Pacific Power Foundation announces grants to support arts and cultural organizations
Funding helps organizations foster creative expression and enrich local culture in their communities
PORTLAND, Ore. — Local organizations that deliver music, theater, community festivals and connections to local history are essential to their communities. They create beauty, join people together across cultures, generate jobs and nurture the creativity needed to solve complex problems. To support this crucial work, the Pacific Power Foundation is donating more than $110,000 in new grant funding across the three states it serves.
The grants will help fund a variety of projects, including free arts events and education; community celebrations of cultural heritage; multilingual performances for kids; and programs for Indigenous students, rural youth and incarcerated adults.
“Local programs like these are fundamental to the vibrancy and resilience of the communities we serve, and they nourish and inspire all of us,” said Cindy Crane, CEO of Pacific Power. “We honor and appreciate these vitally important organizations.”
This recent round of grants focused on art and culture is one of the foundation’s four annual grant cycles.
The following 49 grants were given to local organizations supporting communities in Oregon, Washington and Northern California:
Oregon
Central Oregon
High Desert Museum to address K-12 educational disparities by expanding access to engaging STEM educational experiences through field trips for rural students and students from families experiencing low incomes.
Samara Learning Center for its program to help kids expand their imaginations and strengthen math, English and critical thinking skills through a fantasy tabletop role-playing game. Funds will be used for scholarships and outreach to families in marginalized communities.
Scalehouse for an educational initiative aimed at providing Native students the opportunity to create and exhibit visual and video-based artwork and share their different life experiences with neighboring populations.
Eastern Oregon
Arts Council of Pendleton to provide more than 1,200 rural youth in Eastern Oregon access to free arts education and experiences, including visual arts, literary arts and music instruction.
Inland Northwest Musicians to take fully orchestrated classical concerts free of charge into Eastern Oregon communities.
Josephy Center for Arts and Culture to prepare an exhibit about the first meetings of the wal'wá•ma band of the Nez Perce Indians and white settlers, helping Wallowa County citizens and visitors understand the beginnings of the Nez Perce War of 1877.
Klamath Falls
Klamath Folk Alliance for the Klamath Music Festival, an annual event designed to showcase arts and music while also providing opportunities for developing talents.
Ross Ragland Theater for its Young Audience Matinees program, which makes live performances available and affordable for youth in the community.
Town of Bonanza to help erect a storage building to house emergency preparedness supplies and increase physical space for public health and safety.
North Coast
Columbia River Maritime Museum for the relaunch of its Miniboat Program, a free-to-schools multidisciplinary learning experience covering general maritime principles and traditional boat building. Tribal members will assist with teachings about Indigenous influences.
Liberty Theatre to purchase assistive hearing receivers for individuals experiencing auditory deficiencies.
Siletz Bay Music Festival to help stage its annual free concert festival for students from underserved communities, as well as a winter performance of a new orchestral piece that combines spoken word, hip-hop, jazz and classical genres to explore the experience of being Black in the United States.
Portland area
Alberta Abbey to support after-school arts educational programs for students from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, including outreach to schools and scholarships for at-risk youth.
Arts in Education of the Gorge for monthly family weekends that will engage the community in hands-on, creative experiences in various disciplines, including performing, visual, literary and media art.
Columbia Gorge Orchestra Association for a season-long series highlighting the music of Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Lan Su Chinese Garden for two weeks of Lunar New Year programs that celebrate the broad diversity of Asian cultures and communities in the Portland area.
Make Music Day PDX for its annual event featuring a series of musical groups representing a diverse range of Portland's population and various music genres.
Many Hats Collaboration for developing new plays through a d/Deaf-centered process that will fully integrate d/Deaf and hard of hearing artists, American Sign Language interpreters and music.
Open Hearts Open Minds for its Arts in Prison program, which supports incarcerated adults by using narrative screenwriting and film production as platforms for internal transformation and the development of creative and interpersonal skills.
Oregon Historical Society to support the History Day program, which provides sixth- through 12th-grade students and educators with a framework to enhance history and social studies education through independent research, critical thinking and communication.
Oregon Society of Artists to continue free art classes for veterans and an annual exhibit of their work.
Play It Forward for the Keys to Learning program that connects students from diverse and low-income communities to music education through no-cost electric keyboards.
PlayWrite, Inc. to support youth playwriting workshops that pair student writers with trained coaches to create original plays, share their stories and transform their experience through the power of performance art.
Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA) for the SPACE (Supporting Partners, Artists and Community Events) program, which provides a safe gathering place for smaller organizations, especially those in underserved communities, to use for community-led arts programs and activities.
Portland Youth Philharmonic for its annual children’s concert series, which will offer four in-person performances for 8,000 Portland schoolchildren and online streaming content for schools across Oregon in 2024, its centennial year.
Third Angle New Music to increase accessibility for audience members with disabilities so they can experience the ensemble’s four spring concerts.
Rogue Valley
Grants Pass High School Band Boosters for props, trailer wraps and instruments.
Grants Pass Museum of Art for a traveling exhibit of the artist Ezra Tucker's works depicting wildlife and the lives of African Americans during the formation of the Wild West.
RG Rotary Foundation for the installation of a new community mural in downtown Grants Pass.
Rogue Gallery & Art Center for the annual “Best of the Best” Student Art Show, featuring works by students from 13 high schools across Josephine and Jackson counties.
Southern Oregon Historical Society to digitize, preserve and make publicly available over 6,000 glass plate negatives made by pioneering western U.S. photographer Peter Britt (1819 – 1905).
Talent Historical Society for a celebration of Talent's cultural heritage through drama, music and arts events that showcase the area’s rich tapestry of artistic expression.
South Coast
Marshfield Pioneer Cemetery to stabilize and repair 74 historic gravestones critically in need of treatment to prevent further deterioration or complete loss.
Umpqua Valley
Oakland Public Library to help expand the library collection and create programs for everyone in the Oakland community, including those who can’t afford these resources on their own.
Wildlife Safari to provide students with free field trips and “Bring the Zoo to You” presentations that help them learn about wildlife conservation and preservation of the park’s native and exotic animal populations.
The FISH of Roseburg food pantry to construct a storage shed for materials and free up warehouse space for food storage.
Willamette Valley
The Arts Center, Inc. to support “Glint, Glimmer, Glow,” a technology-driven immersive art exhibition powered by renewable energy sources such as wind, water and sunlight.
Generations Theater Company for equipment to operate lighting and sound systems in the company’s new venue.
JPLMuseum.org for the preservation and digitization of historically significant documents, videos and slides from the American space program.
Lincoln Middle School in Cottage Grove to purchase theater curtains and a public address system.
Maxtivity to provide age-appropriate arts programs and cultural experiences for diverse communities, fostering creativity and self-expression in children from kindergarten to grade 12.
Washington
Capitol Theatre Committee for the Capitol Kids Series that provides multilingual, multicultural performances and artist residency activities for student groups from kindergarten through college, and for community events in Yakima.
Fort Walla Walla Museum to help provide students with free access to organized museum tours that connect children with the history of their region.
Gesa Power House Theatre for its 2024 season, which will feature headliners and lead artists from groups historically underrepresented in the arts industry.
Lelooska Foundation to digitize videotaped interviews with Tribal leaders and artists so their stories can be shared with schoolchildren and visitors at the Lelooska Cultural Center.
Scouts BSA 555 for the purchase of kayaks and life jackets to support outdoor adventure activities, as well as a learning robot designed to introduce students to STEM subjects, the arts and computer science principles.
Walla Walla Choral Society to help fund the June 2024 concert, a musical collaboration to include 180 youth and adult singers and orchestral musicians from across the Walla Walla Valley.
California
Red Scarf Society for staging six concerts in the Yreka area.
Siskiyou Economic Development Council to help fund the construction phase of a multi-year, community-supported and inclusive process to rehabilitate Yreka's historic Carnegie Building.