clark, or elsewhere but:

• Rely on commissions, shows, or grants that come through Multnomah County,
• Contract artists or rely on talent who live in Multnomah County,
• Collaborate with artists, organizations, or clients in Portland or elsewhere in the county,
• Had to move out of Multnomah due to the cost of living but still work here,
• Or you’re an arts supporter who knows your neighbors, employees, or collaborators benefit from RACC…

You can still help by doing the above actions! Your voice is powerful.

Cuts to arts and culture in one county create instability for all of us. Public testimony from community leaders and employers will underscore the real economic and cultural loss these cuts would bring.

The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) stands in deep solidarity with our national and local partners as the arts and culture sector faces yet another wave of uncertainty—this time at the federal level. We have learned that DOGE has made its way to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and a reduction in force is anticipated. With that comes the real concern of significant cuts to the NEA’s grants budget.

As with our partners, we encourage all organizations that hold an NEA grant agreement, we encourage you to log into your grants portal immediately and request any outstanding disbursements or reimbursements.

At a time when we’re already seeing shifts in state-level support, the potential loss of federal investment is particularly alarming for our small and mid-sized organizations—many of which are led by BIPOC, immigrant, LGBTQIA+, and disabled creatives who’ve long been doing the grassroots work of cultural stewardship. These are the organizations keeping our region vibrant, connected, and evolving. All our arts, culture, and heritage organizations need our collective support more than ever.

In this critical moment, we also want to amplify the effort by Americans for the Arts (AFTA) to gather data through its National Pulse Survey, which seeks to understand how federal and state policy decisions are impacting your work, your organization, and your community.

Take the survey by May 9, 2025:

https://surveys.AmericansForTheArts.org/s3/ImpactOfFederalPolicies

It matters:

• It will give voice to local challenges and provide nationwide insight into how policies are affecting communities like ours.
• Results will be publicly available and sortable by geography, discipline, and organization size.
• The survey takes only 6 minutes to complete and is available in Spanish to expand accessibility.

Your voice is essential. The more voices from Portland and across our broader region that  include Clackamas, Washington, Multnomah, and even Clark Counties to respond, the clearer our shared story becomes.

We see you. We’re with you. And we will continue advocating for the support you deserve at every level – local, regional, state, and federal.

With gratitude for all that you do,
The RACC Team

As a pivotal player in the regional arts and culture landscape across greater Portland for the past 28 years, the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) is proud to reaffirm our mission, impact, and resonance with the Our Creative Future regional framework released on Monday, March 25th. As a regionally formed  independent 501(c)(3) organization, RACC has consistently championed creative endeavors, fostering vibrant communities through arts and culture.

We eagerly anticipate our continued presence in action plans and the investment in our organization to further enhance our support of the regional arts and culture ecosystem.

RACC in the Region:

RACC serves as a vital conduit for the creative economy in the tri-county region by extending funding and services to artists and art organizations, orchestrating a comprehensive regional public art program, and nurturing enduring partnerships. Since its inception in 1995, RACC has operated under an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) with five government partners, collectively ensuring robust support for arts and culture across the region. Our initiatives echo the voices of the community, nurturing inclusivity, artistic expression, cultural vitality, and community engagement.

Our work throughout the region, rooted in a values-driven approach and framed through a Racial Equity Lens, revolves around:

• Raising awareness and visibility, with particular emphasis on uplifting underrepresented and underfunded arts, culture, and creative communities.
• Increasing access to resources and investments, especially for individuals marginalized by conventional support systems.
• Enhancing community access to arts, culture, and creative programming.
• Engaging and supporting underrepresented communities by identifying and dismantling barriers to resources and services.
• Intentionally investing in projects and individuals that have faced marginalization due to systemic and institutional racism.
• Providing resources, training, and tools to empower creatives to earn a living wage and build wealth from their artistic endeavors.

Examples of our work:

1. Public Art: NEA Our Town grant with cultural organizations including APANO, Division Midway Alliance and Slavic Community Center of NW
2. Public Art murals training project in collaboration with City of Hillsboro
3. In the last 5 years, RACC has distributed financial resources to over 1200 artists residing or headquartered in 93% of zip codes in our service area.
4. Received and distributed $500,000 from the NEA, focused on fostering support and growth in Clackamas and Washington County; FY22-23 and FY23-24.
5. Since 2017 RACC has remained deeply engaged in developing the capacity of organizations led by and serving underrepresented community members through the Arts Education and Access Fund-supported Capacity Building Program.
6. We awarded $450,000 to 196 artists through the City of Portland’s Urgency/Stability Support for Artists grant program, a part of the American Rescue Plan.

