Okay.
Lindsey: got it.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Hello! Welcome, folks. We're we'll get started in a few minutes. We want to wait for more folks to arrive.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Nice to see so many folks here.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): we're still gonna wait just a couple more minutes. There were a lot of folks who are Svp's. So we wanna
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): allow folks time to.
Thanks for your patience.
I'm a a
The.
and
you're
the
and
the
you're
to.
You're you're
the A.
The.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Okay.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Let's get started.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Want to make sure we have time for some
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): for you all to weigh in. Good evening. My name is Tony Tabor Roberts. We myself and Sebastiani Ganesan, who is my co-facilitator facilitator tonight, are here tonight to learn from you.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): We are members of the steering committee of the our creative future cultural planning process and project, and the steering committee actually includes a diverse group of folks who are representative of all parts of the arts and culture community and creative community. Across the 3 counties, and we have been enlisted to support this planning process
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): supported the community engagement portion and also in developing this cultural arts plan that we are currently working on. And so
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): the reason we're here is there have been some significant changes in the ecosystem recently, and we wanted to be sure to have an opportunity for you, all our community, to to weigh in on things. Since this news has happened. So we'll we'll share a little bit more about what we know later on. But first we wanted to have a few introductory items.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: Hi, everyone! We just wanna acknowledge that we're joined by Eric
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: and Mallory from the Metropolitan Group.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: Yes. wait, thank you, Mallory.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: and Marlena from the cultural planning group all the way from Atlanta. Thank you for
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: doing this late at night, Marlena, the cultural, and they're both part of the consultant team who are supporting this cultural planning process.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: We're also joined by our Asl interpreters. Kayla
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: and Nicole. Nicole is interpreting right now.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: And also at this moment we want to say you're welcome to use the closed captioning that is available through zoom, and you can turn it on at any time to support your participation in this conversation.
Great.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): So the our creative future project will provide a cultural plan which will be a vision to shape the future of arts and culture in the creative economy. In our region. This Cultural Arts Planning project began in November of last year, 2,022, and for the first 10 months we did a lot of community engagement and received a lot of input from
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): folks across the tri-county area. And so we are currently deep in building the first draft.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): a cultural arts plan that we will actually be sharing with the community and to you all for input this coming November. And so we'll have more details on this, as the conversation continues.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): and we'll have a little bit more about the process. Marlena will share. you know, in a few minutes, but Suba is going to share a land acknowledgement.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: Thank you and Tony. There is a note in our chat that says the sound for some speakers is low. so we will. We will do our best to
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: increase our volume here.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: So the land I am speaking from is the historic homelands of the Chinook, Maltnom.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: Clackamas, Kalapuya, Malala, and the Watlala Cascade peoples. Today their descendants are primarily members of the Grand Ron and Cilet's Confederate tribes which Chinook and other tribal relations at Warm Springs.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: Yakima and the Chinook nation. A number of native American individuals and groups own land. In Montnoma County on modern terms.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: In the nineteenth century African descended. People were officially prohibited from residence in the Territory, and later the State of Oregon, and only gradually gained access to citizenship rights like voting and property ownership.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: In addition to banning the institution of slavery. The Oregon State Constitution of 1859 contained explicit provisions for free black, residential exclusion and limitations on political rights.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: These constitutional provisions were not rescinded until the 1920 s.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: Since the 1830 S. Migrants and contract laborers from across the Pacific rim, including the Kanaka Maori people from Hawaii, Chinese people, notably from Guantong Province. Japanese individuals and families and men and women from the Philippines, have faced exclusions in economic and civic life in the Us.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: Although never subjected to immigration restrictions or quotas, like the Chinese Exclusion Act or the Johnson Reed Act of 1924 Mexican nationals, and your highly volatile legislation
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: and enforcement practices that together reinforce their status as a temporary or reserve labor force in the service, and agricultural sectors of the United States.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: These historical discriminatory practices have unfortunately not disappeared, but have manifested in contemporary ways throughout our region.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: It is important to acknowledge these layered struggles over land, use, citizenship rights and social belonging, and for each of us to consider how we can authentically and actively, actively create and our support systems that center justice and liberation.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: This is a shortened
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: acknowledgement piece, and I'm putting the URL in the chat for those who are interested in the long version. Thank you.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Thanks, Suba.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): So I'm going to try to speak up. I think my audio has been a bit low. I want to take a few moments to go over the agenda for tonight.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): First of all, we'll hear from Eric a little bit about the tech tools and some tips to support us through. This time we have a large group, and we want to make sure we have a good opportunity to have folks engage.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): and then Marlena will offer an overview of the planning process to date and a snapshot of some of the initial findings that we're looking at as a steering committee. As we develop the plan
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): after that presentation sub and I will share a little bit of what we know about the changes in the ecosystem that has led us to this community conversation.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): And then we'll actually have a chance to enter into sort of a community work session, where you will be invited to share your thoughts on 3 key questions.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): and this will partly be done through the magic of technology. And so we'll share a little bit more in just a moment where you'll get an opportunity to to check out this technology for engaging you in this conversation. And then, lastly, we'll have an opportunity for folks to actually speak up and have a facilitated conversation on what's resonating in this work session period.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): And of course there is a large group, so we won't be able to hear from everyone. But we hope to hear some diverse groups of voices in that space. So before I introduce Eric, I did want to invite you all to to live into 2 community aspirations that we want to offer for our time together tonight. The first one is to please, be respectful to the diverse perspectives and the diverse ways of knowings that that we have in this room.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): And then the second aspiration that we invite you to is to share space and make room for different voices.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): So thank you for working towards these aspirations with us tonight. We'll remind you of these also later on, when we get into our work session. So, Eric.
