When all volunteers first formed the Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon (CACO) over two decades ago, they did so to ensure policymakers in Oregon understood the importance that arts and culture played in Oregon’s day-to-day life, from its character to its economy. 

Throughout this growth, we had one logo, a lettermark with a “c” and a hidden “a” at the center that often went unseen. While the mark served us for more than 10 years, our board of directors and staff recognized that we were due for a change. 

We sought to create a more engaging and contemporary logo to represent our organization in the many years ahead. Our approach was to be straightforward and consider longevity, something that could literally expand to represent and include the organizations and diverse people and missions we advocate for. But how could one logo say it all? The Coalition’s membership stretches from the Willamette Valley to the Coast and the High Desert, representing dancers, theaters, artists, museums, libraries, historical societies, orchestras, and other musical outlets. We also needed a mark that Oregon policymakers would recognize and enjoy seeing in the hundreds of emails and letters we send each legislative session. 

Our board of directors and staff also realized it was finally time to update our name to include our place, Oregon. We are now the Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon, aka CACO (pronounced by each letter “C” “A” “C” “O”). 

Our new mark today represents who CACO is: Trusted, Experienced, Growing & Necessary. The new logo is a reinvigoration of our past, a style that is not overly sleek, as trends come and go, but true to our mission in advocating and forging meaningful relationships with Oregon’s legislature in ensuring policymakers support equitable and inclusive processes in funding and policies for a thriving cultural sector. We can now expand the lines of our logo, just as we do in our work, to include real images of the thousands of organizations and people working to make Oregon a more vibrant place. 

“At a time when people are coming together to acknowledge the importance of the cultural sector, we want Oregon to see CACO as the dynamic, advocacy leader we’ve always been,” said CACO Senior Advisor Sue Hildick. “Whether it’s by inspiring and teaching people how to talk to their legislator for the first time, or sharing the importance of arts in their life, we’re looking forward to building a larger network of cultural advocates from all walks of life.” 

Join us in creating a thriving environment for arts, culture, history, heritage, and humanities across the state of Oregon.

Captions & Photo Credits:
Building – Sovereign Hotel in downtown Portland. Photo by Sally Painter. | Provided by Restore Oregon 
Dancers – Makino Hayashi with Christopher Kaiser in William Forsythe’s “In the Middle Somewhat Elevated”  – Yin Yi Photography. | Oregon Ballet Theatre
Falcon – Peregrine falcon. Photo by Abbott Schindler. | High Desert Museum

Our Equity Commitment

The Coalition is committed to cultural equity and strives to embody values, policies, and practices that ensure that all people—including but not limited to those who have been historically underrepresented based on race, ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, socioeconomic status, geography, citizenship status, or religion—are represented in the development of arts policy; the support of artists; the nurturing of accessible, thriving venues for expression; and the fair distribution of programmatic, financial, and informational resources.

Land Acknowledgement

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 New Look, Same Coalition appeared first on Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon.

The post Oregon’s Arts & Culture Have Not Been Cancelled appeared first on Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon.

Media Release (DOWNLOAD PDF) 

