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For stories published before 2019, visit our archive site.

North County Recreation District: From a pool to plays, Nehalem’s hub serves coastal community

Based in a school designed by A.E. Doyle, the 30-year-old NCRD is home to concerts, lectures, an art gallery, and soon, a new $16.4 million aquatics center.

Art Center East in La Grande: Bringing art opportunities and access to Eastern Oregon

The nonprofit center serves a 10-county swath of the state with exhibitions, classes, and annual events, often engaging with the past in ways that speak to the present.

Sea fever: Big Blue Film Festival brings 34 films about the ocean to Newport

The Jan. 24-25 festival aims to raise awareness about challenges facing the ocean while fostering hope in viewers.

Review:  ‘ZooZoo’ blinks, hops, slinks and sings with fresh delights

Imago Theatre’s co-artistic directors Carol Triffle and Jerry Mouawad, who have been creating anthropomorphic animals since 1979, have hatched a charming new trio of baby birds for this year’s production.

Preview: Eugene Ballet’s ‘The Nutcracker,’ a joyful production for Toni Pimble’s final season

This season’s presentation offers audiences one more opportunity to experience the magic touches that retiring artistic director Pimble brings to the beloved ballet.

TOC Portland: A new song for an old institution

The venue formerly known as The Old Church Concert Hall reimagines and expands its mission to provide greater support to its home community.

The Buetti effect – Nicole Buetti creates children’s videos that are as entertaining as they are educational

The Portland composer, bassoonist, puppeteer, and voiceover artist’s award-winning ‘Meet the Planets’ series is an ingenious blend of music and science.

Stage & Studio: Sarah Jane Hardy on Northwest Children’s Theater

In her newest podcast, Dmae Lo Roberts talks with the youth company's longtime leader about its bold move downtown, solving puzzles, and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."

Portland’s Bridgetown Conservatory of Musical Theatre expands acting, dance, and vocal classes to second location in Salem

The company’s first show to be staged in both cities, “G.I. Holiday Jukebox,” opens Dec. 5.

Kids Make Theatre: In Astoria, teaching the performing arts, igniting a passion

Since April 2023, the Liberty Theatre’s low-cost program has brought theater, dance – and self-confidence – to North Coast kids.

22nd annual Yachats Celtic Festival brings music, dance, food — and hundreds of visitors — to Oregon Coast

Full-day passes sold out by summer's end, but individual tickets remain for some concerts, and free events are scattered throughout the weekend.

Portland Book Festival: A day for books and browsers, authors and audiences

Crowds attending Saturday's celebration of reading listened to author panels, shopped in a book fair, and watched illustrators draw chimeric animals from children's prompts.

Portland Book Festival: Oregon author Waka T. Brown bucks the middle grade slump

The two-time Oregon Book Award winner says she initially drew inspiration from her three sons. Seeing them coming of age was “almost like a revisiting of that time when I learned to love books.”

LaJoie Theatre adds new jewel to the Chehalem Cultural Center crown

This month’s opening of the 250-seat theater makes the Newberg cultural hub one of the largest in the state, as well as an example of the “everything-for-everyone” center that thrives in smaller Oregon cities.

Hillsboro’s Main Street: Awash in art and community

The city’s downtown uses arts to boost economy and livability – but work remains to be done, arts advocates say.

Oregon Mural Trail reaches Lincoln City with new painting commemorating kite festival

The 26-by-62-foot work along U.S. 101 brings to 10 the murals designed to bring artwork to life in rural locations around the state.

Pacific Islander and Asian Family Center marks 30 years with celebration, new mural by Alex Chiu

The mural tells the story of the community that has grown up around the Northeast Portland center run by the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization.

Hoffman Center for the Arts: Manzanita’s cultural heart celebrates 20 years, looks to future expansion

Saturday’s anniversary party will include fun ranging from horticultural-themed bingo to magnet poetry, from life drawing to historical presentations.

Stuffed to the gunwales, Astoria’s Columbia River Maritime Museum prepares to launch $30 million expansion

The museum’s plans to nearly double in size will increase exhibits and add classroom space to serve maritime enthusiasts, children, and researchers alike.

Oregon Film Museum in Astoria plans massive expansion following $1 million state grant

A new, 13,000-square-foot building will celebrate Oregon's cinematic legacy, leaving the current site to focus on 'The Goonies.' The city will mark the 39th anniversary of the film's release with Goonies Day on June 7.

Astoria Arts and Movement Center: Historic Odd Fellows Building becomes a center for dance and community

More than 90,000 votes helped the nonprofit gain funds to restore the long-neglected building, where the majestic ballroom now hosts classes ranging from ballet to Zumba.

PNW Community Coral Reef Project uses soft sculpture to share hard truths about endangered ecosystem

The installation by Christina Harkness and Shanna Smith Suttner opens March 22 at the Willamette Heritage Center in Salem, before returning to Lincoln City in August.

Heart of Cartm’s Trash Bash Art Festival in Nehalem makes recycling fun — and fashionable

Entries are open for May’s “Rising from the Trashes” event, which includes an art gallery, fashion show, and storytelling – all spotlighting trash.

‘Timber Culture’ exhibit at Bend’s High Desert Museum spotlights history of Maxville logging community

The traveling exhibition, created by the Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center, reminds viewers of the multiracial history of Oregon’s timber towns.

North Lincoln County Historical Museum contains multitudes, from pioneers to Pixieland

The quirky museum includes what may be the largest glass fishing float collection in the Northwest and an exhibit about a 1930s celebration of redheads.

Stage & Studio: The moon, a thief, and telling tales for kids

As Oregon Children's Theatre prepares a dual opening of "Goodnight Moon" and "The Lightning Thief," Dmae Lo Roberts talks in her newest podcast with company Artistic Director Jenn Hartman Luck.

Much love, much Strauss, grace, pure fun: Sebé Kan African Dance, Portland Chamber Orchestra, Camille Ortiz, and more at The Reser for an early New Year’s Eve

During the day, a family fun event featuring crayons, dance, music, and a noon ball drop. The evening before, PCO and Ortiz performed music from 19th-century Vienna.

Oregon’s rural libraries: Crossroads of community

In small towns, libraries are often the only places that host art and cultural events. Librarians say grants, such as one open this month from Oregon Humanities, are crucial to making that happen.

‘Moving Image Show’ parades Newport’s history across windows of Pacific Maritime Heritage Center

The 12-minute show, free and visible from the Bayfront, brings to life images of Native Americans, loggers, fishing fleets, and farmers.

Preview: Eugene Ballet’s “The Nutcracker”

Every year, the holiday classic provides aspiring young dancers from the Willamette Valley to Alaska with their first experience of the world of professional ballet.