Randi Johnson, Cowboy Poet
The National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $82 million to fund local arts projects and partnerships in the NEA’s second major funding announcement for fiscal year 2016. Included in this announcement are several awards for the Oregon Folklife Network and its partners. First, a $55,000 Art Works award to the OFN to extend our Statewide Folklife Survey to the Portland Metro area. Second, a $50,000 Partnership grant to the OFN to continue the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program and the Technical Assistance Collaboration awards, and a $45,000 Art Works award to our partner, the Four Rivers Cultural Center (Ontario, Oregon) to hire a part-time Staff Folklorist to extend OFN’s cultural programming to Eastern Oregon.
The Art Works category supports the creation of work and presentation of both new and existing work, lifelong learning in the arts, and public engagement with the arts through 13 arts disciplines or fields.
“The arts are all around us, enhancing our lives in ways both subtle and obvious, expected and unexpected,” said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. “Supporting projects like these from the Oregon Folklife Network and the Four Rivers Cultural Center offers more opportunities to engage in the arts every day.”
Funds for year four of our Statewide Folklife Survey will support the OFN’s documentation of traditional arts and culture in the Portland Metro counties of Washington, Multnomah, Yamhill, Columbia, and Clackamas.
The NEA Partnership grant supports OFN’s TAAP awards, which fund master traditional artists to teach apprentices. NEA funds also provide support for four Technical Assistance Collaboration (TAC) awards, which make possible collaborative projects between the OFN staff and local organizations or Tribes.
NEA Art Works funds for the Four Rivers Cultural Center will support a part-time Staff Folklorist who will oversee folklife fieldwork, public programs, exhibits, and technical assistance in folk and traditional arts in the Eastern Oregon counties of Harney, Malheur, Grant, Baker, Wallowa, Union, Umatilla, and Morrow.
“Four Rivers Cultural Center is pleased to be working with the Oregon Folklife Network and their partners, the Oregon Arts Commission, the Oregon Cultural Trust, and the Oregon Historical Society,” said Four Rivers Executive Director, Matt Stringer. “NEA funding expands Four Rivers programming and partnership possibilities not just for eastern Oregon but for neighboring programs in the Great Basin region.”