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OREGON DAYS OF CULTURE
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www.oregondaysofculture.org
| Portland Tribune & Community Newspapers |
September 26 - 28, 2012
By Christina Lent
Pamplin Media Group
The Oregon College of Art and Craft has a
gift of providing inspiration for growing art-
ists of all ages and helping them discover the
creative spirit that resides within.
With the help of a $1,990 grant from the
Cultural Coalition ofWashington County, the
college offered its popular Jordan Schnitzer
Family Art Adventures Program, allowing
elementary through high school students to
step into the college’s professional studios
and explore a new world of artistic possibili-
ties.
“It is important to expose children to art
and get them started in a life of creating,”
said Jeffrey Baker, OCAC’s community pro-
grams coordinator. “We provide them with
art experiences that stay with them.
“We facilitate new possibilities in people’s
lives,” he added. “We want to empower peo-
ple to be creative.”
Those are goals the Oregon Cultural Trust
wholeheartedly embraces.
Bob Speltz, chairman of the board for the
Oregon Cultural Trust, said supporting edu-
cation and lifelong learning is a large and
important part of the statewide private-public
program’s work.
“It’s why leaders inOregon set up the trust
over a decade ago,” Speltz said. “We all un-
derstand and acknowledge that the arts, hu-
manities and heritage have an important and
impactful role in education — regardless of
your age, where you live or your cultural
background.
“The trust is proud to support dozens of
organizations across the state that bring edu-
cation and other learning opportunities to all
corners of the state. The reality is learning
and education don’t just take place in school
classrooms. The opportunities for learning
can take place on a stage, inside a historymu-
seum, through dance or other performing
arts.”
In order to carry out the organization’s
mission, the Oregon Cultural Trust provides
annual funding to the state’s 36 county cul-
tural coalitions and six tribal cultural coali-
tions. Those coalitions then award grants to
local cultural nonprofits, supporting the arts,
heritage and humanities.
The trust estimates that it has servedmore
than 500,000 youth and lifelong learners in
the last decade — between access to arts, in-
school artist residencies, after-school pro-
grams and funding for community classes
— usually through the county coalitions.
The Cultural Coalition of Washington
County placed particular emphasis on award-
ing grants to programs that bolster education
for children and youth.
AmongWashingtonCounty’s 2012-13 grant
award winners was the newly established
Aloha Community Library Association. A
$2,000 grant funded a twice-weekly summer
reading program for infants through 6-year-
olds, many of whom have little exposure to
books in their homes.
The Willowbrook Center for the Develop-
ment of Human Potential used a $2,000 grant
to fund scholarships for Latino students, al-
lowing them to experience 100 free camp
days.
The Washington County Museum also re-
ceived a $2,000 education-based grant to en-
able its Mobile Museum and trunk show of
local history offerings to visit seven Title 1
schools free of charge.
Other programs aimed at developing fu-
ture professionals also secured funding, in-
cluding a $2,000 award to the Beaverton Sym-
phony Orchestra to provide an avenue for
aspiring classical musicians to achieve recog-
nition in its 2013 Young Artists Competition
and a $1,500 grant to support student techni-
cal internships with the Broadway Rose The-
atre Company in Tigard.
“Knowledge and innovation are keys to the
thriving economic environment of Washing-
ton County,” said Eva Calcagno, director of
WashingtonCountyCooperative Library Ser-
vices and county liaison to the Cultural Coali-
tion of Washington County.
She stressed the importance of education-
related grant giving, saying the county’s co-
alition believes the grants “support the edu-
cation of our next generation of innovators.”
Oregon Cultural Trust plays a large role in education/lifelong learning with grants to fund arts camps at the Oregon
College of Art and Craft.
PHotos Courtesy of stePHen funk
Educational grants open pathways to creativity and
new possibilities of our next generation of innovators
of creativity
CULTURE
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