What will it take to unlock Portland’s full creative capacity?

A thought - creativity can not be packaged nor does it always lead to innovation. Creativity often comes from the most unusual of circumstances, it's messy at times so the question really is - how do we cultivate talent and nurture creativity where it already exists? Portland is a hot bed of creativity, no doubt about it, but where are the tools that will allow this creativity to truly flourish? As Sir Ken Robinson says 'We are educating people out of their creativity,' so clearly he feels the issues begin in the classroom, therefore we need a strong education system in Portland and that is something we clearly don't have today. Music and art classes for instance are always the first to have their budgets cut when they should be the last. We have a long way to go.

Dave Allen,

My biggest problem with Vera's plan to give a small stipend to "young creatives" who wanted to live here was that it ignored those of us who have been here trying to contribute to the arts and culture. As a film crew person, one of my big concerns with the incentive money that gives back to film production in Oregon, is that there is no requirement to hire a certain percentage of local crew and therefore my tax money is going to pay for housing and per diem for an out of state crew hire. Also I think it's time to really consider a sales tax that would give to arts and music education, as those out of state crew members have per diem to spend and they might as well leave some of it here to help our economy.

i am a fashion designer who has had her business here in portland for 9 years (i also grew up in portland, and went to university here) currently, i work out of an art collective in se portland called the egg. The Egg provides permanent studio space for various artists, including: 3 fashion designers, 1 jewelry designer, 2 painters, 2 massage therapists, a light and sound event production company, and permanent rehearsal space for: a marching band, a troupe of acrobalancers, circus performers and the Egg houses an art gallery for fledgeling artists. we have just celebrated our 4th birthday, and have gone through many tests and trials to make it where we are today. all of us make our livings off of our respective art. this experience for me has brought up many an issue (some resolved and unresolved) that affect the greater community, as well as its individuals. portland has been a town of "make your own," and we have faced the trials and tribulations of doing art for a living.

in this capacity, i give you a few recurring themes:

1. connection of communities. this is a well worn subject. in the end, there are several separate communities of artists that have no idea about the others, and a better linkage would give more opportunities to share resources, information and promotion.
2. more resources for funding. we keep talking about a micro-loan program within my own circles that would help get through lean months while getting projects off the ground, or just to progress to the next level; from idea/prototype to production. what stands in the way often is just a few hundred dollars; which would be better given in a loan program than living off of credit cards, or worrying about food and bills.
3. resources for general information. not just for craft, but how to deal with the business end of things. an sba (small business administration) for artists. all the information is out there, but not in one place, nor in a form conducive to our frame of mind.
4. awareness. it is easy to just say that, but people are starting to learn about sustainability of supporting local farmers at farmers' markets. it is important to educate the public about buying locally for everything as much as possible. portland my be a microcosm of progress when compared to many places, but we still have a long way to go.

Here in Old Town Chinatown's dynamic, bottoms up culture of creativity we have so many folks toiling away driven by talent and passion and a seat of the pants sense of where they are going. Can we think big and out of the box enough to help them stay healhy and productive until they take off?

It's interesting what other cites and the State of Washington are doing, particularly in the areas of insurance. Leveraging Investments in Creativity is a ten year initiative to improve conditions for artists. Take a look at this website.
http://www.lincnet.net/

Artists are made and artists are born. For those born to the task there is little a city can do to dissuade them from their fate. They will find a niche, protection, sanctuary, or as with Kristin above, esty.com. These artists are resistant to advisement typically because experience teaches how rare useful and not poisonous

If you want to hatch artists, you need to look at the life-changing decisions facing young artists at Da Vinci School. How many times must they assert "yes - I want a career in the arts" and manage the smirks, the advice, the "oh you'll never make it" comments from a thousand thoughtless sources before they give up and seek an easier way?

You know who's against the arts? Coffee shop managers who need baristas to open at 7 AM, office managers who hire eccentric file clerks, parents, high school counselors, bill collectors, neighborhood associations, the Portland police, people who suggest we start a committee, distractions and recruiters of all sorts.

If you want to convince creatives to move to Portland, aside from the high high cost of housing, there is little which can be done - which a city government can do. Municipal grants tend to find a low common point. Artists create their own collectives to serve their own immediate needs. We have festivals galore - Wordstock, PIFF, PUFF, SIFF, PDX POP, etc. I suppose winning Clear Channel helps somehow...

Bottom line: Creatives can take care of themselves.

What the city can do is hatch arts audiences - people who believe, attend, and most importantly purchase and contribute to the arts. Valuing the arts can be taught at any age, in any demographic sector and RACC is a good start. But only a start.

Portland can do better at building audience for the arts.

