Cultural Trust and Sisters Artworks Honor Bend Westlund

On Monday, October 8, The Deschutes County Cultural Coalition and Sisters Artworks will host the Ben Westlund Memorial Award Ceremony to honor Sisters arts activist Brad Tisdel and celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the Oregon Cultural Trust.

Though this event is by invitation only, the press is invited to attend and take photographs.

Who/What/When/Where/Why: The Deschutes County Cultural Coalition and Oregon Cultural Trust will gather at Sisters Artworks from 5pm to 7pm on Monday, October 8 to honor the life of late Central Oregon Legislator and State Treasurer, Ben Westlund. Westlund was instrumental in crafting the legislation that led to the establishment of the Oregon Cultural Trust and he remained an ardent supporter of the arts and humanities throughout his career. He was also known as a moderate Republican who routinely crossed the aisle in his political views, ran for governor in 2006 as an Independent, and became a Democrat later that year.

Ben Westlund Memorial Award Recipient Brad Tisdel, Program Director and Co-Founder of The Americana Project, is a Sisters Activist who has brought musical instruction and inspiration to Central Oregon schools. The project is a collaboration between the Sisters Folk Festival, Sisters School District and Creative Educational Resources, LLC. It provides instruments, songwriting workshops and contests to school children at Sisters High School, Middle School and Elementary School. The project has released seven CDs and won numerous grants and awards. Tisdel will speak as part of the October 8 ceremony.

Cate O’Hagan, Executive Director of Arts Central, the Arts and Culture Council for Central Oregon, devised the award as a way to acknowledge Westlund’s contribution to Oregonians. “Ben was deeply committed to insuring that all corners of the state and all the people in those corners have access to quality arts and culture experiences,” said O’Hagan. “The award was created in his memory and in honor of the spirit of his intention.”

October 8, 2012 marks the 10^th anniversary of the Oregon Cultural Trust, a unique public-private partnership that uses private donations and a generous cultural tax credit to build a permanent fund for culture, now at more than $16 million, and to distribute over $1 million in grants every year to cultural non-profits. The organization and the tax credit were made into law on October 8, 2002.

Once established, the Cultural Trust set up a web of 36 county and six tribal cultural coalitions that are responsible for granting Trust funds in their communities. The Ben Westlund Memorial Award is funded out of that grant making and was conceptualized by the Deschutes County Cultural Coalition.