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The Lincoln City Cultural Center’s “Invest in Inspiration” campaign will turn the yard around the historic Delake School, which houses the center, into a plaza, park, paths, and parking. Photo courtesy: Lincoln City Cultural Center

Finding freedom in adversity

A pandemic, a wildfire – while the hits keep coming, the Lincoln City Cultural Center responds online.

Peter Frajola, associate concertmaster with the Oregon Symphony, sits in on violin during the 2017 performance. Photo courtesy: Newport Symphony Orchestra

And the band plays on

The Newport Symphony Orchestra has to forgo its July Fourth concert, but an encore broadcast keeps the spirit alive.

“The 99W” is a documentary featuring a homegrown topic: The Newberg drive-in theater, one of only three remaining in Oregon.

Nine short takes on 85 short films

From horse-racing to Newberg’s 99W drive-in, there’s a lot to like in this weekend’s McMinnville Short Film Festival.

Dave Densmore says one of his goals in writing poetry is to “reinforce for the men and women of the industry a sense of pride in what we do and who we are.” Photo by Patrick Dixon, courtesy FisherPoets Gathering

Fishers of poetry

Commercial fishermen will share poems, stories, and songs during the 23rd annual FisherPoets Gathering in Astoria.

Vision 2020: Raúl Gómez

Metropolitan Youth Symphony leader: In a troubled world, schools need to teach the empathy of the arts.

Fernando Rodriguez submitted nine photos of anger for the Universal Feeling show. Photo by: David Bates

The medium is the mask

The Chehalem Cultural Center fills its galleries with masks by Tony Fuemmeler and other artists.

Left to right: Rochette, Mulligan, Raunig, Plass, Hobson.

PHAME and friends rock out

“I was really on fire”: PHAME Academy and Portland Opera collaborate on original rock opera.

Arden Forest comes to Yamhill County

Before we get to this week’s most exciting theater opening — an open-air production of As You Like It — let’s quickly cast our gaze just south of Yamhill County, where an intriguing Hamlet will be found.  Western Oregon University keeps Shakespeare

“Heading Home,” a joint effort by members of the Oregon Coastal Quilters Guild, will be raffled off at the Quilts by the Sea show.

‘It takes a lot of patience and a good seam ripper’

Twenty-odd years ago, Cindy McEntee found herself with a sewing machine she had no interest in, but that a well-meaning aunt thought she should have. There it sat in its cabinet, unwanted and taking up space in McEntee’s living room. One gray

Modern dory boats retain the flat bottom, but have a squared stern to accommodate an outboard motor. Pacific City’s 60th annual Dory Days is July 19-21. Photo courtesy: Pacific City Dorymen’s Association

Down to the sea in ships

In many towns along the Oregon Coast, boating isn’t just a livelihood or a means of recreation, but a way of life, the foundation that defines a community. In coming weeks, two towns will celebrate their maritime history with festivals that have

“Life Goes On,” by Tammy Jo Wilson (encaustic and ceramic on panel, 20 by 16 inches, 2019) Photo by: David Bates

Envisioning the human body — and life itself

Biological Dissonance, a collection of paintings and sculpture by Portland-area artists Tammy Jo Wilson and Amanda Triplett, is the newest exhibit to take up residence in the Chehalem Cultural Center’s largest gallery. While I was visiting it recently, two other names came

The Power of Music

Sounds of a Yamhill County summer

This week’s survey of Yamhill County’s cultural scene is All Things Musical — or as close to “all” as is possible to get without being omniscient. The opera-oriented Aquilon Music Festival is in the thick of it, but they’re not the only

Yaacov Bergman

Festival changes with tide and time

Can a festival founded three decades ago and dedicated to chamber music remain relevant today with a younger crowd?   As a matter of fact, says Siletz Bay Music Festival conductor Yaacov Bergman,  it can and does. The festival hasn’t been about

Among classes at Sitka Center for the Arts is an August workshop on the “Art of the Letter. " Besides creating illustrated envelopes, the class will explore how letter-writing can survive in the digital age.

School’s out, but art classes are in on the Coast

School’s out, but here on the Coast, classes are just beginning, and they’re not just for kids. The Cannon Beach Arts Association has opened registration for its 17th Annual Art Camp, July 8-12. Five-day classes for the younger set include yoga (ages

Fermentation Fest in Sauk Country, Wis., bills itself as a “celebration of live culture in all its forms, from dance to yogurt, poetry to sauerkraut,” as well as home-grown sausage. The October event is the inspiration for “Live Culture Coast” to be held along 135 miles of the South Oregon Coast this fall. Photo by: Amber Peoples

Fermenting on South Coast: Live Culture

A press release recently landed on my desk seeking proposals to build a “Culture Stand” for the upcoming “Live Culture Coast” to be held on the southern Oregon coast in October. I confess I was duly – and dually – baffled. A

A moray eel makes itself comfortable in the “Helmet Memorial” in the “Seapunk” exhibit.

