Building on the original 2014 Big Think, The Big Re/Think took place between September and December 2025 and included interviews with policymakers and sector leaders, a statewide survey, a virtual convening, and six in-person convenings across Oregon. Thank you to everyone who participated and contributed their thoughtful insights.

The process highlighted several key themes, including the need for a clearer and more unified story about the value of arts, culture, heritage, and humanities in Oregon, as well as the importance of identifying more sustainable funding mechanisms for the sector.

The CACO and CACF boards will be looking at these findings over the coming months as we begin shaping advocacy priorities for the years ahead.

If you’d like to dive deeper, you can also read the full report: Big Re/Think Final Report.

Thank you again to everyone who helped make this process possible.

The post The Big Re/Think findings are in! appeared first on Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon.

The post Short session update: cultural funding protected appeared first on Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon.

The post You belong here! appeared first on Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon.

“The ominibus passed by the House is provisional good news,” Waterhouse told Oregon ArtsWatch. “We are pleased to see steady funding for NEA and NEH, given the overall decrease in the federal budget. We will hold off on celebrations until the bill is passed by the Senate and signed by the President and we see a notice of action from NEH regarding funding for state councils.”

Dear Friends,

As Congress continues negotiations on the Fiscal Year 2026 federal budget, we want to share an important, if mixed, update on proposed funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). (Read the full summary)

The short version:
Funding is flat and flat is not enough, but it is better than the alternative we narrowly avoided.

Where FY26 funding currently stands

Under the House Republican FY26 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations minibus, the NEA and NEH are each proposed to receive $207 million.

These figures match FY25, FY24, and FY24 funding levels.

Why this is not good news, but still matters

Let’s be clear: level funding is effectively a cut.

After years of rising costs, inflation, increased demand, and expanding responsibilities placed on cultural organizations, flat funding means less real-world capacity for arts and humanities work across the country. Grant dollars do not go as far as they did even two years ago, and organizations are being asked to do more with less.

That said, this proposal represents a silver lining in an otherwise hostile federal budget environment.

Earlier House committee proposals for FY26 would have cut NEA and NEH funding to $135 million each, a reduction of roughly 35%. Had those cuts moved forward, the impact would have been immediate and severe: fewer grants, smaller awards, reduced geographic reach, and long-term damage to cultural infrastructure, especially in rural and underserved communities.

Avoiding those cuts matters.

Recent years for context:

• FY21: $167.5M
• FY22: $180M
• FY23–FY25: $207M

We reached $207M through sustained advocacy and bipartisan recognition of the value arts and humanities bring to education, economic development, and civic life. Freezing funding at that level, however, risks undoing that progress over time.

What comes next

This proposal is not final. Negotiations between the House and Senate will continue, and the outcome will determine whether NEA and NEH funding merely treads water or begins to reflect the true cost and value of the work these agencies support.

Holding the line is not the goal. It is the least we can do.

We must continue pushing for funding levels that recognize inflation, demand, and the outsized return on investment that arts and humanities programs deliver in every state.

We will continue to organize and advocate on state and federal levels, but we will need your help. Please let us know if you would like to learn more about how we can advocate to our state and federal officials.

Thank you for staying engaged and for continuing to make the case that culture is not just optional infrastructure.

-CACO Board

The post What flat federal funding really means for arts and humanities appeared first on Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon.

In 2026, the Cultural Advocacy Coalition Foundation (CACF) will carry this work forward as we translate The Big Re/Think findings into recommendations that will guide our work for the coming years. We are also preparing for the upcoming short legislative session, where we will be fighting hard to protect and preserve the funding commitments the state made in the last session. To do that, we’re asking for your support for the first time.

CACF is a small nonprofit with a statewide mission, and your tax-deductible year-end gift will help us:

– Advance The Big Re/Think ideas into real policy recommendations

– Strengthen cultural advocacy during and after the legislative session

– Keep community voices at the center of this work

If you believe in this effort, we invite you to share a contribution. Your support ensures we can move this work from ideas to action.

DONATE

Thank you again for being part of this statewide conversation and we look forward to continuing the work with you in 2026.

With appreciation,

The Cultural Advocacy Coalition Foundation

The post Thank you for helping us re/think what’s possible for Oregon arts and culture appeared first on Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon.

