performing arts

Hey y'all!

To the great chagrin of everyone else running around finishing up the largest paper in the EW history (sorry, guys! I'll bring Portland treats ... ), I'm up in Portland at the Oregon Arts Commission conference — excuse me, Arts Summit.

In the breakout session I'm in right now, talking about facilities and capital campaigns and all of that, there are about 21 people, including lots of arts org folks in Portland but also Craig Willis from the Leebrick, Karen Marie Pavelec from Maude Kerns and Riley Grannan from the Eugene Ballet Company.

Also, I'm hearing stories of people from Roseburg, Klamath Falls, Gresham, Hillsboro and Vail. Vail! Where the heck is that? Wait ... it's Vale!

View Vale Map Grannan knows where it is because the Ballet used to be a Boise/Eugene collaboration, and Vale's kind of on its way (check out the map).

I love the Internet. Now there's discussion of how to "brand" arts organizations. This normally makes me insane (witness my reaction to the Oregon Bach Festival's new branding thingie that involves a certain EEEEVIL corporation), but these folks are helping me understand how it gets money out of donors. Hey, even the donors in the room are talking about it.

More on this later. I know Mary Unruh of DIVA is in another room, and this morning, Frances Bronet, dean of the UO School of Architecture and the Allied Arts, was the keynote speaker (much more on her in a few weeks in the paper and online).

This is so cool.