RACC Blog

RACC teams up with the The Standard to keep the Portland Building’s public art on display

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As City Bureaus begin relocating their offices in advance of the Portland Building renovation RACC has also been working to find temporary storage for the many public art works that will be displaced during construction. Portlandia will stay put on the building’s west façade, but the iconic 35 foot high sculpture will be screened off to protect her copper surface while exterior building repairs are made.

While our city’s symbol is hidden from view tourists and locals will still be able to get a Portlandia fix however, thanks to a generous offer from The Standard insurance company. The Standard is making room on the 2nd floor lobby of their Plaza building—located directly across the street from Portlandia—for the display of artist Raymond Kaskey’s exacting scale model of the sculpture. The model will join several other Portlandia related exhibits that will be relocated from the Public Art Gallery on the Portland Building’s 2nd floor.

In addition to stepping in to display these Portlandia related items during the Portland Building’s three year long renovation, The Standard is also assisting RACC by providing art collection storage space at a friendly rate. This storage will allow RACC to safely house all of the other public art normally located within the Portland Building until the renovation is complete.

“The Standard came through in a big way and has been enthusiastic, generous and helpful. They have a history of supporting arts and culture and RACC, and their assistance with this temporary relocation is sincerely appreciated.” –  Keith Lachowicz, RACC Public Art Collections Manager.

The Portland Building is located at 1120 SW 5th Avenue. The relocated Portlandia display will be on view in the L2 lobby of The Standard’s Plaza building, 1134 SW 5th Avenue, beginning September 20th.

RACC’s evolution continues

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By Jeff Hawthorne, Interim Executive Director

The Regional Arts & Culture Council is an ever-changing organization, leading initiatives that help artists and arts organizations thrive in the Portland metro area, and using arts and culture as powerful tools to respond to a wide variety of community needs. Once a city bureau, RACC became an independent 501(c)(3) organization in 1995 so that we could, among other things, be more entrepreneurial in pursuing our mission of enriching the community through arts and culture. Since that time, and under the leadership of Eloise Damrosch, RACC has expanded its services and its relevance in dramatic ways – today we are serving more people and having a greater impact on our community than ever before.

Most people know RACC for its extensive history of providing grants and services for artists and arts organizations in three counties, and managing a vast public art collection for Portland and Multnomah County. We significantly expanded our advocacy role in 2005 by launching Work for Art, a workplace giving program that now raises $750,000/year for local arts organizations, and we responded to a critical decline in arts education in 2007 by pairing teaching artists with classrooms teachers to help them integrate the arts into other classroom subjects. Ten years later The Right Brain Initiative is serving more than 26,000 K-8 students/year, and research shows that participants have dramatically improved test scores in reading, math, and English language proficiency.

In 2012, Portland voters reaffirmed the importance of arts education and healthy arts organizations when 62% of them approved the arts tax. This innovative dedicated funding stream raises more than $10 million a year – enough money for every school in Portland to have an art, music or dance teacher, and significantly increasing the funds that RACC has available to invest in General Operating Support and Project Grants – though persistently $2 million short of what organizers (including RACC) had planned. RACC is working to not only fill this gap, but to explore funding from other sources, and to ensure that all of our resources are distributed equitably – and that means setting aside funding for emerging organizations, culturally specific organizations, and other vital community groups that deliver extraordinary arts and culture offerings in our community but may not have benefited from RACC funding in the past.  Our arts and culture ecosystem is evolving, and RACC must continue to evolve along with it.

Which brings us to the search for a new Executive Director. Our board, chaired by Mike Golub, and our search committee, led by Steve Rosenbaum, have been working diligently to ensure that the entire search process, from the job description to our final selection, reflects the organization’s values and priorities – placing equity, inclusion and diversity at the center. I am proud of the work these volunteers have done to gather input from the community and staff, and to build a comprehensive new job description that will intrigue, inspire and entice the right candidates.