Where are the best parts of town for artists to live in? I am an actor, my wife's a painter, and we're thinking of moving to the area. We're wondering if there's a part of town where artists gather?

Last night was interesting. A gathering of 322+ creatives in one place could have been a recipe for disaster but it was a dynamic evening all around. Lots of great input, energy and a willingness to get things done was what I took away. I didn't get chance to ask a question but I did get to talk to Sam afterwards about an opportunity - as I travel the globe with my band I am often asked about Portland and it's creative scene during our press conferences. I would love to be able to answer quickly especially if there was a web site I could point people to that had aggregated links from all the disparate creative associations, people and companies in town. A useful resource I reckon.

Thanks for last night's forum. I tried to capture my thoughts (BLOG) and welcome an ongoing discussion about problems, solutions, collaborations.....

Last night was a good beginning to a conversation about art and what directions we need to take here in Portland. To add to that...Portland has more parks per capita than any other city in the US, yes we are using a small portion of it occasionally for the arts. It seems to be that so much more could be happening there. Sundays could be an 'Art in the Park" day. Various guilds could take over an area of different parks for one day a month, or even a weekend. All that outdoor space that we love, it could become even better one weekend a month.

If we want our children to be exposed to the arts, to be raised with the possibility of becoming an artist, if we want them to express themselves, then let's make this city a place where they can actually make a living as well as be part of a dynamic act community!

Carole Murphy
Co-Vice President of the Pacific Northwest Sculptor's Association
http://www.pnwsculptors.org

I was pretty surprised last night when the Town Hall event I attended became a pitch for a ballot measure.

After a day of considering it, though, I can see many positives to the way in which the event was planned.

Commissioner Same clearly has an agenda. That agenda includes finding ways to bring more money into the Arts community. The way he's decided to do this is a ballot measure and considering the personalities he had with him up on stage last night, he's definitely got all his ducks in a row up to this point.

If Commissioner Sam is committed to having a ballot measure for a tax-funded sponsorship for the Arts, it would definitely help him if the community he's working to help didn't shoot itself in the foot by arguing _meanly_ with each other about who should benefit from that money. By bringing a lot of potential beneficiaries together in a room where they can see each other's humanity will help foster a "we're all in this together" mentality.

One of the down sides to the way this was handled is that even though Commissioner Sam brought together a bunch of people based on their Creative Capacity he failed to take advantage of that creativity when he narrowed the possible solutions down to one: more money from the public.

Truly, when all you have is a hammer (tax money in this instance) then every problem looks like a nail.

I think the issue of seriousness and excellence are not being fully addressed. Ballot measure or not, savvy intelligent questions regarding excellence, seriousness or sophistication were hardly brought up.

Seriousness and education folks, not just feel good gestures towards phantom "creativity" and "community" as words. Both words are used like shields against criticality. The chinatown dragons were a classic example.

As a city Portland needs to engender a level of supple, reflexive sophistication in all funding allocation processes and unless that culture of seriousness takes hold in civic level endeavors all this will come to naught.

Not to be a grump but right now the the top artists, designers etc. far outstrip the sophistication levels of the politicians and their organs. The gap needs to close.

Just being funky wont cut it.

I've been having conversations with a number of folks in town, people 10 and 20 years older than I, who remember when NW 23rd was funky, low rent. And then the Pearl. And now I'm joining the conversation with them about the Central Eastside. I think many would agree there is a trend taking place in most cities where artist move in, developers follow, and artist are priced out. How about the City of Portland recognize the artists for their part in Economic Development of city districts (in this case the CEID) by providing protections from being priced out of low rent areas. Take some of that additional monies earned from increased property value (after development) to kick back to the arts community in the form of public art commissions, affordable live/work space (low amenity spaces, not condos), performance and exhibition space, and other grant opportunities. What study do we need to prove this economic trend is real. I've seen it in San Francisco, parts of Chicago, New York, Seattle, and of course here in Portland. The CEID will not be the vibrant place it is today if the development trend continues. I for one cannot afford $15 per square foot!

It's not just about needing money. One major thing the city has that we all need is space. Yes, indoor space to live and work and perform at affordable rates is important. But I'm also talking about open space for outdoor events, festivals, markets, street fairs. The Parks Department holds a tight grip on public spaces, and charges a healthy amount for their use. The Saturday Market (one of our best incubators for crafts and visual arts) is facing this issue right now. Would it be possible for cultural events to fall into a different catagory... one that paid lower rents?

http://www.saluteamerica.org/salute_los_angeles_-_creative_capital_of_the_world.htm

I did not attend the meeting last night, it sounded interesting. I had a thought of managing first and last thursday differently. Maybe closing off more streets. To make it more pedestrian friendly. Events could also go on in that space. The conjested areas are hard to drive in anyway.

