2017 Oregon Arts Summit Program

• The James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation • Jordan Schnitzer and The Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation • The Oregon Community Foundation • Former Arts Commissioner Julie Vigeland

2 WELCOME TO THE 2017 OREGON ARTS SUMMIT

Creating Impact: Art + Civic Engagement

Throughout history, art has reflected the most important social issues of its time. How are you engaging through your programs and your art? This year, the Oregon Arts Summit gathers educators, artists and leaders to discuss the impact that art and creative expression have in our world and how we can all lean in and engage. This is an opportunity for all of us to be a voice of inspiration and leaders in advocacy. What role will you play?

The Oregon Arts Summit is the single most important convening for Oregon’s arts community. Seasoned professionals and emerging leaders gather to learn, share and exchange ideas. Through this we build relationships, networks and ultimately strengthen our statewide arts community.

The 2017 Oregon Arts Summit also celebrates the Oregon Arts Commission’s 50th Anniversary.

WE ARE SO GLAD YOU’RE HERE

3 SCHEDULE

7:00 AM REGISTRATION OPENS

8:00 AM Pavilion Ballroom GOVERNOR’S ARTS AWARDS

9:00 AM BREAK Coffee + Continental Breakfast

9:30 AM Pavilion Ballroom SUMMIT OPENING Emcee MOsley WOtta Reading by Poet Laureate Elizabeth Woody Welcome by Arts Commission Vice Chair Anne Taylor Performance by PHAME Choir

10:00 AM Pavilion Ballroom OPENING KEYNOTE: TONY KUSHNER Hosted by Arts Commission Chair Christopher Acebo

11:00 AM BREAK 11:15 AM MORNING BREAKOUT SESSIONS Economic Impact: Film Festivals Panel Council Suite (upstairs) Todd Looby, Richard Herskowitz, Doug Whyte Hosted by Arts Commissioner Jenny Green In the Classroom Pavilion Ballroom Rachel Harry, Tamara Lynne Hosted by Arts Commissioner Josie Mendoza Artist Response Panel Forum Suite (upstairs) Darrell Grant, Edna Vazquez, Carlos Kalmar Hosted by Arts Commissioner Libby Unthank Tower 4 12:15 PM Pavilion Ballroom LUNCH SESSION Oregon Arts Commission Update, Executive Director Brian Rogers Celebrating 50 Years, Arts Commissioner Libby Unthank Tower Oregon Cultural Trust Campaign, Chair Carole Morse and Trust Manager Aili Schreiner Performance by Edna Vazquez Keynote: Arts + Economic Prosperity in Oregon Americans for the Arts, Vice President of Research and Policy Randy Cohen

1:45 PM BREAK 2:00 PM AFTERNOON BREAKOUT SESSIONS Equitable Access to Arts Learning Broadway III + IV Lara Davis and Regan Pro, The Creative Advantage Hosted by Arts Commission Vice Chair Anne Taylor Economic Impact in Oregon Broadway I + II Randy Cohen, Americans for the Arts Hosted by Arts Commissioner Michael Dalton Our Histories Pavilion Ballroom S. Renee Mitchell, Vanport Mosaic Project Hosted by Arts Commissioner Alyssa Dawamana Macy

3:00 PM BREAK

3:15 PM Pavilion Ballroom CLOSING SESSION Presentation and Performance by Mic Crenshaw 4:30PM OPEN NETWORKING 5 BREAKOUT SESSION DESCRIPTIONS

Morning Breakout Sessions

ECONOMIC IMPACT: FILM FESTIVALS PANEL Todd Looby, Richard Herskowitz, Doug Whyte When we talk about creating impact, the arts are often overlooked as a tool for economic development. Yet this may be one of the areas where the arts community is showing the biggest impact. Three film experts from around the state come together to discuss their festivals, their theater and how film is impacting our communities. IN THE CLASSROOM Rachel Harry, Tamara Lynne Arts education is a tool for teaching the next generation how to find their voice, be leaders, learn from each other and work together. Tony Award-winning teacher Rachel Harry will join in conversation with Tamara Lynne of Living Stages to discuss how we are creating impact in the classroom. Living Stages works in classrooms using the tools of the Theatre of the Oppressed to promote social and political change. The organization is committed to turning non-actors into actors by inspiring audiences to become engaged in the moment and transform the reality in which they live. Together these two will explore how access to arts education is impacting students and inspiring young voices. ARTIST RESPONSE PANEL Darrell Grant, Edna Vazquez, Carlos Kalmar How is art bringing us together? What are the opportunities that we have as artists to elevate an unheard voice to represent a community and to inspire action? Three artists gather to discuss the role of the artist in political activism. Darrell Grant, jazz musician and professor of music at Portland State University, is the director of the Leroy Vinegar Jazz Institute. Grant builds on values and cultural expression in the jazz tradition—the power of improvisation, democratic self-expression and communication to delve into broader questions about the role of the artist in contemporary society. Grant is deeply engaged in the process of creating work across disciplines and focusing on issues of sustainability in the arts.