By Marie Gettel-Gilmartin, Fertile Ground Communications (written in 2021; updated for 2025)

Many of us grew up learning the myth of Native Americans teaching the struggling pilgrims how to survive and celebrating with a feast in 1621. But for most Native Americans, Thanksgiving is a day of mourning.

Thanksgiving is in fact a holiday of colonizers.

What actually happened on Thanksgiving?

As Claire Bugos writes in the Smithsonian, “Massacres, disease, and American Indian tribal politics shaped the Pilgrim-Indian alliance at the root of the holiday.” The settlers stole land, spread disease, and exploited resources from the Wampanoag tribe. Then King Philip’s War “devastated the Wampanoags and forever shifted the balance of power in favor of European arrivals.”

Each year, Native American people gather to honor their ancestors and the struggles of Native peoples on the National Day of Mourning. Thanksgiving serves as a reminder of the unjust treatment that Native Americans have continued to receive since the 1620 Plymouth landing.

What is Oregon doing to shift the narrative about native stories and honor native peoples?

• KOIN 6 celebrates Native American Heritage Month with “KOIN Storytellers: Indigenous Life in the Northwest,” highlighting powerful stories from across our Native community. The special features the Native American Youth and Family Center’s Oscar Arana, Representative Tawna Sanchez, and Paul Lumley, along with moving segments on Elders who survived boarding schools. Thanks to the incredible work happening every day across NAYA in affordable housing, accessible childcare, Indigenous food sovereignty, youth education, and economic development. You can watch the special here.

• NAYA hosts Culture Nights each first and third Wednesday nights. They also celebrated their 22nd annual gala and auction earlier this month. Follow and donate to this great organization, which serves over 10,000 community members from nearly 400 Tribes across the country.
• The Willamette Falls Trust offers a number of great resources, including Native-owned businesses, book recommendations, events, and more.
• The Portland Art Museum is showcasing several amazing Native artists, including Marie Watt (Seneca), Dyani White Hawk (Lakota), Gail Tremblay (Onondaga and Mi’kmaq), Nan MacDonald (Metis and Algonquin), and Silas Aittauq (Inuit), to name a few.
• Willamette University is featuring “Ancestral Dialogues: Conversations in Native American Art” on permanent view in the Confederated Tribes of the Grande Ronde Gallery.
• The World Forestry Center, in cooperation with Indigenous artists and the High Desert Museum, features “Sasquatch: Ancestral Guardians,” until January 4, 2026. Indigenous peoples have long been in relationship with and shared stories about sacred forest protectors, often called Sasquatch and Bigfoot.
• The Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts shared an incredible list of suggestions, “Five Ways to Celebrate Native American Heritage Month in Reciprocity, Not Just Symbolism.”
• Multnomah County Library is offering a series of opportunities, including Native Storytime and Edible Native American Plants on 12/2,
• Our member organization, the Native Arts and Culture Foundation, is a Native-led national organization committed to mobilizing Native artists, culture bearers, communities, and leaders to influence positive social, cultural, and environmental change. The foundation offers grants and funding to support Native artists in their creative endeavors.
• The Grand Ronde tribes have an excellent collection of tribal history curriculum videos for grades kindergarten to tenth.
• Oregon universities and colleges now offer financial assistance to members of the 574 federally recognized Tribes.
• The Oregon Department of Education rolled out a “Tribal History/Shared History” curriculum in 2020. Oregon schools now have historically accurate and culturally inclusive lessons about Native Americans. Oregon’s nine Tribes collaborated on this curriculum to banish stereotypes, myths, and inaccuracies.

What can we do in our organizations or at home to decolonize Thanksgiving?

• Think about what you eat for Thanksgiving dinner. How did these foods come to you? You can buy American Indian foods from local Tribes and businesses.
• Volunteer your services on Thursday, 11/27 or Sunday, 11/30 by helping out at Unthanksgiving events. Since 2021, NAYA has gathered community on the fourth Thursday in November, National Day of Mourning according to our Wampanoag relatives, to shift the narrative from a misleading colonial holiday toward one of mourning genocide and celebrating Indigenous survival. This year, they invite volunteers to join in honoring the land, uplifting Indigenous food sovereignty, and supporting the garden that nourishes our community year-round. Come lend a hand, learn, and stand in solidarity with Native peoples. Registration required.

