Portland, Ore. The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) has awarded $693,959 in project grants for calendar year 2015, including 66 grants to nonprofit organizations and schools, and 80 individual artists in Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington Counties. This year’s project grants are made possible by increased funding from the City of Portland, RACC’s largest funding source, and RACC’s workplace giving program, Work for Art. Clackamas County, Washington County, Multnomah County and Metro also helped fund these project grants. Funding went to organizations like  Kukatonon Children’s African Dance Troupe, a recipient of a RACC Project Grant, performing “The Village” at Portland State University’s Lincoln Hall in 2014. (Photo credit, Naim Hasan)

RACC supported 49% of all requests with full or partial funding. Among the projects awarded to individual artists, 64% have never received RACC funding before, and 35% of all organizations are receiving project grant support for the first time. The pool of applicants continues to change and evolve as well – 40% of all proposals received this year were from artists and arts organizations that have never before applied for RACC funding.

“RACC made a commitment several years ago to finding and funding more diverse and accessible artistic programs,” said executive director Eloise Damrosch. “These project grants demonstrate that we are indeed reaching new and talented people in our community. The range of projects funded by RACC in 2015 will be deep and broad, and we will continue to improve on this every year going forward.”

To vet the proposals, 44 volunteers served on 11 different panels organized by discipline. Most volunteers (93%) served on a RACC grants panel for the first time. Guided by staff during the months of October, November and December, these volunteers evaluated proposals based on artistic merit, audience development and financial accountability, forwarding their final recommendations to the RACC board of directors for approval on December 17.

A summary of funded projects can be found at www.racc.org/2015projectgrants.Among them:

  • First-time grant recipients included Sabina Haque who will premiere her multimedia installation at the Littman Gallery investigating the emotional impact of the “War on Terror” in Pakistan and in the Portland refugee community; Darrell Grant will present a CD release event for his jazz composition “The Territory” including video interviews with other notable Oregon artists; and photographer Larry Cwik will present large scale photographic work depicting the Inupiat, Inuit, and other Arctic communities in northern Alaska, Canada, Norway and Russia revealing recent lifestyle changes and the impact of global climate change. 
  • Organizations that were awarded project grants for the first time include Historic Parkrose which received funding to support “Summer Nights on Sandy” – a street fair with local entertainment, vendors, and family fun focused on the arts; Friends of Zenger Farm, located in outer Southeast Portland in the Johnson Creek watershed, will work with artist Leon Smith to facilitate the production of a community designed and built living structure at their 6 acre educational farm; and People-Places-Things LLC will develop a series of 52 images by Dominican artist Hampton Rodriguez that make a “Deck of Professions” reflecting the diversity of the city through our occupations and which will be used to teach language classes to immigrants. 
  • Projects rooted in community participation include a series of writing workshops called “With You On The Journey” culminating in a staged reading led by Carol Imani for family members of people in prison; a program by The Aspire Project which provides tap and classical dance classes and performance opportunities for low-income children and families in North Portland; and a bilingual exhibit at the Portland Mercado titled “El Espiritu del Emprendador”, facilitated by Hacienda CDC highlighting the entrepreneurial spirit of the Latino community. 
  • Arts-in-Schools opportunities will bring youth from the Oregon Trail Academy in Boring, Oregon to King Elementary School in Portland to collaborate on songwriting and then perform under the direction of One World Chorus; and a project by Laura Leiman involves students at Astor and Cesar Chavez K-8 schools creating unique signatures, monograms & self identifying symbols as they explore what makes each person’s identity special through the art of the letterform. 
  • In addition, an anonymous donor continues to provide special funding for an annual “Innovation Prize” of $2,500. This year’s award for outstanding, innovative, media-oriented project goes to Kelly Goeller for a film mandala and video tapestry showing a storybook version of the Pacific Northwest titled “Habitat.”

Below is a complete list of funded projects. More detailed summaries of each grant are available at www.racc.org/2015projectgrants.

RACC project grants for individuals, calendar year 2015

Note: (*) denotes Clackamas County applicants, and (**) denotes Washington County based applicants. All other applicants are based in Multnomah County.

