CommissionerSam.com - Arts & Culture

30 Rooms at Milepost 5

Jesse Beason — Wed, 14 May 2008 11:58:10 -0700

A one-week, multi-disciplinary art exhibition and music event
Presented at Milepost 5 in conjunction with Portland Art Center

Exhibit: May 16-24, 2008
Gallery Hours: May 16-24, 1-6pm

Milepost 5 invited local curators Chris Haberman (Portlandcityart) and Ben Pink (Launchpad Gallery) to select artists and arts groups from around the city to participate in this sprawling and expansive survey of our local art scene. Haberman and Pink are filling 30+ rooms of the soon-to-be inhabited Lofts building. Each artist or arts group has chosen a room to fill with artwork. Installations, painting, photography, sound work, video work, and sculpture are all included in this celebration of Portland’s artist community.

Along with the visual arts exhibition, Theo Craig has been invited to curate live music for our opening and closing events taking place simutaniously in the Studios building. Bands to perform include Boy Eats Drum Machine, Y La Bamba, Celilo, St. Frankie Lee on the 16th and Per Se, Silverhawk on the 24th. Beer garden and music events will be taking place in the Studios building.

Opening Reception: Friday, May 16, 7-11pm (DJs)
Opening Party: Saturday, May 17, 7-11pm (bands)
Closing Party: Saturday, May 24, 7-11pm (bands)

Art in Our Future: Youth Art Show at City Hall!

Pollyanne Birge — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:17:18 -0700

. ..

Art in our Future:

City Hall Youth Art Show

Thursday May 1st 5-7pm

City Hall 1221 SW 4th

FREE and Open to the Public

Featuring work from:

* Buckman Arts Focus School

* The Children's Healing Art Project

* Young, Gifted, and Black Art Competition in collaboration with the African American Visual Arts Scholarship project.

Performances by:

* Buckman Chorus
* Buckman Marimba Ensemble
* Boys Dance Group, (led by Keith Goodman)

From painting and drawing to sculpture and performance, the night's spotlight will be firmly focused on the rich talent of Portland's young artists. City Hall is excited to open its gallery space for the next generation of creative thinkers to exhibit their amazing work!

Free refreshments, delicious food, youth produced art and great performance-be sure not to miss this event!

Partner Descriptions:

* Buckman Elementary School Arts Focus, a Portland Public School located in inner Southeast Portland, offers an innovative arts-integrated academic curriculum, in addition to intensive arts classes in dance, drama and music, and visual art. At Buckman, Portland's premier arts elementary school, students internalize their academic learning through these varied forms of creative self-expression, resulting in increased self-esteem, absorption of academic material, creative thinking, and understanding and acceptance of the self. Combining a love of the arts with high academic achievement, Buckman is both a neighborhood school and arts focus option program that is open for admission to all elementary students in Portland. Buckman was recently given the Creative Ticket School of Excellence Award by the Oregon Alliance for Arts Education in conjunction with the Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network.

Children's Healing Art Project (CHAP) brings the healing power of art to children in crisis and their families with a mobile team of teaching artists working in Portland's children's hospitals.

CHAP has created art classes tailored to the needs of the children we serve in each partner facility: Doernbecher Children's Hospital, Shriners Hospital for Children, Legacy Emanuel Children's Hospital & at Art Club (CHAP's out-of-hospital art camp in our Pearl District studio). In 2007, CHAP served over 5,000 children & their families. CHAP offers one-on-one classes for children in isolation and group classes in playrooms, lobbies and waiting rooms. CHAP classes include drawing, painting, sculpture, computer animation, mask making and jewelry. CHAP classes offer a place where nervous energy is transformed into creative energy. Our common language is based in the creative process of making art, which crosses all gender, age, and cultural, religious and ethnic boundaries. CHAP classes offer an art experience that engages and inspires -- where children can be seen for their artistic talents and not for their disease, diagnosis or disability. CHAP is a 501 (c-3) non-profit.

* African American Visual Arts Scholarship:
Visual Arts express the hopes, dreams and history of a people. As guardians of memory and gatekeepers of history, artists are often silently at the heart of resistance and revolution, consciously and unconsciously responsible for changes that have shaped our world. The artist is at once a griot, a teacher, a philosopher. African American Visual Arts Scholarships was created to recognize and support developing African American artists.
www.aavas.com

Young, Gifted, and Black Art Competition:
African-American/African Diaspora high school students 14-19 years of age from the Portland Metro area in Public, Charter, Private, Alternative or Home School.
To encourage the study of a rich cultural history as a living legacy and inspire the creation of original works of art.
Throughout time, the study and knowledge of history has given artists a foundation to fashion their visions as they chronicled and interpreted past and present people, places and events.
Each entry will be accompanied by a typed 100-200 word essay/outline from readings that provide the basis for your art.

Art Spark Thursday April 17

Pollyanne Birge — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 10:23:12 -0700

Every Third Thursday

Join us at Art Spark on April 17th!

Living Room Theaters 5-7pm

Click here to learn more.

Art Spark Mission:

A Monthly Mingling of Artists of All Sorts to Meet, Discuss, Blather, Applaud, & Plot the Growth of the Arts in Portland.

Join us for this monthly meeting to encourage conversation and advocacy in the creative community. The events are every 3rd Thursday--so if you can't make this one--put next month's on your calendar!

This month's host is the Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA). PNCA President Tom Manley will lead a brief discussion about students' work and future plans for the college.

The Art Spark event is a way to continue the work of the Creative Capacity Strategy, which has been ramping up efforts starting with last year's Creative Capacity Town Hall, roundtable discussions, and the work of both the CC strategy and steering committees.

Living Room Theaters

Special thanks to: Regional Arts and Cultural Council, PNCA, and Living Room Theatres, who is graciously hosting the event.

Second Annual Comic and Illustration Art Show @ City Hall

Pollyanne Birge — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:38:28 -0700

Alan Rose

Second Annual Comic & Illustration Show!

First Thursday April 3rd 5-7pm

City Hall 1221 SW 4th

FREE and open to the public!

Portlanders are so very lucky! Our town is busting at the seam with top-notch illustrators and comic creators. Please join us at City Hall to highlight these hip Portland artists and their amazing work!

Featured Artists:

Graham Annable

Alan RoseDylan Meconis

Elana Pritchard

Patrick Hilton

MUSIC by:

Floating Point

Hymns for the Drowning

Caroyln Main

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Thinks Portland is the Tops!

The Office — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:07:18 -0700

Portland's in a festive mood

A new season of outdoor fun kicks off

By DESTON NOKES
SPECIAL TO THE P-I

PORTLAND -- This city is a blessing in the spring, when pink blossoms appear on riverfront trees, festival tents are pitched and squinting Oregonians emerge to play after a long, gray winter of wet. That's because, at its heart, Portland is decidedly an outdoors city with large festivals, weekly art gallery walks, sidewalk dining, and strolls through world-class gardens.

Sure, often it keeps raining. But Portlanders come outside anyway. That's because the city is a perfect hub for so many nearby outdoor adventures.

More ....

FREE Concert--The Great Wall Youth Orchestra @ City Hall

Pollyanne Birge — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:42:28 -0700

Great Wall of China Youth Orchestra

Great Wall Youth Orchestra

Wednesday March 26th 5-7pm

City Hall 1221 SW 4th Ave.

Please join us in welcoming the Great Wall of China Youth Orchestra at City Hall!

World Music with a Chinese Twist!

The Great Wall Youth Orchestra and Chorus of Laney College, in Oakland, California, will tour three Northwest cities for the first time this month, as part of a regional tour sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts. The youth orchestra brings together young people from diverse backgrounds to play both world music and classical Chinese songs on traditional Chinese instruments-including such popular Western favorites as Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer" and Johann Strass's "Radetsky March."

The Great Wall Youth Orchestra and Chorus is a program of the Purple Silk Music Education Foundation, an Oakland-based nonprofit that provides free music education to inner-city schoolchildren. The organization was founded in 1995 by Sherlyn Chew, a music instructor at Laney College and at Lincoln Elementary School, in Oakland, to help fill a gap in arts programming in the public schools.

The youth orchestra was catapulted into the public eye in 2004 by a front-page article in the Wall Street Journal, which cited it as an innovative model for music education and promoting cross-cultural understanding. The article focused on Tyler Thompson, a (then) nine-year old African American boy from the chorus who sings Chinese opera solos. As a result, Tyler and the youth orchestra have been featured on CNN, CBS Sunday Morning, and ABC Good Morning America, and received media coverage worldwide.

Last May, Tyler was invited to Washington, DC to perform at a U.S. State Department meeting between Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and China's Vice-Premier, Madame Wu Yee. The youth orchestra has just received an invitation to perform in Ireland next year, which will mark its first international tour.

Tonight! Art Spark Thursday March 20th

Pollyanne Birge — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:19:15 -0700

Every Third Thursday

Tonight March 20th--Join us at Art Spark!

Living Room Theaters 5-7pm

Click here to RSVP

Art Spark Mission:

A Monthly Mingling of Artists of All Sorts to Meet, Discuss, Blather, Applaud, & Plot the Growth of the Arts in Portland.

Join us for this monthly meeting to encourage conversation and advocacy in the creative community. The events are every 3rd Thursday--so if you can't make this one--put next month's on your calendar!

Living Room Theaters

Special thanks to: Courtney Spousta, Christi Denton, the Regional Arts and Cultural Council, and the Living Room Theatres who is graciously hosting the event.

KEEP PDX WEIRD Art Show March 6th

Pollyanne Birge — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:38:12 -0800

Gwenn Seemel Keep Portland Weird Art Show!

March 6th 5-7pm

City Hall 1221 SW 4th

FREE and Open to the Public

A fun mix of what makes Portland unique, this show offers the sights and sounds of our city's finest weirdos. Featuring great local art, music, interactive sculpture, performance and voodoo doughnuts!

Alan Mevis

Featured Artists:

Extremo the Clown
Pasha Productions
Bryan Grimes
Gwen Seemel

Alan MevisRichard Schemmerer

Sarah Henderson
Pat Bognar
PM Shore
Addie Boswell

Nance Paternoster PM Shore

Performance by:

Trashcan Joe

Batty's Hippodrome

Mr. Statue

Refreshments by:

Voodoo Doughnuts
Bridgeport Brewing Company

Come by to get your Keep Portland Weird shirts, stickers and more!

Addie Boswell

pashaproductions.com

Oregonian Editorial: Art for Everyone

Jesse Beason — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 10:49:50 -0800

Sunday, February 03, 2008
Susan Nielsen

The Portland Art Museum remains one of the nation's least affordable museums, in violation of its public mission and in opposition to the city's ideals.

That tarnished reputation is about to get polished. A new million-dollar donation to endow free admission for children 17 and under, starting this spring, reflects a larger effort to pry open the museum's doors for ordinary Oregonians...[Read more at OregonLive]

February 7th--3rd Annual Black Heritage Art Show at City Hall

Pollyanne Birge — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 00:19:08 -0800

Mother, Sister--Isaka Shamsud--DinGenerations: 3rd Annual Black Heritage Art Show

February 7th 5-7 pm

City Hall 1221 SW 4th

Free and Open to the Public

Let Us Make Man--Sunshine Dixon

City Council is excited to be celebrating Generations: The 3rd Annual Black Heritage Art Show! Please join us for great local art, free food, music and performance!

HONORED ARTIST:

Isaka Shamsud-Din

Featured Artists:

Wanda Wright

Sunshine Dixon

Christina Weber--photos of Big Brothers Big Sisters

Cascade Aids Project

Paul W. Dixon

Christina Weber--photos of Big Brothers and Sisters

Sam Macon

Kimi Arigbon

Mark Bishop

Performance:

No Kidding Choir

Film:

Local Color--Don't miss the chance to see the Portland produced documentary film focused on African American history in our region. A great mix of history, photographs and interviews of local community and political leaders -the film focuses on real estate red lining, the Vanport floods and Portland's long tradition of social activism.

Strength--Wanda Wright

Milepost 5 Model Unit Party

Jesse Beason — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 11:17:40 -0800

Community Outreach and Special Events

Pollyanne Birge — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 17:55:57 -0800

Sam loves to venture out to the neighborhoods cultural and art events as well as hosting events right here at City Hall!

Here are just a few community and special events we have enjoyed this year:

Sam passing out bike maps at Bridge PedalBridge Pedal

Whether you are just waiting for your chance to ride your bike on the Freemont Bridge or be part of the sea of thousands of your bicycling neighbors, this event is sure to please. Sam and his staff were happy to hand to pass out bike maps and encourage the riders.

Sam at Foster Art WalkFoster Art Walk

Foster Avenue is making a name for itself as an art magnet--especially with the opening of such great local galleries, coffee shops, restaruants--even an independent comic book shop! Sam and his team stopped by to enjoy the great art and music in this up and coming SE cultural hub.

Sam Gets his First Tattoo!Portland Pirate Fest

The second annual Portland Pirate Fest brought out hundreds of families to Cathedral Park in St. John's. What a sight to see--tons of booths, great food, and most people clad in their swashbuckling outfits! Sam was on hand emceeing part of the event and talking about clean watersheds and a healthy Willamette River.

Divine Inspiration by Antoinette MyersART UP--Look Up Project

We were so excited to be working with this local non-profit who works with teens to paint portraits of local women leaders of color. We honored two of the women featured in the art work--Senators Margaret Carter and Avel Gordly. This event was a lively multi-generational affair--with many of the featured women attending along side the artists who painted their image.

Sam emcees Junk to Funk 2007Junk to Funk

Sam "glam" Adams was again the emcee for the second annual Junk to Funk 'Trashion' Show. A visual quandry, this unique event highlights the great 'recycled' designers thinking of innovative ways to "wear" their trash!

This event is is part fashion show, part public service announcement: incredible, wearable art pieces as well as environmental factoids and tips.

City Hall 1st Thursday 2007

Pollyanne Birge — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 12:02:33 -0800

Our third year of hosting the 1st Thursdays Art Shows was full of local creative talent and brought over 4000 people into City Hall! These informal, fun events provide a great opportunity to see local art work while encouraging community members to learn more about their city government.

Bottoms Up

JANUARY--From the Bottoms Up: Voices and Vision: A Gulf Coast Visual Arts Perspective

We kicked off the year focused on issues and art beyond our region. From the Bottoms Up--is a a local non-profit that focuses on the intersections of art and sustainable building practices in Portland and the New Orleans area. Voices and Vision: A Gulf Coast Visual Arts Perspective is a visual arts exhibit to benefit a multimedia project positioned to extend green building initiatives from the NW region to the Gulf Coast. Read more about the show: Portland Tribune

Henry Frison--Rosa Parks

FEBRUARY--'Generations': Black Heritage Art Show at City Hall. The second annual Black Heritage Art Show combined visual art and performance to create an event focused on the strong multi-generational fabric of local artists and leaders.

This event was both art show and craft fair and many local vendors came to sell their art pieces. Special performance by the No Kidding Choir and Bobby Fouther and sculptural art by 7th & 8th graders at Ockley Green Magnet School

City Council was also proud to honor two deserved local leaders Kenneth Berry from the World Arts Foundation Inc and Brent Stewart from United Way. Read the Skanner coverage.

Minature Masks--Lillian PittMARCH-A Celebration of Survival: Personal Histories of Genocide

Tragedy, loss, and grief are all outcomes of war and political instability, but this show deliberately focused on the survival of the cultures and people who suffer from genocide. A collaboration with the Portland Awareness Genocide Coalition who says the purpose of the event was: "To remember our history, to speak out our truth, and TO PREVENT THOSE ACTS NOW AND IN THE FUTURE."

Colleen CooverAPRIL--Comics Take Over City Hall: and Everyone is Laughing!

Portlanders are so very lucky! Our town is busting at the seam with top-notch illustrators and comic creators. We were excited to highlight these hip Portland artists and their amazing work right here at City Hall.

The Oregon Potter's Association also showed works in the lower atrium as a sneak peak of pieces from the 2007 Oregon Potters' Ceramic Showcase in May.

For Willamette Week Coverage

Clement McAleerMAY Belfast Art and the Heart Gallery

2007 marked a major development in healing political divides in Northern Ireland. A mix of both impressionistic and modern works, Portland City Hall was overjoyed to mark the occasion by hosting Belfast artists from Queen Street Studios.

This show was also in collaboration with the Heart Gallery. The Heart Gallery is a child adoption and fostering advocacy organization whose goal is to place children in healthy homes. They work with professional photographers to take photos of the children as a way to talk more generally about adoption and fostering, in addition to creating an opportunity for community members to learn about specific children up for adoption.