• Visit the Indigenous Marketplace at SE Uplift on 11/28 and 29 and support Native artists and craftspeople.

• Visit Blackfish Gallery’s collaboration with NAYA, a holiday market on December 6.

• Buy from Oregon’s Native artists and performers, as we shared in this article from 2022.
• Visit the “We Are the Land” public art installation in Portland, a collaboration between the City of Portland and indigena (an Indigenous storytelling cooperative), the City Arts Program, Regional Arts and Culture Council, Multnomah County, and Metro.
• Learn which Tribes are native to Oregon.
• Donate to and follow local Native American organizations, such as the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, the  Native American Youth and Family Center, and Wisdom of the Elders.
• Visit Native-owned farms and restaurants around the state and buy from Native-owned businesses.
• Plan an Oregon vacation to celebrate Indigenous Oregon by visiting Travel Oregon’s website.
• Listen to perspectives on thanksgiving from Wampanoag youth or watch a brilliant Native American film.
• Unlearn myths with your kids. The Portland Public Schools website has some excellent resources. Read books about Thanksgiving by indigenous authors, such as Catherine O’Neill Grace’s 1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving and Joseph Bruchac’s Squanto’s Journey: The Story of the First Thanksgiving. Or use this great hands-on activity from Teaching Tolerance. Get adult book suggestions from firstnations.org.
• Support contemporary Indigenous struggles by learning about the #LandBack movement and current land struggles faced by the Mashpee Wampanoag people. The U.S. Department of Arts and Culture has a virtual resource pack on its Honor Native Land page.
• Find out what your community is doing to support the Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women’s crisis.
• Follow the work of indigenous-led organizations such as Native American Rights Fund, Illuminatives, National Congress of American Indians, and the American Indian College Fund...or organizations here in Oregon.

Arts and culture are two of the best ways to honor Native Americans and decolonize Thanksgiving, as we’re reminded by Joy Harjo, U.S. Poet Laureate and board chair of the Native Arts and Culture Foundation:

“We’ve come to a point in the world of great challenge, but also great opportunity, in which to revise and revitalize our communities. How do we do that? It always comes back to the arts, because arts revitalize, they tell us who we are, they tell us where we’re going and where we’ve been. Art makes connections on a deep soul level; it connects us in a way beyond words.”
-Joy Harjo

We can still be thankful while acknowledging the harm done to Native peoples by this holiday. To decolonize Thanksgiving, we need to examine our history to begin the healing process.

The Coalition acknowledges the many Tribes and bands who call Oregon their ancestral territory, including: Burns Paiute; Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw; Confederated Tribes of Cow Creek Lower Band of Umpqua; Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde; Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians; Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs; Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Indian Reservation; Coquille Tribe; and Klamath Tribes. We honor the ongoing relationship between the land, plants, animals and people indigenous to this place we now call Oregon. We recognize the continued sovereignty of the nine federally recognized Tribes who have ties to this place and thank them for continuing to teach us how we might all be here together.

The post Decolonizing Thanksgiving in Oregon 2025 appeared first on Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon.

As we start 2025, we thought we’d give you a little inspiration. Our cultural landscape in Oregon is strong, and opportunities abound across the state to get involved.

Each month we’ll focus on a particular theme. This month it’s ART.

What kinds of art appeal to you?

Checking out the Paul McCartney Photography at the Portland Art Museum (exhibit closes Jan. 19).

Applying to be part of the 76th Annual Salem Art Fair & Festival from September 12-14, 2025, which draws thousands of visitors. Early bird applications due by Feb. 17.

Taking an art class at the Crossroads Carnegie Art Center (Baker City), Josephy Center (Joseph), Lincoln City Cultural Center, Tualatin Valley Creates(Washington County), or the Multnomah Art Center (SW Portland).

How will you expose yourself to art in January?
(Famous photo of former Portland Mayor Bud Clark in 1978. The coat Clark wore is now on display at the Oregon Historical Society, thanks to a donation by Thomas Lauderdale of Pink Martini.)

The Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon (CACO) is the only statewide advocacy organization lobbying Salem on behalf of arts, culture, history, heritage, and humanities. We operate solely through support of individuals and organizations who understand the importance of maintaining an advocacy presence in Salem. Please consider becoming a member today. Every gift we receive, whether from you as an individual supporter or your organization, makes an impact!

The post A year of arts & culture will enhance your health & well-being appeared first on Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon.

Here’s how the tax credit works:

1. Total what you gave to the nonprofits on this list during 2024.
2. Give the same amount (up to $500 filing individually or $1,000 filing jointly) to the Cultural Trust online or by mail by December 31.
3. On your Oregon tax form, report your donation to the Oregon Cultural Trust. You’ll get 100% of it back!

If you itemize your deductions, you’ll benefit even more with federal and state deductions. Find out more on the Oregon Cultural Trust website.

The Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon has a long history with the Oregon Cultural Trust. In fact, our coalition was formed in 1998 by people who lobbied for legislation that created the Oregon Cultural Trust. We are the only statewide advocacy organization lobbying on behalf of arts, culture, history, heritage, and humanities.

Consider donating to one of our supporting organizations to double your impact! The following evolving list of donors is broken out into categories:

Arts, Culture, and Humanities
Arts & Business Alliance of Eugene
Beaverton Arts Foundation/Reser Center for the Arts
Black United Fund of Oregon
Josephine Community Library Foundation
Crossroads Carnegie Art Center
Cultural Advocacy Coalition Foundation
Historic Jacksonville, Inc.
John G. Shedd Institute for the Arts
Josephy Center for Arts and Culture
KLCC Public Radio Foundation
Lane Arts Council
Lincoln City Cultural Center
Literary Arts
Native Arts and Cultures Foundation
Oregon Chinese Coalition
Oregon Humanities
Oregon Public Broadcasting 
Performance Works Northwest, Inc.
Prismid Sanctuary 
Regional Arts & Culture Council
Salem Parks Foundation
Southern Oregon Historical Society
Tualatin Valley Creates
 
Comedy
Kickstand Comedy
 
Dance
Ballet Fantastique
Eugene Ballet Company
Oregon Ballet Theatre
 
Education
Caldera Arts
PHAME Academy
 
Film
Mack Theater
Outside the Frame
PAM CUT/Portland Art Museum Center for an Untold Tomorrow
 
Fine Art
Portland Art Museum 
Portland Institute for Contemporary Art
Salem Art Association
 
Music
All Ages Music PDX
Britt Music & Arts Festival
Chamber Music Northwest
Eugene Symphony
Friends of Chamber Music
Metropolitan Youth Symphony
Music Oregon
Oregon Symphony
Portland Opera
 
Museums
B-17 Alliance Foundation
Clatsop County Historical Society
Columbia County Museum Association
Columbia River Maritime Museum
Coos Art Museum
Friends of the Oregon Caves and Chateau
Gilbert House Children’s Museum
High Desert Museum
Japanese American Museum of Oregon
Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art
Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center
Mt. Hood Museum
The Museum At Warm Springs
Oregon Historical Society
Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education
Rainier Oregon Historical Museum
Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art
Shelton McMurphey Johnson House
World Forestry Center
 
Theatre
Artists Repertory Theatre
Athena’s Gem Theatre
Bag&Baggage Productions
Coho Productions
Cottage Theatre
Eastern Oregon Regional Theater
The Historic Elsinore Theatre
Imago, The Theatre Mask Ensemble
Liberty Restoration/Liberty Theatre
Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Portland Center Stage
Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble
Portland Playhouse
The Very Little Theatre
Third Rail Repertory Theatre
Whiteside Theatre

Thank you for supporting the arts in Oregon!

The post Donate to your favorite arts nonprofit and double your impact! appeared first on Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon.

By Marie Gettel-Gilmartin, Fertile Ground Communications (written in 2021; updated for 2024)

Many of us grew up learning the myth of Native Americans teaching the struggling pilgrims how to survive and celebrating with a feast in 1621. But for most Native Americans, Thanksgiving is a day of mourning.

Thanksgiving is in fact a holiday of colonizers.

What actually happened on Thanksgiving?