6 Edna Vazquez is a fearless singer, songwriter and guitarist whose work transcends the boundaries of language to engage and uplift her audience. Vazquez’s passion for music and performance grew from her bicultural roots. She works to ground her music in universal human emotion and cultural healing. Carlos Kalmar, the music director of the Oregon Symphony, is embarking on a groundbreaking season titled Sounds of Home. For the first time in history, an orchestra is addressing social themes of immigration, the environment and homelessness. Dozens of arts and non-arts partners are joining in a year-long program that includes education and volunteer programs throughout the region.

Afternoon Breakout Sessions

EQUITABLE ACCESS TO ARTS LEARNING Lara Davis and Regan Pro | The Creative Advantage Lara Davis, arts education manager for the city of Seattle and Regan Pro, the Kayla Skinner Deputy Director for Education and Public Programs at the Seattle Art Museum, will be coming together to speak to the Creative Advantage. The Creative Advantage is an innovative city education initiative that gives young people the tools to express themselves and their ideas in service to the creation of a city filled with creative and critical thinkers who can collaborate to solve problems and be engaged in community. ECONOMIC IMPACT IN OREGON Randy Cohen | Americans for the Arts Dive into the Arts & Economic Prosperity Study 5 (AEP5) with Randy Cohen, vice president of research and policy at Americans for the Arts. This session will take a look at the study, the findings that are specific to Oregon and the impact the arts are having on business and economic development in the state. Learn how to take this data and apply it to your own mission, communication, advocacy and funding. You will be able to surface your own data and find out what the impact is in your specific community and how you translate that into future support, strategic planning and audience engagement. OUR HISTORIES S. Renee Mitchell | Poet, Artist, Teacher, Creative Revolutionist, Vanport Mosaic Project S. Renee Mitchell uses her art to inspire individuals to find their voice and will be speak- ing about the importance of sharing our histories. Mitchell is a writing teacher at Roosevelt High School and a writer, poet, artist and speaker. Mitchell works to advocate for healthy communities, women and education and is the co-director of the Vanport Mosaic Project.

7 SPEAKERS + PERFORMERS

BRAVO YOUTH ORCHESTRAS WITH DARRELL GRANT BRAVO Youth Orchestras are inspired by El Sistema to improve the lives of underserved children through intensive orchestral instruction. Students practice for two hours after school, five days a week. BRAVO believes that talent doesn’t have a zip code so they focus on bringing music where it is needed most. BRAVO also believes that together, we are powerful. An orchestra works as a team. Children smiling, grown-ups crying is a typical scene at a BRAVO concert. BRAVO is changing the world one string at a time, building community through music.

RANDY COHEN Vice President of Research and Policy Americans for the Arts Randy Cohen is Vice President of Research and Policy at Americans for the Arts, the nation’s advocacy organization for the arts. He recently published Americans Speak Out About the Arts, one of the largest national public opinion studies about the arts ever conducted, and publishes the two premier economic studies of the arts industries—Arts & Economic Prosperity (the national impact study of nonprofit arts organizations and their audiences) and Creative Industries (a mapping study of the nation’s 703,000 arts establish- ments and their employees). His 10 Reasons to Support the Arts blog recently received the Gold Award from the Association of Media & Publishing. Cohen has given speeches in 49 states and regularly appears in the news media—including the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and on C-SPAN, CNN, CNBC and NPR.

