Metro received 88 applications for the 2024 cycle of Community Placemaking grants. The following ten proposals were recommended for funding by an advisory group of community members of color who work at the intersection of arts and social justice in greater Portland. These grant-funded efforts, totaling $209,800, will take place across the Metro region in places such as Forest Grove, Cornelius, Oregon City, Gresham, Fairview and various locations in Portland. Three will host activities at Metro properties – Blue Lake Park, Lone Fir Cemetery and the Brunish Theatre. The grants will be led by and benefit Black, Indigenous, Latine, Chinese and Ethiopian communities, youth, families, entrepreneurs, the Black-African transgender, queer, nonbinary, two-spirit, intersex community and people experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity.
Black Education Achievement Movement - Conversations from the Heart, $20,500
This grant will support cultural arts and storytelling workshops with Black middle and high school students who will create a public exhibit at an educational hub in the Albina neighborhood. These students identified a critical need to honor and showcase stories of their modern-day Black heroes. This program gives voice to this rising generation — who they admire and who defines their culture. The grant includes youth stipends to participate in the 8-week summer program as featured student artists, activists and culture-makers.
Artist Horatio Law and MediaRites Production - Serenading the Departed, $21,000
This grant will support a creative project to reconnect Block 14 in Lone Fir Cemetery with Chinatown in early October 2024. Performances of Chinese instrumentalists, Cantonese opera and storytellers will take place in Chinatown and be broadcast to Block 14 via media technology as virtual offerings to honor the deceased. Afterwards, the public can see the performances anytime in augmented reality (AR) through their mobile device using QR code. The virtual performers will appear to be standing on the cemetery ground.
The AfroVillage PDX - The AfroFuturism Oasis, $21,000
This grant supports the first year of engagement and visioning following the installation of a few retired MAX cars at the AfroFuturism Oasis - a new community healing hub in the Albina neighborhood for Black and African American communities to rest, collaborate, and access pathways to economic empowerment. The grant will help transform the vacant land into a place reflecting the cultural and historical identity of the Albina neighborhood while strengthening BIPOC's sense of community toward a brighter, prosperous future.
El Programa Hispano Catolico - Dia de los Muertos, A Celebration of Life, $25,000
This grant will support a multi-phase Dia de los Muertos celebration. Six storytelling circles will capture familial memories with groups that include youth, seniors, survivors of domestic/sexual abuse and people experiencing housing instability. A mural designed by a local Latine artist will be based on the storytelling circle sessions and the community will paint the mural. It will culminate in a 2-day festival with programming to engage the Latine community including an Indigenous dance workshop and the creation of altars to cherish the life of those who have passed.
Nesika Wilamut - One Willamette: Network Learning and Celebration Ceremony, $21,000
This Indigenous-led effort will uplift cultural traditions and foster an equitable river health movement by centering impacted communities, building relationships and shareable curriculum and reconnecting people to the lower Willamette River. The grant will support an event that plants the seeds for systemic change through education, relationship building and honoring Indigenous knowledge and practices. Through collaborative learning, trust will be rebuilt between communities of color and environmental groups working towards a shared goal of river restoration.
Centro Cultural Del Condado De Washington - Ballet Folklorico: Reconnecting to cultural heritage and traditions, $25,000
This grant supports elder and youth dance cohorts led by local, culturally specific artists through a lens of identity, accessibility and cultural preservation. Two youth cohorts focus on intergenerational artistic and cultural teachings, self-confidence and leadership development. The elder cohort creates space for physical and mental wellness, community building and self-expression. This program combats social isolation for older adults and provides youth the needed exposure to intergenerational artistic and cultural teachings to gain self-confidence and leadership skills.
Oregon Ethiopian Community Organization - The Ethiopian Afterschool Art and Leadership Program, $13,300
This grant supports Ethiopian and Ethiopian American students’ connection to their heritage through visual art, music and time spent in community. Students will receive instruction on traditional and contemporary Ethiopian visual arts and develop traveling murals that will be displayed across the metropolitan area. Students will gain coaching and leadership skill development for public speaking as they talk about their work and make public presentations at different locations. The celebrations will reinforce community identity and connection for the young people and their families.
Black and Beyond the Binary Collective - Community Events for Black Queer People, $21,000
This grant will support a series of events for Black-African transgender, queer, nonbinary, two-spirit, intersex community next spring and summer with the goals of deepening interconnectedness, celebrating culture(s) together, and building a shared safe space for self-expression and joy. The community can be centered and feel safe in the face of persistent transphobia, homophobia, anti-Blackness, ableism, ageism and other forms of oppression. Attendees will feel supported and less alone, with a community they can count on and skills they can build to support themselves and each other.
Portland Indigenous Marketplace - Indigenous Placemaking, $21,000
This grant will support the Indigenous marketplace events, staff and the arts and culture programming in Portland, Fairview and for the first time, an Indigenous marketplace in Oregon City. The grant will also fund Art in the Park events at Blue Lake Park in Fairview, educational workshops for the more than one hundred Indigenous vendors, three art and culture workshops open to the public and a vendor picnic in Oregon City.
PassinArt Theatre Company - The Community at Play, $21,000
This grant will support intergenerational programming to build community, increase family learning opportunities and develop new and younger audiences for theatre. It includes theatre programming to support the Community Hub and Literacy efforts at the Albina Arts Center, nine intergenerational play readings with author discussions and family nights. Young people will engage in learning and participate in civic conversations. This programming will contribute to the reclamation of the historic Albina neighborhood by anchoring what is the essence of any demographic group – its arts and culture.