Phase two of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund for Live Event Venue Operations and Live Event Producers/Presenters Program is complete as of June 2022. The program received more than 360 applications, with estimated live event revenue losses exceeding $190 million. In the end, 238 organizations received a total of $33.5 million. Most grant recipients received between $5,000 and $250,000, with organizations operating multiple venues able to receive up to $750,000. You can view the recipients here

A “live event” was defined as “an in-person and time-limited, ticketed activity that brings individuals together in a designated space for a community, cultural, or entertainment event.” Principal business activities eligible for funding in this program were restricted to advertising revenue, catering fees, concession sales, merchandise sales, rental fees, sponsorship sales, and ticket sales.

The post Live event venue operators grant update appeared first on Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon.

Important dates

• Week of 4/11: Website will go up with information
• 4/20: Orientation to run through program guidelines and the application process
• 4/25: Applications open
• 5/16: Application process closes
• 6/30: projected date of fund distribution
• 12/23/23: funds must be spent by this date

Who’s eligible?

This program is for live event venue operators and producers. These are defined as entities where no less than 30% of their revenue comes from live event sales. This threshold is low to allow for museums to be eligible for this funding.

Live event operators (e.g., fairs, festivals, cultural events) are defined as entities with 50% of their business activity funded through live events, which may include revenues from tickets and concessions.

Who’s not eligible?

• Adult entertainment venues
• Municipal- or state-owned venues
• Non-ticketed live event producers (e.g., bars with karaoke nights)
• Movie theaters (covered in previous phase of program)
• Sporting events and venues
• Temporary or pop-up live event venues
• Public or private universities
• Lobbying organizations

What will the application involve?

Business Oregon will be asking entities to look at fiscal years 2019 and 2020, using federal tax returns to establish overall loss. Their funding formula creates parameters around award sizes, which will generally range from $5,000 to $250,000.

They will prioritize entities that have not yet received funding from these four programs:

• Oregon Cultural Trust’s Coronavirus Relief Funds
• Department of Administrative Services’ funding for venues, released in 2020
• Shuttered Venue Operators Grant
• Operational Cost Assistance Program (administered by Business Oregon)

If you have received funds from one of these programs, you are still encouraged to apply.

Later in May Business Oregon will launch the companion program that targets support for organizations that support live venues and individual artists and musicians.

Let us know if you have any questions, and we’ll share more information as it becomes available.

Thanks,

The CACO board and lobbying team

The post Relief Funds to Begin Flowing Soon! appeared first on Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon.

Crossroads is the oldest continuously operating art center east of the Cascades. A 501(c)3 non-profit founded in 1963, the center creates opportunities for the entire community to be engaged, inspired, and transformed by the arts. It’s a welcoming place where people meet and the arts speak. Admission is free for all.

Crossroads works to fulfill its mission through community-wide programs such as:

• First Friday exhibits that showcase artists and music
• Acting as a community partner to attract art-based industries
• Workshops and courses for kids and adults at the center and in local schools
• Networks, support systems, scholarship programs, and gallery space for artists
• Partnerships with public agencies to provide programs and services for at-risk and underprivileged youth and families, and adults in recovery programs

After the 1970 economy devastated rural Oregon communities, Baker City rebounded in the 1980s and became one of Oregon’s most beloved cultural communities. After completing a 6-year $1.6 million renovation of the Carnegie Library in 2008, the library has become Crossroads’ home. The arts have continued to thrive through many challenges over the years.

Two years into the pandemic, now Crossroads is facing another troubling time:

• When the pandemic hit in 2020, Crossroads limped along and survived. The community supported Crossroads even when the center had to close for 50 days. The center transformed itself within months by going online.
• Since Crossroads opened again on May 15, 2020, it has remained open ever since while keeping guests, students, and staff safe. The center had two online First Friday openings and has shared art programming and content on social media. Crossroads staff worked with partners to rebuild its website and place all gallery artwork and featured shows online for sale to support its local artists.
• Crossroads found 2021 to be financially devastating, ending the year with a 91% loss compared to 2020 and significant losses in three of the four quarters. Thanks to the leadership of the Crossroads Board of Directors, reserve funds helped the center navigate 2021.
• In 2022, Crossroads is seeing improved attendance and participation from local community members and a tentative return of tourists; however, additional state funding is critical to sustain staff and programs.