8 MIC CRENSHAW Cultural Activist Chicago-born poet and emcee Michael (Mic) Crenshaw fell in love with music at a young age while living in Minneapolis. Currently the lead U.S. organizer for the Afrikan Hiphop Caravan, Crenshaw tours annually throughout Africa with African hip-hop collectives, giving his community efforts both local and international impact. In addition to his highly-acclaimed work in spoken word and hip-hop, Crenshaw co-founded GlobalFam, a nonprofit project to create and maintain a computer center for disadvantaged youth in Burundi, Central Africa. Crenshaw also partners with Education WithOut Borders (EWOB), which supports education, music and art initiatives in Portland and beyond and serves as an umbrella for the local Books for Prisoners chapter and GlobalFam itself.

LARA DAVIS Arts Education Manager Seattle Office of Arts & Culture Lara Davis is an artist, racial equity strategist and arts administrator working at the intersection of culture, public education and social justice. She has served as a Seattle arts commissioner and as program director for Arts Corps, a nationally recognized youth arts education organization. As arts education manager for the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, Davis leads The Creative Advantage, a public/private initiative to reinvest in equitable arts education for all Seattle students. Davis is the inaugural co-chair for the National Guild for Community Arts Education’s ALAANA (African, Latinx, Asian/API, Arab, Native American) Network, serves on the National Advisory Committee for the Teaching Artists Guild, is a 2017 Marshall Memorial Fellow and the 2015 recipient of the Americans for the Arts Emerging Leader Award.

DARRELL GRANT Professor of Music Portland State University Since the 1994 release of his debut album Black Art, selected one of the year's top 10 jazz CDs by The New York Times, Darrell Grant has built an international reputation as a pianist, composer and educator who channels the power of music to make change. He has performed throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe in venues ranging from Paris’s La Villa jazz club to the Havana Jazz Festival. Dedicated to themes of hope, community and place, Grant’s compositions include his 2012 piece, “Step by Step: The Ruby Bridges Suite,” honoring civil rights icon Ruby Bridges and “The Territory,” which explores the connection to place through Oregon’s landscape and history. In 2017, he was named Portland Jazz Hero by the Jazz Journalist Association and received a Northwest Regional Emmy. Grant is a Professor of Music at Portland State University where he directs the Leroy Vinnegar Jazz Institute.

9 RACHEL HARRY Theater Arts Teacher Hood River Valley High School Rachel Harry began her career in 1986 as an English and theater teacher at a small high school in Hood River, Oregon. Building on a single introductory level drama class offered as an English elective, she developed a four-year program that includes classes that receive both high school and college credit via the Dual Enrollment program with the local community college. Harry also created the Commedia dell’Arte troupe, “Phoenix Theatre,” that has performed from venues as varied as farmer’s markets to Oregon’s “The Bite of the Gorge,” as well as the state Oregon School Boards Association conference. She holds her bachelor’s in english and theater from University of Utah and her master’s in theatre production from Central Washington University. Harry directs two to four productions each year in addition to teaching at both Hood River Valley High School and Columbia Gorge Community College. Harry has performed onstage as a dancer and actress for 45 years, most recently seen at the 2017 Tony Awards accepting the award for Excellence in Theater Education from Carnegie Mellon.

RICHARD HERSKOWITZ Artistic & Executive Director Ashland Independent Film Festival Richard Herskowitz is the artistic and executive director for the Ashland Independent Film Festival, where he began work as director of programming in 2015. He has been the artistic director of the Houston Cinema Arts Society and presenter of the annual Houston Cinema Arts Festival since its inception in 2008. From 2009-2015, Herskowitz directed Cinema Pacific, a festival of Pacific Rim cinema hosted by the University of Oregon in Eugene; his affiliation with the university continues as curator of media art for UO’s Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. From 1994 to 2008, Herskowitz was director of the Virginia Film Festival in Charlottesville and was named Tourism Person of the Year in 2007 by the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau. Prior to this, he directed the Cornell Cinema media arts center, where he presented over 500 films annually from 1982-1994.

