2024
Public Program Grants
In May 2024, Oregon Humanities awarded $102,005 in funding to thirteen organizations in support of programs that explore challenging questions and strive for just communities. We are grateful to this year’s grant review committee, which consisted of board members, staff members, and community members from different parts of the state.
Black Cultural Initiative (Eugene)
$10,000 for Sundown Across the Bridge, a series of events about the first five Black pioneer families in Eugene that will employ dialogue, storytelling, teaching, and exhibit connectivity, to cultivate intergenerational connectivity and understanding of the families’ history and cultural legacy.
Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland (Wallowa)
$10,000 for Nez Perce Cultural Awareness Program Series, a six part series of in-person and online gatherings that encourage conversation, connection, community, and healing through learning, storytelling, and celebration of the Indigenous people and practices native to wal'awa.
Oregon Remembrance Project (Portland)
$10,000 for the Sunrise Project Speaker Series. This funding will support a series of community dialogues on issues pertaining to former sundown towns developing new identities as sunrise communities.
Rogue Action Center (Phoenix)
$10,000 to support the coordination, preparation and implementation of the Queer Indigenous Convening 2025.
Natives of One Wind Indigenous Alliance/Red Earth Descendants (Ashland)
$9,000 for Indigenous Pathways to Wellness, a series of decolonization projects, including educational hands-on workshops, healing historical trauma, two summer Sundance ceremonies, Indigenous Peoples' Day at Southern Oregon University, and ongoing youth leadership development.
Community Alliance of Lane County (Eugene)
$8,500 to support Radio Juventud / Youth Radio "BIPOC Heroes" Series, a bilingual youth-led radio series in which youth interview BIPOC community leaders. The radio series will culminate in a community celebration honoring interviewees and helpers.
Conexión Fénix (Otis)
$8,500 to support Dia de Los Muertos/Catrina at the Beach. The Lincoln City Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead celebration unites the community with authentic Hispanic culture through altars, music, food, and a fabulous parade of Catrinas.
Anima Mundi Productions (Phoenix)
$7,500 for 'Dreams Have No Borders' Community Discussion Series, a sequence of free, facilitated, intergenerational conversations where Southern Oregon Latinx immigrants can share their lived experiences with the public and be heard and supported.
Springfield Public Library Foundation (Springfield)
$7,000 fror ILLUMINATION, an exhibit and related programming that centers oral history and dialogue around the American Indian/Alaska Native experience in Springfield and rural east Lane County.
RASIKA Society for Arts of India (Hillsboro)
$6,375 for Shadows From Within': Immigrant Storytelling, a storytelling narrative project exploring the agency of minority South Asians who immigrated to Oregon following the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act.
Chehalem Cultural Center (Newberg)
$5,130 to support intergenerational book clubs with art activities that center voices from Black, Indigenous, Latine, South Asian, Arab and LGBTQIA2S+ communities.
Historic Alberta House (Portland)
$5,000 for Bust of York Public Monument: A Community Conversation. This funding will support a community discussion about the Bust of York, public monuments, the effects of slavery on identity erasure, personal identity, and changing views of historical "truth."
Wallowa Land Trust (Enterprise)
$5,000 for Wallowa Gathering. This funding will support Nez Perce, Cayuse, Walla Walla and Umatilla peoples returning to their ancestral Homelands in Wallowa County to gather First Foods and medicines on privately- owned lands.
Mini Grants for Rural Libraries
In February 2024, we awarded a total of $48,012 in grant funding to rural and rural-serving libraries. This funding will allow libraries across Oregon to create and host humanities events that are meaningful to their communities. Our 2024 theme for this grant is Fear and Belonging.
Bandon Public Library (Bandon)
$3,000 to support two community storytelling events featuring individual stories about Fear and Belonging.
North Plains Public Library (North Plains)
$5,000 to support a three-part cultural series featuring the stories of immigrants who have relocated to Oregon, encapsulating the multifaceted experiences of leaving one's homeland, facing uncertainties, seeking a sense of belonging in a new environment, and contributing to Oregon’s cultural fabric while navigating the complexities of identity and acceptance.
Columbia Gorge Community College Library and Learning Commons (The Dalles)
$5,000 to support two social justice-focused events in the popular lunch-and-learn program Let's Taco ‘Bout It, cohosted by the college’s Library and Learning Commons and the Equity through United Action League (EQUAL) club. The first event will be Going Beyond Land Acknowledgements in Higher Education. The second will be Celebrating Pride Week: Cross-Movement Organizing.
Cottage Grove Public Library (Cottage Grove)
$3,500 for two events that will use food and folklore to provide an opportunity for people to come together, share their stories, and to grow our understanding of why people migrate—and the many ways that communities benefit by providing a welcoming and engaging experience for newcomers.
Harney County Library Foundation (Burns)
$2,400 for four events in the speaker series "Finding Common Ground,” which engages the community around collaborative approaches to solving conflicts centered around management of the natural environment and natural resources. These management activities are central to communities' social and economic fabric but are perceived differently by different ethnic and socioeconomic groups, often leading to conflicts rooted in mutual mistrust and fear.
Josephine Community Library Foundation (Grants Pass)
$5,000 for three community listening sessions, guided by an independent facilitator, exploring what features and services in a new library will meet the community needs and create a secure and comfortable public space. Creating this sense of belonging and safety for every library visitor is paramount as the library begins to plan its future Grants Pass space.
Lane Library District (Creswell)
$2,500 for two public events featuring Kalapuyan tribal members, exploring aspects of belonging. Events will include an introductory talk by each presenter, followed by dialogue, sharing, and questions by attendees.
McMinnville Public Library (McMinnville)
$3,620 for a community event featuring author and poet Shane McCrae, cohosted by the McMinnville Public Library, Linfield University, and Third Street Books. McCrae's book, Pulling the Chariot of the Sun: A Memoir of a Kidnapping, explores issues of race in the local community and beyond.
Mt. Angel Public Library (Mt. Angel)
$5,000 for five events about the award-winning children’s book Wonder by R. J. Palacio, which advocates for nurturing a culture of kindness, friendship, and inclusion. The library will offer the book, in English and Spanish versions, for youth, homeschool, and adult book discussion groups through two or more library-hosted events.
Oregon City Library (Oregon City)
$4,163 for seven community events that will challenge community members to confront the history of racism in Oregon and engage in discussions about how to move forward to create a just and equitable community for all.
Union Carnegie Public Library (Union)
$3,829 for six events for youth and adults focused on immigration, Japanese internment, Native American history, slavery and emancipation, and Chinese railway workers. Each event will include a reading and an activity.
Willamina Public Library (Willamina)
$5,000 for four public presentations and discussions led by people doing arts and humanities work who will share their experiences of how the community has supported them, to discuss challenges they have faced including the challenges of a rural area, and to offer ways that families can continue engaging at home.
2023
Public Program Grants
In May 2023, we awarded $100,000 in Public Program Grant funding to sixteen organizations in support of programs that explore challenging questions and strive for just communities.
Comunidad y Herencia Cultural (Springfield)
$10,000 to support the Cultural Roots program, which features culture bearers of color who will lead lectures, workshops, and dialogues exploring the history, identity, and presence of the Charro (Mexican horseman) in the Pacific Northwest.
League of Women Voters of Oregon (Salem)
$8,152 to support the League of Women Voters of Oregon (LWVOR) Youth Council program, a youth-led council of rural and urban peers for inclusive civic engagement in participatory democracy for young and soon-to-be voters.
Anima Mundi Productions (Phoenix)
$7,500 to support the Uptown String Quartet program, a series of free community conversations and youth group visits featuring the Uptown String Quartet, an all-female, all-Black ensemble whose members are performers, composers, and educators.
Profile Theatre (Portland)
$7,500 to support In Dialogue: The American Generation, which includes conversations, podcasts, and workshops exploring arrival, home, and belonging for Americans with intersectional identities centered on plays by Kristoffer Diaz, christopher oscar peña, and Lauren Yee.
Oregon Coast Council for the Arts (Newport)
$7,500 to support the B.R.I.D.G.E.S. (Building Relationships & IDentities through Growth, Expression & Stories) program, a series of three free community events whose goal is to foster community conversation and deepen understanding of our communities through stories and lived experiences.
Media-Rites (Portland)
$7,500 to support the Cultural Threads program, which is focused on engagement with the Chinese American community and academic scholars on the historic cultural contributions, traditions, and generational ties of Chinese Americans in Oregon.
Bridgeworks Oregon (Portland)
$7,500 to support the Pony Xpress Dialogues program, which broadcasts the ideas and stories of Oregon writers who are currently incarcerated through presentations both inside and outside of prison walls to broaden community understanding.
Astoria Visual Arts (Astoria)
$7,090 to support From Near Termination to Federal Recognition: The Life of Shoalwater Bay Tribal Member Eugene Landry and Conversations with the New Creative Generation. This funding will support community forums and a workshop connected to an interpretive exhibit raising awareness of historic and contemporary issues facing the Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe, connecting Native communities in Astoria.
Lane Arts Council (Eugene)
$6,000 to support the Arts & Culture Roundtables program, a series of community conversations and workshops focused on diversity, equity, inclusion, and access in Lane County’s arts community.
Corvallis Multicultural Literacy Center (Corvallis)
$5,600 to support a series of seasonal community dialogues exploring the development and implementation of the Global Reflection Lending Library, a culturally responsible global artifact lending and learning library.
Josephy Center for Arts and Culture (Joseph)
$5,300 to support the creation of Nez Perce Removal and Return, an exhibit explaining the Nez Perce's forced removal from Oregon in 1877 and their return today.
Arts Council of Pendleton (Pendleton)
$5,000 to support the First Draft Writers’ Series program, which is focused on encouraging conversation around issues within the community, the region, and beyond.
RASIKA (Hillsboro)
$5,000 to support the Conversations and Community Connections Series, which is led by literary and performing artists in a cultural dialog encouraging equity among artists, as a reflection of our society.
The UPRISE Collective (Portland)
$4,427 to support Demystifying Disability Justice programming, which creates spaces for community building and community education by and for Sick and Disabled community members.
Cascade Educational Broadcast Service / XRAY.FM (Portland)
$4,181 to support the Street Roots Radio program, a collaborative radio project between XRAY.FM and Street Roots, highlighting original journalism and lived experiences of housing insecurity and homelessness in Portland.
Lincoln City Cultural Center (Lincoln City)
$1,750 to support the program What is this place? In Search of Identity on Poetry Path, a public dialogue resulting in a place-based poem that will be inscribed along the Poetry Path in Lincoln City Cultural Center’s new Cultural Plaza.
Consider This Mini Grants for Rural Libraries
In March 2023, we awarded $11,810 in Consider This Mini Grants for Rural Libraries. These grants will enable Oregon libraries to create and host their own Consider This events on the theme People, Place and Power.
Columbia Gorge Community College Library and Learning Commons
Award: $3,810 to support two lunch-and-learn events hosted in partnership with the United Action League (EQUAL club). Both events will feature community members and will be open to the public. The first event will center a discussion about the results of a survey exploring the college’s Hispanic Serving Institution designation. The second event will focus on trans rights and serve as an open forum to discuss issues that impact trans students, including safety, financial barriers, inadequate services, discrimination, and housing.
Toledo Public Library
Award: $6,000 for a series of presentations about foraging, featuring Wallace Kaufman, an experienced Oregon forager and author, and Abigail DeYoung from Northwest Ecotours. Kaufman and DeYoung will discuss the variety, use, and value of items to be found on the Oregon coast. Following the presentations, the group will head out to the coast for a hands-on guided experience. These events will help inspire a greater appreciation of our verdant coastal mountains and abundant sea coast, highlight the role of foraging in addressing food insecurity in Lane County, and emphasize the importance of sustaining future generations.
Harrisburg Public Library
Award amount: $2,000 to support a community fair featuring a number of social groups, community organizations, and activities from Scandinavian, Native American, Hawaiian, and Aztec cultures. Events will include information about participating organizations' services, storytime activities, and the distribution of books about Indigenous American cultures.
2022
Public Program Grants
In May 2022, Oregon Humanities awarded $115,028 in grants to 18 organizations around the state. These grants will support programs that bring people together to explore challenging questions and strive for just communities.
Coalicion Fortaleza (Medford)
$10,000 to support Latino/a/x and Indigenous Community Charlas (Charrettes). This funding will support a series of community charlas in Spanish to bring together the Latino/a/x and Indigenous communities of Southern Oregon in rebuilding and recovery after the Almeda fire.
Southern Oregon Film Society (Ashland)
$7,500 to support Ashland Independent Film Festival’s yearlong Southern Oregon Community Connections Series. This funding will support ten public workshops, panel discussions, and dialogues exploring timely, relevant topics in independent films that the Ashland Independent Film Festival screens, led by communities with lived experience.
Edúcate Ya (Portland)
$7,500 to support Latinx Cultural Heritage Awareness Program. This program was developed to bring together, recognize, and uplift the diversity within Latinx cultural heritages and their often overlooked contributions to United States communities and culture.
Rogue Valley Mentoring (Medford)
$5,200 to support Rogue Valley Mentoring’s Youth Panel, which will enable youth to lead conversations about their mental health and well-being to begin healing community wounds.
Cerimon House (Portland)
$7,500 to support When We Were Not Allowed In, programming that highlights the Black experience in Oregon and shifts Black narrative from a discriminatory past to a felt sense of visibility and safety.
Chehalem Cultural Center (Newberg)
$3,788 to support Promoting Racial Equity through Conversations and Cultural Programming, which will promote racial equity and increase access for underserved artists and communities through conversation series, workshops, exhibits, and artist talks.
Nurturely (Eugene)
$7,500 to support From Womb to World: The Intersection of Global Birth and Local Perinatal Equity. This funding will support an exploration of the culture of birth using visual storytelling to amplify the power of the birthing people and cultures that have been excluded from US society and systems.
KXCJ-LP (Cave Junction)
$7,500 to support the production of a hyper-local live morning news radio show.
The UPRISE Collective (Beaverton)
$3,840 to support American Sign Language (ASL) and Community Access Realtime Translation (CART) services for our Disability Justice Speaker Series and monthly Coffee Hours.
Northwest Narrative Medicine Collaborative (Portland)
$4,410 to support the creation of a diverse and inclusive digital Narrative Medicine Library to be used in facilitator trainings and monthly community workshops.
The Vanport Mosaic (Portland)
$7,500 to support the 7th Vanport Mosaic Festival, which offers in-person, virtual, and self-paced memory activism opportunities to remember, repair, reclaim, and reimagine our collective story.
Portland Playhouse (Portland)
$6,690 to support the development of eight public discussions as part of Return to Wonderland, a festival of new video works that engage with our current sociopolitical landscape.
The Father's Group (Bend)
$7,500 to support Juneteenth Celebration for Central Oregon 2022. This funding will assist in bringing a dynamic, engaging, and informative event to 10,000 attendees commemorating “Freedom Day.”
Portland Chinatown Museum (Portland)
$7,500 to support the development of an updated permanent exhibition about Portland’s Chinatown/immigrant history to raise awareness about contributions made by Oregon’s foreign-born residents past and present.
The Red Door Project (Portland)
$7,500 to support The Evolve Experience, an on-demand online workshop for those seeking ways to address inequities in our justice system and a path forward through today’s polarized climate.
Open Hearts Open Minds (Portland)
$4,600 to support dialogue circles following screenings of In the Beginning, a short film that follows a young man returning to society from prison with the hope of a new life.
Tower Theatre Foundation (Bend)
$5,000 to support Stage the Change, a conference designed to empower high school students to find their social voices and be catalysts for change.
The Geezer Gallery (Portland)
$4,000 to support Created to Belong, a therapeutic program for post-incarceration reentry transition, recovery, and wellness.
Consider This Mini Grants for Rural Libraries
In March 2022, Oregon Humanities awarded $24,000 in grants to eight libraries in Oregon. This funding was intended to enable Oregon libraries to create and host their own Consider This events on the theme American Dreams, American Myths, American Hopes.
Josephine County Library Foundation
$4,000 to support “Intellectual Freedom in America,” two events presented by Dr. Carrie Gardner and facilitated by Library Director Kate Lasky, which will explore ethical dilemmas in censorship and Americans’ access to information as guaranteed by the First Amendment.
Newport Public Library
$3,000 to support a program on employment, education, and the struggle to reach the American Dream. The program will include a discussion about how the American Dream has changed over the last three years during social justice reform and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Seaside Public Library
$4,000 to support a presentation by Zachary Stocks, executive director of Oregon Black Pioneers. Mr. Stocks will create an original display showcase featuring the life of Bill Badger, the first Black Oregonian elected to office.
Silver Falls Library District
$693 to support a community conversation about dialectics featuring Dr. Andrew Weitzman. This program will explore how dialectics can help us to see the truth in all perspectives, whether or not we agree with them.
Southern Wasco County Library
$4,000 to support an event celebrating the City of Maupin’s centennial anniversary and the release of a second edition of Chaff in the Wind: Gleanings of the Maupin Community. Delson Suppah, the cultural program coordinator for the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, will make an important contribution to the book in the form of an oral chapter, aligning with the Native American tradition of oral storytelling and building on the cultural partnership between the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and the Southern Wasco County Library.
Forest Grove City Library
$1,250 to support two programs, including an event featuring Taylor Stewart, founder and executive director of the Oregon Remembrance Project (ORP). This presentation, “How do You Reconcile A Lynching?”, focuses on the story of Alonso Tucker, an African American boxer and gym owner who was lynched in Coos Bay in 1902, and the legacy of racial violence in Oregon.
The second event will explore housing discrimination in Oregon, in partnership with the Fair Housing Council of Oregon (FHCO), through an exhibit and a series of community conversations about the history of housing discrimination, current housing trends, and future challenges.
Deschutes Public Library Foundation
$4,000 to support author events as part of a county-wide reading project. Events will be held in Madras, in partnership with Jefferson County Public Library, and in Bend. This year's book selections, both by Native authors, explore what it means to be Native in America. I Can Make This Promise by Christine Day is inspired by Day’s own family’s history, while The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson blends history and fiction, offering an inspiring story of Dakota women who protected their family seeds and way of life.
Jackson County Library District
$3,057 to support “American Myths About American Government,” which will explore how cultural ideas about the presidency, voting, and other elements of American government both reflect and distort the reality of those institutions. “Bigfoot: An American Myth or Hope?” will discuss how stories about Bigfoot reflect American mythmaking as well as its special relationship to the Pacific Northwest. “Indigenous Perspectives on Mythology” will feature speakers from the Klamath Tribes discussing the importance of mythology and the impacts of American cultural myths and misunderstandings about land ownership, sovereignty, and Indigenous people.
2021
COVID-19 Emergency SHARP Grants
In November 2021, Oregon Humanities awarded $717,000 in grants to sixty nonprofit organizations and federally recognized Native American tribes in Oregon. This funding is a part of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, distributed by the National Endowment for the Humanities. It is intended to help the humanities community recover from the economic burdens of the pandemic and to enable the reopening of humanities institutions and programs.
Albany Regional Museum (Albany)
$20,000 to support making current exhibits more inclusive and accessible. This includes highlighting underrepresented voices, using technology and translation to assist visitors, and revising layout to incorporate multiple learning styles.
Arts Council of Pendleton (Pendleton)
$8,000 to support events, including the planning and marketing associated with First Draft, a free monthly community discussion forum during which authors working in a variety of humanities disciplines read from their works and then conduct question and answer sessions.
Baker Heritage Museum (Baker City)
$10,000 to support general operations
Barnstormers Theatre (Grants Pass)
$5,000 to support general operations
Beaverton Downtown Association (Beaverton)
$5,000 to support general operations
Bridgeworks Oregon (Portland)
$20,000 to support providing meaningful content and interactive study materials for an in-prison television channel. This outreach program engages adults in custody in critical thinking through film viewing, supplementary written material, collected written responses, and opportunities for reflective discussion.
Brooks Historical Society (Gervais)
$3,000 to support general operations
Burns Paiute Tribe (Burns)
$19,800 to support an audio-editing project to help advance language revitalization efforts for the endangered Northern Paiute language by creating digital deliverables that can be used for in-person and distance learning. This project will help the Tribe recover from the loss of intergenerational transmission due to COVID-19 and also prepare the Tribe to face future situations requiring distance learning.
Campus Compact of Oregon (Portland)
$17,500 to support general operations
XRAY.FM (Portland)
$4,500 to support the 2022 International Women’s Day teach-in, “Amplify Women,” which will consist of twelve hours of community radio conversation. Funding will support planning, outreach, writing, recording, editing, marketing, and participant compensation for the event.
Chehalem Cultural Center (Newberg)
$17,500 to support general operations
Comunidad y Herencia Cultural (Springfield)
$20,000 to support Noche Cultural, Hispanic Heritage, and Cultural Heritage projects. Funding will be used in support of culture bearers of color, who pass down cultural knowledge and traditions to younger generations. It will also help to cover costs associated with online programming until in-person activities can resume.
Coos History Museum (Coos Bay)
$10,000 to support general operations
Curry Coast Community Radio (Brookings)
$7,500 to support general operations
Disability Art and Culture Project (Portland)
$15,000 to support general operations
Drexel H. Foundation (Vale)
$15,000 to support general operations
Art Center East (La Grande)
$19,800 to support online, outdoor, or otherwise socially distant public humanities activities that maintain conversations about shared culture, enhance quality of life, and strengthen communities. Activities include literary readings, youth story time, gallery talks, a Día de los Muertos exhibit and ofrenda, performances by Oregon Culture Keepers, and a storytelling project.
Fishtrap (Enterprise)
$10,000 to support the transition back to in-person and hybrid events. Funding will support staff until program revenue picks up in 2022 and help the organization to relocate without draining reserve funds.
Friends of the Cascade Locks Historical Museum (Cascade Locks)
$10,000 to support general operations
Friends of Tryon Creek (Portland)
$4,500 to support Indigenous Culture Day, a free all-ages event that celebrates and reclaims traditional lands for Indigenous peoples and provides an accurate cultural experience for the community.
Future Prairie (Portland)
$10,000 to support general operations
Garibaldi Maritime Museum (Garibaldi)
$7,500 to support general operations
Harney County Library Foundation (Burns)
$14,100 to support work describing and cataloging the collections of the library and the neighboring museum in a shared online database, which will make the collections accessible to a wider audience.
Hood River County Heritage Council (Hood River)
$10,000 to support general operations
Japanese American Museum of Oregon (Portland)
$10,000 to support general operations
Jim Pepper Native Arts Council (Portland)
$15,000 to support general operations
Josephine County Historical Society (Grants Pass)
$7,500 to support general operations
Juneteenth OR (Gresham)
$15,000 to support general operations
KXCR Community Radio Partners (Florence)
$7,500 to support general operations
Lincoln City Cultural Center (Lincoln City)
$10,000 to support general operations
Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center (Joseph)
$15,000 to support general operations
MediaRites (Portland)
$5,300 to support general operations
Mid-Valley Literacy Center (Salem)
$10,000 to support general operations
Milton-Freewater Neighborhood Senior Center (Milton-Freewater)
$4,000 to support general operations
Milagro (Portland)
$20,000 to support Milagro’s pivot toward being an epicenter for arts, culture, and heritage through the expansion of projects to include more humanities-related programming, including the Oregon Latino Oral History Project.
Natives of One Wind Indigenous Alliance/Red Earth Descendant (Ashland)
$12,750 to support general operations
NW Documentary (Portland)
$13,500 to support youth programming, in partnership with Elevate Oregon, for conversations about filmmaking and media production led by at-risk youth. Funding will support the first phase of the project, which will be four months of weekly in-person conversations with BIPOC media makers from Portland.
O’Brien Memorial Library (Blue River)
$6,000 to support general operations
Oregon Black Pioneers (Salem)
$15,000 to support general operations
Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education (Portland)
$17,500 to support general operations
Polk County Historical Society (Rickreall)
$3,750 to support general operations
Portland Indigenous Marketplace (Portland)
$10,000 to support general operations
Profile Theatre (Portland)
$15,000 to support In Dialogue, a program of guest lectures, panel discussions, presentations, and salons designed to help audiences delve deeper into the issues and ideas presented on stage.