can you take it away?
Eric Block: Thanks, Tony, welcome. Good evening. Everyone. I wanted to just talk through the technology we'll be using tonight. Suba had mentioned that we have captions available
Eric Block: those are accessed by clicking on the more button on the bottom of your zoom screen. If it's not showing up. It should say, captions. That also provides automatic translation and real time translation, transcription. If that's a value to you
Eric Block: you can chat chat questions to the group. You can also use the Zoom. QA. Function. If you want to send the Co. Host here a private message or a private question we will do our best to speak slowly and to introduce who's speaking throughout the process.
Eric Block: I will also use a tool tonight that's called Aha Slides. And this is similar to Menti. If you've ever used Menti, it allows for anonymous input and creates real time word clouds for the group. So we'll access this via a link in the chat and will also share out a QR code on the screen. If you'd like to access that through your phone or through your tablet
Eric Block: so that Tony back to you.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Thank you. Great. So we wanna actually give you a chance to share with us now through the Aha slides. So we're going to share a slide because we want to find out who is here, who is in this room? Who are you? So this is your opportunity to share any identities you'd like to such as your role affiliation in the arts and culture ecosystem, your racial or ethnic identity.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): geographic location, any identities you feel like are relevant to your participation in this conversation today. So you can go to that website which we're going to add to the chat. Or you can actually
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): use that QR code to access the site with your phone.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): you have a minute and a half to enter your information.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Can we share that link in the chat, please?
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Oh, okay, we did. Thank you.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Great. We're already seeing
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): quite a diverse range of folks.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Curator.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Philippinex.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): mother woman of color.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): native Oregonian
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): head of accessibility
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): artists, of course, I'm glad to see we have artists, so I believe that the larger the word is. Probably folks more than one folk are answering with that
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): arts worker.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: I'm also seeing Clackamas County Resident. Yes. Community advocate.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: Elder.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: Okay, a. EAF. Oversite committee.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Okay.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Wonder of a youth theater.
Great.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Thank you all for sharing
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): a lot of different voices. Thank you.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): I would like to now introduce
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): one of our consultants from the cultural planning group. Marla Marlena Rees is going to share a few slides for us and information. Thank you, Elena.
Marlena Reese (she/her): Hello, everyone. Marlena. Here she her? I am one of the consultants on the leadership team and really excited to be in the call tonight to share just a little bit about what we've been working on thus far.
David Plentner, Saunders
Marlena Reese (she/her): and Linda Flynn, our other consultants, and they're on site at another conversation tonight.
Marlena Reese (she/her): I. I'm just gonna take a few minutes to go through some initial data and findings. But we want you to know that there are lots more resources on the our creative future website. We'll drop that into the chat for you all to take a look at this evening and at your leisure and to also share with community members.
Marlena Reese (she/her): And that there's a lot more data that we will want we will share. We want to share with you, and more full data conversations will be available in the coming weeks and months.
Marlena Reese (she/her): So, starting last November.
Marlena Reese (she/her): we began engaging in a range of research endeavors
Marlena Reese (she/her): from community engagement discussion groups, focus groups. Among various community members. Nonprofits. Cbos.
Marlena Reese (she/her): We also conveyed a arts demand analysis.
Marlena Reese (she/her): Where we
Marlena Reese (she/her): we're able to gain a good portrait of the demographics in the regional community
an arts grant-making review.
Marlena Reese (she/her): We are looking at a statistically valid public opinion survey and a community survey. That was offered
Marlena Reese (she/her): through an online tool and other channels
Marlena Reese (she/her): for individuals, individual community members to share their information and experiences.
Marlena Reese (she/her): The engagement sessions also include these
Marlena Reese (she/her): collaborators. And we've been really excited to continue to gather more information as various groups weigh in and want to be part of the process.
Marlena Reese (she/her): So tonight, I'm just gonna share a little bit about what we have heard and how we are beginning to pull the data together. These and other data is what we will present and have been presenting to the steering committee. We met just last weekend, this past weekend to begin to structure goals
Marlena Reese (she/her): and priorities, as well as strategies that will include, cocreate and include in the plan.
