WE ARE PLEASED to share with you a look back at another action-packed year at the Regional Arts & Culture Council, and a glimpse of things to come. As you’ll see throughout this report, 2011 was a year of forward progress on many fronts!

We are excited about our new office space on the North Park Blocks—our home for the next seven years, at least. This location has a strong street presence that will increase visibility and improve access to our services. It’s also affordable, green (certified LEED Gold), and spacious enough for us to work creatively and collaboratively. We look forward to hosting gatherings large and small, and being a welcoming place for our constituents to visit.

One of our major goals this past year has been to work toward equity and inclusiveness in the arts, and ensuring that RACC’s services and resources are being made available to an increasingly diverse regional population. We have made great strides and will continue to move this agenda forward with help from our funded organizations and other strategic partners.

Having surpassed our fundraising goal again last year for Work for Art, the workplace-giving program continues to steam ahead toward its 2012 target of $850,000—supplementing grants to arts organizations and sending happy contributors off to performances with their Arts Cards. 

The Right Brain Initiative has added six new schools and one new school district, which moves us toward our ultimate goal of providing arts education in every K–8 classroom across three counties.

The public art staff—perpetually in motion managing dozens of projects—is looking forward to the opening of the new streetcar line, which will include three major, monumental art installations on the east side. These will be unlike any public art in Portland thus far. 

Our grants team continues to see a growing number of applications of all kinds, especially in Clackamas and Washington Counties, both a sign of our outreach in these areas and an indicator of the need for increased advocacy to build more support for artists and organizations there.

And, finally, we recognize the hard work and productive collaborations that have been taking place to build the Creative Advocacy Network. CAN is moving us ever closer to securing dedicated funding for the arts and arts education in the city of Portland—a game changer for our community.

To all who have contributed to these and other successes in 2011, we thank you. With your help, we can build the movement and accomplish even more in the year ahead.