Regional Arts & Culture Council

When Interim Executive Director Greg Netzer joined RACC this spring, we asked him a few questions to share with you: 🌱 How do you envision leveraging RACC’s strengths to deepen the organization’s resilience and continued impact within the Tri-County area? 🌿 RACC’s greatest strength has always been its most underappreciated one: Its ability to understand the difficulties artists and arts organizations face in surviving amid the larger and more commercial structures of our society, and to help them navigate through those difficulties with skill and purpose. RACC remains deeply principled and service-focused at a time when our constituents need both more than ever. Maintaining our ability to deliver service will strengthen our organization and our impact. 🌱 How do you plan to engage and collaborate with local arts and cultural partners to reinforce the organization’s impact on our community? 🌿I believe RACC’s future will be centered on the work its partners and community most need it to do – the work no other organization does or can do. We have a strongly held belief of what that work is, but that only matters if our community agrees. So I want focus our conversations with our community on identifying their most critical needs. If our impact is measured by how well those organizations thrive, then we must listen to what they need in order to do so. P.S. This is part of a story from our newsletter! For more in-depth content about your Regional Arts and Culture Council, please sign up using https://lnkd.in/eCDVrdbu. If you've signed up already but aren't receiving anything, please check your spam inbox and add us as a contact! Our past newsletters, including the rest of this story, can be found archived on our website.

Join us for First Thursday on August 1st! We're excited to host an open house and community engagement event featuring artist Phyllis Yes, known for her provocative works that challenge gender stereotypes. Chat with Phyllis and members of the community as we discuss RACC's new focus for this fiscal year. #FirstThursday When: June 6th, 5-7 pm Where: 411 NW Park Ave, Suite #101, Portland, OR 97209

Metro Parks and Nature and the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) invite an artist or artist team to submit qualifications for site-specific artwork(s) that will expand the visitor experience at a new memorial currently being designed at the historic Lone Fir Cemetery in Portland, Oregon. Lone Fir’s Block 14 has a rich and multifaceted history that was erased over decades of racial prejudice. One artist/artist team will be selected to create artwork(s) that is meaningful and responsive to the site’s history, present-day community needs, and the in-process memorial design. An understanding of Chinese and Chinese American history and cultures will be important. The budget available for the commission comes from Metro Parks & Nature’s Percent for Art Program and is $180,000. Submissions are due by Thursday, August 8, 2024, at 11:59 pm PDT. An info session will be held on July 25th to provide further details and answer any questions. For more information and to apply, please visit https://lnkd.in/gPwRZBxU Image: In 1953, a county building was built on the site of the Chinese burial ground. Image courtesy of Oregon Historical Society.

Metro Parks and Nature (Metro) and the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) invite an artist or artist team to submit qualifications for site-specific artwork(s) that will expand the visitor experience at a new memorial currently being designed at the historic Lone Fir Cemetery in Portland, Oregon.  Lone Fir’s Block 14 has a rich and multifaceted history that was erased over decades of racial prejudice. Through an extensive research effort, archeologists and historic archives revealed that more than 2,800 Chinese and Chinese Americans were buried at the cemetery between the 1860s and 1920s. Additional information about the Chinese section of the cemetery, including its razing, is available in the full call on our website.  One artist/artist team will be selected to create artwork(s) that is meaningful and responsive to the site’s history, present-day community needs, and the in-process memorial design. An understanding of Chinese and Chinese American history and cultures will be important. The budget available for the commission comes from Metro Parks & Nature’s Percent for Art Program and is $180,000. Submissions are due by Thursday, August 8, 2024, at 11:59 pm PDT. An info session will be held to provide further details and answer any questions. For more information and to apply, please visit https://lnkd.in/gPwRZBxU

To our community, thank you for your unwavering support. Looking ahead, we are excited about our future and the opportunities for evolution and innovation. From your feedback, it’s clear that our work – from professional development workshops to application reviews, coaching and mentorships, grantmaking, and advocacy training – remains vital. We look forward to collaborating with you to learn about your specific needs as members of the creative community in our region and provide you with the best services possible. At present, we are proud to steward several significant projects. The small grants program will continue to provide essential material support to emerging and established artists organizations, and arts-based businesses. We are also continuing our several-year public art projects around the region: Multnomah County Library Administration, Portland Parks & Recreation (now Vibrant Communities), the Port of Portland, and many more! Now more than ever, we need your financial support as we continue our work to guarantee access for all to resources and opportunities. Your contribution will be instrumental in maintaining RACC as a guiding presence for the arts, fostering creativity, and promoting the cultural vitality of our region. Together, we can stabilize and transform our operations, ensuring that our local artists and arts organizations receive the services they deserve.  With gratitude, Your Regional Arts and Culture Council Image: Participants of Salomée Souag's community engagement @CorePDX for their Holgate Library public art project. Workshop documentation by @yvanna.ramos.

From the Public Art Collections, "Power Plant" (2017) by Anthony Solano . Acrylic on Canvas. For more information, and to see the rest of the collections, please visit the link in our bio!

From the Public Art Collections, "Elsie's," "Aquarium," "Gospel," and "Mike’s Stereo" (1979) by Eric Edwards. Color Prints. For more information on these works, please visit https://raccpublicart.org!

From the Public Art Collections, "Friends and Neighbors," (2019) an oil painting by Katherine Ace. Learn more about this piece using https://lnkd.in/erzMxn5z

Have you ever wanted to learn about letterpress printing? Want a tiny print to take home with you? Join us tomorrow, June 6th for our First Thursday open house! We'll have drinks, snacks and members of the team present to answer your questions. We are so excited to announce that we'll be joined by Print Arts Northwest (PAN, @printartsnw) who advocate for the art of printmaking through exhibitions, professional development, and educational programs that promote the creation, appreciation and collection of original artists’ prints by professional and emerging printmakers. PAN will be bringing prints, postcards and catalogues, representatives to answer your printmaking questions and a portable tabletop letterpress for an interactive demo! Register using https://lnkd.in/eRhuCd2r

RACC's Board of Directors grows by six! We are also excited to announce the appointment of Toni Tabora-Roberts, Tammy Jo Wilson, Matthew Landkamer, Mayra Arreola, Bob Deasy, and Carla Pilar Salazar. Together, they bring a rich spectrum of leadership, innovative thinking, and cultural stewardship to our Board of Directors. Hear what they have to say about joining RACC's board at this important time: “I’m excited to join the RACC Board of Directors at this inflection point in its history, and I look forward to supporting the staff in re-envisioning the future of RACC and identifying innovative and impactful approaches to continue to foster a lively future for arts and culture in the Metro area," says Matthew Landkamer. "Currently I serve as the Washington County District 3 representative first RACC and am an active member of the Pacific Northwest Sculptors Association (PNWS), the Northwest Stone Sculptors Association and Print Artists Northwest. I’m active in stone sculpting, assemblage, monotype prints and painting. In sculpture one has to embrace all sides of the piece without prejudice or judgement on anyone side over the other before the work is complete. As a business owner and an artist, I look forward to bringing my vision and perspective to RACC," says Bob Deasy.