Additional Contributions:

In addition to our ongoing efforts, RACC stands ready to explore further avenues of support, provided there is consideration for capacity. We are prepared to:

• Expand outreach efforts to ensure equitable access to information about funding opportunities, workshops, and educational programs.
• Advocate more vigorously for increased public funding for the arts and policies prioritizing equity and inclusion.
• Strengthen partnerships with corporate sponsors, foundations, and individual donors to secure additional funding for programs and initiatives.
• Explore innovative projects and partnerships to engage the public and promote arts and culture across sectors and communities.

Call to Action:

As we reflect on the Our Creative Future regional framework, it’s paramount for community stakeholders, thought partners, and supporters to unite in bolstering and supporting our region’s vibrant arts and culture scene. Despite facing challenges such as the City’s decision to discontinue its contract with RACC, we view this as an opportunity to reaffirm our dedication to the sector.

We urge individuals, organizations, and policymakers to actively engage with the Our Creative Future framework and participate in the current feedback sessions.

Published Framework and Executive Summary for the Regional Plan

As mentioned during the meeting the Public has until April 15th to comment.

Online access to the plan online until April 15th.

In-person town hall on Wednesday, April 3, 4:00-6:00 p.m., at the Native American Student and Community Center at Portland State University. (RSVP, note that space is limited)

A virtual town hall on Tuesday, April 9, 6:00-8:00 p.m. (RSVP)

Let’s advocate collectively for increased funding, resources, and support for artists, creatives, and cultural organizations. Together, let’s prioritize equity, inclusion, and accessibility, ensuring that arts and culture remain central to our region’s identity and vitality.

Now is the time to harness our collective voices and actions to shape a future where creativity thrives, diversity is celebrated, and everyone has access to enriching arts experiences.

Thoughts by Laura Strieb, AEP6 Coordinator

On Monday, November 6th, local arts leaders, and city and county officials gathered for a fabulous night where we were joined by Randy Cohen, Vice President of Research at Americans for the Arts along with representatives from the Oregon Arts Commission to learn and hear the results of a year’s long study and survey regarding the impacts of the Arts on the Economy.

Randy Cohen addressing the AEP6 crowd at Lakewood Center for the Arts, Lake Oswego.

Every five years, Americans for the Arts galvanizes local arts service organizations to go out and see what audiences at arts and culture events are spending around attending an arts and/or culture experience. We also survey arts and culture nonprofit organizations on their spending, hiring, employment and community engagement to get an accurate picture of how the arts drive the economy.

Even in the wake of COVID-19 and the resulting economic recession, the arts continue to provide a significant boost to recharging the economy in America’s local communities. The arts draws people out of their homes and back into community life—spending time with each other and spending their money within the local communities.

As we know the arts and nonprofit sectors were hit extremely hard by the pandemic shut down. So we definitely need to celebrate all the organizations that survived and were able to still be here today! The Arts show resilience!

Raziah Roushan, Executive Director of Tualatin Valley Creates (TVC) introducing guest speakers.

We excitedly were able to share with the arts community and county/city leaders that the data collected throughout all three counties clearly shows that the arts are a phenomenal Return on Investment (ROI). This data also shows the reason why we need to continue to advocate for deep investments of our arts and culture organizations. They are the change makers and action drivers in our communities.

The numbers back that up.

For those who want to see the tax revenue generated and jobs created – that data is also hard to refute! In the tri-county area, almost 7,000 jobs are generated in the arts and culture sector. This is most certainly an undercount as we are basing these numbers on the arts organizations that responded to our survey and we know there are many many more orgs out there.

Also from our survey results we see how this plays out in the lives people living in our communities as well as how we provide funding back to federal, state and local governments.

Personal Income generated by arts funding by county looks like:

• Clackamas County : $17.5 Million
• Multnomah County : $286.1 Million
• Washington County : $18.8 Million

Government Revenue (Local, State and Federal) by county :

• Clackamas County : $4.5 Million
• Multnomah County : $72.1 Million
• Washington County : $4.9 Million

Bottom line – the Arts are big business and we need to shout it to the rooftops that our policy makers need to continue to invest and work to make bigger investments in the arts and culture sectors throughout our region and state – because not only is it good for our economy, driving jobs, revenue, tax revenue. It builds community.

The arts get people together, get them talking, get them creating. Community is the catalyst to building a brighter future for all of us. The Arts are that driving force.

Raziah Roushan, Executive Director of TVC and Liora Sponko, Senior Program Manager

Oregon Arts Commission

This is our call to action – tell your neighbors, your community, state and federal leaders – that investment in the arts is the key to the communities we all want for our families.

Recording 

Due to technical difficulty much of the video was lost but the audio remains.

Video/Audio

AEP6 Local Org Slides

AEP6 3-County Slides