“During the darkest days of the pandemic, arts and culture uplifted us all worldwide,” said Crossroads Executive Director Ginger Savage. “Artisans offered classes and activities online often at no charge. Now it’s time to give back to those artists and help them rebound out of COVID.”

In the early days of the pandemic, Crossroads staff called its members to check in. The center’s staff is calling all members again this month to check in after the pandemic’s long isolation.

Crossroads is just one of many of our precious Oregon arts & culture organizations facing an ongoing challenge during the pandemic.

“I couldn’t have survived the pandemic without my friendships on the Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon board,” said Savage. “To be supported by remarkable leaders from around Oregon was a source of inspiration and hope. We have worked hard to get funding to arts and culture organizations in Oregon. We need your help even more to ensure that ARPA funds get out now. The advocacy work is far from done…we need your help to advocate for additional state and federal funding to assist in recovery.

Renew your membership, make donations, read newsletters, and help supply needed materials to art organizations.  And if you can volunteer, we need your help!”

The post Crossroads Carnegie Art Center Brings the Arts to Life in Baker City appeared first on Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon.

CACO members!

Please lift your voices with us to help Oregon’s arts and culture sector recover strong. Although HB 4040 won’t be moving forward, we do know that legislators have been tasked with crafting a $100 million economic development funding package to help in recovery of the pandemic. We must ensure that the creative economy’s important work is identified in that package, so we are asking that $50 million be set aside for arts & culture recovery.  

It is vitally important that you contact the following members of the Ways and. Means Committee to share your needs as soon as possible.

Remember, the pandemic is severely affecting more than 70% of our organizations financially, forcing closures, layoffs, furloughs, and other cost-saving measures. As the first to close and the last to fully reopen, the cultural sector will not fully recover for several years.  In Oregon, COVID-19 has devastated creative economy businesses with lost revenue of $1.6 billion. In addition, 64% of all creative workers in our state  (43,332 people) were unemployed in July 2020.To help us regain our footing, we are asking the legislature to invest $50 million to create stability in the arts and cultural sector and allow us to be a part of Oregon’s recovery in rural and urban communities. The pandemic and the significant needs in the sector has united arts and cultural organizations in advocating for critical pandemic relief funding that is inclusive and equitable.

Our lobbyist team and board teamed up with Metro, the Oregon Fairs Association, and the Independent Venue Coalition to send this statement to members of the legislature.

Please send your letters to the following leaders and send a PDF of your letter to CACO.  

With gratitude, the CACO board

Working on the Economic Development Package

• Lively (Springfield): Rep.JohnLively@oregonlegislature.gov
• Gomberg (Central Coast): Rep.DavidGomberg@oregonlegislature.gov
• Bynum (Clackamas): Rep.JanelleBynum@oregonlegislature.gov

Transportation and Economic Development Subcommittee 

• Co-chair, Sen. Lawrence Spence (Portland): ​AkashaLawrenceSpence@oregonlegislature.gov
• Co-chair, Rep. Gomberg (Central Coast): DavidGomberg@oregonlegislature.gov
• Hansell (Athena): Sen.BillHansell@oregonlegislature.gov
• Jama (Portland): Sen.KayseJama@oregonlegislature.gov
• Nelson (Portland): Rep.TravisNelson@oregonlegislature.gov
• Scharf (Independence): Rep.AnnaScharf@oregonlegislature.gov
• Sosa (Hillsboro): Rep.NathanSosa@oregonlegislature.gov
• Rep. Zika (Redmond): Rep.JackZika@oregonlegislature.gov

The post Back in the Lobby Saddle Again! appeared first on Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon.

Ginger was joined by bill sponsor Rep. Nosse and representatives from the Oregon Symphony, the Independent Venues Coalition, Metro, the Oregon Restaurant and Lodging Association, and the Oregon Fairs Association Foundation, who all expressed ardent support for the bill. Read Ginger Savage’s testimony for HB 4040.