Another idea was to ear mark a weekend (first weekend?) Where every gallery might have artist talks and extra information or video. It would be nice to create a second day during the month where people were out walking.

I'm Agnieszka Laska, artistic director of Agnieszka Laska Dancers and current President of Dance Coalition of Oregon.

We have been asked to share ideas on enhancing the creative community in Portland. As a resident alien, I’m hoping my voice will be heard. I moved here 6 years ago. Before that I was working as a choreographer and dancer in Europe and Latin America where I always made a living at it.

In my 6 years working in Portland as an artist (the last 4 years with my own modern dance company) I have not made a penny in personal income from my art. Yes, my projects have been funded by grants and I have been commissioned, mostly by musicians, but it’s never been enough to cover expenses. When I mentioned this to an RACC grants officer, her reaction was this: "I know there are some organizations struggling."

Statistically somewhere between 85 and 98 percent of support for the arts in this country is from private donors.
From my own experience and discussion with artists in my field, about 50% of that is coming out of the artists’ own pockets. Beyond the professionalism of my craft, for me, being a professional artist means being able to make a living at it. After I moved to the US, the richest country in the world let’s not forget, for the first time in my life I am faced with being an artist in my spare time.

On an RACC sponsored workshop, titled "Balancing Act, Making Art and Making Money," what I heard from the first speaker was this: "If you want to be an artist, you have to find yourself a day job." Last year, when I talked to a someone from the Oregon Arts Commission, at a regional booking conferences, and I told her that my goal is to establish a small, professional dance company, she asked me this: "Is your husband rich?"

Have we really gotten to the point where making art is a luxury, reserved only for the privileged, only for those from rich families or those who marry into wealth?

A year ago I was accepted into the Northwest Dance Lab — part of the Regional Dance Development Initiative, sponsored by the National Dance Project and several local cosponsors. The indelible essence of what we were taught during those ten exhausting days is that it doesn’t matter who you are as an artist, it doesn’t matter what you do as an artist, nor does the quality of your artistic work matter at all. What matters is only who you know and pursuant to that how important networking is.

I am afraid that we are in a situation where opportunity to make art is going primarily not to the most talented, but to those from rich families; not to the most gifted, but to those who more than anyone others are determined to prove they are artists; not to the most educated, but to those who are the best at networking — commonly known as party animals.

I’m not saying that the only people making art in Oregon are rich, determined party animals. What I’m saying is that we are at risk. The talented, educated, gifted artists, who are not backed by wealthy families or connections and who are not good at networking, will decide to give there creativity over to different fields because they can’t make it as artists.

Here’s a bracing example: When I posted a call for dancers on Craig’s List, there was no response at all. When I posted a call for grant writers, I got 20 responses within two hours. Curiously, out of these 20, 8 were ex-dancers, who had given up making art and moved to the presumably more lucrative corner of the performing arts world.

At the end of the dance lab, we were asked to give our opinion and were carefully advised not to sound negative. There was a dead silence when I finished my speech, which wasn’t so different from this one. I closed with this: "We cannot have art if we do not support professional artists. " In this dead silence, one of my mentors approached and whispered in my ear, "You should run for public office." I said, I don’t know if I can. I’m not a US citizen, and she said, "That’s too bad, because we need someone like you to speak up for us."

Until it is clearly understood that behind arts organizations there are artists, human beings — people who have to eat something, sleep somewhere, pay their medical bills and last but not least create and present there art somewhere, we can have meetings like this every month, every week, every day and the situation is not going to change.

I know this raises and important question, because I hear this question frequently: "Who is the real artist?" I heard at the last meeting I attended with the Oregon Arts Commission, when someone proposed a health care program for artists, "How can we recognize the real artist from someone who is just pretending?" I would say that those who cannot recognize a piece of glass from a diamond, shouldn’t work at the jewelry store. And, I would think that this simple rule of thumb should apply to arts management. I know that recognizing a piece of glass from a diamond requires some knowledge, some expertise and I can’t understand why it’s impossible to get the same level of knowledge and expertise in arts management, or less common sense than it takes to hire an expert if you’re not one.

And now to get back to me: this little young dance company, Agnieszka Laska Dancers, for the 2nd time in it’s short 4-year history, is invited to several international dance festivals, this time in Europe. Now, as a result of something that looks like a clerical error (unclear guidelines), we learned that our proposal is essentially ineligible for a Special Opportunity grant for which we were encouraged to apply, not just once, but twice. And here we are again on our own left alone, because artists will always find a solution. There is now way we will not honor the contract we’ve made with these festivals. We are in all festival publicity and tickets to our performances are being sold. And, we’re still searching for the means to get there. After learning about the denial of our last proposal, we launched a desperate fundraising campaign and within a week we raised 35% of the funds required for airfares and are so grateful to our supporters. But, it’s not enough, so please tell me anyone, if you know of any emergency sources to which we can apply; if there is any business willing to be a strategic sponsor of this tour; if there is any business willing to sponsor a dancer or half a dancer or even a quarter of a dancer to get to this festival. If so please be in touch ALDancers@comcast.net

Finally, here in the capitalist paradise its all fundraising all the time. We are now here at a huge celebration of the great success of WORKS FOR ART. This is an RACC sponsored program geared toward donations from the workplace for artistic non-profits in Oregon. I’m really happy learning how much money was raised through this program. I’m really happy learning this program is such a success. But I am really curious to know how much of this money will make its way to direct support for artists — exactly where it needs to be.

Welcome to our world, Agnieszka. Welcome to our world. The great US of A spends less than 50 cents per person on the arts (National Endowment for the Arts). And you thought the state and local figures that Sam reported were bad. Businesses don't give a damn about the arts anymore unless you can show how your dancers will improve their bottom line. So I'm not sure why you'd want to live here, but good luck to you!

Why we are looking at government to help us be creative mystifies me. Governemnt is the least creative force in society, it is more about regualting behaviour thru taxation and laws.

Mr Adams whole approach is the same tired dialect of we don't have enough money, so we need to tax you more and pay for a couple of pieces of art. I see no over-arching plan beyond tax and spend. Nothing in the above says anything about what he has done to foster creativity.

Also, please explain the oft-quoted:
“We are educating people out of their creative capacities.” I might add we are over-regulating and over-taxing people out of creativity.

Maybe if we backed off the taxes/laws a little and got more jobs, people would have more money to spend on art and events.

Hey All ~

Wonderful commentary, passion, etc. Lively dialogue is one of the earmarks of people who give a serious hoot.

I'd like to add a little more flavor to the mix...(be warned, this touches on a few different topics, but may well be worth the read)

I have ownership stakes in two companies that serve two of the creative communities in Portland and Oregon – Working Artists LLC [ www.workingartistsonline.com ], WA, which mainly serves “the arts” practitioner (fine art, theatre, film, music, installation art, movement, sound, etc.) and the Self Employed Creative Professionals [ www.selfemployedcreatives.org ], SECP, which serves communications professionals (graphic designers, illustrators, copywriters, web developers, marketing pros, etc).

There are some oddballs in the mix (like one tenant in the Working Artists Studios, Gus, a landscape designer who created an AMAZING installation in our gallery representing a tree root system from an underground perspective that our visitors were able to step inside of.). And there is also some overlap in the two organizations as many of the artists who have tenancy in the Working Artists Incubator are BOTH artists and communication pros and hold memberships in both organizations (I am one of those…).

Mostly however, each group has a tendency to hold itself as separate from the other in order to distinguish the value and “products” each brings to our communities and lives. [ There is a LOT of dialogue about this, especially within the two organizations of which I am a part. ]

When looking at the Creative Community Tree handed out at the Town Hall meeting there's reference to the creative professionals whose focus is Business and Corporate Communications (graphic designers, copywriters, illustrators, web designers, etc.), but there was not any conversation that directly related to supporting those folks - i.e. dialogue about being a self employed creative professional in arenas that are NOT considered “the arts”.

Unlike the arts groups that were at the Town Hall, there was only myself (as far as I know that is) representing the “other” group of creative professionals whose work pumps significant amounts of money into our local economy. [ In the old days these folks were referred to as “knowledge” workers—now we use Richard Florida’s term “the creative class”—to describe the creative professionals that Portland and Oregon are banking on taking up to the next economic level. ]

Both groups of creative professionals are made up of a large number of self-employed people (I think PRIMARILY made up of self-employeds, however I am short of the statistics as I write this) who labor under having to pay disproportionate taxes as sole proprietors, whose work is often severely under valued by the companies and people who purchase their services and creative products, who often forego healthcare coverage because it costs too much, who are the mom-and-pop backbone of the American economy.

The conversations in which we are engaged in either company have little to do with public funding. [ Both are for-profit LLC’s, so we don’t qualify for grants or other public funding, nor do we offer the advantage to our customers of a tax write-off for their donations. ]

We talk about and are investigating ways of being self-sustaining. We have engaged insurance providers in figuring out HOW we can get affordable healthcare coverage for ourselves and our families (the last time I had coverage was when I worked for an advertising agency something like 8 years ago – how about you?). We look for ways to beef up our business management abilities by developing workshops that artists and creative people can stomach, maybe even ENJOY by serving it up to them in ways that make SENSE to a creative person. We even went out and recruited a core group of ESSENTIAL professional services providers to give our membership body a deep discount for their respective services so our members can AFFORD to have an attorney, or tax accountant, or marketing professional that’s so essential to building and maintaining a successful business.