As Claire Bugos writes in the Smithsonian, “Massacres, disease, and American Indian tribal politics shaped the Pilgrim-Indian alliance at the root of the holiday.” The settlers stole land, spread disease, and exploited resources from the Wampanoag tribe. Then King Philip’s War “devastated the Wampanoags and forever shifted the balance of power in favor of European arrivals.”

Each year, Native American people gather to honor their ancestors and the struggles of Native peoples on the National Day of Mourning. Thanksgiving serves as a reminder of the unjust treatment that Native Americans have continued to receive since the 1620 Plymouth landing.

What is Oregon doing to shift the narrative about native stories and honor native peoples?

• The Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA)  celebrated Culture Night on Wednesday, November 20, where families and community members came together to participate in beading, singing, crafting, intertribal drumming, and dancing.
• Our member organization, the Native Arts and Culture Foundation, is a Native-led national organization committed to mobilizing Native artists, culture bearers, communities, and leaders to influence positive social, cultural, and environmental change. The foundation offers grants and funding to support Native artists in their creative endeavors.
• The Five Oaks Museum in Beaverton centers descendant communities in their storytelling. Visit the museum to learn about the Kalapuya Tribe and Kalapuyan land thanks to guest curator Steph Littlebird Fogel and other Native American experts.
• Cowlitz Tribal member Suzanne Donaldson and CEO of Donaldson Consulting LLC is sharing compelling facts, challenging stereotypes, and shedding light on important issues on LinkedIn each day during November, Native American Heritage Month.
• The Grand Ronde tribes have an excellent collection of tribal history curriculum videos for grades kindergarten to tenth.
• Oregon universities and colleges now offer financial assistance to members of the 574 federally recognized Tribes.
• The Oregon Department of Education rolled out a “Tribal History/Shared History” curriculum in 2020. Oregon schools now have historically accurate and culturally inclusive lessons about Native Americans. Oregon’s nine Tribes collaborated on this curriculum to banish stereotypes, myths, and inaccuracies.
• The Oregon Food Bank honors the National Day of Mourning, acknowledging that Native Americans experience food insecurity at a staggeringly high rate and some of the most anti-Native policies happened in Oregon.
• The University of Oregon’s Native American Student Union hosted “Thanks But No Thanks-giving: Decolonizing an American Holiday” in 2020 and 2021, where they discussed ways to show gratitude while decolonizing the holiday.

What can we do in our organizations or at home to decolonize Thanksgiving?

• Think about what you eatfor Thanksgiving dinner. How did these foods come to you? You can buy American Indian foods from local tribes and businesses.
• Visit the Native Arts and Culture Foundation on Friday, November 22 or Saturday, November 23 to attend “Citizen Fellow: Art as Archive and Memory,” a sampling of the past 15 years of the foundation’s work and perspectives.
• View the Five Oaks Museum‘s current exhibit, Replenish the Root: Six Centuries of Gathering Under the Oaks, which explores the Oregon white oak savanna ecosystem that once flourished in the Tualatin Valley under Kalapuyan stewardship. They offer free educator tours.
• Stand with the Portland Native community by attending Unthanksgiving events with NAYA at Wapato Island Farm on November 23 and the NAYA Garden on November 28. Register in advance.
• Attend the Grand Ronde Restoration’s public powwow on November 23. The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde will celebrate the 41st anniversary of the Grand Ronde Restoration Act, which in 1983 restored the tribe’s federal recognition. Grand entry will be at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. for the powwow, which will take place at Spirit Mountain Casino.

  
  

• Support Indigenous artists and entrepreneurs at the Indigenous Marketplace in downtown Portland from November 15-December 31 or in Oregon City on November 23-24; the Native American Youth and Family Center’s Winter Native-Made Marketplace on Dec. 14-15 at Lloyd Center; or Eugene Native American Arts & Crafts Makers on December 1, 14, or 15.
  
  
• Take your children to Native Story Hour on November 27 at the Capitol Hill Library in Southwest Portland. The event will feature songs and books from Native cultures, and is open to people of all ages. The event is supported by the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde.
• Buy from Oregon’s Native artists and performers, as we shared in this article from 2022.
• Visit the “We Are the Land” public art installation in Portland, a collaboration between the City of Portland and indigena (an Indigenous storytelling cooperative), the City Arts Program, Regional Arts and Culture Council, Multnomah County, and Metro.
• Learn which Tribes are native to Oregon.
• Donate to and follow local Native American organizations, such as the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, the  Native American Youth and Family Center, and Wisdom of the Elders.
• Visit Native-owned farms and restaurants around the state and buy from Native-owned businesses.
• Plan an Oregon vacation to celebrate Indigenous Oregon by visiting Travel Oregon’s website.
• Listen to perspectives on thanksgiving from Wampanoag youth or watch a brilliant Native American film.
• View the Oregon Historical Society’s “Oregon is Indian Country” traveling exhibit at Pacific University until December 1, 2024, before it’s moved from circulation.
• Unlearn myths with your kids. The Portland Public Schools website has some excellent resources. Read books about Thanksgiving by indigenous authors, such as Catherine O’Neill Grace’s 1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving and Joseph Bruchac’s Squanto’s Journey: The Story of the First Thanksgiving. Or use this great hands-on activity from Teaching Tolerance. Get adult book suggestions from firstnations.org.
• Support contemporary Indigenous struggles by learning about the #LandBack movement and current land struggles faced by the Mashpee Wampanoag people. The U.S. Department of Arts and Culture has a virtual resource pack on its Honor Native Land page.
• Find out what your community is doing to support the Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women’s crisis.
• Follow the work of indigenous-led organizations such as Native American Rights Fund, Illuminatives, National Congress of American Indians, and the American Indian College Fund...or organizations here in Oregon.

Arts and culture are two of the best ways to honor Native Americans and decolonize Thanksgiving, as we’re reminded by Joy Harjo, U.S. Poet Laureate and board chair of the Native Arts and Culture Foundation:

“We’ve come to a point in the world of great challenge, but also great opportunity, in which to revise and revitalize our communities. How do we do that? It always comes back to the arts, because arts revitalize, they tell us who we are, they tell us where we’re going and where we’ve been. Art makes connections on a deep soul level; it connects us in a way beyond words.”
-Joy Harjo

We can still be thankful while acknowledging the harm done to Native peoples by this holiday. To decolonize Thanksgiving, we need to examine our history to begin the healing process.

The Coalition acknowledges the many Tribes and bands who call Oregon their ancestral territory, including: Burns Paiute; Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw; Confederated Tribes of Cow Creek Lower Band of Umpqua; Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde; Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians; Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs; Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Indian Reservation; Coquille Tribe; and Klamath Tribes. We honor the ongoing relationship between the land, plants, animals and people indigenous to this place we now call Oregon. We recognize the continued sovereignty of the nine federally recognized Tribes who have ties to this place and thank them for continuing to teach us how we might all be here together.

The post Decolonizing Thanksgiving in Oregon 2024 appeared first on Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon.

Founded by Phil Donovan in 1999, Northwest Public Affairs is highly regarded for their honesty, reliability, efficiency, and winning record. They have built strong relationships with Democrats, Republicans, the Governor’s office, agency directors, and their fellow lobbyists.

Ryan has known Phil since they were teenagers. In fact, Phil’s first political foray was managing Ryan’s campaign for student body president at Corvallis High School in 1989. (Yes, he won.)

Ryan spent 15 years in music, including leading an indie band in Austin, Texas, and more recently collaborating on dance projects with his wife, a modern dancer and founder of Pro Lab Dance. Now, Ryan is thrilled to bring that artistic passion to his work for CACO, advocating for increased arts funding and expanded policy support.

Ryan is recognized by legislators and clients alike for his dedication, collaborative approach, and skill in delivering value-driven communication. He actively seeks public opinion and academic research, engages with individuals directly affected by policy decisions, and unites diverse coalitions.

As we look toward a challenging budget cycle, Ryan is determined to ensure the arts have a strong voice in Oregon’s legislature. His primary goals include lobbying to increase grant funding for the Oregon Arts Commission and securing Cultural Resources Economic Funds for capital projects across the state.

Please join us in welcoming Ryan as he champions Oregon’s vibrant arts and culture community!

The post Championing the arts: Ryan Fisher joins us as our new advocate appeared first on Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon.