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Public Program Grants
Grant managers from Oregon Humanities, the Oregon Cultural Trust, Oregon Arts Commission, and Oregon Heritage Commission will present free workshops on applying for arts, heritage, and humanities grants in nine communities across the state this spring. Join us to learn about grants, resources, and services; share your ideas, needs, and initiatives; and connect with other cultural organizations in your area.
The workshops will… Continue reading
Special Projects
Lidia Yuknavitch
In March, the Josephy Center for Arts and Culture in Joseph is celebrating National Women’s History Month with Women’s Art: Women’s Vision, a month-long exhibit of work by more than two dozen local and regional women artists. To complement the exhibit, the center is presenting a series of public events, including readings, discussions, and film screenings, that address women’s art and history. Oregon Humanities is… Continue reading
Special Projects
In August 2013, instructors from the Portland-based music education nonprofit Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls traveled to the small Persian Gulf nation of Bahrain to produce a music camp for girls at the invitation of the United States embassy. The camp, a modified version of the Oregon girls’ empowerment program, included cross-cultural exchange through video and zine-making with Portland students.
On Tuesday, March 11, three of the… Continue reading
Conversation Project
Oregon Humanities is looking for people eager to traverse the valleys, mountains, and deserts of Oregon’s thirty-six counties, bringing neighbors, friends, and strangers together to exchange words and ideas.
Since 2009, the Conversation Project has worked with nearly 200 nonprofits across the state to offer more than 400 discussions on topics as varied as race, land-use policies, gender, censorship, and the future of rural… Continue reading
Think & Drink
Oregon Humanities’ 2014 Think & Drink series, Private, kicks off Wednesday, February 5, with a conversation with author William T. Vollmann.
A prolific writer whose work includes war reporting, nonfiction books on poverty, train-hopping, and Japanese theater, and the National Book Award–winning novel Europe Central, Vollmann has also been the subject of decades of surveillance by the FBI. In a September 2013 essay in Harper’s… Continue reading
Special Projects
Oregon Humanities is a cosponsor of Deschutes Public Library Foundation’s second Author! Author! literary series from November 2013 to June 2014. The series features writers Rebecca Skloot, Sherman Alexie, Cheryl Strayed, and Geraldine Brooks, who will discuss their work, literature, and the writing process.
Tickets for individual events cost $20 to $75, depending on seating. Ticket packages for the whole series are $70 to $260.… Continue reading
Think & Drink
Did you miss one of our happy hour conversations? You can find the audio here.
What's New
Oregon Humanities gratefully acknowledges the supporters who made gifts in 2012. Their generosity allows Oregon Humanities to connect Oregonians to ideas that change lives and transform communities. To view our annual report, please use the embedded reader or download a PDF at the link below.
Idea Lab
On July 26, Governor John Kitzhaber and First Lady Cylvia Hayes delivered a challenge to an audience of Oregon teens and teachers at Oregon Humanities’ 2013 Idea Lab Summer Institute: Work toward a world where happiness is valued alongside financial gain.
“Economic growth and social well-being are not the same thing, necessarily. Economic growth should be a means to an end, not an end to itself,” Kitzhaber said.
In a shared… Continue reading
What's New
The board of directors of Oregon Humanities has named a new executive director of the organization: Adam Davis, who comes to OH from Chicago, where he is the director of the Center for Civic Reflection. He will officially assume his duties August 5.
Davis will be the fifth director of Oregon Humanities since the organization’s founding in 1971. He succeeds Cara Ungar, who left in February to pursue other interests.
As director of… Continue reading
Magazine
For the summer 2014 issue of Oregon Humanities magazine, tell us how, why, when, where you “start.” We want to hear your stories, ideas, thoughts, and arguments about good starts, bad starts, false starts, late starts, head starts,… Continue reading
Magazine
Virginia Lee Burton’s 1943 children’s classic Katy and the Big Snow is set in the fictional town of Geoppolis. On an illustrated map we see a grammar school and a library and a church. Geoppolis has an uptown and a downtown, bus and… Continue reading
Bring Your Own
Oregon Humanities Executive Director Adam Davis says conversation has the power to make us look afresh at who we are and what we do, and do the same for the people around us.
Magazine
I eyed the thirty chairs set up in small circles around the top-floor room of North Portland Library and frowned. That Sunday in February 2012, I would be leading my Conversation Project program “Why Aren’t There More Black People in… Continue reading
Magazine
I stand in the cosmetics aisle at the Rite-Aid on Coburg Road, in my hometown of Eugene, considering options for a tinted moisturizer. I’ve worn eye makeup and a slick of lipstick or gloss since high school, but in my thirties and… Continue reading
How Oregon Humanities Changes Lives
My grandmother taught us not to be afraid to go after knowledge,” says twenty-two-year-old Daniel Smith. This spring, Smith’s family—including his grandmother, McCleda Dixon—watched him graduate from Oregon Humanities’ Humanity in Perspective (HIP) program, a free college course for low-income adults offered in partnership with Reed College and Willamette University.
Current job openings
We are looking for old souls with raw talent, fresh insights, and an insatiable desire to connect Oregonians to new stories, ideas, and perspectives. As an intern, you will be joining a creative, dedicated, curious staff of can-doers. Your role: create, edit, and disseminate all sorts of content that will see the light of day in print and online. Duties may include the following:
• Write… Continue reading
Store
Originally published in 1991, The First Oregonians: Second Edition is revised and expanded for a new generation of Oregonians. It provides a comprehensive view of Oregon’s native peoples from the past to the present. In this remarkable volume, Oregon Indians tell their own stories, with more than half of the book’s chapters written by members of Oregon’s nine federally recognized tribes. Using oral histories and personal… Continue reading
Volunteer
From stuffing envelopes to helping at events, we love our volunteers and appreciate their support.
Thank you for your interest in volunteering for Oregon Humanities. If you would like to take part in one of the opportunities listed on this page, indicate which one on your application. If we don’t have any volunteer opportunities listed, we’ll keep your application on file. If your qualifications and availability meet requirements to… Continue reading