Aquarium creates a fishy fantasy with “Seapunk”

If there was any doubt the new exhibit at the Oregon Coast Aquarium was a success, one only had to listen last weekend as visitors discovered Seapunk: Powered by Imagination. “This is awesome,” said one. “This is so cool,” said another.  And

McMinnville gets its weird on Thursday through Saturday for UFO Festival 2019, sponsored by McMenamins Hotel Oregon. Photo by: Kathleen Nyberg, courtesy McMenamins Hotel Oregon

UFO Festival: Keeping McMinnville weird for 20 years

Portland prides itself on keeping weird, but this weekend, McMinnville owns bragging rights for Oregon Weird. Saturday afternoon on Third Street, the restaurant-and-tasting-room-thick thoroughfare downtown, the weird will be out in force during a parade celebrating the city’s annual UFO Festival. Every

Art on the Edge studio tour

Studio tour spotlights creatives along the coast

Lovers of local art and the Oregon Coast can combine their passions May 17-19 during the Art on the Edge Studio Tour along the Central Coast. More than two dozen artists will open their studios to visitors. The Lincoln City Cultural Center

linden eller

Remembering what is lost, kept, altered, and shared

The artist’s statement that accompanies Linden Eller’s Little Small exhibit, on display through June 1 in Newberg’s Chehalem Cultural Center, makes a fascinating point about the nature of individual memory, which is integral to the images she’s given us. Amnesia is popularly

Students from six Oregon high school orchestras will participate in the third annual Oregon Coast Youth Symphony Festival, April 25-28 in Newport.

An ocean of musical opportunities

More than 100 students and their teachers will arrive in Newport next week for four days of workshops and performances, a visit to the Oregon Coast Aquarium – and of course, ample time on the beach. They’ll stay in oceanfront hotels and

E.B. White found subject matter for his essays in the recalcitrant dachshunds he owned. “I would rather train a striped zebra to balance an Indian club,” he wrote, “than induce a Dachshund to heed my slightest command.”

Children, meet Charlotte’s dad

Barbara Herkert’s story is the classic tale of the would-be artist who shelves her dreams to pursue a more practical path. Starting out as an art major in the 1970s, Herkert switched to nursing at her parent’s urging. Ten years later, she

Margo Klass’ “Ursa Major: The Great Bear in the Sky” is a mixed media piece including a tacket-bound (exposed binding) book in box casement with sliding door and base.

Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover

When Margo Klass boards the plane in Fairbanks bound for Oregon, she’ll be carrying a most unusual book. Open, it stretches 6 feet. It’s a work of art, a memoir in abstract, the story of nine days Klass spent with her writer

Dancers Maggie Rupp and Peter Deffebach perform a pas de deux from “Swan Lake,” one of several pieces that Portland Ballet dancers will perform Friday in the Chehalem Cultural Center in Newberg. Photo by: Blaine Truitt Covert

Doing the dance — in 3D design and in ballet

When I’m paying attention, I occasionally catch word about a Yamhill County artist showing his or her stuff at the Bush Barn Art Center in Salem. So let’s kick off this week’s round-up of what’s going on arts-wise with Totem Shriver. Shriver

Mark Murphey (holding book) plays William Joad, who meets unexpected relative Martin Jodes, played by Tony Sancho (on ground), in Octavio Solis’ “Mother Road” at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Photo by: Jenny Graham/Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Oregon Spotlight: Spring breaks from Shakespeare to Caravaggio

We’ve set the clocks ahead, spring is coming, and that means Oregonians are tentatively emerging from their abodes with a mind to hit the road for day and weekend trips. What’s on the state’s cultural menu? For starters, it’s showtime at the

Tilikum Chamber Orchestra A Musical Gift Exchange Lake Oswego High School Lake Oswego Oregon
CoHo Productions presents Laughing Matters Portland Oregon
Literary Arts The Moth Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall Portland Oregon
Open Space Not-Cracker Newmark Theatre Portland Oregon
Chamber Music Northwest The Old Church Strings Portland Oregon
Portland Playhouse A Christmas Carol Portland Oregon
PassinArt presents Black Nativity Brunish Theatre Portland Oregon
Oregon Repertory Singers Glory of Christmas Concert Portland Oregon
Imago Theatre ZooZoo Portland Oregon
Bridgetown Conservatory Ludlow Ladd The Poor Little Orphan Boy Holiday Operetta Tiffany Center Portland Oregon
Northwest Dance Project Sarah Slipper New Stories Portland Oregon
Portland State University College of the Arts
Oregon Cultural Trust donate
Gender Deconstruction Series
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