As part of our effort to support the arts & culture community impacted by COVID-19, please visit our Emergency Relief, Donate and Relief Resource Listings.
Inversion +/-, Lead Pencil Studio, 2012-2013
The region’s public art enlivens urban and rural landscapes and promotes dialogue among people of all ages and backgrounds. Through a variety of public-private partnerships, RACC helps acquire and maintain community-owned artworks in public places. A Public Art Advisory Committee oversees RACC’s public art program, which is among the oldest and most highly regarded public art programs in the country.
Posted July 22, 2020
by Morgan Ritter, Support Beam Project Manager, Public Art Exhibitions & Collections Coordinator Support Beam intends to strengthen artists towards a long-term re-imagination and multi-pronged activation of their work, with no restrictions on media. Participating artists will contribute virtual work-in-progress share-outs which will be released on RACC’s web and social media platforms—follow along! At the […]
Posted June 19, 2020
The toppling of the statue of George Washington on June 18, 2020, is part of our critical national conversation about systemic racism and injustice. Portland is part of this conversation as people examine the point of view these statues represent and consider the impact on Black Portlanders. Last Wednesday, City Council adopted six core values […]
Posted May 4, 2020
In our continued response to individual artists and creative workers impacted by COVID-19, we have two new public art calls opportunities: a direct purchase of artwork for The Visual Chronicle of Portland and Support Beam, an initiative to commission emerging visual artists making work in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Eligible artists may apply to either or both opportunities. The Visual Chronicle […]
Posted March 5, 2020
Come visit your new art collection at the reconstructed Portland Building Public art installed in the Portland Building adds a glow to the newly renovated architectural icon. The building has always doubled as a venue to showcase public art and that role has grown with the reconstruction, which includes new pieces commissioned through the Regional […]
Posted January 6, 2020
The Regional Arts & Culture Council and the Port of Portland invite artists/teams living in the U.S. to submit qualifications for 2 permanent public art installations and artists/teams living in Oregon and Clark and Skamania Counties in Washington to submit qualifications for 1 permanent public art installation. The projects are part of the construction of a Consolidated Rental Car […]
Posted December 16, 2019
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 […]
Posted November 1, 2019
by Taryn Sauer When we invest in the creativity of our youth, we open doors to fundamental facets of learning and self-discovery. This is exactly what Color Outside the Lines has been involved in for almost a decade: harnessing creative expression in foster children and opportunity youth* as a way of connecting with themselves and […]
Posted July 31, 2019
In a city known for murals, how do you get your foot (or art) through a door when you’re an emerging artist of color? Fresh Paint, a partnership between RACC’s Public Art Murals program and Open Signal, offers that door to have artist work in the public realm. In this 2019 cycle of Fresh Paint, a selection […]
Posted July 31, 2019
The Regional Arts and Culture Council, in partnership with Portland Parks & Recreation and Prosper Portland, have selected artist Molly Mendoza to create a mural in early 2020 on the exterior of a new bathroom facility in Lents Park. Molly has created a preliminary design of the mural (see image above) and is interested in […]
Posted June 28, 2019
In a city known for murals, how do you get your foot (or art) through a door when you’re an emerging artist of color? Fresh Paint, a partnership between RACC’s Public Art Murals program and Open Signal, offers that door to have artist work in the public realm. In this 2019 cycle of Fresh Paint, a selection of […]
Posted May 24, 2019
In a city known for murals, how do you get your foot (or art) through a door when you’re an emerging artist of color? Fresh Paint, a partnership between RACC’s Public Art Murals program and Open Signal, offers that door to have artist work in the public realm. In this 2019 cycle of Fresh Paint, a selection of […]
Posted March 29, 2019
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 […]
Posted March 27, 2019
New Artworks for the Gladys McCoy Building The new Multnomah County Health Department Headquarters PORTLAND, ORE —The Regional Arts & Culture Council is proud to announce the purchase of 99 new small to medium scale artworks from 57 artists for display in the new Gladys McCoy Building, the Multnomah County Health Department Headquarters at 619 […]
Posted February 25, 2019
Our final Night Lights, RACC’s outdoor public art series, is wrapping up its 2018-19 season with The Midnight Variety Hour (MVH) – Night Lights Edition March 7, at 6pm. For RACC’s Night Lights Program, MVH will present a video program with live music, sound and vocals. MVH deconstructs the world of live television and the essence of the […]
Posted January 10, 2019
Night Lights, RACC’s outdoor public art series, continues its 2018-19 season with Megan Mckissack’s Untitled work on February 7 at 5:30pm. Mckissack’s Night Lights work was inspired by the current Presidential Administration’s deletion of climate data. Mapping and generating visualizations of Oregon LIDAR point cloud data from the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries and […]
Posted November 19, 2018
Our outdoor public art event series, Night Lights, will feature Roland Dahwen and Stephanie Adams-Santos in December! Happening on December 6 at 5pm, Dahwen and Adams-Santos will present Three Moons/Tres Lunas/3つの月, a two-channel video installation and altar, dedicated to, and made alongside, our elders. In conjunction with the video and text projections, the artists will build several temporary altars. […]
Posted October 17, 2018
Local artists channel Día de Muertos in next installment of Fresh Paint, a temporary murals program October 17, 2018 — PORTLAND, OR – Passersby can now see the newest work-in-progress from Fresh Paint, a temporary murals program, on the exterior wall of Open Signal: Portland Community Media Center on NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard […]
Posted October 15, 2018
Night Lights, RACC’s outdoor public art event series continues with local artists Roesing Ape and Beth Whelan. Following a successful kickoff to the series with Laura Median’s Flying in October, the next Night Lights event will take place on November 1st at 6PM. Titled Windows 11, Ape and Whelan’s work involves a minimalist dance piece inside an architectural projection of […]
Posted September 24, 2018
If you’re around the Foster Powell Neighborhood in Portland, you may have caught a new mural going up at Essex Park on SE 76th and Center St. during the weekend of September 22 and 23. Artist team Rather Severe (Travis Czekalski and Jon Stommel) is heading the mural painting, with design and painting help provided […]
Posted September 20, 2018
Night Lights, RACC’s outdoor public art event series, is back for five months with local artists/collectives projecting their digital media works onto RACC’s building for several hours starting at dusk. Now in its fourth year, Night Lights is a unique event series that celebrates and highlights the intersections of digital technology, art, and place. Laura […]