CARLOS KALMAR Music Director Oregon Symphony Carlos Kalmar is in his 14th season as music director of the Oregon Symphony. He is also the artistic director and principal conductor of the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago. Under Kalmar’s guidance, the orchestra has recorded several CDs on the PentaTone label – “This England,” featuring works by Britten, Vaughan Williams and Elgar and “The Spirit of the American Range,” with works by Copland, Piston and Antheil, which received another Best Orchestral Performance Grammy nomination. A regular guest conductor with major orchestras in America, Europe and Asia, Kalmar recently made his subscription series debuts with three of America’s most prestigious orchestras: Boston, Chicago and San Francisco. Born in Uruguay to Austrian parents, Kalmar showed an early interest in music and began violin studies at the age of 6. 10 TONY KUSHNER Pulitzer Prize-winning Playwright Born in New York City in 1956, and raised in Lake Charles, Louisiana, Kushner is best known for his two-part epic, “Angels In America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes.” His other plays include “A Bright Room Called Day,” “Slavs!,” “Hydrotaphia,” “Homebody/Kabul” and “Caroline, or Change,” the musical for which he wrote book and lyrics, with music by composer Jeanine Tesori. Kushner has translated and adapted Pierre Corneille’s “The Illusion,” S.Y. Ansky’s “The Dybbuk,” Bertolt Brecht’s “The Good Person of Sezuan and Mother Courage and Her Children,” and the English-language libretto for the children’s opera “Brundibár” by Hans Krasa. He wrote the screenplays for Mike Nichols’ film of “Angels In America” and Steven Spielberg’s “Munich.” In 2012, he wrote the screenplay for Steven Spielberg’s movie “Lincoln,” which was nominated for an Academy Award and won the New York Film Critics Circle Award, Boston Society of Film Critics Award, Chicago Film Critics Award and several others. His recent work includes a collection of one-act plays entitled “Tiny Kushner and The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures.” In addition, a revival of “Angels in America” ran off-Broadway at the Signature Theater and won the Lucille Lor tel Award in 2011 for Outstanding Revival.

Kushner is the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, an Emmy Award, two Tony Awards, three Obie Awards, an Arts Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a PEN/Laura Pels Award, a Spirit of Justice Award from the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, a Cultural Achievement Award from The National Foundation for Jewish Culture, a Chicago Tribune Literary Prize for lifetime achievement, the 2012 National Medal of Arts and the 2015 Lifetime Achievement in the American Theater Award, among many others. “Caroline, or Change,” produced at the National Theatre of Great Britain, received the Evening Standard Award, the London Drama Critics’ Circle Award and the Olivier Award for Best Musical. In September 2008, Kushner became the first recipient of the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, the largest theater award in the U.S. He is the subject of a documentary film, “Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner,” made by the Oscar-winning filmmaker Freida Lee Mock. He lives in Manhattan with his husband, Mark Harris.

11 TODD LOOBY Director BendFilm Todd Looby spent eight years as construction manager for Chicago’s biggest firm, teaching himself filmmaking on the side and eventually making the leap to full-time filmmaking in 2008. Looby’s second narrative feature, “LEFTY,” was screened at festivals across the country and named in “The Top 10 Movies of 2009…” by the Chicago Tribune’s Metromix. His follow-up, “Son of None”—a narrative short shot in Liberia—won the Special Jury Award at Slamdance 2011. Looby’s last narrative feature, “Be Good,” stars indie-favorites and now established actors and directors Amy Seimetz and Joe Swanberg and was called, “Well acted, crafted and observed” by Variety. During his spare time, Looby is adapting the book “A Saint on Death Row” by New York Times best-selling author Thomas Cahill. Prior to working at BendFilm in 2014, Todd was the executive director of a successful nonprofit in Liberia, Africa.

TAMARA LYNNE Founder & Creative Director Living Stages Tamara Lynne, founder and creative director of Living Stages, draws from 17 years of experience creating community-devised theatre with a wide range of communities including: bus riders, farmworkers, low-income tenants, day laborers, students, educators, bus drivers, social service workers, artists and members of the houseless community. Her methodology is based on the theater work of Brazilian artist Augusto Boal, who developed a body of techniques now practiced in over 200 countries around the world as a process to engage communities in theater creation and performance about issues that impact their real day-to-day lives. Lynne’s training, creating community-based art internationally in India with rural villagers and in Brazil with landless workers, draws from a wide range of art, performance and cultural work used in practice to strengthen community resilience, sense of identity and empowerment in a wide range of contexts, often with community members who are most vulnerable.