Marlena Reese (she/her): So individual artists and creatives have shared a range of things, and we wanna just show share a little bit of some of the
Marlena Reese (she/her): the most relevant highlights here. they're facing challenges with affordable housing and spaces.
Marlena Reese (she/her): Looking for opportunities for networking
Marlena Reese (she/her): wanting advocacy and leadership that will affect their voice and policy and influence and decision making, and that there is a lack of trust and government support for communication with artists.
Marlena Reese (she/her): So as we look at the various communities and try to sort in different ways. Who who is weighing in on various topics?
Marlena Reese (she/her): The in the artist community is certainly one that we are wanting to make sure that we explicitly engage and
Marlena Reese (she/her): incorporate
Marlena Reese (she/her): into the strategies of the plan.
Marlena Reese (she/her): Individual artists and creatives are looking for support services. professional development opportunities. access to greater funding and entrepreneurial opportunities.
Marlena Reese (she/her): We heard from artists and nonprofits. Also about funding. That's a big theme
support for various groups, bipop. Queer immigrant artists.
Marlena Reese (she/her): Stand out
Marlena Reese (she/her): streamlined application processes and reporting mechanisms is also something that came through very strongly. Across several day data sources.
Marlena Reese (she/her): The public opinion survey was distributed across the region.
and showed that 80% of participants somewhat or strongly support an increase in dedicated government funding for the arts.
Marlena Reese (she/her): it also shows that within each county there's a very high level of support.
Marlena Reese (she/her): For the arts across all levels of engagement with with the arts, and we are
Marlena Reese (she/her): defining the arts. Very broadly in this in this plan. And as
Marlena Reese (she/her): and as we see this data
Marlena Reese (she/her): for your kind of comparison. These numbers are higher than we tend to see in other communities. So the appetite in the region for arts and arts activities is is very high, and you can see some of the breakouts by county on this slide
Marlena Reese (she/her): oops.
Marlena Reese (she/her): As we move forward.
Marlena Reese (she/her): We will have coming up in November open virtual community meeting to share initial research findings, initial research and findings as the steering committee, continues to draft and develop strategies that we will include in the plan.
Marlena Reese (she/her): Over the next few months we will
Marlena Reese (she/her): begin to draft and finalize the cultural plan.
Marlena Reese (she/her): share that draft of the plan with community members, organizations, various individuals for comments and revision. As we wanna make sure that the
Marlena Reese (she/her): the way that we're interpreting and way that we're making sense of of the data is a shared understanding. We want to incorporate any revisions and changes.
Marlena Reese (she/her): and then moving into spring of 2024 presentations to various
Marlena Reese (she/her): counties and cities for their adoption, for their understanding, for their incorporation into
Marlena Reese (she/her): their respective jurisdictions.
Marlena Reese (she/her): We also want to note that this project has not for the purposes of of just
Marlena Reese (she/her): this group, and our specifically our conversation this evening was not It was not in the scope of this project to comment on or evaluate rack
Marlena Reese (she/her): and at the same time we recognize that rack is
Marlena Reese (she/her): a core part of the ecosystem in the region, and that decisions around rack certainly affect regional ecosystem for the arts and culture. So we wanna pay really close attention to your thoughts. Your voice, as we continue to kind of look at the big picture of what?
Marlena Reese (she/her): the ecosystem looks like, and be responsive to the individuals.
Marlena Reese (she/her): at various vantage points in the community. So again, I want to. We will use this conversation this evening as another data point. So we encourage you to share to put questions into the chat. We won't have
Marlena Reese (she/her): as much time this evening to answer individual questions, but we will incorporate and take note of those questions and make sure that we find ways to engage. this group and the questions that you might have about the research
Marlena Reese (she/her): moving forward.
