One of my first jobs at The Oregonian when I was fairly fresh out of college was to coordinate news graphics. Often, the legendary and brilliant news editor John Harvey (known as Harvey) would come in for the day with his New York Times tucked under his arm and call me over to his desk. He would take a pica pole and slice a page out of his paper and hand it to me.

Harvey always knew exactly what he wanted and as he rattled off instructions on how a particular graphic on the page should be redone, I would tick through the team’s work assignments in my head wondering how priorities could possibly be recalibrated and still make deadlines. “You want this today?” I would ask incredulously. Drily, quietly, like sharpening a shiv, Harvey would look me in the eye and say, “This is a daily newspaper, Grimes.”

ArtsWatch is a daily, too, delivering news 24/7. We joke that we never sleep, but you know that’s not true. We nap occasionally.

Building more capability to respond more immediately to urgent news has always been a goal, just waiting for the right people and the right budget, and now that a talented reporting team has come together in recent months, a $90,000 Emerging Opportunities grant from the Fred W. Fields Fund of Oregon Community Foundation comes at the perfect time.

We take pride in the breadth and depth of coverage of every arts discipline, developing teams of people who have deep expertise in each area. Music alone has nine regular writers, all who can write with authority. It has taken years to build up the many teams. We used to beat the bushes and recruit writers, but now all the cool kids come to us these days.

But we’ve always been acutely aware that we needed writers with strong reporting chops to manage breaking news and turn around stories in a timely manner. With the addition of some highly skilled contributors coming on board this past year, we’ve now assembled a seven-member team of writers and editors to more quickly respond to urgent news.

It’s already paid off:

Sponsor

• One of the only news sites in the nation that’s been following GoFundMe’s misguided practice regarding nonprofits.
• Increased coverage of money matters as federal grants suddenly dried up and the funding landscape changed in a blink.
• Started covering The Big Re/Think project as arts and cultural leaders plan a strategy to seek more state funding.
• Increased coverage of libraries as they face threats of closing down and challenges to books are at an all-time high.

As arts and culture have been buffeted by high winds from political strife and financial uncertainty, accurate and timely information is now more crucial than ever. OCF, one of ArtsWatch’s life-giving guardian angels, has an uncanny knack of providing grants at just the right moment – transformative funding that ushers in a new chapter of growth for ArtsWatch.

This is only the beginning, a well-placed investment. ArtsWatch will continue to build its responsive news team to deliver trust-worthy information that helps communities to thrive.

Support ArtsWatch today!

Support timely, trusted, local news you can count on. Donating to Oregon ArtsWatch comes with a significant multiplier effect in that it supports the entire cultural ecology in the state and ripples out to bolster hundreds of other organizations.

Ways to give:

• Donate directly to ArtsWatch.
• Donate through Give!Guide and earn fun incentives.
• Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs): Direct a charitable gift to Oregon ArtsWatch.
• IRA account: Make a Required Minimum Distribution (RMD).
• Mail a check:
  Oregon ArtsWatch
  3519 NE 15th Ave #259
  Portland, OR 97212

ALL donations go to pay people to produce stories that lift up artists.

Give!Guide sails with Big Cruise Day on Dec. 10

Every donation of $10 or more on Dec. 10 earns a chance to win a staycation package including a dinner cruise aboard the Portland Spirit and a night at The Nines Hotel.

May your holidays be merry and bright!

Sponsor

Laura Grimes
Executive Director
Oregon ArtsWatch