You can watch the hearing here. Speakers:
39:00      Rep. Nosse
44:10      Ginger Savage
50:13      Speakers from Whiteside Theatre in Corvallis, Oregon Fairs Association Foundation, Oregon Symphony, Metro, and Oregon Restaurants Assoc.

Across the arts and culture sector, the need is great and committee members heard firsthand how entities have experienced severe losses in revenue, staff, and attendance at performances and exhibits.

We also presented this document summarizing the comments from all of you who responded to our survey earlier this week–thank you!!

There was no testimony in opposition and the bill has been scheduled for a work session on Monday, February 14, which also marks a crucial deadline in Oregon’s legislature. Bills must be passed out of their policy committee on Monday or they are considered dead for the session.

CACO’s lobby team is working closely with Rep. Nosse, Business Oregon, and our coalition partners on an amendment that makes some important operable changes to the grant program. This amendment will be discussed and voted on at Monday’s work session.

Thanks to everyone who reached out to committee members and submitted letters of support – your voice was heard and greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

The CACO board and lobbyist team

The post News from the legislature on HB 4040! appeared first on Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon.

The Bowman Hicks Lumber Company recruited loggers from the south and Midwest, 15  percent of whom were Black. The Black and white workers and their families lived and were educated separately, but they were integral to logging operations and the life of the Maxville community.

Gwendolyn Trice discovered this piece of Oregon history when she learned her dad had been a Maxville logger in 1923. She founded and is executive director of the Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center. She and her team have researched the area and interviewed the area’s last survivors of the logging industry.

As Oregonians better understand our state’s racist origins, Maxville is critical to documenting our state’s historical narrative. The Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center plans to do that by bringing a ghost town back to life.

The center is purchasing the original Maxville town site and conducting archeology and forestry education for its new location. The new facility will highlight facilitated tours, overnight programming, and place-based storytelling for visitors. They will bring new life into the town origins in a respectful way, by connecting with local native culture and becoming an educational destination.

The Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon lobbied the State of Oregon to fund $750,000 of the town site’s preservation, and the center raised $240,000 on its own. The estimated project cost is $2.5 million.

Together with other Maxville descendants, Gwendolyn Trice wants to amplify Maxville’s story. “When I found out about Maxville, I was flabbergasted,” said Gwendolyn. “My dad would be 117 if he were still living today.”

The Maxville townsite offers a unique window into one piece of the American story: the Black migration to the Northwest during a time of exclusionary laws and sundown codes. This Oregon ghost town is about to come back to life.

The post Bringing a diverse ghost town back to life appeared first on Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon.

• Jenny Green (she/her/hers), chair of the Oregon Arts Commission and founder of the Jenny Green Gallery in Bend; board member of Scalehouse Collaborative for the Arts
• Cassie Greer (she/her/hers), artistic director for Bag & Baggage Productions and founding member of B&B’s Resident Artist Company
• Judy Margles (she/her/hers), executive director of the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education
• Crystal Akins Meneses (she/her/hers), founder, Activate Arts and Oregon Community Foundation Oregon Humanities Fields Fellow; building the Oregon Children’s Music Festival and Lincoln City Youth Public Arts Programs
• Josh Neckles (he/him/his), executive director, Eugene Ballet; leading force behind the development and creation of the Midtown Arts Center
• Jenny Stadler (she/her/hers), executive director, PHAME; sings with and serves on the board of the Choral Arts Ensemble of Portland
• Carol Tatch (she/her/hers), chief of External Operations, Regional Arts & Culture Council; has held leadership roles with several other Oregon nonprofits
• Gayle Yamasaki (she/her/hers), board member of Oregon Cultural Trust; education and cultural leader in Klamath Falls and southern Oregon

The board also reappointed Peter Bilotta, Karie Burch, Scott Freck, Ginger Savage, Dan Thorndike, and Dana Whitelaw as board members and voted in the following officers for 2022:

• S. May (president)
• Isaac Marquez (vice president)
• Peter Bilotta (treasurer)
• Dana Whitelaw (secretary)

Thank you to each of you for supporting your state’s arts, culture, history, heritage, and humanities! We couldn’t do it without you.

The post Welcome, new board members! appeared first on Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon.