Marlena Reese (she/her): Thank you.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: Thank you, Marlena. This is Suba
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: and we are now Tony and I will
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: map out to you what we are seeing as changes in
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: our
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: arts and creative network in our region.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: in July 2023, Portland City, Commissioner Dan Ryan. whose portfolio includes arts and culture, announced that the city of Portland is restructuring its approach to Arts Service delivery.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: and will allow the city's sole source contract with the Regional Arts and Culture Council
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: rack
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: to expire on June thirtieth, 2024,
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: rather than renewing the current contract, the city will develop discrete Rfps request for proposals for certain functions.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: such as grant-making and public arts.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: and other potentially new services to support a growing arts and culture sector.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: The city is also in the process of adapting the City Arts program to becoming an office of arts and culture.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: Currently the City and Commissioner Ryan are conducting various community engagement sessions across the city of Portland.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Thanks, Suba. This is Tony
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Rec. Is engaged in his own community engagement activities.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): and these sessions began in mid-september
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): to bolster community support for what looks like a campaign, to ask the city of Portland to rescind its decision to end the contract. At the end of June of 2024 rack in its FAQ. Web page States.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Our community loses its voice when arts funding decisions are taken inside government agencies. These are community values. The community should continue its role in making decisions free from partisan politics. So we're going to share both of these faqs from the city and from rack in the chat.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: Thank you, Tony. This is Suba again.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: though this is a decision made by the city of Portland, it impacts the whole region.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: What is important to add is that with the city of Portland, bringing its arts and culture funding in house.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: There's still the question of how Clackamus County and Washington County might continue to receive the resources they have been able to gain through this intergovernmental agreement.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: Which basically to distill it. It's through the way rac has operated as a regional arts and culture entity for the last few decades.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): So we know there are a lot of moving parts in this and so many questions that are really still up in the air. We're not going to be able to answer those tonight. But our hope is that today you can tell us what's on your mind, what you're thinking about given these shifts, and that that seem imminent from the city of Portland, through the office of arts and culture and the shifts of the role of the Regional Arts and Culture Council.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): That they might be playing, beginning in July of 2024. And so while there's we know there's a lot of confusion on what exactly is going on. And still a desire to have answers to these questions. We're really trying to focus this conversation on the following plan that that we have time for today. And to really look at this sort of forward thinking,
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): space. So
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: this is suba We invite you into the space with the following aspirations. today
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: is not about hearing from city representatives or from rack representatives
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: today is not about asking for answers or exchanging blame or accusations on what seems to have already passed.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: by which we mean that we are taking a future-facing methodology, where the office of arts and culture comes to pass at the city of Portland.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: and that rac has a new role in our community
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: today is about hearing from you, about the concerns and the opportunities you see given where we are now
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: today is about you informing us
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: us the steering committee of the Regional Cultural Plan Project. What you would like us to consider as we write. And this first draft
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: today is about thinking together
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: and hopefully building a stronger coalition of artists.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: creatives. arts, and culture collectives
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: and organizations.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Great! This is Tony. We are now going to shift gears from us, talking to having an opportunity to to hear from you, to listen to read what you have to say. So we are going to engage in this conversation in a couple of different modes. We're gonna begin by asking you to respond to some prompts by texting you and you'll have a chance to text in your answers.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Great! It sounds like my audio is better. Thank you. I've done some behind the scenes work on my computer. So yes, so we're gonna begin this section by asking you to respond to the prompts and we're gonna go through the prompts one by one. So you'll have a chance to answer each question, and then we're gonna give you some time to read through the other folks. The answers that they're offering.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Then after we go through those 3 questions, we'll actually have an opportunity to come back together. And have a conversation, and have
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): some folks have an opportunity to share their voice in the space. Again. We won't have time for everyone to share. So we appreciate your flexibility and understanding about that limitation. And I just wanna re offer the the time.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): the aspirations that we add at the beginning as well to be respectful to the diverse. I'm sorry. Be respectful to the diverse perspectives and diverse ways of knowing that are existing in this room, and to actually share space and make room for different voices.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Great
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): is it on to me, Tony? Yes.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: woohoo! Okay. So we're gonna go through 3 similar work sessions. Y'all. So the first will be so what will happen is we'll see a new Aha slides screen any moment now.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: And yay, thank you. So the first question we're asking is, what worries you now?
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: about what we're talking about right? Just to really put a fine point on it.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: We'll give you 5 min to do that same activity. And for those who just joined us you have a URL there, or a QR code, and the URL has been put up on chat. If you click through, you now have about 4 min and 30 s to write your thoughts. They will be anonymous, and they will populate this blank canvas
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: as we go.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: so I hope we can begin
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: adding our thoughts.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Can we get some writing music? So we don't have to be an awkward silence.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: So there are about 2 min left for this portion. We have 2 more questions after this.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): You'll also have a time to review and read before we move on.
Hello!
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: So
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: we've just timed out
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: on adding our thoughts to
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: this
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: canvas. We'd like to offer 2 min. And Mallory, our fabulous tech person, is gonna slowly scroll through so that you all hopefully have an opportunity to read
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: and perhaps to reflect on
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: what might be coming up in this large amount of input that connects to what you're thinking about.
or something new.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: And so that's about 2 min of thinking. And like, I said, we'll go on to 2 more questions, where where we will repeat this
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: this plan.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: Okay, I would say, we're winding down, say, about 20 s
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: and moving on to our next question.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: And this question.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: what opportunities do you see now. and we'll do the same thing. 5 min for you to add your thoughts and
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: 2 min for us to read and reflect.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: The time is winding down for input.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: And so we'll once again take 2 min
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: to read what has been offered.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: and, as Tony says
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: in the chat, please make note of themes or ideas
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: that you're seeing and possibly resonating with you.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Mallory, could you go slightly slower? Thank you.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: We have about 10 s to lined down on this question.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: and we're heading into the last question
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: for the evening for us to reflect on before we have
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: a short conversation together.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: So this question, as you can see, it says, is there anything else that you feel? The steering committee needs to know
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: as we begin to draft this first iteration
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: 5 min on the clock
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: got about 15 s left
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: for input into this section.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: and we will repeat the two-minute
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: reflection exercise one more time before
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: we head into
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: a facilitated conversation.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: We have about 30 s left.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: Hmm.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: okay, time is up
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: on this reflecting, there are some questions in the chat. Asking if we can share the slides
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: with the community, because there's a lot
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: of info, and I'm hoping, Eric and Mallory that we can do that. And I believe you've said I would think so. Yes, this is
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: this is for us, so we'll we'll make sure to get it out to you.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: The next section, Tony, go ahead. Yes, this is Tony.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): So we have about
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): half hour and so we want to invite a few folks to share out loud
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): something that's resonating for you from what you have read.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): And again, we won't have time for everyone. The we have 79 people in the room right now, so we don't have time for 79 voices to speak. But we do want to hear from some and hopefully you can also use the chat, and you had a chance to also participate in those slides.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): If you could use the raise hands feature to let us know that you wanna share something with a group. let us know. So the first sort of thing we'd love to hear is just what's resonating from what you've been reading.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Yes, Lisa Lipton.