Chris Haberman--AviationJUNE--2nd Annual Pride Art Show

City Hall was excited about hosting the 2nd annual Pride Art show celebrating the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans Queer community. Building from the momentum of last year's show--this lively event will focus on both established and emerging queer artists. We were excited to partner with great GBLTQ organizations: Basic Rights Oregon (BRO), Senior Housing and Retirement Enterprises (SHARE), and Gay Lesbian Staight Education Network (GLSN). Check out Just Out's coverage of the event.

Nancy Watterson ScharfJULY--Keep Portland Green!: City Hall First Thursday Sustainable Art show

We all know Portland is being recognized for being Eco-friendly. In July, City Hall celebrated our GREEN city by featuring great local art and craft focused on sustainability. This interactive event offered local organic food, 'green' demonstrations, music, and recycled art work! We worked had great partners on this event: ORLO, Cracked Pots, Portland Office of Sustainable Development, Muddy Boot Festival, and SCRAP.

Bryce Kanights

AUGUST--Board of Art: a Historical Perspective of Stumptown Skate

What a fun way to highlight the long standing Portland skate scene from Burnside to Glenhaven! The show featured a good cross section of local talent and was rousing mix of Skate Art: photographs, painting, collage and pieces made out of recycled boards! An unlikey sight to many, attendees also enjoyed a ½ pipe skate ramp built right in front of City Hall! This a great collaboration with Adidas, AST Dew Tour and special thanks to Ben Wixon and Shrunken Head Skates for all their hard work.

Hey Lover--Jason QuigelySEPTEMBER--Rock of Ages: 75 Years of Portland Music

Through generations and genres, we assembled a rare and diverse show of photos, posters, and artifacts from the last 75 years of Portland music! The show was a unique glimpse into the ages of P-town's bands, scenes, and venues.

Pepe MoscosoOCTOBER--City Hall Celebrates Latino/a Art

City Hall celebrated the diverse and talented Latino/a artists in Portland with music, food, and art! The show was a great mix of paintings, collage, photographs and sculpture and was highlighted by the music and local cuisine from ChaChaChas!

Peter Schutte--Calf Creek FallsNOVEMBER--Through Many Lenses: a History of our Region

A diverse grouping of artistic visions, we gathered a great mix of paintings and photos for the November show. This show was in collaboration with ART UP's Look Up, a local non-profit who works with teens to paint portraits of local women leaders.

Portland PrintsDECEMBER--Portland Prints: City Hall Art and Gift show

This show was a great mix of local print makers including: couture stationary, illustration prints, letterpress & silk screen prints and graphic novels.

The event was a fun way to get accessibly prices, locally handcrafted art pieces into the hands of holiday shoppers. Buy Local!

Unlocking our Creative Capacity

Jesse Beason — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:18:10 -0800

Creativity helps make Portland a better place to live, a stronger competitor in the global marketplace and an incubator of innovation.

Strengthening our capacity to create and innovate has tremendous potential to contribute more to our community economically, socially and educationally. In the past few years, some have even argued this capacity is fundamental to our success in a globalized marketplace.

But there are alarming trends in the crucial elements that fuel creativity in our community:

arts education has disappeared for many of our children;
local arts & culture organizations, while receiving national attention, receive 32% less in corporate, foundation, government and individual support than similar sized cities;
our investments in growing the markets for are paltry.

In response to these alarming trends, Sam is helping lead a group of stakeholders throughout the region who are looking at sustainable strategies to fund the arts and culture programs that contribute to our children's education, our economy and our vitality.

The purpose of the Creative Capacity Strategy is to build and support a sustainable creative community through prioritized strategies with clear costs and achievable ways to fund them.

Related Documents

Creative Capacity Website

Community Partners

Our blog

Lobbying for Access to Music

Jesse Beason — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 11:04:52 -0800

Portland's music scene is burgeoning. However, many of our young citizens are kept from the venues that showcase this talent due to the current Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) Rules.

The OLCC has proposed rule changes to fix this problem. On October 30th, Sam submitted a letter in support of these rule changes, outlining the possibilities of greater, safe access to the countless venues showing off Portland's talent.

Media Mentions

"All Ages Action," Portland Mercury, Nov. 1

Related Documents

Our Blog

Multnomah Youth Commission Hosting OLCC Testimony on Proposed Rule Change, Nov.9
Support the OLCC's All-Ages Music Reform, Oct. 29
Portland Rocks, July 12, 2006