Individual Artist

Category/Discipline

Amount

Tori Abernathy

Visual Arts

$ 1,921
Abra Ancliffe

Visual Arts

$ 5,215
Sean Andries

Theatre

$ 4,050
Johanna Barron

Visual Arts

$ 5,400
Matthew Berger

Arts-in-Schools

$ 5,978
Tracy Broyles

Multi-Discipline Performance

$ 3,799
Ben Buswell

Visual Arts

$ 5,007
Matthew Carlson

Music

$ 4,796
Robin Chilstrom

Arts-in-Schools

$ 5,991
Adriene Cruz

Community Participation

$ 5,279
Larry Cwik

Photography

$ 5,332
Amber Dawn

Media Arts

$ 3,735
Shawn Demarest

Visual Arts

$ 4,757
Suniti Dernovsek

Multi-Discipline Performance

$ 5,693
Brenan Dwyer

Media Arts

$ 3,680
Alex Falcone

Theatre

$ 2,090
Michelle Fujii

Multi-Discipline Performance

$ 3,990
Mario Gallucci

Photography

$ 4,110
Nicole Georges

Literature

$ 6,000
Erik Geschke

Visual Arts

$ 3,360
Kelly Goeller

Media Arts

$ 4,514
Darrell Grant

Music

$ 5,955
Sabina Haque

Visual Arts

$ 5,935
Jen Harrison

Music

$ 5,700
Elijah Hasan

Media Arts

$ 4,563
Bethany Hays

Visual Arts

$ 4,410
Justin Hocking

Literature

$ 6,000
Kurtis Hough

Media Arts

$ 5,400
Nathaniel Hulskamp

Music

$ 5,787
Carol Imani

Community Participation

$ 3,593
Raina Imig

Community Participation

$ 5,429
Abraham Ingle

Visual Arts

$ 4,134
Katharine Jacobs

Photography

$ 4,640
Dawn Jones

Media Arts

$ 5,950
Kelly Kendziorski

Media Arts

$ 5,661
Theresa Koon

Music

$ 4,800
Horatio Law

Visual Arts

$ 4,800
Laura Leiman**

Arts-in-Schools

$ 5,951
Alain LeTourneau

Photography

$ 5,860
Katherine Longstreth

Dance

$ 4,307
Joaquin Lopez**

Multi-Discipline Performance

$ 5,499
Bertha Marin

Visual Arts

$ 4,950
Tere Mathern

Dance

$ 5,700
Matt McCormick

Media Arts

$ 4,456
Brenna McDonald

Dance

$ 4,966
Marc Moscato

Literature

$ 5,310
Pepe Moscoso

Photography

$ 4,408
Lena Munday

Visual Arts

$ 2,309
Travis Neel

Visual Arts

$ 4,584
Travis Nikolai

Visual Arts

$ 3,848
Eric Nordstrom

Media Arts

$ 4,800
Caroline Oakley

Community Participation

$ 6,000
Liz Obert

Photography

$ 2,558
Ann Marie O’Malley

Literature

$ 5,343
Stephen Osserman

Music

$ 5,581
Roger Peet

Visual Arts

$ 5,054
Kajanne Pepper

Multi-Discipline Performance

$ 3,563
Judith Pulman

Literature

$ 4,732
Joanne Radmilovich Kollman

Arts-in-Schools

$ 3,312
Jayanthi Raman**

Dance

$ 5,400
Kirsten Rian

Literature

$ 3,960
Dmae Roberts

Literature

$ 4,760
Ethan Rose

Music

$ 4,780
Heidi Schwegler

Visual Arts

$ 6,000
Shalanda Sims

Community Participation

$ 4,732
Ilana Sol

Media Arts

$ 5,700
Pablo Solares-Rowbury**

Visual Arts

$ 4,280
Anne Sorce

Theatre

$ 3,602
Jack StockLynn

Theatre

$ 4,402
Ellie Stuckey

Media Arts

$ 4,648
Kate Szrom

Photography

$ 5,230
Barbara Tetenbaum

Visual Arts

$ 5,405
Chanel Vivian

Visual Arts

$ 4,710
Kimberly Warner

Media Arts

$ 4,160
Katie Watkins

Theatre

$ 3,447
Claire Willett

Theatre

$ 4,475
Brandon Woolley

Theatre

$ 4,800
Jennifer Wright

Multi-Discipline Performance

$ 4,750
Lucy Yim

Dance

$ 4,394
Leni Zumas

Literature

$ 5,225

RACC project grants for organizations, calendar year 2015

Note: (*) denotes Clackamas County applicants, and (**) denotes Washington County based applicants. All other applicants are based in Multnomah County.

