GRANTS

RACC funds help keep the stage lights on, creativity flowing

WITH VOTERS' APPROVAL of the Arts Education & Access Fund, RACC will soon be charged with awarding record new funds in new ways. But in the meantime, grant monies for 2012-13 set a few records of their own.

The largest chunk of funds, more than $1.7 million, was awarded last summer in the form of general operating support grants to 48 local arts organizations, including four first-time recipients: Bag&Baggage, NW Documentary Arts and Media, the Independent Publishing Resource Center (IPRC), and PHAME Academy. These grants are not for mere ideas or startups— to qualify, organizations need to have been in existence for three years, maintained $80,000 or more in eligible income for at least two years, and meet other strict eligibility requirements. The inclusion of the Hillsboro-based theater company Bag&Baggage is a marker of “the increased support and advocacy” in Washington County, says grants officer Ingrid Carlson. And grants officer Helen Daltoso points out that this year’s group of newcomers all show strong community impact, as well as artistic programming. Among the work that both IPRC and NW Documentary are doing is giving individuals the skills and the tools to tell their own stories, while PHAME is serving a unique population engaging adults with developmental disabilities in the fine and performing arts.

An additional 66 organizations (including schools) and 94 individual artists received $732,440 in project grants in December of 2012 for work to be produced in 2013. At five percent higher than the previous year, it’s the largest sum awarded yet for project grants – and helped meet the 12 percent increase in applications— at 352, another record. Daltoso credits the increases to several key efforts: “We believe that our outreach activities and online application process have been very successful in helping us support so many new applicants.” She also says that RACC’s ongoing artist workshop series, free grant orientation sessions, and the bimonthly artists’ meet-up event, Art Spark, have all made a difference.

Some seventy volunteers staffed 18 peer-review panels to evaluate project applications. Funded efforts to look forward to in the coming year include Opera Theater Oregon’s The Cunning Little Vixen, staged in a Sauvie Island barn, and comedy classes through the Clackamas County’s branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness designed to serve people with chronic mental health issues. Carlson points out that the grants also help people wrap up longterm projects, like finishing a film that’s been years in the making or publishing a zine anthology.

RACC’s professional development grants focus on growth and were awarded to 65 individuals and 16 groups in 2012 – they split nearly $100,000 between the spring and fall grant cycles. These funds, sometimes just a few hundred dollars, are used for marketing materials, websites, or business classes. Many recipients also use the funds for education in their field, to study with a mentor, or travel for exhibitions or conferences—any way to take their work or their career to the next level. Daltoso says, “to have the opportunity to engage audiences outside of Oregon and speak to people about your work is a pretty big deal.”

Carlson and Daltoso are looking forward to the new opportunities that will come with the Arts Education & Access Fund. “This fund will help us serve an ever-increasing, diverse pool of applicants, and provide critical resources to help arts organizations provide more access to their programs,” says Daltoso. The overarching question for RACC: “How do we effectively and efficiently use these funds to benefit the entire community?”