The production that just opened at OSF, directed by Marcela Lorca, is the best I have seen. Working with a strong cast and a spectacular movement and design team, this production crackles with vitality and originality.
"While OrpheusPDX has not incurred debt and is not facing an immediate financial crisis, the company is responding proactively to shifting funding realities by taking a deliberate, strategic pause."
These cuts threaten shovel-ready projects, major employers, and rural and urban communities across the state. And they come at a time when [Oregon] arts funding is already among the lowest in the nation. Legislators had been considering cutting nearly $900,000 in arts and culture funding when the session started on Feb. 2.
WolfBrown found that Eugene had an abundance of art; however, the town needed more support from the business sector. The results showed that "we punched above our weight for a community our size," said Kelly Johnson, executive director of the nonprofit Arts & Business Alliance of Eugene, which the city created in 2008 to link the arts and business communities.
The 15-member commission, which was created by the Oregon Legislature, has already awarded $125,000 in community grants to 38 eligible organizations for projects focusing on how the 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 has shaped the state. The funding, which was approved in two rounds, has flowed to both urban and rural parts of Oregon. Now the commission has announced that a third round of grants totaling $50,000 will be available starting on Wednesday, March 4. The maximum grant is $3,000 and no match is required. Fifty percent of the grants will be dedicated to rural communities.
We can find a middle ground. PSU could reduce the size of its planned theater to between 800 and 1,200 seats, clearing the way for the Keller to be remodeled as a mid-size 1,500 to 1,800 seat venue.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a Fiscal Year 2026 ominibus appropriations bill by a vote of 397 to 28 on Jan. 8 that included $207 million each for the NEA and NEH. It includes funding for multiple other federal agencies, too, including the Department of Commerce, the Department of Justice, and the Department of the Interior. The bill now moves to the U.S. Senate, which is expected to take up the legislation during the week of Jan. 12-16.
The day after Whitelaw testified, the state economist said that Oregon now has about $300 million more to spend than previously expected. The new revenue forecast does not mean the budget is in the black, however. There are new demands for the available dollars, including $600 million in upgrades to the Moda Center to retain the Portland Trail Blazers, a recently announced $50 million shortfall in Portland Public School funding,
"For over a decade," the news release states, "he has developed and led arts-based programs with marginalized youth, including co-founding Ascending Flow in East Portland and helping develop Keys, Beats, Bars at MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility in partnership with the Oregon Health Authority. He is the founder of Peer Tribe Foundation, which supports artists and leaders creating measurable impact in their communities. ... The grant will support cultural exchange in the Philippines, sustain hip-hop workshops for youth in correctional facilities, and launch a portable recording studio project in Oregon."