Organization

Category/Discipline

Amount

45th Parallel

Music

$ 5,696
Agnieszka Laska Dancers

Dance

$ 4,760
Architecture Foundation of Oregon

Arts-in-Schools

$ 6,000
Beaverton Arts Commission**

Community Participation

$ 5,650
Beaverton School District**

Arts-in-Schools

$ 522
Beaverton Symphony Orchestra**

Music

$ 2,344
Benson High School

Arts-in-Schools

$ 4,743
Big Horn Brass*

Music

$ 3,126
Boom Arts

Theatre

$ 6,000
Cinema Project

Media Arts

$ 1,712
Circus Cascadia

Arts-in-Schools

$ 2,640
CoHo Productions

Theatre

$ 5,697
Conduit Dance Inc.

Dance

$ 5,700
Creative Music Guild

Multi-Discipline Performance

$ 5,400
Disability Art and Culture Project

Community Participation

$ 4,215
Ecotrust

Media Arts

$ 5,615
Estacada Area Arts Commission/City of Estacada*

Community Participation

$ 5,840
Fear No Music

Music

$ 4,905
Friends of Zenger Farm

Community Participation

$ 4,796
Hacienda CDC

Community Participation

$ 4,689
Hand2Mouth

Theatre

$ 4,800
Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre/Northwest

Dance

$ 4,800
Historic Parkrose

Community Participation

$ 5,039
India Cultural Association**

Community Participation

$ 4,228
Irvington PTA

Arts-in-Schools

$ 5,700
Jewish Theatre Collaborative

Theatre

$ 5,197
Kukatonon Children’s African Dance Troupe

Community Participation

$ 6,000
Late Night Library

Literature

$ 5,166
Lewis & Clark College Hoffman Gallery

Visual Arts

$ 6,000
MediaRites

Theatre

$ 4,608
MetroArts Inc

Music

$ 4,612
My Voice Music

Community Participation

$ 4,800
NAYA Family Center

Community Participation

$ 6,000
Nomadic Theatre Co

Theatre

$ 4,784
Northwest Animation Festival

Media Arts

$ 5,883
Obo Addy Legacy Project

Community Participation

$ 5,400
One World Chorus*

Arts-in-Schools

$ 5,140
OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon

Community Participation

$ 3,650
Oregon Potters Association

Visual Arts

$ 4,860
Orlo

Literature

$ 5,400
Pacific Northwest College of Art

Visual Arts

$ 4,800
PDX Pop Now!

Music

$ 5,250
People-Places-Things, LLC

Visual Arts

$ 3,375
Portland Children’s Museum

Community Participation

$ 5,700
Portland Community College Foundation

Media Arts

$ 6,000
Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble

Theatre

$ 5,400
Portland Playhouse

Theatre

$ 5,400
Portland Symphonic Choir

Music

$ 5,400
QDoc

Media Arts

$ 5,950
Raphael Spiro String Quartet**

Community Participation

$ 4,401
RECESS

Visual Arts

$ 2,396
Resonance Vocal Ensemble

Music

$ 3,577
Resonate Choral Arts*

Arts-in-Schools

$ 4,455
Risk/Reward

Multi-Discipline Performance

$ 5,995
Siren Nation

Community Participation

$ 3,654
Southwest Charter School

Arts-in-Schools

$ 2,600
Tavern Books

Literature

$ 4,160
The Art Gym at Marylhurst University*

Visual Arts

$ 5,700
The Aspire Project

Community Participation

$ 2,700
The Circus Project

Arts-in-Schools

$ 5,700
The Library Foundation

Community Participation

$ 5,400
The Portland Oregon Women’s Film Festival (POWFest)

Media Arts

$ 5,700
triangle productions!

Theatre

$ 5,188
Venerable Showers of Beauty Gamelan

Music

$ 3,380
Vibe of Portland

Arts-in-Schools

$ 1,656
Yale Union

Visual Arts

$ 6,000

 

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