Portland Center Stage’s scene shop is located 3 miles away from performance spaces in The Armory. The production department therefore needed to rent a 24-foot truck every time scenery and props were loaded into or out of the theater. In addition to the repeated expense, this meant a considerable amount of staff time in simply picking up and returning vehicles. When PCS Artistic Director Chris Coleman asked Daimler CEO Martin Daum if his company could help, the company unexpectedly donated a new truck built to Portland Center Stage specifications. Having a vehicle has not only helped save time and money for the scene shop, but for the costume shop and other departments. All at Portland Center Stage at The Armory are grateful to Martin Daum and Daimler Truck North America for this surprising and very generous contribution.

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Nel Centro is a strong champion for Portland Opera and arts and culture in our area. Through its ongoing partnership with the opera, Nel Centro provides in-kind support in the form of special offers for opera patrons, pre-show dinners and cast parties. Through cross-promotional marketing to its own patrons, Nel Centro supports Portland Opera’s mission while also contributing to the cultural and financial vitality of downtown Portland.

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Watershed Communications is a Portland-based, national PR firm for wine, beverage and food. Watershed Communications is a Portland-based, national PR firm for wine, beverage and food. Watershed founder and principal Lisa Donoughe met Boom Arts founding Curator and Producer Ruth Wikler-Luker in 2011. Before Boom Arts had even secured 501c3 status, Lisa offered a corner of Watershed’s office to Boom Arts for its offices and Boom Arts has been there ever since. Lisa now serves on the board, helping shepherd the organization in its fifth season of programming. It has been and continues to be a wonderful journey of meaning, generosity and partnership.

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These two dynamic organizations came together in 2015 to develop musicNOW, an innovative, evidence based, music-therapy informed program for seniors living with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. musicNOW evolved out of the Symphony’s education and community engagement outreach programs, which serve those who cannot meet the Symphony in the concert hall due to age, disability, economic difficulties or social circumstances. Ultimately, this partnership is working to build a sustainable, replicable program model that can grow further, reaching those isolated and marginalized by forms of neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease to offer the enriching, healing, humanizing benefits that music listening and making can provide.

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Since 2007, KP and OCT have collaborated on the Educational Theatre Program, through which powerful theater performances and residencies areprovided to over 30,000 children and community members a year. The mission of the Educational Theatre Program is to use theater to inspire people to make healthy choices and build strong communities. Theater performances and artist-in-residence programs are offered to schools and communities free of charge. Both KP and OCT recognize and respect the expertise and knowledge that each brings to the work; the success of the program over its first decade can largely be attributed to the deep level of trust and communications between the partners. As such, this partnership is a model for other businesses and nonprofits to consider.

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Though involved with the community in many ways, Mississippi Studios does not have an education department. In 2014, staff from Young Audiences and Mississippi Studios began conversations about the need for career-based “technical arts” training programs. Both organizations recognized that technical arts represent a unique way to get young people engaged. The Live SET (Sound Engineering for Teens) program grew out of these conversations. It provides career-oriented training in live sound engineering to high school students and supports standards-aligned, STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) learning and professional readiness. In a recent debrief session, the 200-level students praised Live SET’s practical nature: “Here you really get to be hands-on. You learn more that way.”

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In 2011, John Hoke, VP of Global Design at Nike, approached Denise Mullen, President of OCAC, with a proposal. Nike designers felt limited by their work designing on a 2D digital screen and wanted to reengage with materials. After numerous discussions, Nike Design Atelier, a partnership between Nike, one of the largest international corporations, and OCAC, one of the smallest art colleges in the country, was born. OCAC would serve a catalyst for Nike designers to explore ideas surrounding craft and engage in the making process. OCAC would have the opportunity to bring the working professional’s perspective to the campus to enrich the learning community. In the words of the proposal “Together, we can bridge our discrete understandings of material and processes.” Initially intended to run for two months in the summer of 2011, the program ran in its original format through 2015.

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