There is so much for our new Executive Director to build on. The staff is hard at work transforming our organization to be more accessible, and actively adapting our programs to eliminate barriers and deliver services more equitably. From our new “Fresh Paint” collaboration with Open Signal that develops emerging muralists from communities of color, to the user-friendly adjustments we have made to our Project Grant program … from our new capacity building initiative for culturally specific organizations, to the new emphasis we are placing on emerging leaders of color in our Art of Leadership Program, we hope you are seeing – and benefitting from – the continued evolution of RACC. We know there is much more work to do, including the need for clear direction and decisive action on the affordability crisis that is wreaking havoc on our artists and arts organizations, which is why we are excited about the prospects of a new leader with innovative ideas, a commitment to collaboration, and a strong passion for this work.

We expect that the Executive Director search will officially launch next month with the publication of a new job description, and you can follow the committee’s process in the meantime by checking out the public updates that are posted at racc.org/executive-director-search-update. In a post dated July 14, the committee announced that they have finalized the following core competencies they are looking for in a new Executive Director:

  • Equity, Inclusion & Diversity
  • Executive Level Management
  • Change Management
  • Commitment to the Arts

The committee lists Communication, Advocacy, Fundraising, and Grantmaking experience as secondary competencies, and they continue to welcome input by emailing EDsearch@racc.org.

Meanwhile, the RACC staff and board remain hard at work, and there’s plenty more progress coming your way in the months ahead. RACC’s continued evolution is certain, and the next 12 months will be especially exciting. Please be in touch if you have any comments, questions, suggestions or concerns along the way!

 

 

 

RACC announces new structure for project grants

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RACC has long offered project grant support to individual artists and organizations in the region, helping to support the creation and presentation of artmaking of all kinds. More than 140 artistic projects were funded last year, ranging from solo dance performances to an audio documentary series exploring gentrification to afterschool Taiko ensemble classes for youth.

Traditionally, RACC’s project grant application has been offered once a year, in the summer, to support the many performances, exhibitions, readings, screenings, broadcasts, festivals, tours, workshops, events, installations, and happenings that occur in the following calendar year. Now it is time for something new.

RACC is responding to community needs

Project grants are the most popular funding program at RACC by volume, and the interest and need for public support has increased significantly over the years. In 2008, RACC received 192 applications; two years later that number had increased to 267, and by 2014 RACC received a record 358 applications. This growth in the creative community needs to be met by a granting structure and timeline that better serves the artmakers, rather than the grantmakers.

In the most significant project grant change in years, RACC is moving from one deadline annually to three deadlines a year. The arts community can plan for the next project grant deadline coming up on Wednesday, August 2, 2017 by 5:00 p.m.  Subsequent project grant deadlines will be in February, June and October of 2018. RACC’s professional development grants will also move to the same multiple deadlines every year.

With the more frequent grant deadlines, artists and organizations can apply when they are ready to present their projects for consideration rather than when RACC’s application is available.

Grantmaking for Equity

Over the last two years, RACC staff have collected community feedback through online surveys and focus groups, and have researched and incorporated national best practices in grantmaking. Project grant enhancements are building on the lessons learned in administering RACC’s Arts Equity Grant program that was launched last year, and are a direct response to community need.

As always, RACC project grants are available to individual artists and non-profit organizations in Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties. The project grant categories and the application itself are slightly different than in previous years, so RACC encourages applicants to explore the categories and other grant requirements well in advance. The new categories for project grants will be:

  • Arts Equity & Access. Arts Equity Grants, which were first awarded in 2016, are now being folded into project grants and made available to individual artists as well as organizations. This change also allows RACC to expand Arts Equity Grant funding to all three counties when it had previously only been available to City of Portland and Multnomah County applicants. Arts Equity & Access projects will support arts programs and services that involve direct community participation from communities that are underserved, students, and other events and festivals that are community based.
  • Arts Services. Arts Services is a new category to artists and organizations that are providing technical assistance and other services to the field. RACC has seen an increasing number of these proposals over the last few years, and this new category makes funding available to projects that support the arts community with activities such as workshops and conferences.
  • Artistic Focus. The Artistic Focus category remains unchanged with the vision, innovation, creativity and high artistic quality of the artist or arts organization at the heart of the proposal.