Lisa Lipton She/Her: Hi, everyone from Opera Theater, Oregon, Newport Symphony, Mendelssohn's I feel like all of the stuff that I'm reading in these answers, and these responses are things that I talk about with arts, administrators, and artists who maybe know a little bit about what's going on from either side. But the general public that I talked to that maybe goes to our shows interfaces with artists.
Lisa Lipton She/Her: Really wants to help. Are you know anything? Art forward has no idea what's going on. And really just in general gets a little nervous when the city is mentioned as maybe steering something in the future. And that's because
Lisa Lipton She/Her: that's never happened before. And there's always been this this divide between maybe. You know, similar to church and State artists, and something very rigid. With a lot of leadership around laws and permits and things like that. And I think that that has a tendency to weave its way into conversations every time something comes up with. Hey? I heard about this thing going on. I'm not really involved in the arts, but somebody that I know who's an artist is really upset about this.
Lisa Lipton She/Her: And then what do you have to tell them? What can you tell them? You can't really tell them very much. So I think, having and clearer plan from the city. And I guess that part of this is teasing it all out. But something anything.
Lisa Lipton She/Her: yeah, it's it's harming not only
Lisa Lipton She/Her: people because they're upset, it's starting to affect how people perceive what's going on
Lisa Lipton She/Her: with art and art. The state of arts in this city and beyond.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Thank you, Lisa.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): So yes, hearing that. The difference between sort of what the arts, community and creative community might know about what's going on with these processes, and what sort of more just supporters might know is different. And also this divide between
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): this community and government entities. Thank you, Mickey.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): You are muted right now, if you happen to be speaking, we can't hear you.
Mickey Ronningen: Okay. But
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): anyway, I like what she was saying about the divide between artists and the community.
Mickey Ronningen: And that's one of the things that the original Metro group really wanted to address.
Mickey Ronningen: that there is no divide. We are all people, and the arts are for everyone. It's not for people who are sophisticated or have have fine art history here took up class. It's for everybody. And I think
Mickey Ronningen: if there was some movement towards breaking down that divide and and recognizing that, yeah, we all need it.
Mickey Ronningen: It's such an uplifting
Mickey Ronningen: element for one's spirit, for one's healing. It's for everybody.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Thank you, Mickey.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Arts, for all right.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Yeah. Who else would like to share? Please use the raised hand feature.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Yes, Matthew.
Matthew Miller (he/him): I just wanna say, thank you for organizing this now. So think it would be really great for us to do a better job advocating and lobbying
Matthew Miller (he/him): on behalf of the arts community.
Matthew Miller (he/him): I don't see it done enough. There's so many of us involved. There should probably be a lobbying day in Salem. where we show up, and the thousands of people employed in this arts and culture sector.
Matthew Miller (he/him): I think too many people think that this is just something that you do for fun and for free, without realizing that it is. You know how many millions, possibly billions of dollars it brings into the State this entire sector, and how important it is. So I just have been thinking about that quite a lot lately.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Great. So more arts advocacy. There actually is, I believe, an advocacy day. But
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): to Lisa's point earlier it's not well known. I think so. There's some information in the chat I think that folks are sharing. Who else would like to share their voice?
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): You can use the raise hand feature if you would like to speak.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Klaus.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): I think we have Klaus. And then Daniel, yeah, Klaus, and then, Daniel
Klaus Heyne: Klaus, if you're speaking, we can't hear you. Can you hear me? Yeah, we can hear you now. I wanted to add to to Matthew's comments. In my experience government officials and elected leaders will not move unless there is really
Klaus Heyne: truly hard-nosed negotiations and consequences to those elected leaders. If they don't do what they need to do. I remember, as part of Portland music we we lobbied for so many things with the city government and and commissioners before the last election.
Klaus Heyne: Nothing came off it. As soon as they were in power. We were just shoved to the side unless elected leader leaders know that there is a consequence to them getting reelected. I don't think much will change in terms of lobbying efforts. Thank you.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Thank you, Klaus. So holding folks accountable, that's what I hear, Daniel.
daniel peabody (he/him): Hi, yeah, thank you. I one of the things that I thought that really struck me. In the presentation before we got to the
daniel peabody (he/him): kind of like commenting was the polling. In all tra all 3 counties, and, historically speaking, the way arts funding has worked in our region is the bulk has come from the city of Portland County, and to see the polling for allocated arts. Funding was actually higher in Washington and Clackamas County, then in Multnomah County seems like an opportunity to me, and I just
daniel peabody (he/him): that sort of shocked me because they, in my experience living in Portland that has consistently been voted against by those counties. So I just thought that was a an item of note, and I just wanted to point it out. As the sort of funding landscape seems to be shifting around us. I think that's something that we should all be paying attention to.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Great. Thank you, Daniel. So yeah, the sort of emerging new funding by at the county level. Thank you.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Who else would like to speak? Please use the raise hand feature so we can see you pop up on our screen.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Hi, Lauren.
Lauren Jost (she/her): Hey? There! I just wanna recognize that there's
Lauren Jost (she/her): attention in the city of Portland.
Lauren Jost (she/her): wanting to make sure that the funding that they're giving to rack is going to Portland artists, and that the city of Portland is like one of their interests in pulling. The contract is to kind of
Lauren Jost (she/her): a
Lauren Jost (she/her): move away from the regional area, but that the housing issue remains that a lot of artists can't afford to live in the city of Portland anymore, and that accessibility to affordable housing. Is still a huge part of what it what is needed to be a working artist in Portland, and I hope the city is recognizing that I also think that
Lauren Jost (she/her): and we can have all of the greatest structures and strategic plans in the world. But if it isn't just. if it doesn't come with increases in funding to make up for the cost of living increases that artists and organizations are
Lauren Jost (she/her): having that we are gonna continue seeing our organizations withering and having to reduce programming and layoff staff and artists
Lauren Jost (she/her): rather than thriving and growing, because the same level of funding just doesn't go as far anymore.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Thank you, Lauren. Yes, funding absolutely. We're hearing a hundred percent. We need more funding all around. So Chris.
Chris Beck: yeah.
Chris Beck: mean, I'm struck by
Chris Beck: the comments. And what I've heard over the last year, too, is how divided the arts community seems to be, and the cities move to
Chris Beck: look at rack again, or unfun temporarily. It's pretty telling how divided the arts community is. That's not helpful. We do. I think everybody wants more money, and we should be focusing everybody's attention on how we can build a coalition, a diverse coalition around new funding sources.
Chris Beck: Might involve legislation in Salem around the tax system regional funding so that we can. So it will be significant funding and not relying disproportionately on city of Portland people? But as long as we're fighting over statues or
Chris Beck: or this or that, whatever it is, age, old grievances, whatever they are, it it's just gonna divide the community and take the eye off the ball which you're polling. And everybody here seems to say we want more money, we should be focusing on having a really robust and and a civic conversation about
Chris Beck: funding and not just we want more money. It's like, where would the funding? What would the tax source be? What would the structure that money be? How would accountability to taxpayer money? Be crafted? And and how would we get support from voters who would ultimately need to to approve it? But all these skirmishes in the weeds around? You know, social issues. And and this group in that group passed, and personalities. It's not helpful.
Chris Beck: So I would hope this process can move us away from the divisiveness and into the common quest, which is more money.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Great thanks, Beck, how can we be more united as a community supporting the arts? Thank you. Lonnie, before I invite you in, I just wanna invite folks who haven't had a chance to speak. Lisa, if you don't mind, we're gonna make space for other folks to share, since you had a chance already. And please I encourage you. If you're not one who typically speaks, this might be a good opportunity. We would love to hear from folks who especially, maybe, aren't always the ones who speak up first.
I also wanna point out in the chat. I'm not gonna say things that are in the chat. I'm just gonna let those kinda exist also as a reference for us. But please do check those comments out as well.
Loni Gray,(she/her): Thank you, Lonnie. Can we hear? Thank you. I love what Chris said. I thought that was wonderful. And what popped to mind when he was talking about coming together was something like
Loni Gray,(she/her): I hate to use the word union. There are really wonderful cooperative types of alliances. But maybe part of our plan should be talking about how we develop a union. So we have a collaborative voice.
Loni Gray,(she/her): so that came from Chris's comments. So thank you, Chris. The things that I wanted to talk about were 2 fold, one and I happen to be starting a a company that I hope can help this happen
Loni Gray,(she/her): live, make housing we don't seem to have a live work or live. Make ordinance in our State. I remember reaching, or at least in the cities that I've I've worked with.
Loni Gray,(she/her): I would love there to be
Loni Gray,(she/her): some framing or guidelines, perhaps about what makers and artists of all kinds need to live and thrive.
Loni Gray,(she/her): it's different. It's different. And tied to that piece. I wanna just sort of reflect back what I've been sort of seeing in in our questions and our groups that the making process, no matter what our art form is takes a great deal longer.
