Darrell Grant is one of Oregon’s most accomplished and admired artists, teachers, and advocates for the arts and social justice. This month, he reminded us that all those roles benefit from another: student. 

Many Oregon artists and arts lovers are alarmed at impending cutbacks in public support for the arts. Despite his characteristically overloaded schedule of making, performing, and teaching art, Grant, as usual, decided to do something about it. This month, as budget-beleaguered Oregon lawmakers are deciding how much money Oregon — already one of the least-generous states for art support, ranking 38^th this year — will invest in the arts, Grant crafted an eloquent letter making the case for arts funding. He delivered it in person, garnishing the advocacy with a little jazz. In the process, he came away with some lessons, and advice, for Oregon arts advocates. 

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Grant himself originally planned only to send his letter from himself alone, until a friend told him it’d be much stronger if the message was shared —and signed — by others. More than 200 Oregon artists co-signed Grant’s letter imploring lawmakers to include funding for Bill HB 3189: Improve Access to State Funding for Arts/Culture Providers. The list included not just fellow musicians such as his former student and current Grammy-winning jazz eminence  esperanza spalding, composer and Oregon Symphony creative chair Gabriel Kahane, composer/conductor Damien Peter, and acclaimed rock producer/musician Tucker Martine, but also Poet Laureate Emeritus Anis Mojgani, Northern Paiute storyteller and cultural bearer  CarlaDean Caldera, and many more, from theater, literary arts, dance, academia, and beyond. ArtsWatch readers will recognize most of those names from our stories over the years. (Read the full text and list of signatories.)

“Artists, art institutions, and everyday Americans are experiencing shock and deep anger at the actions of the current administration regarding federal funding for arts and culture,” Grant wrote. “This reneging on the [National Endowment for the Arts’] commitments to both its principles and to the American people constitutes an outrageous attack on creativity and the free expression of ideas.” 

Grant’s goal was to encourage the legislative committees deliberating over the next biennium’s budget to fund Oregon arts adequately and to pass HB 3189: Improve Access to State Funding for Arts/Culture Providers.  He respectfully but firmly framed voting for Oregon arts funding as a way to say “Hell, no!” to those attacks — “refusing to let what is beautiful, true, and essential be stripped from our lives by the few whose pursuit of power seems to require the silencing of that beauty, truth, and connection.” 

On June 5, Grant drove to Salem to hand-deliver copies of the letter to his own state representative and state senator as well as what he called “key decision makers”: the bill’s sponsors in each house, and the chairs of the committees in charge of the process. He found the experience surprisingly stimulating. “Waiting for legislators to pass by when you enter their chambers felt like what musicians see when they see fans waiting for autographs by the stage door,” he said. “I found parallels to my experience of being an artist.” 

At one slow point, he whipped out his trusty melodica and serenaded the offices with a jazz standard, Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Mercer’s I Thought About You.

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Although the representatives he contacted were already supportive of arts funding, “you want [even] supporters to know there’s this groundswell of support,” Grant explains. “We’re speaking for people who are saying, ‘Don’t abandon the arts.’ They know this, of course, but in the moment, are they going to choose to fight for this among the myriad of other things?” 

“I want to keep this issue visible,” Grant says. “The way to have the opportunity to touch or inspire them is to show them there’s some connection. I told them, ‘I’m a working artist and like everybody else, I’m contributing to our economy and our communities. I’m your direct constituent, and this matters to me.’”

In taking the case for the arts to the state Legislature, Grant was practicing what he teaches, just as he did in 2017, when he hauled a piano into the woods and played it, to draw attention to the threat to Oregon’s Elliott State Forest, one of many such acts of advocacy. 

A world-renowned jazz pianist who also teaches jazz studies in Portland State University’s School of Music & Theater, Grant also created and co-directs PSU’s pioneering, interdisciplinary Social Justice & the Arts program bachelor’s degree program, in which “students develop their creativity and discover their potential to effect social change in local and global communities.” 

That involves not just studying coursework, but also getting out in the world and working hands-on with arts organizations and groups from diverse cultural backgrounds, and engaging with marginalized communities. 

Lessons in Legislation

The teacher became a student again as he embarked on this new (for him) avenue of arts advocacy. And the lessons he learned apply to any of us who want to make our voices heard in the rooms where it happens. 

“I learned a lot,” he says. “The fact that I can walk right up to the offices of any senator or House chair or any representative. It’s completely accessible. I can find all kinds of information online, on their websites, what they stand for, all the bills they sponsor — everything they’re doing. I could see the letters of support people have written. It’s just so open. I had no idea how easy it was to find out the history of the bill [HB 3189]. I could look it up. Anyone can find out who’s for it, who’s against it, who to talk to about it — even a jazz musician.

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“That kind of access is really moving. That’s democracy; that’s what we’re fighting for: the ability to have access to how decisions are made.”

Grant was impressed by how receptive legislators and staffers were to his efforts, “and I felt they really meant it,” he says. “Even amid all the surrounding ecosystem of lobbyists and advocates, it’s possible to make a human connection. People were friendly. Some said, ‘We care about this, too. You should go down to this floor and talk to so and so.’ It really helped.”

Grant also gained some sympathy for the daunting tasks lawmakers face in this year’s tough budget predicament, in which the arts are competing for public funds and attention at a moment when fiscal realities and the actions of the national government are placing extreme strains on Oregon’s budget. 

“I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes for a second,” he admits. “People live or die on their decisions. I know art can change the world, but I don’t have people walking up to me on the street telling me they’ve got no place else to go. There’s this bottomless well of need that all these leaders have signed up to alleviate, and it’s just not possible to fix them all.”

He also learned some less happy lessons in legislative reality. “I learned how easy it is to derail everything, because it’s so open,” Grant says. For example, the bill’s sponsor, Portland Rep. Rob Nosse, was suddenly called away from work on arts funding to deal with the minority party’s unexpected attempt to limit trans athletes’ rights. (ArtsWatch reached out to Rep. Nosse for comment on the letter and the bill’s progress, but he’s understandably occupied with last-minute budget negotiations. We’ll share any thoughts he sends our way.)

As we went to press with this story, the prospects for arts funding were uncertain. Grant says that when he went to the Capitol, it appeared likely the arts would get the same amount they did last year. Because of increased costs since the last budget cycle, if appropriations remained the same as or less than before, it would amount to an effective cut in funding.

“But there are opportunities in the next week or so for people to put different funding into the omnibus bill at the end of the session,” Grant notes. “This is the last ditch for every cause that’s not going to get the funding they want.” At press time, HB 3189 hasn’t made it out of committee yet. It still might, but it’s also possible that all or parts of the arts funding will appear in a different bill’s context on Friday.

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Advocacy Advice

With so much dark drama happening in public affairs these days, and with so much power over our lives in the hands of wealthy and powerful interests, artists and arts lovers understandably wonder how much impact efforts like Darrell Grant’s — or our own — can really have on policy and funding. Grant firmly believes those efforts are worth making. He urges advocates not to get frustrated by the slow pace of change, pointing to the many setbacks that advocates for everything from civil rights to Standing Rock encountered along the way. Citing adrienne maree brown’s superb 2017 book, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds, which he assigns in his PSU classes, Grant reminds us to celebrate a series of small victories (“small is all”), and that it takes only 3.5 percent of the population to create social change — if that cohort is committed and astute enough.

Accordingly, he recommends taking the long view of change, whether for the better or the worse. “One of the lessons I’m taking away is that things are always in movement,” he muses. “What we need to see is, it’s a tidal phenomenon. Waves come in, they break, they go out. The only constant is change. And we have a misconception about time and the human role in effecting change. We as human beings are so pulled to put ourselves in the center of everything that we forget that we are also subject to historical and cultural forces beyond our control. We have to be more patient with all the processes of change.” As dire as the situation for Oregon arts seems today, Grant suggests, it will get better. And then, alas, it’ll probably get worse again. And advocates will have to mobilize again.

For now, Grant says, persistence is urgent. “I would say, don’t give up. From what people are telling me, now is not the time to stop putting pressure on, letting people know what’s important to us —that this really matters.”

Of course the standard advice for influencing elected representatives holds here, too — call or email your state senator and representative (click here to find out how) and tell them how you want them to vote on HB 3189: Improve Access to State Funding for Arts/Culture Providers, and how you feel about state funding for the arts. As an erstwhile legislative staffer myself, I can attest that someone who matters will likely read it, and will also take into account the volume of related messages. 

Even more effective is working in tandem with others who share your beliefs about state support for Oregon arts. “If there’s something you feel is morally unjust, something you just can’t live with, it’s really about not being silent — and sharing it,” Grant says. “The course of action will become clear, but not if you keep it to yourself. It’s not just posting online to diss other people. It’s about sharing your passion with others.”

Many organizations have already done a lot of the research and laid other groundwork for advocacy, and you can plug into those already-underway efforts.  Grant suggests contacting whichever art organization — presenter, venue, theater, music group, gallery, etc. — and asking them to point you to the place where your efforts will most benefit them. 

Such collaborative work requires communication and connection, and ArtsWatch is here for arts advocates to connect with each other. We invite organizations working on behalf of state support for the arts to leave their contact info in the comments to this story, and welcome any other suggestions for effective arts advocacy. Readers can take it from there.

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“You do what you can do,” Grant says. “We can’t do everything, but together we can do a lot more than we can do alone.”