Five promises for the arts
Jesse Beason
These are the goals to expand the role of arts & culture in Portland that our office began with in January.
A. Our mantra: “$15 million in 5 years,”
Is this an aggressive goal? Yes! Do I have it all figured out how to get there? No. But, we must find $15 million in new and public funding for local art and cultural non-profits by 2010 or Portland risks being a ‘has-been’ arts and culture city. I embrace the goal. Some initial ideas:
- 2% for Art: Increase the current 1.33% of improvement project costs spent on public art to 2%. Currently, only .05% of the percent is used on maintenance and our public art collection is beginning to show how little funding this is. Under the new 2% policy, .2% would be spent on properly maintaining this tremendous community asset.
- ‘2% for Art’ policy for all: Encourage
all local public agencies doing business with City government
to establish a 2%-Percent-for-Art program.
- No cheating: Make sure there is compliance
with the Percent-for-Art requirement.
- Request the Tax Supervising and Conservation Commission
to audit local government compliance with Percent-for-Art
Program. The Tax Supervising and Conversation Commission already
exists and is mandated to review local governmental budgets;
it must better ensure local government compliance with the
Percent-for-Arts Program.
Update: The City Auditor's office has currently begun work on a city-wide audit, including the Portland Development Commission, for compliance with the Percent-for-Art Program. Results should be released in July 2005.
- Request the Tax Supervising and Conservation Commission
to audit local government compliance with Percent-for-Art
Program. The Tax Supervising and Conversation Commission already
exists and is mandated to review local governmental budgets;
it must better ensure local government compliance with the
Percent-for-Arts Program.
- Art money out of asphalt to create the RACC/Portland
Endowment Fund: OK, this is weird, but hang with me…currently,
under state law, when the City vacates (relinquishes the possession
of) a public street, it can only give it to the adjacent property
owner for free (even though the State of Oregon is allowed to
sell its roads and highways)!
I propose changing this state law and allowing the City to charge market value for the conveyance of the City’s street easements to a private owner, and:- A portion of resources derived from the sale of City street easements should be used to create a RACC/Portland Endowment Fund to help pay for ongoing support to non-profit arts and cultural organizations.
Update: The City Attorney's office has investigated this possibility and found no authority for the city to do this. What I've proposed, instead, is discussed below.
- Regional Arts & Culture Fund: Challenge employers to match
employee contributions to this fund that helps arts organizations working with our schools and artists throughout the city. Working with the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) and Northwest Business
Committee for the Arts (NWBCA), I will visit workplaces to help promote
employee contributions to the Fund.
- Create Portland Film and Video Endowment Fund:
Create Film and Video Endowment Fund by setting aside film and
video business tax revenues derived from eligible local filming
and video productions. After $250,000 in proceeds, use endowment
interest income to bolster local film and video productions and
talent growth.
Update: After investigating this possibility, it became clear that the administrative costs of implementing this type of earmark would not support the revenue generated as a result. Instead, we are proposing a "check-off" option, much like that found on the Oregon income tax return that would allow one to designate a portion of the business license fee to grow city support for the arts. Look for more details in the coming year.
- Put “public” back in RACC’s public/private partnership: Include elected officials as voting members of RACC Board of Directors. If you want local government to step up their financial support, you need strong advocates on the local County Commissions, City Councils and Metro. We will only get enthusiastic arts advocates within local governments outside of Portland when we give them a seat on the RACC Board.
B. Affordable work/live studios + artists = more arts education
To strengthen the ecology of Portland’s arts and cultural community, lead development of a new partnership with private developers and arts, culture, housing and educational organizations to build 100 new affordable work/live rental spaces in the next four years for local artists while strengthening public school art education programs. We call this new partnership the Portland Artists-In-Residence Program.
Over 8,000 acres in Portland are already zoned eligible for work/live dwellings. With backing of City’s excellent debt credit rating, affordable city-owned work/live facilities could be built.
Update: We've had two preliminary discussions with developers, housing and educational representatives and bureau representatives about building work/live. For an excellent look at the challenges and need, check out this article.
- To provide affordable live/work artist spaces, the Artists-In-Residence concept assumes mixed-uses developments that include some market-rate housing units and commercial spaces to help subsidize the artist-spaces costs. Ideally, these projects will be built along transit corridors to reduce the cost of building off-street parking.
For example, a possible pilot project site for the Artists-In-Residence initiative is located at the corner of SW Washington and 14th Avenue, a small, triangular piece of land owned by the Oregon Department of Transportation, across from Cassidy’s Restaurant near the freeway. It is served by the streetcar, MAX and bus transit. It is also close to many of the City’s arts and cultural institutions. If this lot can indeed be built upon and if ODOT will donate it, this could be a great PARP pilot project site.
Downtown commercial space on the first floor, along with market-rate housing units on top five floors with very sellable or rentable views of downtown Portland and Mt. Hood could help subsidize the live/work spaces.
The Artists-In-Residence approach might also be a useful tool in looking at converting older buildings, such as a portion of the Centennial Mills.
- Tenants of Artists-In-Residence studios agree to donate a specific
amount of time teaching arts in education in local public
schools. Artists seeking to rent these affordable live/work spaces
must meet income requirements, and agree to be trained as art
instructors in an approved PARP educational program.
C. Creative Services Strategy: the need for a sequel
Arts and culture should have a high place in our society simply because of its intrinsic value to all of us. But, Richard Florida’s book The Creative Class also connects the dots between the health of a city’s arts and culture community and the success of creating local family-wage jobs. Florida’s key point is that an active presence of artists in a community is a key attraction for knowledge workers. Our local creative services industry has taken a hard hit in this recession.
- Regroup and update the Creative Services
Strategy.
- Look for real and tangible creative services/manufacturing
industry bridging opportunities: An executive shadow
program should be established as part of the Creative Services
Strategy debrief. For example, imagine Greenbrier CEO Bill Furman
shadowing PICA Executive Director Kristy Edmunds and vice versa.
These kinds of exchanges will identify creative community and
business community bridging opportunities to include in a revised
Creative Services Strategy.
D. Expand cultural tourism: an arts moneymaker
Bring in more outside tourism dollars into the City’s arts and cultural efforts:
- Build an expandable 400-room headquarters hotel
at the convention center.
Update: For info on this effort, visit PDC's website.
- Expand “passport” marketing strategies
with lodging industry to sell multiple cultural, performing arts,
music and culinary venues in one package.
- Target Visitor Development Funds (VDF) to events that
bring visitors to Portland such as the Time Based Art
(TBA) festival in its second year, helping to put Portland on
the international arts and cultural map.
E. Lead or follow, but don't give up on the arts
We will ask to be appointed liaison to RACC. If not appointed, we will work with the RACC Liaison to implement the initiatives above.
- Appoint a full-time staff person focused
on arts and culture as RACC Liaison.
- Be in the room at “the
ask”: Sam will help individual art non-profits with
their grant and private sector pitches for funds.
Posted by Jesse Beason on January 3, 2005
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Filed Under Arts & Culture, Our Initiatives
Comments by site visitors
Sam,
While you did not recieve the "Parks" in your assignments, I strongly urge you to strengthen the role that community centers play in neighborhood level arts, culture and community building. I live 2 doors from Fulton Park Community Center. While it is not a full-service parks facility, it plays a vital role in the nieghborhood. I live on a 5000 sq ft lot on a street with no sidewalks. Where are my kids supposed to shoot baskets, or learn to ride bikes? They've taken summer camps, played soccer and basketball there, and gone down the slide so many times I can't count. They've taken classes on music, martial arts, bugs and dinosaurs!
A small neighborhood park is an essential part of the fabric of this city. The center regularly draws hundreds (really, hundreds!) of people to folk dancing and clogging on Saturday nights. I can hear the fiddlers from my house on summer evenings.
I sincerely hope that as the city council weighs Park "cost saving measures" in the coming year it doesn't move toward a few Wall-Mart sized parks facilities as the favored service model. Neighborhood parks are what define this city and what keep it livable. If children (and grwon-ups) don't have a place to play, then this city becomes devoid of families, our schools continue to whither, and the livability of our city moves to the suburbs. i don't think that is the vision I have for this city and I hope it isn't your vision.
Thanks.
Posted by: Eva Calcagno | Jun 27, 2005 8:41:48 PM
Joseph,
I looked into the Clear Channel case for you. On June 6, the trial judge ruled that the Plantiffs could ile further briefings, as they requested. The City is now allowed to respond to this supplemental pleading. A new trial date is as yet unset.
There is a tremendous amount of background presented in this case, so I can't easily summarize much of an update in terms of content. However, the Multnomah County Courthouse File/Records Room has access to the entire case proceedings. It's Case no 9801-00125. Hope that helps.
Posted by: Jesse Beason | Jul 5, 2005 5:21:27 PM
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I want to thank the City Council and Sam Adams for continuing support of murals in the City of Portland. However, the City is still in litigation with Clear Channel and the existence of the current public art program as well as any future program is directly threatened.
Would it be possible for this office to post the court dates, or any other relevant legal information, to keep the art community informed? It would be a welcome service, one that is needed to bring artists and art supporters together to face an uncertain future.
Posted by: Joseph Cotter | Jun 27, 2005 11:56:38 AM