Loni Gray,(she/her): You know, handmade performance come together. Rehearsal time.
Loni Gray,(she/her): Artists take longer. They are entrepreneurs, and they are making something, but their process is protracted, and in it there is an opportunity to make use. If we're comfortable, opening our doors and letting the process and the practices be seen to really invigorate place.
Loni Gray,(she/her): And because of that
Loni Gray,(she/her): we have a great deal of power, and we're kind of being treated and and putting our hand out and saying like beggars, and saying, Give us help us when we have a tremendous power
Loni Gray,(she/her): to educate, to entertain, to to bring economic robustness to the places that we inhabit, so they should be giving us fabulous stuff. So the opportunity to say, if we are willing to be transparent about our practices.
Loni Gray,(she/her): It's a new way to bring ourselves, I think, into the marketplace. And so I'm hoping that between giving us a place to work and a common voice, and a willingness to be transparent about our practices. We might come together more powerfully.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: Thank you, Lonnie. I'm seeing some really great thoughts on the chat around youth and arts education.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: and I'm wondering if there might be some folks who would consider speaking to it in the room.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: just a curiosity.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Yeah. And I did notice also some theme also think building on what Lauren shared about housing live workspaces. Also that Lonnie just shared but yeah, anyone who would like to speak about arts in schools. Erica.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Oh, I'm muted.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Oh, you're still muted. Erica. We can't hear you.
Erica Dally: How are you? But
Erica Dally: got it. I'm very big on art in school, especially at the elementary level. I think we need to reach out to people of that age, and start them with the arts which are so important in creating a person that's knowledgeable and
Erica Dally: well rounded, and works, you know, in society and cares. and I find that
Erica Dally: there is virtually no support, especially financial support. And yet you've got a wealth of interested minds that really take to it. And I'd like to see more attention paid to
Erica Dally: funding, starting, and funding art as a critical component of our children's education. So it's not just reading, writing, arithmetic, but reading, writing, arithmetic, and art.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Great. Thank you for sharing Erica. I also, while we're waiting for other folks to volunteer their voice again, really encouraging folks who maybe don't naturally speak up in these forums. We would love to hear a whole range of voices, but I also wanted to shout out one of our other steering committee members. Who's here? Joe Cantrell. Hi, Joe! Thanks for being here.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): If someone else from the committee is here, please let us know, so we can
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): point you out. Anyone else.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Tony may
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: may I just just wanna pull let you know that
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: Mallory has uploaded the Pdf.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: If you haven't all seen it in the chat, so if you download it, you'll be able to see of your collective thinking.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): be quiet. Okay, great. Maybe you could post that again. Since I think that was a while back, Bruce Fife, can we hear from you?
Bruce Fife (he, him): Yeah, I'm I'm gonna say something that may not be very well received, but II think it's important to stay, which is, we're all for children having arts in the schools. We all believe in that everybody, nobody's going to debate that.
Bruce Fife (he, him): But the funding should be coming from the school system, not from the outside organizations. And so I think, as we look at the arts in our community, I mean the arts tax that is out there now was supposed to fund the arts, not not
Bruce Fife (he, him): not art in the schools, and it got changed at a certain juncture, and so its mandate was changed to put that in place. But I think the schools need to provide the funding for the arts.
Bruce Fife (he, him): and we need to work on the rest of the arts in this other fashion.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Thanks for sharing your perspective, Bruce. I also wanted to shout out to Julie Bunker, who is also on the stream committee who's here? Thank you for being here, Julie.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Hi, Natalia!
Natalya K.: Hi!
Natalya K.: I really appreciate the opportunity to be part of this dialogue, and one of the things that comes to mind is maybe this is a space where the role of artists in the civic capacity is revisited. Portland is such a dynamic place.
Natalya K.: And like I work with Orco, which is immigrant refugee organization. And I'd be curious like what would happen if there was an artist's residency program that's attached to social services organization. Right? So all of these very large issues, mental health
Natalya K.: health systems in general, that we are struggling with what is the role of artists and redefining that what is the role of artists and addressing that, how can that be combined? And I think this broadens the playing field in terms of what kind of funding can be
Natalya K.: applied for can be brought on board. So
Natalya K.: just expanding like our perception of what can art do in the community? What does that mean right now with how technology is changing and how the needs of all of our generations and communities are changing so quickly.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Great. Thank you, Natalia. So arts and artists as part of civic engagement and working on all the issues that are sort of facing our communities. Thank you.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Other voices. I wanna just also offer just another couple of prompts for us to think about so still would love to hear things that are resonating with you. But if there's things that you think are missing. From this conversation. We would love to hear that, too. Or if there's questions that are coming up, we're not necessarily gonna be able to answer these at this moment. But, we are making note and
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): collecting all this information, to be able to to hopefully get some answers and some recommendations moving forward.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): So what's resonating? What's missing?
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): What questions are coming up?
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Other folks wanna speak?
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: There is some exciting things going on in the chat. I just, Tony. I just have to say I've heard a couple of times, or I've seen a couple of times on marketing plans and for educating the public about the arts and and and I'm not sure if we've heard from the sort of
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: what does it mean
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: in terms of the marketing. And what are you know? What should could? What should could we be thinking about here as well? There's another thing that just came up on the chat. How can we get corporations in the Metro area to contribute to arts funding in our community?
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: And and clearly we save these chats and use them. So if if you're putting it in the chat, that's great. But if you'd like to give a little bit more voice to these questions.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: That will be amazing as well.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Yeah. I also wanna share what I've reading about political pressure and how you know that to me is about accountability, and I think some folks mentioned that earlier, but it looks like there's some
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): interest in that and we have Wendy
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Wendy, would you like to share.
Windy Borman: Hi! Y'all
Windy Borman: I had made some comments about marketing. So I'll just help voice some of those great so
Windy Borman: we don't have a centralized Arts journal anymore. You know, journalism and the funding for journalism has just really dwindled in the area and trying to even get on reporters. Radar is challenging.
Windy Borman: people don't watch the news anymore. At least the younger generations don't. So I think we really need to rethink how we're going to market in a centralized way, because a lot of things are happening, and we don't know that we're competing against each other right now for all the events and performances and art that's already happening. So thinking about how we're going to market and advertise art as part of this plan, I would find really helpful.
Windy Borman: and it would be great to figure out how we're going to market these funding opportunities to artists who don't necessarily
Windy Borman: haven't applied before. So they're not on anybody's emails lists. So thank you.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Thanks, Wendy.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: I certainly want to give voice to a comment, saying, I'm looking for who is not here or who is not talking. Seems many bipoc
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: disabled. Deaf artists are not here or not talk or are not talking. I'm wondering how we could make changes that would welcome these important perspectives.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Thank you for pointing those out.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): We are getting to the end here, so we probably have time for one or 2 more comments. If there are folks wanna share.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Okay?
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): I think that seems like we have exhausted the folks who want to share their voice in the space. Oh, actually one more person. Yes.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): MF. Mcauliffe.
M. F. McAuliffe: Oh, thank you for letting me speak
M. F. McAuliffe: I've heard Brian Eno and Pete Townsend say many, many, many times
M. F. McAuliffe: that the great enabling factor of the boom in the arts in the UK. In the sixties was free Arts school
M. F. McAuliffe: people who were going to be artists. They were going to be painters and became musicians instead, like Eno, or they were going to be musicians all along. Like Pete Townsend, they could go to school for free as long as they liked.
M. F. McAuliffe: It gave them a great opportunity to develop, to explore, to gel, to find kindred spirits, to form their groups. And you know, obviously to launch careers.
I think something like that is absolutely essential. I
M. F. McAuliffe: I do not see anything like that in the United States, because it is so against the current notions of how to be an artist, which is to make yourself a mini corporation.
M. F. McAuliffe: And
M. F. McAuliffe: I honestly think it's been a disaster not following some road like that. Not not that we don't have good art. What we don't have is a spread of good art.
M. F. McAuliffe: It is
M. F. McAuliffe: cab and cribbed, confined and corseted in many, many, many ways, and it doesn't have to be
M. F. McAuliffe: so. Thank thank you for letting me speak.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): Thank you for sharing about other places, and the folks have been sharing that in the chat too different ideas that might get inspiration from from other communities. They're making note for sure.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): So we are grateful to you for showing up for engaging and for caring about arts, culture, and creativity in our communities.
and
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): we would love to invite you now to just kind of help us close this conversation with sharing something that you're actually grateful for in the chat as we close, and then, as we do that Suba can share a little bit more about just those next steps that are coming up.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: Thank you again, everybody for being here for engaging and for thinking with us.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: And what's next? In. We talked about this earlier, but just to refresh
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: Fall 2023 November 20, eighth will have an open virtual community meeting to share and discuss research or engagement findings.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: And then, as we head into the winter and spring of 2024. We'll have a finalized draft of the cultural plan
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: community presentations.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: With space for comments on drafts and then cities and counties. Will receive presentations, and we'll we'll find out how they move into adopting this work.
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: I I'm seeing some
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: great responses on the chat, and I would say that I'm really grateful to be in this
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: creative arts and culture community. I feel that we we really do a lot, and even if it is not visible, or if we don't feel
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: that what we're doing is visible, I really hope that
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: there is a way to make what we do visible because we are doing a lot of amazing things, and we keep moving the dial even when things
Subashini Ganesan-Forbes: seem to be obstacles one after the next. So thank you for spending this Thursday evening with us, and we hope that we can stay in touch with you because we're in this together.
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): I always like to close a meeting with everyone getting off their mics and just saying bye in a crazy cacophony. So if you wanna open your mic and say goodbye to everyone who's in the room.
Michelle Gallagher: Alright!
Erica Dally: Are we done?
Toni Tabora-Roberts (she/her): We are fun.