Cultural Grants Awarded to 21 Washington County Organizations

For Immediate Release: Friday, July 17, 2009

The Cultural Coalition of Washington County (CCWC) recently awarded grants to 21 Washington County organizations for cultural projects to be conducted between July 2009 and June 2010. Grants were distributed through a competitive process to address goals of the Washington County Cultural Plan.  

The CCWC was appointed in February 2005 by the Washington County Board of Commissioners to administer and distribute funds from the Oregon Cultural Trust to support locally based arts, heritage and humanities projects. This year $39,860 was distributed. A total of $136,860 has been distributed by the Coalition over five years. The Oregon Cultural Trust receives its funding from its innovative tax credit program (www.oregonculturaltrust.org) and from the sale of Cultural Trust license plates.  

"The Coalition was pleased to receive applications for so many interesting and creative projects, and to award grants to first-time applicants as well as established community organizations," noted Beth Self, Coalition Chair. Thirty-three applications were received from a variety of large and small arts, heritage and humanities organizations from across the County. Grants will support projects including music, theater, dance, photography, writing, cultural heritage and art experiences.  

For the first time, the Coalition awarded one $5000 grant, in addition to smaller grants listed below. The goal of this grant award is to address a countywide issue, rather than a project of a specific organization. Washington County Historical Society will use the grant to promote heritage and cultural tourism through the expansion of its website to include heritage sites and a better content management system, by updating and republishing a guide to cultural attractions throughout the County, and by developing audio guides for heritage and cultural sites. To do this they will collaborate with the Westside Cultural Alliance, the Washington County Visitor's Association and local volunteer heritage groups.

2009-2010 Washington County Community Cultural Participation Grant Recipients include: 

• Ano's Art (East County - unincorporated): $2000 to provide financial aid for tuition and materials for low-income students to study a variety of artistic mediums
• Arts Advisory Committee, City of Tualatin (Tualatin): $2000 to support increased youth participation in the Student Visual Chronicle
• Beaverton Arts & Communications Magnet Academy (Beaverton): $860 to implement a Sunprint (photo-polymer) program to supplement photography courses
• Beaverton Arts Foundation (Beaverton): $2000 for consultant to redesign website
• Beaverton Civic Theatre (Beaverton): $1000 for promotional brochures and a traveling display to promote its second season
• Beaverton Library Foundation (Beaverton): $2000 to support a two-day "Glimpses of India" presentation, lecture and demonstrations of music and dances of India featuring local artists
• Broadway Rose Theatre Company (Tigard): $2000 for stipends for high school youth interns for the Student Technical Internship Program
• Boys & Girls Aid Society - Rise Above Arts Program (Hillsboro): $2000 to support art and writing classes at a Safe Place for Youth shelter for homeless and runaway youth
• Friends of the Hillsboro Library (Hillsboro): $2000 to support the "Groovin' at the Library" family-friendly concert series
• Hillsboro Community Youth Choir (Hillsboro): $2000 to support "Celebrating Music through Community" concert collaboration with the Intel Singers and the Cornell Estates Retirement Facility Choir
• Hillsboro Visual Art Association (Hillsboro): $1000 to pay local musicians to perform at First Tuesday events
• Masque Alfresco (Beaverton): $1000 to support free outdoor performances of Goldoni's The Liar (commedia style theater) in Beaverton, Hillsboro and Tualatin
• Oregon Chorale (Hillsboro): $2000 to commission an original composition from Vijay Singh for the Oregon Chorale's 25th anniversary to be performed by the Oregon Chorale and the Hillsboro Community Youth Choir
• Painted Sky, Inc. (Easy County – unincorporated): $2000 to help establish an on-going, urban dance program for youth that will blend, study and perform Native American and contemporary styles of dance
• Sherwood Foundation for the Arts (Sherwood): $2000 to support a community based, outdoor production of The Music Man
• Tigard Public Library (Tigard): $1000 to fund a four-week session of Oregon Symphony Storytime, a program that blends literature and music for pre-schoolers and their parents, featuring members of the Oregon Symphony
• Walters Cultural Arts Center (Hillsboro): $2000 to support October 2009 National Arts & Humanities Month events including workshops, lectures, concerts and cultural opportunities
• Washington County Historical Society (Rock Creek): $2000 to support Mobile Museum presentations for approximately 500 school children including the creation of a new segment chronicling the Hispanic Community's role in County development
• Westside Cultural Alliance (countywide): $2000 to grow and maintain the artist's and performer's registry website at www.artstage.info
• Willowbrook Center for the Development of Human Potential (Tualatin): $2000 to underwrite 50 student days at Willowbrook arts day camp for Latino children.

For more information on the Cultural Coalition of Washington County see www.westsideculturalalliance.org. For more information on the Oregon Cultural Trust visit www.culturaltrust.org.

For more information contact:

Eva Calcagno, Manager
Washington County Cooperative Library Services
503.846.3233

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