S. RENEE MITCHELL Poet, Artist, Teacher Creative Revolutionist, Vanport Mosaic Project Award-winning journalist turned artist, S. Renee Mitchell, MBA, is best described as a Creative Revolutionist who expresses herself through poetry, storytelling, grant writing, teaching and creating multimedia experiences. She considers creative expression, in all forms, as her heARTwork. Mitchell spent 25 years as a newspaper journalist in Seattle, Orlando and Detroit, among other cities, and is most known locally for her years as a Metro columnist for The Oregonian, where she was nominated twice for the prestigious Pulitzer Prize. Mitchell is a published author of four books of poetry, a novel, five plays and a children’s book about courage in the face of bullying. Mitchell’s deepest desire is to use her creativity to help others let go, gather up and move on. 12 REGAN PRO Director of Education & Public Programs Seattle Art Museum Regan Pro is the Kayla Skinner Director of Education & Public Programs at the Seattle Art Museum, where she develops creative engagement opportunities for all audiences focused on equity, relevancy and curiosity. Prior to joining SAM in 2009, Regan worked at the Frye Art Museum and the Addison Gallery of American Art. She also held positions at Path with Art, Project Zero and the National Arts Learning Collaborative.

PHAME CHOIR PHAME has a core belief that art is a right, that art should be accessible to everyone, and that through art we create community, support systems and channels for advocacy. Several singers join us to inspire and celebrate the Oregon Arts Commission.

EDNA VAZQUEZ Singer-Songwriter Edna Vazquez is a fearless singer, songwriter and guitarist whose powerful voice and musical talent embrujan and transcend the boundaries of language to engage and uplift her audience. She is a creative crisol with a vocal range that allows her to paint seamlessly with her original material, an intersection of folk, rock, pop and R&B. Vazquez’s passion for music and performance grew from her bicultural raices and, with songs deeply rooted in universal human emotion, she has traveled far and wide spreading her message of light, love and cultural healing.

DOUG WHYTE Executive Director Hollywood Theatre Doug Whyte has more than 20 years’ experience with film and media in a variety of roles, including instructor, programmer, filmmaker and executive director. Whyte joined the historic Hollywood Theatre in Portland as their Executive Director in 2010 and since has led a resurgence of the nonprofit theater with recent press recognizing the Hollywood “one of the country’s best—and best-loved—movie theaters” (Portland Mercury), and “on the march to becoming one of the most dynamic movie houses in the country” (OPB). This past February he spearheaded the opening of Hollywood Theatre at PDX, the country’s first airport cinema.

13 ELIZABETH WOODY Poet Laureate of Oregon Elizabeth Woody is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Oregon, of Yakama Nation descent, and is “born for” the Tódích'íinii (Bitter Water clan) of the Navajo Nation. Her paternal grandfather’s clan is Mą'ii deeshgiizhinii (Coyote Pass, Jemez clan). Woody has published three books of poetry and also writes short fiction, essays and is a visual artist. She has been the recipient of the American Book Award and the William Stafford Memorial Award for Poetry and was a finalist for the Oregon Book Awards in 1995. Woody is alumna of the first Kellogg Foundation’s Fellowship through AIO’s Ambassadors program and she leads writing workshops, lectures and has served on multidisciplinary art fellowship jury panels for several foundations and arts organizations nationally. Woody is presently on the board of directors of Soapstone: Celebrating Women Writers, and the Willamette University Advisory Council for Native Programs located in Salem, Oregon.

MOSLEY WOTTA Poet, Activist, Musician Chicago-born, Oregon-based artist MOsley WOtta (MOWO) is an undeniable talent. A consummate creative, his works have been featured internationally as a speaker, performer, poet, visual artist and educator for more than a decade. MOsley WOtta is a former slam poetry champion for the state of Oregon. He has been featured multiple times as a TEDx speaker and performer and his CV includes Sundance Film Festival, Fiji International Jazz & Blues Festival, MAGIC trade show Las Vegas, Street Con Dubai, Valley Fiesta Australia and PBS Oregon Art Beat. Recently, MOWO traveled to Nauru as a journalist to write for VICE magazine and report on the refugee camps and condition and serves as an art ambassador with Rise Up International and the United States Embassy in Nauru. This year he will lead a discussion with author and Pulitzer Prize nominee Laila Lalami for Oregon Humanities.

14 NOTES

15 SOCIAL MEDIA SHARE YOUR ARTS SUMMIT EXPERIENCE AND JOIN THE CONVERSATION #OrArts17