Artistic Director Nataki Garret testified before the United States House Committee on Small Business last week. You can view “The Power, Peril, and Promise of the Creative Economy” panel on YouTube. She shared that Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) had to cancel 800+ shows and lay off 90 percent of its staff.

Nataki then published an op-ed in The Hill, highlighting the points she made to the committee:

“I’m often haunted by the choices I had to make to keep OSF afloat, but it’s even more difficult for the culturally specific and smaller venue or community-based arts organizations and art workers…How can we continue viewing an industry that makes up more of our GDP than agriculture and mining combined as a luxury or the purview of the elite? How can we look millions of arts and culture workers in this country in the eye and not take the simple, common-sense steps to simultaneously make their lives and our economy more secure and robust?”

As we know, there is no recovery without creativity. Supporting and funding our country’s arts & culture powerhouse is critical to rebuild and revitalize our communities. Empowering the creative workforce can heal our country in the wake of the pandemic.

We have an unprecedented number of bills in the U.S. Congress to fund the creative economy and boost its workforce. If all passed, these seven bills would pour billions of dollars into arts & culture organizations and businesses. You can help get them passed.

ACTION ALERT!

• The Creative Economy Revitalization Act (HB 5019) has been introduced in the House and will soon be introduced in the Senate.This bill takes many of the creative workforce proposals and turns them into proposed legislation to support creative workers. Click here to send an Action Alert to your representatives telling them to co-sponsor and vote for the Creative Economy Revitalization Act.
• Click here to learn more about the Creative Economy Revitalization Act and how you can take action to help turn the bill into law.
• Click here to access toolkits and resources to take action on social media, letters to the editor, and other ways.

Let’s follow Nataki’s lead and let our voices be heard!

The post Help artists lift people out of the darkness appeared first on Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon.

• Re-electing existing board members and electing new board members
• Electing board officers
• Going over 2021 financials and approving 2022 budget
• Reviewing the 2021 annual report, communications report, OCF federal advisory funding plan
• Hearing policy committee and CAC foundation formation reports
• Receiving member updates

You can view the annual report here.

The post Annual report appeared first on Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon.

Many new faces and emerging new leaders will be replacing several long-time legislators including Speaker Kotek, Sen. Johnson, and Rep. Post. These changing political dynamics are overlaid with the coming election season and another COVID surge, which will probably mean a mostly virtual legislative session.

Despite these hurdles, we are thrilled to be working with Rep. Rob Nosse (D-Portland) to bring forward a bill in the short session. Rep. Nosse is requesting an additional $50M in funding to support arts and cultural organizations negatively affected by the pandemic.

We have been working closely with Rep Nosse to articulate eligibility requirements for the grant program that will administered through Business Oregon if the bill passes.

For this legislative session and the rest of the year, our priorities in 2022 are:

• Ensuring 2021 American Rescue Plan Act funding is distributed quickly to the arts and culture sector
• Advocating for additional funding support to the sector
• Supporting the renewal of special assessments for historic preservation
• Addressing construction challenges for cultural capital projects

This handout has more details about each of these legislative priorities.

We appreciate your support and feedback throughout this process. You can make our advocacy efforts more powerful by sharing how the pandemic has affected your organization. Send your thoughts by email.

Our legislators need to hear from you.

We need EVERY VOICE right now.

For example, our board president, JS May, reached out to gubernatorial candidate and former state senator Betsy Johnson after reading her Willamette Week interview in which she expressed concerns that funds for independent venues may not have been a good use of recovery funding.

In their follow-up conversation, Betsy clarified her position and corrected the article. She mentioned her long-time support for arts and culture (as a recipient of the Governor’s Art’s Award). She was not concerned about the rescue fund investments in nonprofit arts and cultural organizations, which have extensive public accountability mechanisms through their boards and public reporting. Instead she was concerned about for-profit venues receiving rescue funds because they do not have similar accountability mechanisms.  Betsy ended by saying she has been and will continue to be a strong supporter of arts and culture in Oregon.

Join us and contact your lawmakers to share your experiences as a stakeholder in the arts & culture community during the pandemic.

Happy New Year,

CACO Board

The post 2022: Working toward a better year for Oregon’s arts & culture community appeared first on Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon.