The cash-strapped theater company Portland Center Stage could get a one-time appropriation of $1.5 million from the Oregon Legislature, and Ashland’s Oregon Shakespeare Festival $2.5 million as the Oregon Legislature rushes toward the end of its 2025 session on Sunday, June 29.

And as the deadline for action on bills for the biennial beginning July 1 approaches, the proposal to combine the Oregon Cultural Trust and Oregon Arts Commission into a single agency has yet to come up for a vote. The proposed restructuring would not require a financial layout by the Legislature.

Several other arts and cultural measures are still in the works, including amendments to the broad-based House Bill 5006, which appropriates money from the state’s general fund to the Emergency Fund and to state agencies. If approved, the bill would grant money to groups across Oregon, from the High Desert Museum in Bend to the Maxville Heritage Interpetive Center in Joseph to the Coos Art Museum in Coos Bay.

The bill, which was passed out of committee as written during a work session on Tuesday, June 24, still must come to the House and Senate floors for votes.

Key arts and cultural sections of HB 5006:

Section 106: Appropriates $3 million to the Portland Business Alliance Charitable Institute, Inc., to support festivals in Portland’s Tom McCall Waterfront Park.

Section 160: Appropriates money for capital projects at several cultural organizations around the state:

Sponsor

• Columbia River Maritime Museum, Astoria: $700,000 for its Mariners Hall Exhibition and Education building.
• World Forestry Center, Portland: $1 million for campus transformation project.
• Coos Art Museum, Coos Bay: $325,000 for its REFRESH capital campaign.
• Eastern Oregon Regional Theatre, Baker Orpheum Theatre, $600,000 for structural upgrades.
• The Museum at Warm Springs, $1.5 million for permanent exhibition renewal.
• B-17 Alliance Foundation, Salem, $350,000 to help the WWII airplane history museum buy the hangar home for the plane Lacey Lady.
• Historic Jacksonville, Inc., $150,000 for its Jacksonville Museum Without Walls.
• Mt. Hood Cultural Center and Museum, Government Camp: $450,000 for its capital expansion project.
• Salem Art Association: $175,00 for restoration and accessibility of the Historic Bush House Museum.
• Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center, Joseph: $300,000 for Maxville Historic Restoration Project.
• Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland: $375,000 for renovation of Black Swan Theatre.
• High Desert Museum, Bend: $2 million.
• Historic Elsinore Theatre, Salem: $350,000 for facade renovation and new signage.

Section 185: Would give one-time appropriations of $1.5 million to Portland Center Stage and $2.5 million to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.