$209,400 Awarded In 33 Arts Build Communities Grants -01/26/18

Salem, Ore. -- Using the arts as a means of addressing community need is at the heart of 33 projects awarded $209,400 by the Oregon Arts Commission's Arts Build Communities grant program for FY2018. The Arts Build Communities program targets broad geographic impact and arts access for underserved audiences in Oregon. More than half of this year's awards go to communities outside of the Portland area. "This program provides access to arts and culture activity in underserved populations of the state," says Arts Commission Vice Chair Anne Taylor, who led the review panel. "Local citizens employ creative thinking and collective response to identify a local need and provide an arts-based solution. These modest grants also spark and leverage many other investments and resources, serving as a catalyst for greater economic and civic impact." In many cases these awards are seed money to spur additional local funding. In recent years Arts Build Communities projects attracted more than $600,000 in additional investment, much of it representing salaries paid to artists and others as well as products and services purchased in the funded communities. Arts Build Communities grants are made possible, in part, through a funding partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts. The 2018 recipients are: Bay City Arts Center, Bay City: $4,250 To support the Youth Arts Engagement Project, providing science-themed art education to supplement the science curriculum for K-8 students in Central and Northern Tillamook County. Grant funds will support labor and art supplies. Boom Arts, Portland: $7,000 To support artistic, production and outreach costs for a May 2018 presentation of "Backstage in Biscuit Land," a theatre piece by Touretteshero about the arts and disability, as well as related community engagement programming at the Echo Theater in Southeast Portland. Cascade School of Music, Bend: $7,000 To support Music Matters outreach performances at four partner organizations for underserved, diverse, pre-K & elementary students. The project will expose children to music and playing an instrument and invite them to take lessons regardless of their ability to pay. The project will also provide their parents with information about the Community School of Music and its tuition assistance programs. Centro Cultural de Washington County, Cornelius: $7,000 To support Centro Ballet Folklorico, a Mexican dance program for low-income Latino youth. The program will empower young leaders to be advocates for culture and equity. The Circus Project, Portland: $7,000 To support the launch of a performance company comprised of homeless youth. Grant funds will take six to 10 homeless youth off the streets and onto a healthy path through intensive circus arts training, regular group and individual therapy, job training. The project will culminate in an original, public performance. Community Vision Inc., Portland: $7,000 To install a permanent exhibition space on the exterior of Community Vision, Inc's new building. The art gallery will help build arts equity and community inclusivity by publicly featuring the work of artists with disabilities on a rotating quarterly basis. Partners, including PNCA, will provide curatorial and artist outreach and selection support. The art gallery is street level on a busy corner in Southeast Portland. Corvallis Arts Center, Corvallis: $7,000 To support Cultural Literacy Arts Residencies to serve 200 Albany/Corvallis youth. The grant will fund contracts for artist services, art supplies and project coordination/evaluation. The project informs and inspires students by integrating arts experiences with a cultural literacy curriculum. Students work together on arts projects to gain knowledge of classmate diversity, develop narratives about their own heritage and build community through shared experience. Crow's Shadow Institute of the Arts, Pendleton: $5,000 To support the Nixya'awii Community School Student Printmakers Program. Grant funds will help high school printmaking students learn all aspects of printmaking, then exhibit and sell their artwork. Costs include Master Printer instruction, printmaking materials (paper, inks, plates), exhibition and advertising materials and studio overhead. Deschutes Public Library Foundation, Bend: $5,000 To support the Deschutes Public Library's community read program, A Novel Idea. Residents are encouraged to read, discuss, create and explore the selected book together. A Novel Idea broadens cultural, social, educational and economic areas of community life by ensuring wide access through partnerships with local artists, organizations and businesses. Grant funds will be used to purchase books and assist in paying the author's honorarium. Ellensburg Theater Company , Gold Beach: $5,100 To initiate and support a youth dance theater program. A choreographer and composer will guide a group of artistically-underserved 5th-12th graders to create their style of self-expression (no experience necessary). Dancers will also learn backstage and business aspects of the performing arts. The finale will feature individual and group performances for the community. Eugene Symphony Association, Eugene: $7,000 To support the expansion of Encouraging Young Musicians to Achieve. Grant funds will be used to extend the program to 10 rural middle and high schools outside Eugene/Springfield where community resources for music instruction are scarce, and will support and enhance school-based band and orchestra programs with supplemental sectional rehearsals, master classes, career discussion and performances by symphony musicians. Eugene-Springfield Youth Orchestras, Eugene: $6,500 To support the orchestra's String Academy program, a youth music education program that provides a full year of beginning strings instruction to underserved children in public schools at low- or no-cost. Grant funds will be used to support three of the 10 classes taking place during the 2017-2018 school year, at the lowest socioeconomic status schools. The classes are provided free of charge as part of a partnership with District 4J's BEST after-school enrichment program. Fishtrap, Enterprise: $7,000 To support The Big Read, Fishtrap's annual community read program. Events bring people together from throughout the county to encourage community learning about their heritage, offer space for diverse perspectives and backgrounds, and help define shared culture. The program will offer 12 community events and 15 book discussions. The Big Read also engages school age youth through partnerships with schools that offer both traditional group reading and discussion of the book and multimedia original storytelling activities. Event lectures and presentations draw all ages. Four Rivers Cultural Center, Ontario: $6,500 To provide a rich and compelling art experience for local Japanese community members as well as dance enthusiasts, art patrons and all community members. The project will transform the life and work of one individual's contribution to modern art into a series of classes and presentations to excite the community about this heritage. The experience will be part participatory and part storytelling, aiming to connect multi-ethnic community members. The Hollywood Theater, Portland: $5,675 To support the theater's first year transitioning and operating the iconic Portland video store Movie Madness as a nonprofit program. Grant funds will be used to subsidize operations and staffing needs related to the transition. Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Eugene: $7,000 To support the expansion of Club de Arte para Mamás (Latina Mothers' Club) by adding a special exhibition of works created by participants. Grant funds will cover framing, matting, and marketing for the exhibition, translations for printed materials and a portion of artist fees and art supplies for 18 sessions. The exhibition is expected to attract a broad audience, increase public awareness of Club de Arte para Mamás, and attract new members. Josephy Center for Arts and Culture, Joseph: $6,500 To support Healing the Wallowa-Indian Divide. Chief Joseph's band of Nez Perce was forced to leave the Wallowas in 1877. Joseph returned to purchase land in 1900, but local citizens denied him. Although the Nez Perce are not considered an Oregon Tribe, recent years have seen rapprochement between citizens and tribal peoples. The Josephy Center, Tamástslikt and local partners will use funds to engage tribal people through a major exhibit, residencies and talks to promote dialog. Liberty Theatre Foundation, La Grande: $7,000 To support the Liberty Theatre's Phase II Reconstruction project. Grant funds will be used to offset the cost of architectural and engineering documents. Lumina Hospice & Palliative Care, Corvallis: $4,000 To provide art- and music-based intervention for hospice patients living in the Mid-Willamette Valley. Funds will be used to contract and train professional artists and musicians to deliver services to hospice patients at the patient's residence. Miracle Theatre, Portland: $5,000 To support Milagro Theatre's UNIDAD residency with school workshops and a public performance in Ontario, Oregon, in May 2018. The UNIDAD bilingual arts residency will be matched by funding from the Four Rivers Cultural Center, the Juan Yong Trust and The Ford Family Foundation. Grant funds will support artist fees and related travel expenses. My Voice Music, Portland: $7,000 To support music camps focused on serving 90 youth, ages 8-13, in foster care and/or referred by social service partners. Youth with little or no previous musical experience will be given the opportunity to write, record and release music in My Voice Music's professional-grade studio. Funds will be used to pay teaching artist fees and to provide training and stipends for teenage Student Leaders to lead camp sessions. Open Hearts Open Minds, Portland: $6,000 To support Theatre at Coffee Creek, a program at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville, Oregon. The Funds will be used for facilitation fees, costumes and props, guest artists' fees, DVDs to record and make copies of the performance, the lending library for scripts, music and books, and production rights for the plays and music. Oregon Children's Theatre, Portland: $7,000 To support the production of And in This Corner: Cassius Clay. Grant funds will be used to help underwrite direct production costs, including costs associated with increasing access through public and school partnerships to provide free and reduced ticket prices to new and underrepresented audiences. Grant funds will also help to support wrap-around community engagement programming through collaboration with new community partners. Oregon Nikkei Endowment, Portland: $7,000 To support Gamanicon: Arts as Activism, an arts and culture festival. Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland: $7,000 To support Cultural Connections with Asian/Pacific Islander Communities, a program of engagement events to surround the U.S. premiere of "Snow in Midsummer" by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig. Representatives from community groups that serve and advocate for Asian/Pacific Islanders will partner with OSF to design a multi-day event that engages participants in theatre created by Asian/Pacific Islander artists and explores issues of relevance to their communities. Oregon Symphony Association, Portland: $5,675 To support the Lullaby Project, a new program in partnership with Portland Homeless Family Solutions. Grant funds will be used to bring music creation experiences to pregnant women and new mothers experiencing homelessness, in collaboration with professional musicians. The program includes songwriting sessions, professional recording of lullabies, and a free community event where lullabies will be shared. Oregon Writing Project, Portland: $7,000 To support Slamboo, a project that brings together Oregon's young, urban, suburban and rural slam poets from different racial and socioeconomic backgrounds to collaborate and compete through the art of poetry. By expressing their hopes, fears, and life experiences, these adolescent poets develop relationships built on empathy and understanding. Funds will be used for slam events, transportation, guest coaches and a printed anthology. Outside the Frame, Portland: $7,000 To support Frameworks: Cameras, Creativity, Career and a focus on Community. Grant funds will be used to offer a model, weekly educational and vocational program where young people create and present films to Portlanders about issues that matter to them. The program will help to reduce disparities for this greatly underserved community, homeless and marginalized youth, and provide interactional education for the public on homelessness. Portland Classical Chinese Garden, Portland: $7,000 To support the month-long celebration of Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in May 2018. Grants funds will be used to pay artists and arts organizations from diverse Asian and Pacific Islander heritages and to purchase hands-on art making materials, as well as publicity and audio equipment rental for performances that will happen each weekend in May. Rogue Valley Chorale Association, Medford: $4,200 To support Spring Sing, three concerts for students in Medford, Central Point and Phoenix/Talent school districts on April 27. The concerts, presented by children for children, bring music to students who have little to no access to arts education. Grant funds will be used to purchase music, pay conductors, accompanists and a manager, as well as to hire busses and pay for school lunches for 98 youth singers. Salem Art Association , Salem: $7,000 To support Fractals of Identity, an LGBTQ identity-focused art project where LGBTQ artists, groups and individuals can interact with each other and the broader community in a safe place that results in artistic affirmation. Wisdom of the Elders, Portland: $7,000 To support the Native Wisdom Documentary Film series, a series of film screenings and community consultations at venues statewide. Documentaries will feature STEAM segments titled Elder Wisdom, Sacred Landscape, STEAM, Tribal Rhythms and Turtle Island Storytellers. They will integrate traditional stories, art and music, plus wisdom of tribal elders sharing traditional ecological knowledge and observations of emerging issues within their ecosystems. Write Around Portland, Portland: $7,000 To support nine, 10-week creative writing workshops in partnership with low-income housing buildings for residents. These workshops will culminate in the publication of writers' work in a professionally-designed anthology and four free public readings. Grant funds will be used for staffing to build partnerships, train facilitators and purchase workshop materials. * * * * * * * * * * * The Oregon Arts Commission provides leadership, funding and arts programs through its grants, special initiatives and services. Nine commissioners, appointed by the Governor, determine arts needs and establish policies for public support of the arts. The Arts Commission became part of Business Oregon (formerly Oregon Economic and Community Development Department) in 1993, in recognition of the expanding role the arts play in the broader social, economic and educational arenas of Oregon communities. In 2003, the Oregon legislature moved the operations of the Oregon Cultural Trust to the Arts Commission, streamlining operations and making use of the Commission's expertise in grantmaking, arts and cultural information and community cultural development. The Arts Commission is supported with general funds appropriated by the Oregon legislature and with federal funds from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as funds from the Oregon Cultural Trust. More information about the Oregon Arts Commission is available online at: www.oregonartscommission.org.