Bob Hicks

Bob Hicks, Executive Editor of Oregon ArtsWatch, has been covering arts and culture in the Pacific Northwest since 1978, including 25 years at The Oregonian. Among his art books are Kazuyuki Ohtsu; James B. Thompson: Fragments in Time; and Beth Van Hoesen: Fauna and Flora. His work has appeared in American Theatre, Biblio, Professional Artist, Northwest Passage, Art Scatter, and elsewhere. He also writes the daily art-history series "Today I Am."

Booknotes: McGregor times two; Brian Doyle’s ‘Mink River’ takes to the stage

May 15, 2025Bob Hicks

Michael N. McGregor doubles up with his novel "The Last Grand Tour" and memoir "An Island to Myself," and Doyle's lavish Oregon Coast novel goes to the theater. Plus: Willie Vlautin's big prize; an Oregon Book Awards finalist stages a musical.

Portland Center Stage launches $9 million emergency campaign

May 8, 2025Bob Hicks

The city's biggest theater company aims to shore up its finances by June 2026 – and needs $2.5 million by the end of August to keep its doors open and begin its next season.

In wake of Madeleine School controversy, 45th Parallel Universe moves concert

April 30, 2025Bob Hicks

UPDATE: 45th Parallel moves its concert out of Madeleine after the Catholic school expels a Black fourth-grade student who reported being taunted with a racial slur on the school playground. After the principal is put on leave, Cascade Composers will keep a May 9 concert at Madeleine.

Remembering veteran Portland painter William Park

April 28, 2025Bob Hicks

The artist, who has died at 79, "loved all the ways of slathering and glopping and moving paint around on the palette and then onto painting surfaces.”

Catching up: April is the busiest month

April 25, 2025Bob Hicks

Tennessee Williams at Fertile Ground, immigrant stories and photographs, what Jim Lommasson carries, the Log Lady gets a museum show, Billie Holiday tribute.

In a time of need, Oregon Community Foundation’s $21 million gift to Oregon arts

April 21, 2025Bob Hicks

As federal funding threatens to dry up, OCF announces grants of up to $100,000 each to more than 300 arts and cultural groups of all sizes throughout the state.

The war on thought: This time it hits the National Endowment for the Humanities and Oregon Humanities

April 3, 2025Bob Hicks

The Trump Administration's latest budgetary amputation cuts down the national agency in support of humanities programs, a deep slash that affects affiliates in Oregon and across the nation.

Portland Art Museum sets the date: After 9 years, transformed campus to open Nov. 20

March 20, 2025Bob Hicks

The museum will unveil its $111 million renovation and its new Rothko Pavilion with a four-day free celebration and a rethinking of how it displays its art.

Sale of federal buildings across nation imperils U.S. public’s vast art collection

March 19, 2025Bob Hicks

News & Notes: Also, Cultural Trust tax credit nets $5.2 million; Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center grants; Broadway in Portland announces new season.

As the U.S. tilts toward Putin, Ukrainians in Oregon play a different cultural tune

March 7, 2025Bob Hicks

Marking the third year since the Russian invasion, supporters of Ukrainian sovereignty break out the music, flowers and flags of a long and proud cultural tradition.

News Briefs: Lan Su Chinese Garden thinks bigger, missing-statues update, museum shuts down, ‘A Song in Movement’ screens

February 26, 2025Bob Hicks

The Old Town garden looks to build a cultural center on an adjacent block; Five Oaks Museum's history looks over; statues look for a comeback; new documentary screens.

Farewell to Portland novelist Todd Grimson

February 25, 2025Bob Hicks

The Oregon Book Award winner for "Within Normal Limits," who has died at age 73, was acclaimed "the greatest horror writer you've never read" for his vampire novel "Stainless."

Portland Opera moving downtown

February 25, 2025Bob Hicks

The company's late-summer move to the World Trade Center will give it a 200-seat theater for small-scale shows and put it close to its performance spaces at Keller Auditorium and the Newmark Theatre.

PDX Jazz Festival brings the rhythm to town

February 19, 2025Bob Hicks

More than 70 national and local acts, including Terence Blanchard and Eryka Badu, take to city stages Feb. 20-March 1 during the 2025 Biamp Portland Jazz Festival.

A farewell to theater critic Misha Berson

February 16, 2025Bob Hicks

The longtime Seattle theater and culture writer, who also contributed often to Oregon ArtsWatch, embraced life and art with passion and a constant case of curiosity.

Cappella Romana’s stalled NEA grant is released

February 14, 2025Bob Hicks

The Portland choir's $35,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, snagged by the Trump Administration's freeze on approved grants, breaks free as the choir prepares for a key series of concerts.

Opinion: Trump’s sham ‘golden age’ of arts

February 12, 2025Bob Hicks

Far from creating a flourishing new culture, the new administration's upheaval of norms could visibly weaken Oregon’s and the rest of the nation’s arts and cultural life.

Remembering theater and music artist Ernie Lijoi

February 10, 2025Bob Hicks

The multi-talented actor, playwright, composer, singer, lyricist, and recording artist, who came to Portland from New York City, leaves a host of memories and fine work.

Cappella Romana survives Trump Administration’s attempt to shut down federal grants

February 1, 2025Bob Hicks

A $35,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant is still stalled, but private donations have helped fill the gap, and a crucial concert will go on. Meanwhile, nonprofits across the nation aren't sure what comes next.

Better together: Oregon Arts Commission, Cultural Trust aim for a merger

January 28, 2025Bob Hicks

The two state agencies are asking the Legislature to OK creating a new united agency, with the hope of more efficiency, creative thinking, independence, and impact on Oregon's art and culture.

At the Portland Art Museum, a new gallery for Black art & expression is in the making

January 24, 2025Bob Hicks

The museum and 1803 Fund team to provide a new home for Black art when PAM rolls out its rebuilt campus late this year. Also: PICA wins a $120,000 Warhol Foundation grant.

52 Oregon arts groups share $260,000 in grants

January 21, 2025Bob Hicks

Oregon Arts Commission awards $5,000 Arts Build Communities grants to cultural groups across the state. Plus: A $50,000 national grant for Oregon artist Takahiro Yamamoto.

High Desert Museum scores two NEH grants

January 14, 2025Bob Hicks

The museum's grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities will help fund projects on desert climate change and a website exploring the culture and nature of the High Desert. A third grant to historian Julie Weise will help underwrite a book on migrant workers in the U.S. and beyond.

‘Krapp’s Last Tape’: Beckett’s solitary journey back and ahead in time

January 6, 2025Bob Hicks

Review: Bruce Burkhartsmeier delivers a masterful performance at the intimate 21ten Theatre of Samuel Beckett's 1958 one-act tale of loneliness and regret (with flashes of wit).

Turning the page: Looking back on ’24 and ahead to ’25

January 1, 2025Bob Hicks

From construction projects at the Portland Art Museum and elsewhere to tight budgets and uncertainty about money to tales about Portland's Black music history and a puppet museum and a giant pumpkin regatta, Oregon's arts world presses ahead.

Oregon Cultural Trust: Giving and getting back

December 25, 2024Bob Hicks

The state's innovative Cultural Tax Credit program lets you give money to any of 1,600 Oregon arts & cultural groups, match your gift to the Cultural Trust, and get a deduction on your state taxes. Deadline is Dec. 31.

20 Oregon artists win $25,000 awards

December 19, 2024Bob Hicks

The Miller Foundation's individual Spark Award grants are the first in a three-year program that eventually will award 60 grants totaling $1.5 million to a broad range of artists.

Oregon Cultural Trust: Giving and getting back

December 13, 2024Bob Hicks

The state's innovative Cultural Tax Credit program lets you give money to any of 1,600 Oregon arts & cultural groups, match your gift to the Cultural Trust, and get a deduction on your state taxes. Deadline is Dec. 31.

Remembering Darcy White, talented music director and stellar cabaret figure

December 10, 2024Bob Hicks

White, the much-loved pianist and director who made the music sing in theaters across Portland, was also the talent behind Cabaret White, which showcased many of the city's best singers.

The long stretch of comedy, from ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ to ‘Waiting for Godot’

December 9, 2024Bob Hicks

Triangle Productions' "Little Shop" and Corrib Theatre's "Godot" dive into the deeply entwined depths of the comic and the tragic, which in both plays rely on each other.