Rural Organizing Project (Cottage Grove)
$17,500 to support general operations
Salem Art Association (Salem)
$14,750 to support general operations
Santiam Heritage Foundation (Stayton)
$5,000 to support general operations
Singing Creek Educational Center (Cottage Grove)
$10,000 to support general operations
St. Vincent de Paul Dual Immersion School (Salem)
$20,000 to support the after-school program. Funding will support assistance with linguistics homework, the purchase of educational supplies, and the development of the Cultural Heritage & Arts Club. These activities establish a sense of identity and a greater understanding of culture among students.
The Hearth (Ashland)
$10,000 to support general operations
The Immigrant Story (Portland)
$17,000 to support work related to community-building, storytelling, and effective technology use during the pandemic.
The Josephy Center for Arts and Culture (Enterprise)
$12,500 to support general operations
The Red Door Project (Portland)
$17,500 to support general operations
The Skanner Foundation (Portland)
$20,000 to support the reestablishment of community events such as the MLK Breakfast Live and presentations of The Wake of Vanport.
Tillamook County Pioneer Museum (Tillamook)
$5,000 to support general operations
triangle productions (Portland)
$20,000 to support staff needs related to the Umbrella Project, which seeks to engage others in the preservation of LGBTQ history in Oregon from the beginning of the territory (Native American community) until the present day.
UC-VEG (Roseburg)
$10,000 to support general operations
Vanport Mosaic (Portland)
$10,000 to support general operations
Wallowa Band Nez Perce Trail Interpretive Center (Wallowa)
$15,000 to support general operations
Women's Civic Improvement League - KPOV High Desert Community Radio (Bend)
$6,250 to support the launch of Critical Conversations, a radio program, podcast, and website featuring sixteen years of recorded conversations with community advocates, racial justice organizers, social justice leaders, elected officials, and more. Funding will also support the creation of new content, including town-hall style shows that will educate listeners on critical local and national issues.
World Arts Foundation (Portland)
$10,000 to support general operations
Responsive Program Grants
In September 2021, Oregon Humanities awarded $5,925 in grants to three nonprofit organizations in Oregon. These grants will support programs that address urgent or timely issues in Oregon communities.
Anita (Astoria, OR)
$2,000 to support public discussions of BorderXer, an exhibition focused on the experiences of people who cross borders to survive economic and other catastrophes. BorderXer compiles five years of research by curator Patricia Vázquez Gómez in the Sonoran Desert exploring the stories of those attempting to cross north into the US from Mexico. Programming includes artist talks and presentations by No More Deaths, a humanitarian organization based in Southern Arizona dedicated to stepping up efforts to stop the deaths of migrants in the desert, and Causa, an Oregon immigrant rights organization.
KXCJ (Cave Junction, OR)
$1,925 to support daily 5:00 p.m. broadcasts throughout the fire season in the Illinois Valley, which has a population of 13,000 residents who are at high risk from wildfires. KXCJ sees this program as an important role to help reduce misinformation, increase local community power, and deliver timely and responsive information when both social media and newspapers are falling short.
Beyond Boom & Bust (Cave Junction, OR)
$2,000 to support a partnership between Beyond Boom & Bust and the Illinois Valley Soil & Water Conservation District, for a series of town halls focused on the history, present, and future of the Illinois River Basin and the people for whom it has been a life-giving source. These town halls will seek to document the concerns of the community in order to translate concerns into responsive action and change.
Public Program Grants
In February 2021, the Oregon Humanities Board of Directors awarded $100,000 in grants to 17 nonprofit organizations from around the state. These grants will support programs that bring people together to think and talk about challenging issues and ideas and support communities to adapt to new ways of doing public programs during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
Architectural Heritage Center (Portland, OR)
$5,075 to support “Black Portland: Architecture, Culture, and Diversity Dialogues” —The launch of a timely series of recorded, intergenerational dialogues with members of Portland's black community that probe issues of the built environment, diversity, and race through personal stories and experiences. The dialogues will accompany a forthcoming exhibit at the Architectural Heritage Center of black environmental portraiture, taken by artist and photographer Intisar Abioto.
Ascension School Camp and Conference Center (Cove, OR)
$8,695 to support “Xmaash Tamaycht - Camas Bake” —This funding will support an on-going effort led by Cayuse, Umatilla, Walla Walla, and Nez Perce People to revitalize the connection to Camas in Northeast Oregon through camps focused on gathering, processing, baking, monitoring and restoring this culturally significant First Food.
Astoria Visual Arts (Astoria, OR)
$4,750 to support “Visions of the Past Moon: Historic Chinook Tansy Creek Project” —Funding will support the creation of an interpretive exhibit that raises public awareness of the historic Tansy Creek Site and contemporary issues facing Chinook people, exploring an era straddled between lost tradition and new found meaning.
BASE Southern Oregon (Medford, OR)
$7,500 to support “Black Alliance & Social Empowerment” —The building of an included Black community through education, networking and workshops within Southern Oregon.
Bridgeworks Oregon (Portland, OR)
$2,500 to support "Voices from the Inside" —Oregon Humanities funding will support travel to rural Oregon prisons and the surrounding communities in order for the artist/mentors to present “Voices from the Inside,” a video project produced by Oregon State Penitentiary adults in custody (AICs); in addition, artist/mentors will lead public conversations about the men in the video and their lives inside.
Casa Latinos Unidos (Corvallis, OR)
$5,100 to support “Nuestras Historias” —This funding will support the implementation of a permanent virtual exhibit of oral histories of the Latinx community of Benton and Linn Counties.
Japanese American Museum of Oregon (Portland, OR)
$7,500 to support “INAKA-Back to the Land and Legacy” —In Oregon, prior to World War II, 60% of fruits and vegetables were produced by Japanese American farms. This history includes Portland's inner and outer southeast, Hood River, Odell, Pine Grove, Dee, Parkdale, Gresham- Troutdale, Hillsboro, Ontario, and the Willamette Valley. INAKA Back to the Land and Legacies focuses on historic loss and generational stories of survival and resilience. The Japanese American Museum of Oregon will research, document and design programs to "unearth" the diversity of farming histories in our state. INAKA will build relationships with communities of color to heal from the traumatic histories of racism in Oregon.
Juniper Pine Project (McKenzie Bridge, OR)
$2,500 to support “McKenzie River Recovery Project” —The grant will fund a series of interviews with Holiday Farm Fire survivors who live within the fifty mile area of the frontier rural, unincorporated towns on the McKenzie River, and these interviews will seed a community conversations at the end of a three and a half month period about the current relief effort but also the boom or bust nature of our area, and we will do this in hopes to begin community healing as well as documenting this historic time for generations to come. This three month interview process will repeat with another community conversation.
KXCJ-LP (Cave Junction, OR)
$7,500 to support “Keep it Local - KXCJ Community Radio Programming” —We are a community-powered radio station in Cave Junction, Oregon and are seeking funding to support the production and coordination of locally produced weekly radio programming during 2021: five radio programs that focus on holding local officials accountable, centering news about nature and Native issues, creating a platform for local musicians, highlighting local stories, and engaging youth in radio drama production.
Next Up (Portland, OR)
$7,500 to support “2021 Youth Organizing and Popular Education Cohorts” —This funding will support our year-round youth leadership development cohorts that build community organizing skills and an anti-racist social justice analysis for Portland Metro’s high school aged, college aged and other young adults.
On the Inside (Portland, OR)
$5,000 to support “On the Inside” —The funding will support the hiring of project managers and the purchasing of materials for the creation of a book composed of responses to prompts, written by female inmates in the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, and published alongside responses from women on the outside who partake in our class series.
PassinArt: A Theatre Company (Portland, OR)
$4,500 to support "Hear Me: I Am Here" - A Conversation By & With Youth of Color —This funding will support monthly youth-led dialogues that explore often overlooked stories of resiliency, hope, wisdom and joy among youth of color in Oregon. By decentralizing adult voices and centering the voices of youth, this project hopes to empower and inspire other young people around the state to know their voice matters, too, and their stories and perspectives are worth hearing by adults.
Portland Chinatown History Foundation/Portland Chinatown Museum (Portland, OR)
$7,500 to support “Portland Chinatown Museum Community Roundtables” —This funding will support a series of 9-10 virtual roundtables, which will share the stories of Oregon’s early rural and urban Chinese settlements, in partnership with curators, historians, archaeologists, archivists, planners and preservationists, and Chinese descendents in 8 locations -- Portland, Jacksonville/Ashland, Salem, Astoria, the Dalles, John Day and Grant County, Pendleton, and Bend. This series aims to provide a better understanding of early Chinese immigrant history and culture and its importance to Oregon’s growing Asian American population.
Portland Playhouse (Portland, OR)
$6,000 to support “Joy (Comes) In the Mourning: A Conversation Series” —This project will support online conversations and creative exploration for three affinity groups: highschool age youth; BIPOC who have lost loved ones; and BIPOC facing loss of land / displacement. Over two weeks in May, groups (capped at 15) will reflect on their experiences of loss, build altars, and explore the role of mourning rituals and altars, in diasporic and Indigenous cultures, as tools for collectively processing grief and building resistance. Each affinity group will be paired with an artist who will build a large altar that celebrates the group’s resilience at a public site in the King Neighborhood.
Rural Development Initiatives (Coburg, OR)
$5,000 to support “Understanding Rural Leadership Development and Systems Change” —This funding will support a series of statewide interactive webinars to facilitate discussion related to the impacts of 2020 events in rural Oregon communities, with the goal of encouraging reflection, considering future trends, and taking action towards systems change.
Signal Fire (Portland, OR)
$2,500 to support “BIPOC Virtual Programming” —This funding will support two virtual workshops designed to center coalition building among intergenerational Black and Indigenous artists, activists, farmers, and environmentalists.
The Vanport Mosaic (Portland, OR)
$7,238 to support “Vanport Mosaic Festival 2021” —This funding will support the 6th Vanport Mosaic Festival, a month of “memory activism” to amplify Oregon’s silenced histories through art performances, oral history screenings, exhibits, tours and dialogues.
Responsive Program Grants
COVID-19 Vaccine and Me (The Rosewood Initiative, Portland)
$2,000 to co-create vaccine information in partnership with local care providers to share with their diverse community. This information will be shared in conversational English classes that are already offered, and can be reused in the future. Materials may be videos, comics, poems, or songs. The goal is to create a safe space for community members to learn more about the vaccine and have a trusted source of information.
Engaging At-Risk Youth in Disaster Preparedness (Umpqua Valley Habitat for Humanity, Roseburg)
$1,000 to host four outdoor, in-person disaster preparedness workshops for young people ages 13-25. The workshops will focus on: Basics of survival and disaster preparedness; Preparing a disaster plan for individuals and families; First Aid/CPR; creating a "Go Bag" of supplies to prepare for disaster events. The goal is to empower youth through gaining skills and knowledge given recent disasters such as wildfires and the current pandemic.
Future Prairie Radio (Future Prairie, Portland)
$2,000 in support of a weekly podcast that examines the future of art, design, and culture through the eyes of marginalized artists. This podcast seeks to promote the work of these artists by celebrating and amplifying their voices, centering the narratives of those who are often working from the fringes and periphery of our regional arts ecology. The goal is to directly assist queer Portland artists who are unemployed or underemployed and receiving little to no support for their vital contributions to our community.
Echo Mountain Fire Survivors Fun Night (Echo Mountain Fire Relief, Otis)
$2,000 to support "Fire Survivor Fun Night," a recurring event from May through November 2021. This event allows survivors of the 2020 Echo Mountain Fire to come together weekly to relax, breathe, and play, using art, storytelling, music, and other therapeutic media to create resilience in our community.
“Seeking Shelter- The Josephine County Housing Crisis” (Jo Co Equity, Selma)
$2,000 in support of a two-part workshop series in collaboration with the Rogue Community College Diversity Board, Foundry Village Transitional Housing, AllCare Community Foundation, Fair Housing Council of Oregon, Rogue Action Center, and other local stakeholders. The first workshop will explore the nature of Josephine County’s housing crisis, discuss specific challenges, brainstorm solutions, and learn more about equitable housing practices. The second workshop will be instructional for housing advocates to support people who may be likely to face discrimination while looking for housing to learn about their rights and also to educate community members on effective policy advocacy techniques.
“Hidaya Women's Resource and Advocacy Project” (Muslimahs United, Beaverton)
$2,000 in support of three mini workshops with panel discussions, followed by a group discussion and/or breakout group discussions. There will be info zines distributed, and each workshop will end with a community meal. We are addressing incidents of anti-Blackness/mysogynoir within our local Muslim community, and we want to alleviate stress and support self determination for women and their families in our community who are impacted by these issues.
2020
Public Program Grants
In February 2020, the Oregon Humanities Board of Directors awarded $60,000 in grants to 10 nonprofit organizations from around the state. These grants will support programs that bring people together to think and talk about challenging issues and ideas and support communities during the difficult transitions and circumstances created by the pandemic.
Lake County Resource Initiative (Lakeview, OR)
$7,356 in support of "Rural Voices on a Changing Land," a series of programs using arts and science to engage rural community members on the topic of climate change. Activities include environmental field trips, a photography show, and an interactive map website.
Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center (Joseph, OR)
$4,950 in support of Timber Story Workshops and Roots Music Project, initiatives to share stories about living in rural Oregon. Plans include collecting individuals' history narratives and photographs and student writers performing their work.
Warm Springs Community Action Team (Warm Springs, OR)
$7,125 in support of the opening event for the Old Commissary Project, an effort by Paiute, Warm Springs, and Wasco tribal members to renovate a 100-year-old government commissary into a reclaimed tribal space. The opening event includes performances, storytelling, and video and audio testimonials about the complexity of the commissary's history.
Division Midway Alliance (Portland, OR)
$2,800 in support of a community dialogue on Diplacement, Relocation and Placemaking for East Portland residents. Activities include inviting speakers and community members from low-income, immigrant, and refugee communities to engage the issues of diplacement and explore solutions.
World Stage Theatre (Troutdale, OR)
$7,500 in support of "Growing Up Black In Oregon," a series of conversations surrounding the challenges, traumas, and triumphs of Black Oregonians of various backgrounds. Discussions are themed by group, such as Black elders, Black LGBTQ community members, Black migrants, and more.
The Immigrant Story (Hillsboro, OR)
$3,000 in support of "The Immigrant Story Live," a series of musical performances and storytelling to share and celebrate the experience and contributions of immigrants of color in our communities.
Columbia River Creative Initiatives (Portland, OR)
$8,906 in support of "From the Inside Looking Out: A Prison Reform Symposium," which involves current incarcerated people and people from the public to hold conversation regarding personal experiences and ideas for prison reform.
Street Roots (Portland, OR)
$3,750 in support of the Vendor Voices Initiative, an effort to bring people together across various housing statuses. Activities include financially compensated workshops, poetry readings, and a Holiday zine project for vendors of the Street Roots newspaper.
Hood River County Heritage Council (Hood River, OR)
$4,050 in support of pop-up memory café programming taking place in Hood River, Cascade Locks, and the upper Hood River Valley. This project provides bilingual engagement opportunities for rural dementia patients and caregivers using museum artifacts.
Community Alliance of Lane County (Eugene, OR)
$7,500 in support of Back to Back programming, an initiative to shift the culture in a white-dominant area to be more livable and welcoming to members of color. Programming includes workshops, movie nights and facilitated discussion, art performances, anti-racist curriculum, and more.
Responsive Program Grants
Centro Cultural Del Condado De Washington (Centro Cultural, Cornelius)
$1,000 in support of Edad De Oro, a senior program that serves 100 low-income, primarily Spanish-speaking Latinx people who are over 60 years old.
COCC Afrocentric Studies Club- Red Door Project (Central Oregon Community College Foundation, Bend)
$1,000 in support of Central Oregon Community College’s Afrocentric Studies club whose mission is to increase awareness of black culture amongst our student members and to also connect and respond to community issues that affect communities of color. For this reason we have embarked on this ambitious project to bring the Red Door Project “Evolve” production to Central Oregon.
We Are What We Eat: A Food & Race Workshop (Resolutions NW & Manar Alattar, Venue Barnes, and Maggie Michaels, Portland)
$1,000 in support of a food and race workshop centered around communities of color and how they are being most impacted by inequity in our national and global food systems. The training is developed through a partnership between a group of local food activists and Resolutions Northwest.
Oregon Native American Language Youth Fair Seminars (Celebrating Traditions; Native American Arts and Cultures, La Pine)
$1,000 in support of language Seminars in preparation for the First Annual Oregon Native American Language Youth Fair. These seminars are for the tribal Language Departments and their language instructors for each tribe.
Hmong Community Conversation on Violence and Healing (APANO, Portland)
$1,000 in support of an open and reflective dialogue in the Hmong community in response to tragic events including murder suicides, gang violence and the most recent shooting in Fresno, CA that took 4 Hmong men’s lives.
Thursday Night Talks (Clatsop County Historical Society, Astoria)
$1,000 in support of exploring under-examined and often challenging components of area history, the Clatsop County Historical Society (CCHS) is proposing to generate programming that addresses how issues of racial inequity, poverty, policing, and addiction have manifested within Astoria and the broader Clatsop County as both historical and contemporary challenges.
Imagining Indigenous Resistance (Nightingale Gallery: Eastern Oregon Foundation, La Grande)
$1,000 in support of an exhibit on Indigenous perspectives. As a public art space in La Grande occupying former tribal lands, the Nightingale Gallery has a responsibility to serve as a platform for public discourse on issues facing Indigenous people. The exhibition centers the experiences of Indigenous people and Pacific Islanders.
Hiroshima Peace Tree Initiative: A reconciliation project (Klamath Falls City Schools, Klamath Falls)
$1,000 in support of an initiative as part of an evening that commemorates the end of WWII, the planting of two Hiroshima Peace trees, and the bringing together of our community, and its responses to the impact of WWII and its implications today as we search for common ground. May is also the National Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage month.
Portland Through a Latinx Lens (Portland Through a Latinx Lens via SE Uplift, Portland)
$1,000 in support of the creation of opportunities that bring folks from diverse backgrounds together to learn about the intricacies of being Latinx in Portland, as well as to engage, connect and empower Latinx folks in our communities. We aim to encourage the engagement and connection of Latinx people and our broader community in meaningful conversations, and to celebrate and frame the culture and heritage of Latin Americans.
Miss Juneteenth Oregon Program (Juneteenth Oregon, Gresham)
$1,000 in support of workshops that provide education, tools, and resources to help youth build resilience, gain confidence and make positive life choices. We aim to empower black and brown youth in Oregon and SW Washington. Our leadership development curriculum helps youth develop skills to intentionally and positively influence the actions of others through a culturally-specific lens. We emphasize not only learning about leadership but practicing leadership through entrepreneurship and service learning opportunities in the community.
Capturing Conversation: Stakeholder Share about Summer Lake (PLAYA, Summer Lake)
$1,000 in support of micro-events in which participants previously tapped for their expertise in water-resource issues and Summer Lake area knowledge share additional perspectives for filming. The ideas and issues to be discussed will focus on how we can mutually and individually live and work in the Summer Lake basin and Lake County.
Community Rituals of Grief and Renewal (Ashland BIPOC Sanctuary via Rogue Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Ashland)
$1,000 in support of the BIPOC sanctuary to hold grief rituals to provide a healing space that is welcoming to communities of color in conjunction with trained WOC (Women of Color) grief facilitators from Tending the Threshold.
Immigration and Deportation - Lao Nationals (IU Mienh Association of Oregon via East Portland Neighbors, Portland)
$1,000 in support of the Iu Mienh Association of Oregon for community engagement and outreach, cultural preservation projects. The grant will support a community informational session and legal clinic concerning deportations for Lao nationals.
#HomeBoundBroadway (Tower Theatre Foundation, Bend)
$1,000 in support of the #HomeboundBroadway program that invites our theatre audiences to submit videos of their own performance of a favorite Broadway number. It allows individuals and families sequestered during this COVID-19 to be creative, and to share something they love with their neighbors through our online forum.
Muse Club Program (World Muse, Bend)
$1,000 in support of Muse Club Programs encourage and support youth to become social change leaders in their school and communities. With students now schooling from home, we will begin providing our Muse Club Programming to middle and high school students via online platforms.
2019
Public Program Grants
In 2019, the Oregon Humanities Board of Directors awarded $60,000 in grants to eleven nonprofit organizations from around the state.
Drexel H. Foundation (Vale)
$4,500 in support of Engaging Youth Voices in Shaping Our Community, a project that will present film screenings and facilitated conversations about young people leaving rural communities, engage youth in creating films about their perspectives on the issues that cause young people to move away from those communities, and connect youth and adult participants to share perspectives.
Momentum Alliance (Portland)
$7,500 in support of Oregon Students of Color Conference and Youth Organizing Toolkit, a project at the 2019 Oregon Students of Color Conference to develop leadership by youth of color.
Multicultural Association of Southern Oregon/KSKQ Community Radio (Ashland)
$3,000 in support of Independent Media Week, a weeklong series of workshops, films, and panels for people making and consuming media in the Rogue Valley.
Oregon Rural Action (La Grande)
$5,000 in support of a series of community forums on the Oil-by-Rail Emergency Preparedness Campaign, taking place between April 2019 and March 2020 in Baker City, La Grande, Mission, Ontario, and Pendleton.
PLAYA (Summer Lake)
$6,000 in support of Focus on Drought: How We Talk About Water Shortage in a Time of Change, a conversation about drought in Central Oregon.
Portland Meet Portland (Portland)
$3,500 in support of Stories from the Diaspora, a community-based storytelling project to create profiles immigrant and refugee community members and present a series of public dialogues on issues they face.
RiverStars Performing Arts (Cave Junction)
$8,000 in support of Backyard Cavetown: Beyond Boom and Bust, a project in which young people with perform interviews with community members in the Illinois Valley on economic boom and bust cycles in the region and use their perspectives to inform a theater performance about building a sustainable economy.
Sexual Assault Resource Center (Beaverton)
$7,500 in support of Moving Toward a Culture of Consent: Community Conversations Examining Sexual Violence, a three-session conversation series examinging the root causes of sexual violence using popular education techniques.
Skate Like a Girl (Portland)
$5,000 in support of AllySk8, a project that will use skateboarding to explore concepts such as social justice, allyship, microaggressions, and consent through facilitated workshops and experiential learning activities.
Southern Oregon Guild of Artists and Artisans (Kerby)
$3,000 in support of Connecting Threads, a series of intergenerational conversations focusing on belonging, connection, and crafts.
Vanport Mosaic (Portland)
$7,000 in support of the 2019 Vanport Mosaic Festival, a community gathering that will use exhibits, documentary screenings, theater and spoken word performances, tours, and conversations to explore the resilience and resistance of historically oppressed communities.
Responsive Program Grants
Projects that received Responsive Program Grant funds from November 1, 2018 through September 30, 2019.
Airlie Poetry Night (Airlie Press, Hillsboro)
$1,000 in support of a free, open poetry event as part of the Association of Writers and Publishers (AWP) conference. This event explored some challenging topics, such as the disparity of incarceration rates amongst indigenous peoples in the justice system, the current state of the Latino community in the Portland metro area, and invisible communities within the city.
Improved Nez Perce Teaching Box (Josephy Center for Arts and Culture, Joseph)
$1,000 in support for updates to the Nez Perce Teaching Box, a toolkit to use in middle schools in Oregon and Washington to educate students on the rich history and culture of indigenous peoples, especially on the history of the Nez Perce people.
Understanding and Confronting White Nationalism (Community Alliance of Lane County, Eugene)
$1,000 in support of a four-part series of film screenings and community conversations with civic leaders, activists, and artists to enhance the local communities’ understanding of and ability to confront white nationalism in Lane County.
Public Showing of Circles and Discussion (Resolutions Northwest, Portland)
$1,000 in support for a showing of Cassidy Friedman’s film Circles followed by community conversations around restorative justice. The film showcases the restorative justice movement that is addressing the root causes of conflict, accountability and equity with youth in communities of color.
Stories my Mother and Father Told Me (Portland Chinatown Museum, Portland)
$1,000 in support of a multifaceted Asian American storytelling series that explores the intersections of race, generation, gender, and place in regard to immigrant life. Organized by the recently opened Portland Chinatown Museum, the series is a response to a desire among museum members, broader Asian American and white audiences, and the Chinatown community for more storytelling programs featuring Chinatown community elders.
Three Immigrant and Refugee Stories on Exclusion and Inclusion (MediaRites Productions, Portland)
$1,000 in support of an hourlong combination of three monologues followed by an audience conversation moderated by radio producer, writer, and MediaRites Executive Producer Dmae Roberts. The monologues are “See Her Strength” by writer/performer Samson Syharath, a story honoring the sacrifices of the writer’s mother; “Carmelita” by Latina writer Yasmin Ruvalcaba, showing the desperation of a refugee risking her life to find safety but being met with fear and danger; and “Harvest,” written by Dmae Roberts, covering four generations of an Asian American’s family history in Oregon, including the long history of Oregon’s exclusion laws and Robert's present-day reflections as an Asian American.
Intracommunity Healing Conversations (Untangled, Tigard)
$1,000 in support of four dialogues addressing large gaps in, and laying the groundwork for comprehensive community-based dialogue within refugee communities around identity, integration, belonging, and the future. Dialogues were cofacilitated by a psychiatrist, an expert on trauma, and a former asylum-seeker.
St. Johns Village: A Series of Living Room Discussions (St. Johns Center for Opportunity, Portland)
$1,000 in support of community-driven, living-room-style discussions led by the St. Johns Center for Opportunity (SJCO) and the St. Johns Welcomes the Village Coalition to discuss the relocation of a tiny house village, Hazelnut Grove, from Portland’s Overlook neighborhood to St. Johns. The discussions’ goals are to begin the process of integrating village members into the community.
Training on Anti-Blackness (Impact NW, Portland)
$1,000 in support of a workshop to provide education, improve awareness, and provide a focused space to address racism, ostracization, inequities, and lack of retention of black employees, facilitated by Tashia Harris, a black transfemme, writer, educator, trainer, and professor.
Alegria Joy (Baker County Community Literacy Coalition, Baker City)
$1,000 in support of the Alegría program, a series of events to celebrate and support Latino culture and heritage at South Baker Intermediate School.
Know Your Legal Rights Outreach (El Programa Hispano Católico, Gresham)
$1,000 in support of a bilingual English/Spanish information and leadership program addressing access to information in the Latino community. The program included a Know Your Rights workshop to provide information related to immigration rights and housing discrimination.
Art Reflecting Life: A Response to the Homelessness Crisis in Eugene-Springfield (Eugene Opera, Eugene)
$1,000 in support of educational opportunities and performances by the Eugene Opera, community partners, and teaching artists to bring forward issues of homelessness and support youth creating monologues and dialogues to be presented to the community.
Native Artists and Storyteller Symposium (Wisdom of the Elders, Inc., Portland)
$1,000 in support of a program responding to the lack of Native American visibility regarding representation of voice and culture in the Portland urban area. The program brought artists, storytellers, and the community at large to participate in talks, panels, and film screenings to discuss topics around Native artists and storytellers.
The Modoc War Documentary Screening and Conversation with Don Gentry, Chair of Klamath Tribes (Ross Ragland Theatre, Klamath Falls)
$1,000 in support of a community screening of the OPB documentary The Modoc War accompanied by a panel and community discussion with Klamath Tribal Chairman Don Gentry. This program brought together people to discuss historical misconceptions and to appreciate local history and culture.
Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love and Liberation (Presence Collective, Portland)
$1,000 in support of conversations facilitated by Zen Reverend Angel Kyodo Williams discussing radical dharma as a tool to address barriers to dismantling white supremacy. This was a deeply immersive introduction to encountering race and racism where it lives in our lives. It supported awareness and the practices of dismantling the negative impacts of racialization on our collective minds, hearts and bodies.
2018
Public Program Grants
In 2018, the Oregon Humanities Board of Directors awarded $59,980 in grants to thirteen nonprofit organizations from around the state.
Chinese American Benevolent Association (Eugene)
$5,246 in support of DisOrient Asian American Film Festival of Oregon, a four-day series of film screenings, panel discussions, and Q&As April 19–22, 2018, in Eugene
Clackamas County Arts Alliance (Oregon City)
$5,000 in support of the Ask the Question Project, an exhibit of photos and narratives that aims to break down stigmas and stereotypes relating to suicide and mental illness
Columbia Center for the Arts (Hood River)
$5,000 in support of Activism as Art, a series of performances and community conversations in April 2018
Fishtrap (Enterprise)
$3,750 in support of Winter Fishtrap, a series of community conversations about timely issues facing the West, taking place in early 2019
Kitchen Commons (Portland)
$3,500 in support of Kitchen Conversations, two gatherings addressing healthy relationships to food and other eaters
Kitchen Table Democracy (Portland)
$5,000 in support of Educated in Oregon, an audio project that will explore how storytelling creates space for productive conversations about the future of education in Oregon
Know Your City (Portland)
$3,200 in support of Know Your City Walking Tours, accessible tours of the city that focus on untold stories of oppressed people
The Museum at Warm Springs (Warm Springs)
$7,500 in support of "Memory of the Land: Treaty of the Middle Columbia River Tribes and Bands," an exhibit featuring the 1855 treaty that defined the area of the Warm Springs Indian Reservation and affirmed the sovereignty of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs
OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon (Portland)
$5,000 in support of the Oregon Just Transit Alliance Community Conversation Project, an effort to include communities that are disporportionately affected by environmental injustices in making decisions around environmental and economic issues
Oregon Nikkei Endowment (Portland)
$5,500 in support of Gamanfest: Reclaiming Identity through Art & Activism, a two-day event to engage young Asian Pacific American people in examining intergenerational impacts of racism, May 11–12, 2018, at Portland Community College
The Resilience Project (Corvallis)
$4,554 in support of the Latino Youth Digital Storytelling Project, an ongoing effort to train Latino youth in writing, editing, and filmmaking skills to help them produce digital stories with their families and share those stories with the community
Sitka Center for Art and Ecology (Otis)
$2,250 in support of Mingle and Muse, a free lecture series focused on issues of race, culture, and art in the summer of 2018
The Vanport Mosaic (Portland)
$4,500 in support of The Vanport Mosaic Festival 2018, a four-day multidisciplinary festival commemorating the seventieth anniversary of the flood that destroyed the city of Vanport and celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the passage of the Fair Housing Act, May 23–28, 2018, in Portland
Responsive Program Grants
Projects that received Responsive Program Grant funds from November 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018.
Astoria Call to Life: An Earth Day Ingathering (Clatsop Community College Foundation, Astoria)
$1,000 in support of a performance by pianist Rachelle McCabe and writer Kathleen Dean Moore that uses music and words to address the global climate crisis and mass extinctions.
Beyond the Bars (Champion Team of Yamhill County, McMinnville)
$1,000 in support of peer support groups and a job fair for people coming out of jail or prison.
Bridging Our Divide Community Dialogue Events (Bridging Our Divide, Salem)
$1,000 in support of community conversations focused on fostering understanding across political and ideological divides
First Draft Gatherings (Arts Council of Pendleton, Pendleton)
$1,000 in support of free monthly gatherings featuring author readings and Q&A sessions
Black History Month Film Series: I Am Not Your Negro (Self Enhancement, Inc., Portland)
$1,000 in support of a screening of Raoul Peck's documentary I Am Not Your Negro followed by a panel discussion and Q&A with Aisha Karefa-Smart, a niece of James Baldwin, and Darrais Carter, assistant professor of Black studies at Portland State University.
Little Stone Project (Bend)
$880 in support of Little Stone Project, a four-day art and education event to encourage participants to reflect on their individual contributions to larger social movements
Love You Madly (Eugene/Springfield NAACP, Eugene)
$1,000 in support of a series of performances and conversations with eight local Black artists at the Mims House in Eugene
PICA World AIDS Day Program (Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland)
$1,000 in support of a three-day series of video screenings, readings, and panel discussions relating to the work of Sarah Schulman, an AIDS historian and journalist
Season of Nonviolence: Julissa Arce (Central Oregon Community College, Bend)
$1,000 in support of a lecture and community conversations with immigration and education rights advocate Julissa Arce
SHINE Program Intervention Programming (Impact NW, Beaverton)
$1,000 in support of a program providing bilingual legal information regarding immigration, bystander intervention and self-empowerment curriculum for young girls, and self-defense classes for young parents and families
This Land (High Desert Museum, Bend)
$1,000 in support of a series of film screenings, panel discussions, and community conversations about the role of public lands in Oregon.
2017
Public Program Grants
In 2017, the Oregon Humanities board of directors awarded $60,000 in grants to thirteen nonprofit organizations from around the state. These grants supported programs that brought people together to think and talk about challenging issues and ideas.
RiverStars Performing Arts (Cave Junction)
$6,000 for In Our Valley...
RiverStars Performing Arts' project will engage youth in interviewing community members using a comic book format to ask how change happens and how people see their own role in making change. Participants will interview their families, church communities, and peers and use the resulting information to create text and scores for a performance and public dialogue to invite community reflection.
Boom Arts (Portland)
$5,625 for post-show discussions and humanities programming
Boom Arts will foster public dialogue on social issues among diverse Portland audiences through post-show discussions offered in conjunction with six upcoming theater presentations. Dialogues will feature visiting artists, local scholars, and community leaders.
The City Repair Project (Portland)
$5,025 for Making a Place for Everyone: A series of community conversations about place, equity, diversity, and sustainability
The City Repair Project will present a series of three conversation cafes exploring the question, “What makes a place inclusive, equitable, and sustainable for marginalized communities?” Community leaders from organizations such as APANO, R2D2, Don’t Shoot PDX, and Groundworks PDX will offer brief stories from their work, then pose a question to attendees to discuss in small groups. Themes of houselessness, equity, and diversity will weave through all three events.
Columbia Slough Watershed Council and Historic Parkrose Neighborhood Prosperity Initiative (Portland)
$9,100 for Sloughtown Listening Sessions
Columbia Slough Watershed Council and Historic Parkrose will present six listening sessions to build a shared vision for how homeless camps, habitat restoration, public safety, and public access can coexist along the Columbia Slough. Stakeholders in this discussion include residents, businesses, environmental interests, homeless people, and the Police Bureau.
National Alliance for Mental Illness Multnomah (Portland)
$3,000 for Evening with the Expert
National Alliance for Mental Illness Multnomah's Evening with the Expert will be a series of panel discussions led by activists working in the mental health field in Multnomah County. The series will generate discussion around the ways religion, language, race, and sexuality impact our approach to mental and emotional well-being.
Newspace Center for Photography (Portland)
$2,000 for Migration Stories
In conjunction with Northern Triangle, an exhibit on the Central American refugee crisis along the US/Mexico border, Newspace Center for Photography will present a free public storytelling program, Migration Stories, providing a space for individuals to share their experiences of migration.
Oregon Jewish Museum & Center for Holocaust Education (Portland)
$4,750 for History, Justice, and Civic Engagement
OJMCHE will present three public programs that explore issues of prejudice using the lens of Jewish identity, building on the museum's three new permanent exhibits on Jewish identity, the Holocaust, and discrimination in Oregon.
Portland Playhouse (Portland)
$3,000 for 2017–18 community engagement series
Portland Playhouse will present three interactive dialogues on race, gentrification, and life in North/Northeast Portland during its 2017–18 season with the goal of strengthening the community through sharing, listening, breaking down barriers, and building relationships that extend beyond the events.
Resolutions Northwest (Portland)
$3,000 for Undersanding Racism Dialogues
Resolutions Northwest will conduct five Understanding Racism Dialogues and one facilitator training to support personal reflection and activation of participants of all races regarding their own implicit racial biases. All discussion will be contextualized and rooted in the history of systemic racial oppression in the US and in Oregon specifically. Participants will develop individual and community strategies for interpersonal racial reconciliation and become change agents for racial justice in their workplaces, neighborhoods, and larger civic community. Participants will become more knowledgeable, effective, and impactful contributors to the movement for equity and justice.
Crook County Foundation (Prineville)
$3,500 for What's Brewing?
Crook County Foundation will present a gathering to promote community conversations about local, regional, and global issues.
Oregon Black Pioneers (Salem)
$5,000 for Racing to Change: Oregon's Civil Rights Years
Oregon Black Pioneers' groundbreaking new interactive exhibit will engage visitors of all ages and backgrounds as it traces how discrimination practices affected Oregon’s Black populations and spurred the civil rights movement across Oregon. Through personal photos and artifacts, text, and interactive experiences, this project will illuminate Oregon’s vibrant Black communities during the civil rights era amongst a larger context of discrimination and displacement. The exhibit will be at the Oregon Historical Society from January 15 to June 28, 2018, then travel to other venues around Oregon.
Willamette Heritage Center (Salem)
$4,000 for History in the News
Willamette Heritage Center's History in the News series provides a public forum that puts current events in historical context. The monthly series begins with a roundtable of historians, political scientists, and other experts providing historical background and insights into a “hot” item in the news—for example, health hazards in schools. The audience then engages in Q&A and discussion about the topic, leaving with a better understanding of the topic’s history and prepared to continue the conversation and make informed decisions. History in the News will expand on the enormous success of the 2016 pilot program, sponsored in part by a Responsive Program Grant from Oregon Humanities.
PLAYA (Summer Lake)
$6,000 for Art, Science, and Community Collaborations for Creative Place Making
PLAYA’s residents will engage Lake County community members through free programs, workshops, and educational activities by hosting a minimum of twelve gatherings where artists/scientists and the public discuss questions related to place, identity, and community.
Responsive Program Grants
Projects that received Responsive Program Grant funds from November 1, 2016 through October 31, 2017.
Coordinated Care Organization Forum (We Can Do Better, Portland)
$1,000 in support of a convention of community members, policy makers, government agencies, and advocates for community helath in Oregon to work towards better health care for all
Dry Years, Wet Years, Tradition and Change: An Evening with Patricia Nelson Limerick (Hollywood Theatre and Hare in the Gate Productions, Burns)
$1,000 in support of a conversation about Burns's role in the evolving West with Professor Patricia Nelson Limerick, a scholar of the American West
Fall Prevention in the Home (Age-Friendly Innovators, Jacksonville)
$950 in support of an interactive discussion between the public and community leaders in housing and human service arenas
Indigenous People's Day 2017 (Natives of One Wind Indigenous Alliance — Red Earth Descendants, Ashland)
$500 in support of events during the 2017 Columbus Day holiday weekend that elevate conversations about the historic, cultural, and contemporary significance of Indigenous people and their contributions
Muse Clubs in Schools (World Muse, Bend)
$1,000 in support of the creation of a social awareness campaign for middle and high school students designed to bring attention to the negative effects of intolerance in order to develop a culture of compassion in Central Oregon
Race and Domestic Violence: A Conversation (Adelante Mujeres, Portland)
$750 in support of a community conversation about the intersection of race and domestic violence, focusing on aspects of immigration, policing, culture, and gender
Race and Place: Old Town's Chinatown and Japantown through Chinese American and Nikkei Eyes (Portland Chinatown History Foundation, Portland)
$800 in support of a series of conversations exploring Old Town's multiethnic past, featuring Chinese and Nikkei panelists who grew up in those quarters
Race Toolkit Project (Racial Equity Coalition, Rogue Valley)
$1,000 in support of a program providing resources and entry points to conversations about race
Social Justice Film Series (Four Rivers Cultural Center, Ontario)
$1,000 in support of an eight-week film series providing education and conversation on social justice topics impacting the Malheur County community
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