The arts and culture community in Portland is at a critical inflection point, which puts a sharp focus on the November general election that will reshape City Hall.

Several major factors come into play, some deeply unsettling, all rumbling noisily, any one of which would raise eyebrows in its own right.

The brighter note is that after months of information gathering and research, in May 2024 the Portland City Council adopted a new cultural plan, “Our Creative Future,” an ambitious, comprehensive guide to arts policy and funding decisions for the next 10 years.

The plan, spearheaded by the city, was billed as developing a cohesive tri-county approach to the arts. But in July 2023, in the middle of the fact-finding process, a very public and unpretty spat between the city and the Regional Arts & Culture Council came to a head when the city suddenly announced it would be cutting off operating support funding for RACC. The announcement was an earthquake that sent shock waves through the community.

RACC was formed in 1995 to provide a cohesive tri-county approach to the arts, exactly what the new plan is trying to achieve. How does the city going it alone on policy and funding without the infrastructure of something like RACC reconcile with a brand new cultural plan that’s supposed to support a broader region?

For many in the local arts community, RACC has been a North Star, providing important funding support, services, and advocacy. Where would local government funding for the arts now come from, and how? The city promised to pick up the funding slack, but could new mechanisms be put in place in such a short time to stanch money losses? In a competitive bidding process, the city selected RACC to distribute $1 million in small grants, but RACC has sized down its staff since operating funds from the city ended in June of this year, and it’s still unclear how a new grant system will work, making budgets hard to plan. Portland has an unusually high number of small arts organizations, for which missing out on even a little amount of money makes a big difference, so the uncertainty of city funding weighs especially hard.

Now the city is considering eliminating the city arts tax, which has injected funding for school and public arts programs since it was approved in 2012, and replacing it with a levy that will combine arts and parks programs under one umbrella called “Vibrant Communities.” Though the $35 a year arts tax is often considered a “regressive tax,” since it taxes the same amount to anyone who makes at least $1,000 a year in income, it is a reliable (though fixed) source of funding compared to a levy system that would be subject to voter approval every few years.

Sponsor

At the same time, the downtown core, once bustling by day with workers and by night with cultural events and acclaimed restaurants, is struggling to recover from the pandemic and prolonged civil unrest. The workforce in office high-rises has significantly reduced, businesses have shuttered, and houselessness and drug use have proliferated, though things are gradually improving. Cultural organizations are seen as critical to revitalization efforts, yet they have strained to regain their footing after the pandemic caused a sea change in audience behavior.

Add to the mix, a loud, potent, and divisive debate about whether to shut down the city’s largest performing arts venue, the 3,000-seat Keller Auditorium, for perhaps two years to make crucial seismic upgrades and renovate it (backers of renovation say creative scheduling could shorten shutdown times). Extended closure would mean a giant loss in jobs and revenue from touring Broadway productions that provide an enormous 50 percent of funds for the five downtown venues that are part of the Portland’5 Centers for the Arts. The alternative is to build a new performing arts center at Portland State University or the Lloyd Center Mall, keeping the Keller open during construction. Big local arts companies such as Portland Opera and Oregon Ballet Theatre would also be substantially hurt by a Keller shutdown.

The Keller is well known as a difficult, dysfunctional performing space, and PSU in particular has put forward a compelling new proposal that would keep the lights on for the touring shows and local productions, building a 3,000-seat hall as well as a 1,200-seat performance space. But since the Keller is located in a corner of downtown, albeit a far corner, its preservation is seen as important to revitalization efforts. It also comes with historical significance, especially since it serves as a backboard of sorts, or architectural partner, for the much-loved Keller Fountain Park, a whole city block that’s part of a multi-block grouping of fountains known as the Halprin Open Space Sequence, which is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a rich part of the urban landscape.

An undercurrent running beneath everything, more like a powerful undertow, is that the pandemic was devastating to the arts industry, which is still struggling to recover financially. Changing lifestyles, with less commuting and more TV options, translate into smaller audiences. Older patrons, the backbone of any donor base, have not fully returned to live events. Costs are up, including labor, building materials, and rent. And some people are skipping town altogether because high housing costs are pricing many artists out of Portland.

All of which is to say, from an arts and culture perspective, a giant spotlight is on the Mayoral and City Council races in the upcoming November election, which will decide the makeup of a whole new restructured form of government for the City of Portland. The council will grow from five members to twelve (three positions each representing four districts), and with incumbent Mayor Ted Wheeler not seeking re-election to a third term, three out of the four current city commissioners (Rene Gonzalez, Mingus Mapps, and Carmen Rubio) are vying for the mayor’s job. It means that come January 2025, a lot of new faces will be in City Hall, who may or may not be aware that The Arts is a big player in this town.

As Jennifer Cole, Jordan Schnitzer Dean of Pacific Northwest College of Art at Willamette University, put it, “Arts, culture, design and creative entrepreneurship are key elements of Portland’s national and regional brand.” According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Portland has the fourth-highest concentration of artists in the nation, after New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. And according to the Arts and Economic Prosperity Study for fiscal year 2022, the City of Portland proper accounts for more than $405 million in total spending generated by the arts and culture industry, almost half of the $829 million generated by the industry in all of Oregon.

Make no mistake: For many reasons, the economic odds hanging in the balance here are huge, with the potential for several fault lines to collide that could send tremors well beyond city boundaries. With so much at stake, and decision-making in the hands of new leaders who might not have a strong background in the significant role that cultural organizations play in the city’s economy, a coalition of arts leaders has organized to provide current, documented information to local civic leaders and candidates.

Sponsor

This group effort includes (in alphabetical order): Meagan Atiyeh, arts consultant; Converge 45; Elizabeth Leach, Elizabeth Leach Gallery; Randy Gragg, writer and parks and architecture leader; Mike Lindberg, civic leader and former Portland city commissioner; Jennifer Cole, Jordan Schnitzer Dean, Pacific Northwest College of Art; Mack McFarland, PTSTMM Studio; Mario Mesquita, manager of advocacy & engagement, Regional Arts & Culture Council; Schnitzer Properties, LLC; Kandis Brewer Nunn, Strategic Resources, LLC; Reuben Roqueñi, Portland Institute of Contemporary Art (PICA); and Karen Whitman, Karen Whitman Projects.

To inform candidates, the group developed a brief that includes information about the local arts situation and the positive impact of the arts on the community. It includes why the arts are fundamental, the economic impact of the arts, takeaways from the recently adopted Our Creative Future plan, and challenges that must be overcome. Read the document here.

ArtsWatch has partnered with this group to make the document public and to query candidates about their views on arts and culture. We will compile the answers to five questions from all of the City Council and mayoral candidates and publish them verbatim on our site in October, just in time for ballots to be mailed. Look for our coverage.

The filing deadline isn’t until Aug. 27, but so far 83 candidates have already filed to run for a council position and 12 for mayor. Rose City Reform is tracking all the filings here, and their website provides neutral information about each candidate.

That’s a lot of candidates to size up, and whether they know it or not, The Arts are a big player with some big dogs in this fight – a big player that comes with a lot of history and anxiety, and it’s at a critical tipping point. Strong elected leaders will work with arts groups and support their needs, and will recognize that a new long-term cultural plan, thoughtfully shaped by a broad array of voices, points to a healthy way forward to fashion a new, more vibrant future for Portland.

Laura Grimes
Executive Director
Oregon ArtsWatch