It was funny…while sitting in that room and listening to everything that was being presented, the questions that were being asked, I found I had nothing to say, no questions to ask. I felt somewhat like a fish out of water, not so much because I didn’t fit in with the crowd that was there – I do from a career sense as I’m a visual artist and writer and I run an arts organization. I felt like I didn’t fit in so well because my perspective is so finely tuned to being an artist-entrepreneur (my arts organization is a for-profit social-entrepreneurship model). I loathe applying for grants or other funding. It doesn’t ever make sense to me to vie for the same paltry sum of money that every other artist or organization is hoping to get to forward a project or cause. (Yes, I was President of a non-profit theater company in town, in addition to being a working visual artist, so I KNOW what it takes to go through the grants hoop only to not be the chosen one!)

I don’t wait around to see where the next round of dough is coming from—I take calculated risks, evaluate opportunities when they occur (which is A LOT), say yes when the risk is palatable, say no when it’s too risky for me or my customers (tenants, members, students, etc.). I look for ways of creating joint ventures, starting sub partnerships, developing and growing strategic relationships. I create products and services that have value to the people who buy them—that are also products and services I LOVE delivering. (That includes my artwork and well as the stuff I do through WA).

Talk about maximizing creativity—the entrepreneur does that everyday of her life…

If I had my way, we’d all look at everything from this perspective; do everything from the risk-taking stance.

And I realize that there are other ways of achieving the same goals requiring a little less risk, demanding a little more educational effort, working with entities that already have a deep well of resources and know-how.

I was happy to be at the Town Hall. I was delighted that the room was filled beyond the expectations of Commissioner Adams and his passionate team (Jesse and Polly), as well as those of Virginia Willard (NWBCA), Eloise Damrosch (RACC) and Ann Mangan (PDC).

But mostly, as I wrote to my SECP colleague shortly after the Town Hall gathering, “what was more important to me was that there were nearly 350 arts professionals in that room together who’ve never been together before.”

That one fact alone made my heart swell and my mind sing, because to me that represented the collective acknowledgement for and need to architect a change in how things are done with relation to people who are employed in creative industries BY THE CREATIVES THEMSELVES.

Combine those folks with the 500+ self employed creatives with whom I get to work on a day-to-day basis, and add to that number all the other creative workers they engage with in projects and collaborations, and you have a mass of people who can make a difference in their own industries, in their own living situations without being taken advantage of by the people who KNOW they need our plethora of skill sets to evolve or die.

Dang that’s a lot of words up there. Thank you for indulging me in sharing them…

So, my question is, how do we keep doing that – getting 350, 500, 850 people together to exact the kind of change that needs to be self-evolved from the group?

I know, let’s join forces.

Working Artists LLC would love to facilitate this kind of collaboration. Drop me a line – wa@workingartistsonline.com and I’ll be happy to share with you what we’re doing – the entrepreneurial stuff right alongside the work we get to do with people like Sam (the Commissioner), and Eloise (the Uber Curator), and Jacque (a former inmate who used arts programming to change her life), and Barbara (the Ops Goddess of SECP and sole-proprietor of Newsletter Associates), and so many more…

I’ll even tell you about the things that are tough freakin’ nuts to crack! Maybe you’ll have an idea about how we can get that goofy shell open…

And Commissioner Adams, can we add some bit of dialogue in the next meeting about being a self employed creative, and all that entails (tax relief would be nice! Or some kind of publicly available healthcare program? Or maybe some funding for scholarship programs for non-accredited professional development programs like the Guerilla Exhibitor? Or___________________)

Thanks for reading.

Namaste,
A.

I was unable to attend the Town Hall as that was the evening of our volunteer appreciation dinner, but I did get a chance to catch the video.

I was astonished at the statistics regarding arts entities (132) versus venues (12). This supports something that I have been advocating for for quite some time: a facilities need assessment and inventory. The Arts and Science Council in Charlotte did one while I was there and the information was very valuable. It indicated the venue need now as well as what folk anticipated 5-10-15 years down the road. It also assessed each arts group's capacity to pay for such space so the council could begin thinking about the kinds of venues that the arts community needed. It also inventoried space all over the city in an attempt to match up facility needs with available spaces. This really needs to be done in Portland.

Also, I don't remember who it was, but someone mentioned a need to hear about fire code regulations, etc. as they pertain to building usage. PCPA would be glad to not only host such a meeting but to put together all the speakers. We deal with fire codes, ADA issues, crowd management issues, emergency response, alcohol management, etc. every day. I'd just like to hear from the arts community as to what you are looking for so we can create something of value so please contact me at this email address.

Robyn Williams
Executive Director
Portland Center for the Performing Arts

Hey all: I just discovered I was censored at Sam Adams Blog. And it wasn't all that hard. Perfect for Party-down P-town...makes ya wonder how long ya gonna be around.

http://www.commissionersam.com/creativecapacity#comment

right after the entries

pdx as the creative capital of ?
Submitted by tl on Wed, 06/13/2007 - 9:48pm.
http://www.saluteamerica.org/salute_los_angeles_-_creative_capital_of_the_world.htm

» reply

... better yet, Mars
Submitted by Justin on Thu, 06/14/2007 - 8:53am.
Has anyone claimed Creative Capitol of the Moon yet?

» reply

3 days ago I posted under the handle Joe Blow

Creative Capital = Creative Capitol in THE PHILISTINE NATION
http://66.49.150.190/FWM/Philistine.Nation.Joe.Blow.m3u

It was up, the link was active and as of yesterday it's down and out — censorship is alive and well in THE PHILISTINE NATION

Sam Adam’s recent Town Hall meeting for the local creative community is without a doubt a watermark in the history of the Portland art scene. In the 25 years I have been watching the growth of the local art scene I can not remember such a broadly focused effort to politically organize the regions creative talent. Unfortunately, many members of the creative community have little talent and interest for politics.

Organizing artists, which is much like herding cats, exposes many individuals and groups with divergent agendas and wide ranging ideas about how to accomplish their goals. Sam understands that the only chance of getting this group activated and organized is to state the obvious facts to make a strong case for why they need to be interested and involved, then repeat that case like a mantra.

After the presentation I encountered my friend Robert who happens to be one of the directors of the Polaris Dance Company; a highly acclaimed but typically under-funded non-profit arts group. He had a strained look on his face. I asked him what he thought of the event. He said “I think it was great to hear all this information about the arts community, arts funding, and the economic impact. But the problem I have is, with the amount of time and energy we spend forming our organizations, creating our art (dance pieces), performing the programs, and scraping out enough money to pay the rent, how do we find more time and energy to be politically active?”

I responded saying “I know as an artist you have difficulty understanding and accepting that all human interaction involving individuals and organizations involve some level of politics; especially if any amount of money is involved. What you need to realize is that as an artist you have an opportunity give your audience a variety of messages. You have a fan base, so you might consider making a pitch to your fan for getting involved in political action that promotes and supports their favorite arts organizations”.

I saw Robert a few days later and ask if he had any thoughts about my comment. He responded, “Most of the people you’re talking about already volunteer for us and are pretty much maxed out”.

I replied, “then as a community we need to expand the support base with aggressive audience development strategies”. Of course what’s left is the question of how do we make that happen and what strategies have a chance of working in a market so thoroughly saturated with artistic offerings? Maybe we could use Portland’s image as a Creative Mecca to expand the audience.

The statistical numbers Sam laid out in the first portion of the meeting makes a strong case for why Portland can be viewed as one of the most important incubator of artistic and creative talent in North America. About a year ago Ruth Ann Brown, owner of the New American Art Union, came back from a trip to New York and mentioned a headline she saw in the New York Times Arts section that read “Leave New York, Move to Portland”. The article was aimed at artists. We are on the map, not just nationally but internationally.

Portland has long been a magnet for the best creative talent. The result is and art scene so large and of such high quality that it make no sense for a town this size, but here it is. The arts community gets this, but sadly, most of the local population hasn’t the vaguest idea how important the local art scene is. I have been calling Portland the “Florence of North America” in conversations as a way of offering some perspective on the significance of the arts in our city.

Portland’s image as a prime destination art market is widely accepted around the country. Seventy percent of the art work sold here is bought by people who don’t live here. What I believe sets us apart from other large art markets can be summed up very simply. In the big city art markets it’s all about the hype, but here, it’s about the work.

People don’t come here to buy high priced art by famous over-hyped artists; they come here to buy high quality work at insanely affordable prices, by artists they probably never heard of. I repeat, it’s about the work, not the hype. I’m not saying that the Portland scene is devoid of hype; it arrived with the Bucanan’s at PAM. However, much of what happens here gets nothing more than grass roots promotion. Alterative spaces like RAKE Gallery and The Launching Pad Gallery are good examples of emerging gallery collectives.

There is a need for putting more energy and resources into developing tourism. Even though the Portland Oregon Visitors Bureau has done great job promoting Portland as cultural tourism destination over the last ten years, there is a huge potential for continued expansion in this area. What is being missed is the potential opportunity for expanding the local arts audience. I don’t understand why our national image is not more aggressively exploited to promote the scene locally.

Sam’s account of the creation of a political action committee for the arts carries the potential of stabilizing funding for many of the great non- profits in the area. A stable funding base for the non-profit arts will help validate the Portland’s national image as a great art scene.

Comments from at least one person attending suggest that the town hall meeting effort was well organized with the best of intentions, but the information that came out was rather obvious and way over due. The advice the same person gave was framed in terms of the issues that have been begging government and community attention for years. The most urgent part of the message was for the arts community to place a premium on excellence in what is shown and a plea to avoid dumbing down the work for the sake of bringing in a larger audience.

This is a valid and important point of view. However, this attitude does little to help the arts community and the general public to understand the importance of this call to political action in terms of the potential payoff for the region’s cultural commerce and the challenges inherent in undertaking this task.

One missing ingredient is an aggressive public relations and marketing plan that targets the broadest possible audience regionally and nationally. The economic impact numbers offer a great selling point for convincing businesses to contribute resources for promoting the quality and accessibility of the Portland art scene.

Creation of a comprehensive strategy for audience development aimed at adults as well as K through 12 school kids is essential. As Sam pointed out, it has been a full generation since a majority of school aged children had access to arts education. We don’t seem to acknowledge the need for programs designed to remind the general public that art is for everyone, not just a privileged minority. I am certain that adults in this country could enjoy more involvement with the arts, but feel disenfranchised by the perception of an elitist attitude from the arts community and the art market.

Part of this elitism comes from what I call the Medici syndrome. The powerful Medici family dominated the arena of cultural commerce in Florence during the Renaissance. The only other competition for dominance of the art scene there was the Catholic Church. In Portland we don’t have such a high concentration of patronage, but we do have a small and tight knit group of families, businesses, and individuals who control the majority of cash flow to all the major non-profits. They also play the roll of market makers in the local gallery scene.

We hear the pleas for more patrons and collectors like a broken record. The rhetorical response is always “Portland lacks the corporate base of other large cities like Seattle, San Francisco, or LA.” If you accept this, then the need for programs aimed at expanding the audience base becomes obvious and urgent. We need to make the tent big enough for every one.

That doesn’t mean we have to dumb down any of the art offered to the public. However, we do need to be mindful of offering shows, events, and opportunities for people at all levels of appreciation. We don’t start off a first grader with algebra or trigonometry. Maybe we should embrace things like the Art in the Pearl show, Portland Open Studios, and those many neighborhood art walks as useful entry point for many people who got short changed on arts education.

The efforts of organizations like The Portland Art Center, and The Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center have made great progress in teaching the public that great art can be found outside the austere high end gallery scene. The many alterative galleries like the Everett Street Lofts complex and the East Side First Friday galleries comprise the core of our amazing emerging art scene. These galleries form the deep well of new young talent that is building a new young audience. These and many other arts non-profits need and deserve more public funding. There is so much left to do.

Most of the people that came to the town hall were looking to get something rather than give support. They got a lot, but I’m not sure how many in the audience came away with and understanding of what they were offered. Sam stated out the outset that he believed in the Portland Creative Community and he was willing to spend considerable political capital to get something on the ballot. Understand this, that kind of political capital rarely comes along for any arts community, and it almost never comes with the potential payoff that is attached to this opportunity.

We need to face the fact that all this energy and activity must be nurtured and supported by the artists and the audience. Without a sustained campaign of organ of organized activism this level and quality of cultural activity probably can’t be maintained. This is why Sam’s Town Hall Meeting was a watermark event. It opens the door for creating enough support to carry our community to the great heights. We have the opportunity to mold Portland into the Florence of North America, if we just get our act together. Let’s get with it.

who probably thinks I'm still pouting over not getting some grant or another — actually it's that Pulitzer I was denied after being nominated last year that really hurt — but perusing all that's gone under the bridge here since my last posting, I really have to say, “The more I learn about foundation support for the arts, especially from public or quasi-public institutions, the more I hate it.”

I too, like Adrienne have run an arts-related business for over 15 years and can barely keep it afloat. A few years back when discussing a personal project with an RACC officer, she said: "Your ideas, vision and execution are all so impressive, I wish we could consider you for our programs only open to 501 (c)(3)s; why don’t you become one? My response was immediate: “That would be surrender, admitting that something, which you're telling me is so valuable, must be deemed not worthy of the expectation of profitability?” Nevertheless, I too have been in and out of non-profit involvement.

But, what can we say for a system that requires of artists with strong vision, clear mission and the skill to execute professionally, that in order to get foundation support and attract significant private funding we have to agree (at least in principle) never to make a profit? The irony, of course, is that so much funding — the funding with gravitates, the funding that gets a panel’s attention — comes from immensely profitable entities (e.g. corporations and old-money financiers, et al). And, to heap insult on the irony, the funding institutions are run by managers, mostly secured on 6-figure salaries. Moreover, if you look at the most successful non-profits you’ll find artists, barely, rarely or never paid, and administrators always well paid...fitting perfectly the corporate busyness paradigm, we’re being told we, as artists, must emulate for public projects...like...like...like the Tram...that came in only 400% over budget? I like to call it Die Träumen Tram.

Finally, when our proposals are put before these funding institutions, the quality or nature of the work is literally an afterthought. The essential criteria are these:

1. Bullet-proof Business Plan
2. Big Buck Bottom-line Budget
3. Big Bucks Bullish Power-house Board of Directors
4. Long-term Reputation — to be sure, the kiss of death for any proposal is delivered like this: "I've never heard of them before." You may submit a stunningly professional packet of jaw-dropping support materials and be certain that those who have never heard of you before will not take even a minute to become informed about you.

A few years ago RACC spent a lot of money on an outside evaluation. I recommended to the evaluator, as strongly as possible, to encourage getting the panels out of the state and deny the institution’s administrators any vote on the funding of any project. Get the process beyond the reach of nepotism and local politics. Get the proposals before panels primarily of qualified artists (not arts administrators) — panels that are forced to study the candidates' work samples, rather than their board rosters.

Sam may be well-meaning, but the idea of Portland’s art future in the hands of a politician, especially when you see his own principal staff siting on RACC panels charged with recommending significant funding, is not encouraging. You want a public art scene driven by politics? Sam’s got the formula, and those currently on 6-figure arts-management salaries are with it, all the way into their solid retirements.

To them, more to manage simply means bigger salaries, more benefits, cushier retirements. The crime in it is this: these people don’t know art, the don’t know the world’s major creators of art and don’t care about art. They are career bureaucrats who happen to work in the arts. And frankly, I literally cannot stand sharing the air they breathe.

Wow. Lots of interesting points here...

A few comments

Having lived in several cities and states across the country, this is not just a Portland issue. Its national. Artists are considered third cllass citizens by the majority of the public. Part of that, of course, is our own fault.

Which brings up the sophistication issue. I won't use that world since it does smack of elitism. Instead, I'll use professionalism. Having been here only a few months, I've participated in a few theatre productions that were the most unprofessional of my entire career. This does nobody any good. If people are allowed to do whatever they want on stage and call themselves professionals, it hurts all artists. Artisys should be trained in the craft of their art form and approach it in a professional manner. If we begin to treat it like kid's games, nobody will respect what we do.

Second, donating to the arts should never be thought of as charity, but rather an investment in the community. It not only makes our community a more interesting place to live, but also contributes to economic properity. When PCC moved into the Gerding, local parking garages raised theire fees. One wonders how much those building owners are contributing back to PCC.

About the arts management issue...artists should pursue positions in arts management. Actually, arts organizations need to recruit and train artists to work in development, marketing, facillities management, and other capacities. It should be a requirment that you have a background as a working artist to work these kind of jobs for an arts org.

Speaking of employment. More employers should be encouraged to hire artists. I think many are wary because they percieve artists as being odd and flaky. Nothing could be further from the truth for professional artists. It's the unprofessionals who give the rest of us a bad name.

I have been doing some research on beer lately (seriously!) and came upon this site sponsored by Flying Dog Brewery in Denver:

http://www.supportlocalcreativity.com/

The site promotes local creativity in Denver...

I attended the last Creative Capacity event. Very lively. There were discussions about marketing regional art. My company maybe a good resource for visual artists in the community, especially emerging artists and those looking for an alternative to brick and mortar galleries. I wanted to invite artists involved in Creative Capacity to submit their work for review.

We sell created art and project manage commissions for medical, corporate, hospitality, office and commercial environments. We are always on the look out for new artists that will work well for our clientel. I invite visual artists to submit their work for review. All mediums encouraged. We pride ourselves in serving the emerging artist community and work exclusively with regional artists. We serve as a conduit between artist and client. Our mission is to rid the world of cheap mass produced posters, and encourage/facilitate the placement of art created by local artist in the places where we live, work, rest and heal. Obviously our clientele is corporate in nature, and that does not fit all artists, but if you feel your work is suited for these environments and you would like an extra boost in marketing your work, please send a few jpegs to info@studioartdirect.com for review. Chosen works will be added to our online collection at no charge until October 1, 2007. Site www.studioardirect.com is used by our direct sales team as well as regional interior designers, architects, other design trade professionals. We also get about 20k/month clean hits.