As returning grant applicants read through the project grant guidelines and application, they may notice some additional changes. For example, organizations will no longer be required to meet a one-to-one match in their proposed budgets, and the review criteria has been revised.

Two-step process

RACC is also implementing a new two-step application process that will include a shorter Inquiry Application, followed by a Full Application for those proposals that are ready to be considered by a grant review panel. The Inquiry Application is brief, including several short questions plus a narrative opportunity to describe the proposed project, but will allow a staff review panel to determine that the details and timing of the proposed project are far enough along to be competitive.

“This new process will help save applicants from doing all the work of a full application at once,” says grants officer Helen Daltoso. The Inquiry Application will be reviewed by staff, and projects most likely to be competitive will be invited to submit a Full Application. Proposals that are not selected to submit a Full Application will have an opportunity to prepare further and re-apply in the next project grant deadline.

“If a project isn’t quite ready to move forward and needs more time to work out some of the details, there will always be another opportunity to re-submit another application in a few months,” said Daltoso. “Applicants will no longer have to wait a full year for the next opportunity to apply.”

Summary of Key Changes

Taken together, these changes will give artists and arts organizations more flexibility, and more opportunities for success at the Full Application stage. With three annual deadlines, applicants can come forward with proposals when they, and the projects they are developing, are truly ready for consideration.

  • Move from one annual deadline in August to three deadlines February, June and October beginning in 2018.
  • Applicants will be establishing their own project timeline, rather than having to adhere to the calendar year.
  • Revising grant categories to include Artistic Focus, Arts Equity & Access, and Arts Service projects.
  • Two-step application process:
    • Step one: Inquiry Application – a short application outlining project details
    • Step two: Full Application – only projects most likely to be competitive will be invited to submit a full application

The RACC staff and board are excited to launch this evolution of project support and how we serve the many dancers, filmmakers, composers, actors, artists, writers, performers, producers and creatives throughout the tri-county region.

How to Apply

The first step in the application process is to read the Project Grant Guidelines. This document outlines all the details of the program and can help applicants determine whether their project is eligible for a grant.

RACC is moving to a new online grant application system, so first time and returning applicants alike will need to create a new account in the new system at racc.org/apply.

Applicants who submit an Inquiry Application will receive a response from RACC within 5 weeks. Full Application proposals will be grouped by discipline and reviewed by a panel of community volunteers who have interest and experience in arts and culture programming.

The next four project grant deadlines are:

  • Wednesday, August 2, 2017 by 5:00 p.m.
  • Wednesday, February 7, 2018 by 5:00 p.m.
  • Wednesday, June 6, 2018 by 5:00 p.m.
  • Wednesday, October 3, 2018 by 5:00 p.m.

GRANT ORIENTATIONS

For more detailed information on Project Grant applications you may attend the following free, optional orientation sessions. It is important that you register for these orientations by either going to racc.org/rsvp or emailing Jack MacNichol at  jmacnichol@racc.org.

  • Thursday, July 13, 2017 | 6:00-7:30pm | Beaverton Library Auditorium 12375 SW 5th St, Beaverton
  • Friday, July 14, 2017 | This session is full and we are not able to accept additional registrations
  • Monday, July 17, 2017 | 6:00-7:30pm | Kenton Library Meeting Room – 8226 N Denver Ave, Portland
  • Wednesday, July 19, 2017 | 6:00-7:30pm | Midland Library Meeting Room – 805 SE 122nd Ave, Portland
  • Thursday, July 20, 2017 | 3:00-5:00pm | RACC Office – 411 NW Park Ave #101, Portland
  • Wednesday, July 26, 2017 | 6:00-7:30pm | Hollywood Library Meeting Room – 4040 NE Tillamook St, Portland
  • Thursday, July 27, 2017 | 9:00-11:00am | RACC Office – 411 NW Park Ave #101, Portland

Questions?

