Oregon Arts Commission makes $1.25 million in grants that include Arts Central, Caldera, Nature of Words, Sisters Quilt Show and Sunriver Music Festival.
Fie Central Oregon arts organizations received Oregon Arts Commission grants totaling $32,000 for fiscal year 2012-13. This year’s round of grants, totaling $1,254,500 statewide, were distributed to Oregon arts organizations through operating support, arts services, and arts learning programs.
Arts Central received $7,500 for its arts education programs, including VanGo, its mobile community outreach project, and a $9,000 grant for operating support. Awards were also made to The Nature of Words ($6,000), The Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show ($6,000) and the Sunriver Music Festival ($3,500).
Caldera received $23,500 – $10,000 for operating support and $13,500 for arts education. Caldera employs 50 seasonal contract employees at its site outside of Sisters, plus 5-10 artists in residence in the schools each year.
From its inception in 1996, Caldera has served roughly 65,000 students, 1,600 in the camp and seven-year mentoring program. “This grant has a very profound impact for us in terms of supporting the deepening of our program,” said Caldera Executive Director Tricia Snell. The non-profit employs 17 people full time in its Northwest Portland office and contracts with 50 seasonal staff who come from all over Oregon to work at its camp outside Sisters. Caldera also hires five to 10 resident artists per year for its in-school programs.
The 2012 summer camp, which starts Saturday, July 14 at their Central Oregon facility, will focus on media arts and creative technology, radio in particular. “We have classes in digital storytelling through audio technology, music production and podcasts,” said Snell. A number of collaborators have put their horsepower behind the program, including OPB, LiveWire! and several cable access media outlets. Caldera has received national recognition from the President’s Council for the Arts and Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. “It is wonderful to get the same recognition on the state level,” she said. And, like most non-profits, she admits that the Arts Commission grant, “gives us leverage to seek further funding.”
The Commission’s Operating Support grants back the operations of Oregon’s leading arts groups; they recognize artistic excellence as well as the role that arts organizations play in the broader social, educational and economic areas of community life. Arts Learning grants support the arts as a powerful link to educational achievement and include in-classroom, after-school, and off-site curricula and workshops, thus contributing to Oregon’s development of a well-rounded 21st century workforce. Arts Services grants provide operating funds for local and regional arts councils and other groups working to make the arts accessible in all parts of Oregon.
Ann Richardson, Executive Director of the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, said the Arts Commission grant, “allows us to have additional staff,” including a fundraising coordinator and a small temporary staff around show time. “We went from .8 full time employees to 1.8 with our first operating support grant (and can now maintain that),” said Richardson.
The mid-July show attracts over 10,000 people to Central Oregon, from as far away as New Zealand, Australia, Japan and England. Visitors travel in groups, they use hotels, restaurants, rental car companies, and according to Richardson, “They shop.” Altogether, attendees pump $2.4 million into the Sisters economy in a single weekend. The group does not yet have statistics for Redmond or Bend, which receives thousands of overflow lodging guests.
In this vein, Chris D’Arcy, OAC’s Executive Director, notes that the grants help arts organizations deliver abundant services across Oregon. “Not only do the programs supported by these grants expose people to great art,… live performance and new works – they pay dividends to Oregon through job retention, community vitality and lifelong learning for our citizens.”
Quilts are purchased at the Sisters show, but mostly, says Richardson of the world’s largest outdoor quilt show, “People come to be inspired.”