621 organizations awarded $25.7 million in Coronavirus Relief Fund Cultural Support grant awards
Salem, Ore. – Coronavirus Relief Fund Cultural Support (CRFCS) grant awards totaling
$25.7 million will be distributed to 621 cultural organizations across Oregon through a partnership between the Oregon Cultural Trust and its County and Tribal Cultural Coalitions. The funds, allocated to the Cultural Trust for Oregon cultural organizations facing losses due to the COVID-19 health crisis, were made available through a $50 million relief package for Oregon culture approved by the Emergency Board of the Oregon Legislature in July.
“Many cultural organizations and institutions have closed their doors to help keep us all safe during this pandemic. These grants will mean that more than 600 Oregon arts and culture organizations across our state’s counties and Tribes will be able to keep up their vital creative work,” said Governor Kate Brown. “Everything from museums to fairgrounds to the summer events we all know and love can continue to enrich our lives—connecting us to one another and giving us the hope and inspiration we need.”
“These funds are life blood to Oregon’s cultural community,” added Chuck Sams, chair of the Cultural Trust Board of Directors. “While they won’t replace all the losses suffered during the pandemic, they will ensure Oregon culture survives this crisis. We are deeply grateful to the Oregon Legislature for making this possible.”
The largest award is $1.4 million to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry; the average grant award is $41,458. Just under $90 million in requests were received from 751 organizations; 130 organizations were ineligible for awards based on program guidelines.
“Due to the incredible need, we were able to fund a percentage of organizations’ eligible expenses,” said Brian Rogers, Cultural Trust executive director. “Smaller organizations received a higher percentage of their eligible expenses. The final awards represent a statewide, equitable distribution plan that was approved by our Board of Directors, the Governor’s Office, Business Oregon and our legislative sponsors.”
The organizations to receive funding include cultural institutions, county fairgrounds, cultural entities within federally recognized Indian Tribes based in Oregon, festivals and community event organizations, in addition to some for-profit organizations that have significant cultural impact in their communities. Awards will be issued directly to the organizations by their local County or Tribal Coalition.
Funding was determined based on eligible request amounts, an award allocation formula that established a base amount of funds per county or Tribe and the organization’s fiscal size. COVID-19 expenses previously reimbursed by other federal CARES Act programs were not eligible.
The intended use of the CRF Cultural Support funds is to provide financial assistance to cultural nonprofit organizations and community venues that have canceled or postponed public programming because of public health executive orders associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Guidelines for the funding are in accordance with the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
The legislation allows Coalitions to be reimbursed for up to 5 percent of their total grant awards for documented administrative expenses. Requests from Coalitions for administrative expenses totaled $209,515.
Below is a list of funds awarded per county; the full list of grant awards (listed alphabetically by county) is posted on the Cultural Trust website.
NOTE: No applications were submitted from Gilliam County and the Tribes chose not to apply due to previously received CARES Act funding. Washington County, which serves as the fiscal agent for the Cultural Coalition of Washington County, chose not to participate in the CRFCS program; the Cultural Trust is currently working to identify potential solutions.

About the Oregon Cultural Trust
Created in 2001 by the Oregon Legislature, the Oregon Cultural Trust is a testament to how much Oregonians value culture. No other state provides a 100 percent tax credit to inspire cultural giving. As uniquely Oregonian as public beaches and the bottle bill, the Oregon Cultural Trust was designed as an ongoing funding engine for arts and culture across the state.
Oregonians fund the Cultural Trust. We, in turn, fund the artists, potters, poets, acrobats and dreamers who define our famous quality of life.
In 2019 Oregonians gave $4.5 million to the Cultural Trust. Sixty percent of that went straight back to the field. The remaining 40 percent helped grow our permanent fund. Our three grant programs fund our five Statewide Partners, 45 County and Tribal Coalitions and 1,450+ qualified cultural nonprofits through competitive Cultural Development Grants.
More information at culturaltrust.org.

The post Cultural Support Grant Awards appeared first on Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon.

Become a Coalition member today.   

Dr. Nancy Golden
President, Cultural Advocacy Coalition
P.S. Organizational memberships depend upon annual budget size: $100 ($0-$99,999); $250 ($100,000 – $499,999); $500 ($500,000 – $999,999); $1,000 ($1,000,000 – $1,999,999); $2,500 ($2,000,000 – $3,999,999), $5,000 ($4,000,000 – $5,999,999) and $7,500 ($6,000,000+). Individual memberships start at $50 for “Friend of the CAC” and continue up to $1,000 for “Benefactor”.
 

The post Have you joined the Coalition yet? appeared first on Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon.

An urgent update on the legislative process: WE NEED YOUR HELP in the remaining two months of this session.

The grants program of the Oregon Arts Commission is under threat and may see cuts of over $400,000 in the next biennium if we aren’t able to convince legislators to add more general fund dollars to this critical agency budget. There are many competing state priorities but we know where Oregonians stand on strategic investments in the arts—the majority of our residents believe arts and culture are important to local business and the economy, and that arts and culture are important to overall quality of life.
Art is not a luxury…it is a practice that changes people; that builds people; that strengthens our civic fabric. Due to rising administrative costs, and budgets that have not kept pace with inflation, the squeeze of resources will come not only from administrative cutbacks but from reductions in existing grant programs. Grants will get smaller and it will take longer for dollars to reach our artists, collaborators and organizations.

Now is the time to raise your voice for the Arts, for Culture, for Heritage, for Humanities…for Oregon.
We ask two things:
1) Please contact your legislator and ask them to hold harmless the grants budget of the Oregon Arts Commission by providing an additional $400,000 in general fund dollars to cover the administrative shortfall.
2) Become a member of the Cultural Advocacy Coalition, if you haven’t already, so we can show the capitol building the force of advocates who represent Oregon’s commitment to the best quality of life we can achieve.A small investment here will impact so many of our pressing issues. Now is the time.
 

The post Oregon's Arts & Culture are Still Under Threat appeared first on Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon.