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City announces $4 million+ in arts grants

General operating grants from Portland’s new Office of Arts & Culture aid 80 organizations – and some smaller groups say the grants are going disproportionately to the city’s big companies.

Theatrical giant Tobias Andersen dies

The actor, director and writer, whose professional career spanned almost 60 years, is dead at 87, leaving a brilliant legacy ranging from Hollywood to Portland to Pakistan.

Russo Lee Gallery looks to recovery

An adjacent restaurant fire Aug. 5 poured smoke and soot into the blue-chip gallery, coating everything. Now restorers are beginning to clean 1,500 artworks, and the gallery hopes to reopen in December or January.

Art in the Pearl gathers in the Park Blocks

A Labor Day weekend fixture in downtown Portland since 1997, the free festival offers booths for more than 100 artists, plus food, music, demonstrations, and hands-on activities.

Satiric artist and ad man Jim Riswold dies at 66

Riswold, known for his groundbreaking work at the ad firm Weiden+Kennedy, also made his mark as a visual artist creating sharply pointed and often deeply comic satiric works deflating notorious autocratic strong men.

Remembering Gary Ferrington

The frequent ArtsWatch contributor, who has died at 83, was also a quiet, generous advocate for Oregon arts and a role model for continuing creativity to the very end.

The new Burnside Bridge: Options and choices

How best to replace Portland’s busy east-west span? Bridge designer Keith Brownlie of Britain’s BEAM Architects parses the best choice from a sextet of arches and cable-stays. Now the bridge committee has selected an inverted “Y” cable stay design.

A giant falls: Sam Mowry, 1959-2024

The beloved Portland actor, known over his 40-plus year career for his distinctive voice and his devotion to family, friends, the stage, and radio theater, leaves a giant legacy.

Waterfront Blues Fest: That’s a wrap

Portland’s four-day blues bash at Tom McCall Waterfront Park beats the heat — and photographer Joe Cantrell catches the sights and sounds and free-flowing joy of it all.

National Camera Day: It’s a snap

All right, much more than a snap. Photography is history and documentation, truth and illusion, high art and a creative tool for everyone. Celebrate its day on June 29.

Photo First: Milk Carton Boat Race

K.B. Dixon and his camera take in the wetness and the glory of Sunday’s splashy race, a Rose Festival favorite since 1973.

News & Notes: Lake Oswego’s big arts bash

The 61st annual Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts brings a feast of art and music to town. Plus: Portland’s 18th Dolly Parton Hoot Night celebrates the pop icon and defies the naysayers.

Hillsboro Pride Party: A rainbow rises

During Pride Month, Oregon’s fifth largest city celebrates openness and diversity amid recognition that the quest to overcome fear and repression is far from over.

Letter from New York: So many good shows, so little time

As Broadway revs up for this year’s Tony Awards, Misha Berson takes in the tales of “Stereophonic,” “The Outsiders,” “Water for Elephants,” “Uncle Vanya” and “Patriots” – and wishes for more.

News & Notes: Open house at The Reser

The Beaverton arts center is throwing a free party. Plus: Grants make the cultural world go ’round; new leadership in the Oregon Legislature’s Arts and Culture Caucus.

Vanport Mosaic’s flood of events

The ninth annual festival remembers the flood that wiped out the city of Vanport on Memorial Day 1948 and carries the vanished city’s history and vital cultural significance into the present.

News & Notes: Warm Springs museum to reopen

The tribal museum, closed since December for upgrades, reopens May 14. Plus: Indigenous artists at High Desert Museum, “Matrilineal Memory” & Cherokee art in Portland.

High Desert Museum scores $500,000 grant

The award from the National Endowment for the Humanites will help the Bend museum revitalize its permanent collection dedicated to Indigenous peoples of the region.

News & Notes: Arvie Smith gets a Guggenheim

The Portland artist’s paintings are steeped in American pop-cultural images and deal satirically with race relations. Plus: Hannah Krafcik’s “Gender Deconstruction”; Portland arts tax due.

Bobby Bermea: Six picks from Fertile Ground

As Portland’s sprawling 10-day festival of new performance prepares to hit the stage running, the creators of half a dozen fresh shows talk about what they’re doing and why.

News & Notes: Reshaping the arts plan

Our Creative Future, which is shaping the Portland metro area’s public approach to arts policies, will have a Virtual Town Meeting April 9. And the City of Portland shifts its cultural lineup.

Jordan Schnitzer gives $10 million to PSU’s school of art

The gift, which continues the Schnitzer family’s longtime support of Portland State University, will help fund a new home for the School of Art, support PSU’s Schnitzer Art Museum, and provide outdoor art and other enhancements on campus.

News & Notes: Seattle’s new art museum

A $300 million gift of more than 200 artworks jump-starts the Seattle University Museum of Art. Plus: Maryhill Museum season begins, Asian American writers, Andrew Proctor returns, jazz at Milagro, Billie Holiday tribute night.

News & Notes: Libraries turn the page

As Central Library reopens in downtown Portland, The Library Foundation takes on new leadership. Plus: A new leader for the Parks Foundation; talking Nevelson and Neel at PNCA.

PCS Twelfth Night
Oregon Repertory Singers Glory
CMNW Dover Quartet
Triangle Productions Little Shop
Imago ZOOZOO
PPH Christmas Carol
PCS Liberace & Liza
Cascadia Composers Fearless
Portland Opera Juliet Letters
Orchestra Nova Restless
MYS Nov 10 Concert
Kalakendra 11/9
ART The Event!
OCCA Monthly
PAM 12 Month
High Desert Museum Rick Bartow
PSU College of the Arts
OAW Car donation
OAW Annual Report 2024
OAW House ad with KBOO
Oregon Cultural Trust
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