You can learn more about Project Grants and read the new Grant Guidelines on our Project Grant page. Please contact Quinn MacNichol with questions about RACC grants, or with translation and technical assistance requests, at 503-823-2928 or qmacnichol@racc.org.

Retirement of Our Longtime Executive Director

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POSTED ON MARCH 29, 2017.

With the retirement of our longtime executive director Eloise Damrosch, the RACC board has begun the process of finding her successor. We are committed to a transparent and inclusive search process resulting in the appointment of an outstanding individual to lead RACC into the future and continue to realize our mission of enriching our communities through arts and culture.

The RACC Board has appointed a Search Committee to steward the process of identifying and hiring the new executive director. In April the Search Committee will select an executive search firm who will help us manage the process of identifying, screening, interviewing and recruiting the new ED from a wide and diverse pool of candidates.

In the coming weeks we will be sharing in this space and in correspondence with our many constituents, the job posting, job description and ways to provide input on the search and selection process. There will be many opportunities for comment and suggestions, including a questionnaire, direct contact with the search committee at EDsearch@racc.org and regular progress reports in our newsletter and on the RACC website.

Once a finalist or finalists have been chosen there will be opportunities for community members to meet them and provide feedback to the Search Committee before a final choice is made. We are hopeful to have a new executive director in place late Summer or Early Fall.

We thank you for your ongoing support of RACC and our wonderful arts and culture community. We are excited about this new chapter of RACC and are grateful for your interest and input.

 

Double your donations for free, Oregon

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Thank you for supporting the Regional Arts and Culture Council, Work for Art and The Right Brain Initiative. We invite you to keep track of your donations to all cultural nonprofits in Oregon. If you match the total with a gift to the Oregon Cultural Trust, you receive a 100 percent tax credit on your gift to the Trust!* That’s right, you double the impact of your cultural donations for free!

Oregonians fund the Cultural Trust. The Trust in turn, funds the artists, potters, rappers, acrobats and dreamers who make Oregon, Oregon. Every year they disperse funds via the state’s 1,400+ cultural nonprofits, 45 county/tribal coalitions and five statewide partners. Learn more at CulturalTrust.org

Donate by December 31, 2016.

*You can donate all you like to The Trust, but the tax credit is limited to $500 for an individual, $1,000 for a couple and $2,500 for C-class corporations.

2017 RACC Workshops – photo credits

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Below are the photo credits for the photography featured on the 2017 RACC Workshop postcard:

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Deena Jones from Dreamgirls, Portland Center Stage at the Armory. (Photo by Patrick Weishampel)

 

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Mexican Dancers, Miracle Theatre/Milagros. (Photo by Russell J. Young)

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aptART’s Paint Outside the Lines campaign, Kevin Ledo + students of David Douglas High School, 2016

The Portland Ballet, Spring Program
Ballet/Tambourine guy, The Portland Ballet. (Photo by Blaine Truitt Covert)

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“Office” photo, PNCA Center for Design

NEA Approved for Arts Funding Increase

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Issued by Americans for the Arts on May 25, 2016.

Today (May 25)  the House Subcommittee on Interior Appropriations approved a $2 million increase in federal funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), matching the President’s budget request for a total of $149.8 million for fiscal year 2017. The National Endowment for the Humanities was approved at the same increased funding level as the NEA.

This bill will next be considered by the full House Appropriations Committee and later by the entire House and Senate chambers. Amendments to add or cut funding could happen along the way. We will keep you informed of major legislative developments and/or calls to action.

Check the Arts Action Fund website for details of the proposed increases allocated to the other federal cultural agencies and institutions.