Announcement
August 22, 2023
°Ä³¬Ö±²„ Invests $1 Million in Visionary Oregon Arts and Culture Projects
"My Fatherās Fatherās Sister: Our Ancestor Shimkhinā at Chachalu Museum & Cultural Center, Grand Ronde
Fourteen Grantees Building Community by Elevating Underrepresented Voices and Increasing Access to Arts Experiences Across Oregon
Oregon Community Foundation (°Ä³¬Ö±²„) announced today that the Foundation will invest $1 million in visionary Oregon arts and culture projects through °Ä³¬Ö±²„ās 2023 Creative Heights Initiative.
This yearās Creative Heights grantees are launching projects that celebrate culture, bring lost stories to light, center historically overlooked perspectives and provide more opportunities for individuals with disabilities to make and experience art.
°Ä³¬Ö±²„ās 2023 Creative Heights awards support projects by visionary artists and arts and culture organizations that are building community by elevating underrepresented voices and increasing access to innovative arts experiences across Oregon.
āOregon Community Foundation is proud to support these visionary artists with our 2023 Creative Heights grants,ā said Chey Kuzma, Associate Program Officer, Arts and Culture, °Ä³¬Ö±²„ āArtists throughout our state are thoughtfully uplifting the importance of arts and culture within our current climate, creating genuine connection, and bringing a bit of magic to our communities. We are grateful for and awed by these granteesā dedication to Oregonās thriving arts and culture community.ā
Following is a snapshot of just some of the extraordinary projects that °Ä³¬Ö±²„ is supporting with the 2023 Creative Heights Initiative funding:
(Lead Artist) | (Fiscal Sponsor)
$100,000 2023 Creative Heights Grant
To support Crystal Akins Menesesā Creative Heights Project to create a collaborative cross-organization fellowship for artists with neurodivergent disabilities.
āReceiving Oregon Community Foundationās Creative Heights grant for this project is life-changing for all artists with disabilities,ā said Crystal Akins Meneses, Founder, Activate Arts. āWhat inspires me to guide this collective is the possibility that one day, youth artists with disabilities can see themselves contributing as professional creatives.ā
& Felix Furby (Lead Artists) | (Fiscal Sponsor)
$99,000 2023 Creative Heights Grant
To support Anthony Hudson & Felix Furbyās Creative Heights "The Shumkhi Project", celebrating Oregon's queer Indigenous history with a new exhibit ā and supporting programming ā about Two-Spirit Tualatin Kalapuya healer Shumkhi (or Shimkhin) (1820-1904) and highlighting contemporary Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer contributions to our communities.
āWhen we opened our current exhibit on our transfeminine ancestor Shimkhin, we did it with what support we could muster in the moment. Now we get to share Shimkhinās history ā and the histories of ten international Indigiqueer artists ā with not only our community at Grand Ronde but across our occupied homelands,ā said Anthony Hudson.
Photo courtesy of Cymaspace
$97,000 2023 Creative Heights Grant
To increase accessibility of dance and music to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community by using Universal Design and haptics vibration technology to build a dance floor and bodysuits that translate music from an auditory experience to a physical one.
āWe believe that music is innate and born in everyone and by tapping into that potential we can bring the music out in whatever form that may be,ā said Nate Hergert, Project Lead, Universal Music Design Team, Cymaspace. āThe Cymaspace project, āThe Universal Design of Music,ā unlocks the potential for accessibility in music using haptic technology that incorporates our ethos: āAll the Sensesā ā making the magic of sound tangible for the deaf,ā said Dr. Shawn Trail, Research & Production Coordinator, Universal Music Design Team, Cymaspace.
JR Rymut (Lead Artist) | (Fiscal Sponsor)
$75,000 2023 Creative Heights Grant
To support JR Rymut's Creative Heights Project, āā, providing youth artist mentorship to design an experimental, narratively driven, immersive walkthrough performance piece for a rural community in Eastern Oregon on Halloween weekend.
āOregon Community Foundationās Creative Heights grant is nothing short of life-changing,ā said JR Rymut, Program Director, Haunt Camp. āThere are no more limits on Haunt Camp's most lofty ambitions and the network of art people who create it.ā
A complete list of all 14 2023 Creative Heights grantees can be found online, in °Ä³¬Ö±²„ās Press Room.
°Ä³¬Ö±²„ās Creative Heights initiative provides opportunities for artists and culture bearers to stretch their creative capacity, share new works and test new ideas. The initiative has invested roughly $1 million per year since 2014, encompassing 126 projects across a range of visual art, dance, folk and traditional arts, film/video/media, literary arts, museum exhibitions, humanities projects, music, theater and performance arts, history and heritage projects, and multidisciplinary artistic works.