City of Portland, OR

10/30/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 10/30/2024 09:55

Office of Arts & Culture to award $4M+ in grants to local arts organizations in 2025

News Article
General Operating Support grantees strengthen the region's cultural ecosystem and economy-bringing arts access to all Portlanders, from classes and community events to free concerts and theater camps.
Published
October 30, 2024 8:00 am

Artists are the core of our region's creative economy and cultural landscape, and Portland's Office of Arts & Cultureis pleased to announce its intention to award $4,098,538 in funding to 80 local arts organizations in Portland for fiscal year 2024-25.

General Operating Supportgrants provide essential resources to local arts organizations. These groups offer a wide range of activities and creative outputs-from theater and art classes to dance performances and free community concerts. The funding also supports arts education in classrooms and a one-time rental subsidy for all grantees who are frequent users of the City-owned Portland'5 Centers for the Arts venues.

Each year, Arts & Culture's General Operating Support grantees bring more than 1.5 million attendees out to arts and culture events in Portland and supportmore than 5,000 jobsin the region. These organizations also generate in excess of $140 million in directspending at arts events annually.

Portland Arts & Culture's 2025 General Operating Support grantee roster

Grantee FY2024-25 total
Alberta Abbey Foundation $28,000
All Ages Music Portland (Friends of Noise) $21,000
Artists Repertory Theatre $63,000
Artists for Learning Northwest (formerly Young Audiences) $63,000
Blue Sky/Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts $21,000
Bodyvox $63,000
Boom Arts $21,000
Caldera $42,000
Capella Romana $42,000
Chamber Music Northwest $63,000
Children's Healing Art Project $21,000
Coho Productions $28,000
Corrib Theatre $21,000
Cymaspace $21,000
Echo Theater Company $42,000
En Taiko $21,000
Ethos Music Center $42,000
Friends of Chamber Music $63,000
Hand2Mouth $28,000
Hollywood Theatre (Film Action Oregon) $84,000
Imago Theatre $28,000
Independent Publishing Resource Center $21,000
Instituto de Cultura y Arte In Xochitl In Cuicatl $21,000
Lan Su Chinese Garden $42,000
Literary Arts $94,765
Live Wire Radio $42,000
MediaRites $21,000
Metropolitan Youth Symphony $45,695
Miracle Theatre Group $42,000
My Voice Music $42,000
New Expressive Works $21,000
North Pole Studio $28,000
Northwest Children's Theater & School $84,000
Northwest Dance Project $66,310
NW Documentary Arts & Media $21,000
OK You $21,000
Open Hearts Open Minds $21,000
Oregon Ballet Theatre $208,555
Oregon BRAVO Youth Orchestras $63,000
Oregon Children's Theatre $90,290
Oregon Contemporary $28,000
Oregon Symphony Association $391,648
Outside the Frame $28,000
Pacific Youth Choir $21,000
PassinArt: A Theatre Company $21,000
PDX Jazz $43,360
PHAME $42,000
PlayWrite $21,000
Polaris Dance Theatre $21,000
Portland Art Museum $245,000
Portland Baroque Orchestra $42,000
Portland Center Stage $350,000
Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra $28,000
Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble $21,000
Portland Gay Men's Chorus $48,390
Portland Institute for Contemporary Art $63,000
Portland Opera $138,770
Portland Piano International $28,000
Portland Playhouse $63,000
Portland Street Art Alliance $42,000
Portland Taiko $21,000
Portland Youth Philharmonic $68,550
Profile Theatre $42,000
Rejoice! Diaspora Dance Theater $21,000
Resonance Ensemble $21,000
Shaking the Tree Theatre $28,000
Street Books $21,000
Takohachi $21,000
The Portland Ballet $42,000
The Red Door Project $42,000
Theatre Diaspora $21,000
Third Angle New Music $21,000
Third Rail Repertory Theatre $28,000
Triangle Productions $21,000
Vanport Mosaic $21,000
White Bird $53,205
Willamette Light Brigade (Portland Winter Light Festival) $21,000
World Arts Foundation $21,000
World Stage Theatre $28,000
Write Around Portland $28,000

What is General Operating Support?

General Operating Support provides direct, flexible funding to 80 nonprofit arts organizations in Portland. Organizations use these funds to deliver their mission and provide a wide range of arts programming for residents and visitors.

How is the General Operating Support Program funded?

General Operating Support grants are funded through the City of Portland's General Fund and Arts Access Fund, which is supported by a $35 income tax paid by Portlanders. For FY25, the General Operating Support grant budget includes $240,000 from the General Fund and $3,858,538 from the Arts Access Fund.

How did the creation of the Office of Arts & Culture impact the General Operating Support grants process?

In previous years, the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) managed disbursement of the City of Portland's General Operating Support grants to arts organizations. In 2023, the Citybegan restructuring its approach to arts delivery, leading to the creation of the Office of Arts & Culture in July 2024. This transition provided an opportunity to bring the management of arts grants in-house, and as a result, Arts & Culture is managing the distribution of General Operating Support grants-for the first time-in fiscal year 2024-25.

As part of this transition, the Office of Arts & Culture made a commitment to maintain funding levels to previous years' General Operating Support grantees. In addition to maintaining current funding, in fiscal year 2024-25 Arts & Culture grantee organizations will also receive an Arts Access Investment Award-equal to 40% of their base award-based on their proven service to K-12 schoolchildren and/or people in underrepresented communities, as called for in the Arts Tax (specifically, in the ballot measure language and PCC 5.73.030(C)(1)). The grant amounts shown in the table above are inclusive of this Arts Access Investment Award.

How does fiscal year 2024-25's General Operating Support process address scheduled rent increases for Portland'5 Centers for the Arts users?

Frequent non-profit users of Portland'5 Centers for the Arts, including resident and featured companies, will receive an additional one-time subsidy to cover the cost of their scheduled rent increases in 2025. These subsidies will be distributed to arts organizations in addition to their General Operating Support base grant and Arts Access Investment Award. The grant amounts shown in the table above are inclusive of P'5 subsidies.

What are the General Operating Support grant eligibility requirements?

To be eligible for General Operating Support, 73 arts organizations meet these criteria:

  • They are arts organizations headquartered in, and providing services in, the City of Portland. For the purposes of General Operating Support, the definition of "arts organization" is an organization whose primary mission and goals articulate its commitment to developing and providing ongoing arts programs made available to the public.
  • They have IRS 501(c)3 tax status.
  • They have minimum eligible annual income of $75,000.
  • They have at least one paid professional administrative staff member on payroll as an employee of the organization.
  • They have continuous administration throughout the year.

In addition, sevenGeneral Operating Support grantees receive funding because they provide essential, culturally specific programming and other services for current and historically underrepresented and underserved populations. Some of these Cultural Equity grantees may not be in the position to fulfill all of the General Operating Support grant requirements, but providing funding is a continuation of service based on their previous relationships with RACC and vital to their operations. These Cultural Equity grantees, listed among the General Operating Support grantees above, include:

How will 2025 General Operating Support grants be awarded?

The Office of Arts & Culture intends to award FY25 grants, subject to each organization's ability to provide detailed program and financial information between December 2024 and April 2025.

What additional grantmaking programs for artists and nonprofits does Arts & Culture offer?

In addition to the General Operating Support Program, the Office of Arts & Culture provides Small Grantsranging from $500-$5,000 to individual artists and arts organizations through partnerships with three local arts-focused grantmakers including Friends of IFCC, MusicOregon, and RACC.

Friends of IFCC's Artist Grant & Residency Programwill be open for applications in winter 2024-25. Applications for MusicOregon's Echo Fundand RACC Project Grantsare closed, but bookmark Arts & Culture's small grants webpageor sign up for the office's newsletterto stay informed about their next open application periods.