We’re excited to share our annual report with you for our fiscal year 2023-24, which covered July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024.
Every July, I stare down this daunting task to assemble a record of our past year – pulling financial reports, tracking down every statistic, and shaping a story of what we accomplished. Like cleaning a room, I tackle it one piece at a time.
It’s a slog. But every year, when I’m in the thick of it, rubbing my eyes and trying to coax one more thought into order, there’s this moment, this sunrise and church-choir moment, when I realize: Dang, look what we did! I’m just a little in awe, almost in shock, and then this warm feeling floods through me and I am filled with gratitude.
Gratitude to be able to work with these stunning photos, many by the incomparable world-class photojournalist Joe Cantrell. What a gift!
Gratitude for our ace graphic designer Jeff Hayes, who’s a dream to work with. Communication is everything when working with a graphic designer, especially when working remotely. It can be tricky to find the right words-to-visuals language, and it can be like pulling teeth if you’re not in sync. But that’s never the case with Jeff. (A special thanks to Nicole Lane for connecting us.)
We produced 761 stories, the bread and butter that we put on the table day in and day out. As Executive Editor Bob Hicks (someone else I’m grateful for) said in his note in the report, “I’m intensely proud of the breadth, depth, and high quality of coverage brought by our many writers, photographers, and editors to Oregon’s vivid and varied arts and cultural life as it’s emerged from the setbacks of the pandemic years.”
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We reached 317,184 readers.
This year, that sunrise and church-choir moment came when I tallied up that 91 people contributed to our coverage and operations. 91 people! I sat back and marveled a bit, not quite believing it, and then I tallied the amount again and again, just to make sure. The number didn’t lie.
Because of course you can tally up all the numbers in the world, but it’s the people who are the not-so-secret sauce. It’s the people behind those 761 stories and the operations that make it all possible.
Community is at the heart of everything we do, and it’s the community that makes ArtsWatch. It’s people who are committed to an essential trade that in turn supports the entire creative community. And it’s people who recognize that storytelling has the power to connect, engage, and make a difference.
I am grateful to them all.
Thank you to everyone who contributed this past year, both to our coverage and operations, and financially, which helps us to keep putting the bread and butter on the table.
Enjoy reading our beautiful annual report (which is best to see on a computer because WordPress isn’t kind to pdf files on mobile devices). And may those stunning photos and the wide array of our accomplishments give you your own sunrise and church-choir moment.
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Warmly,
Laura Grimes
Executive Director
Oregon ArtsWatch
