RACC remains committed to serving our Arts and Culture Community!

On Friday, the late afternoon of July 21st, RACC leadership received news regarding the pending cessation of our contract with the City of Portland as of June 30, 2024. We were not surprised, yet disappointed that this news was shared without discussion given our 28-year long partnership with the City of Portland. Since Friday, there have been a number of articles that point to a city and RACC collaboration; however, RACC is not aware of any type of plan.

To our Portland community, we are looking forward to continuing our work with you. RACC is a nonprofit with a mission to ensure that there is access to arts and culture in every community. You are allies for our work and you have a voice and a say in how your tax dollars are spent. RACC continues to be a great investment as our processes are transparent for the allocation of grant and award dollars, they are informed by community at every opportunity, and we live in the practice of centering equity in our decision making. Help us tell our story to Portland City Council by telling your story.

To the wider community we serve across all three counties, and for creatives across the nation who have been impacted by our programs that include an internationally lauded Public Art program and an equity-centered Grants program, know that the RACC Team and board of directors is here to support you. For our local, state, and national partners, we will continue to engage with you, ensuring the mission and vision of RACC, and our community, continue to be paramount in our work. As people, we connect through our cultures and the art that is expressed from that space. As community, we share understanding and thoughtful engagement. These points of connection help us through each day and ensure that we are aware of each other—doing right by each other. RACC will continue to do right by you. It is our promise. Join with us to tell your RACC story at advocacy@racc.org. We will provide other ways to support RACC in the coming days.

RACC has represented community since its founding in 1995 and the creation of an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) that named RACC as the local arts agency for Multnomah, Clackamas, and Washington Counties, Metro, and the City of Portland. RACC, as a non-profit, is able to leverage local and national government funding, as well as private funding, to ensure that our community is has dollars invested in its creative people and arts/culture-serving organizations. We know that the creative sector is an economic driver for any community, and we look forward to reporting the results of the latest Arts and Economic Prosperity (AEP6) survey in the next few months for ours. Past Portland civic leaders understood the importance of a collaborative, independent partner in the arts advancing equitable initiatives to support community. They expressly worked to ensure that RACC continued to meet the needs of community and continued to serve as a counterpoint to inequitable funding practices and inadequate community engagement. Thank you for supporting artists and creatives to spark change and healing in our communities.