Community Partners

Regional Arts and Culture Council
RACC is the steward of several public and private investments in arts and culture throughout the tri-county metro area. A private nonprofit, RACC is funded in part by local, regional, state and federal governments to provide grants to artists and operating support to art organizations in the tri-county region. BCA has partnered with RACC on economic impact surveys, forums on innovation and public policy issues, and collaborates to build RACC’s “Work for Art” program.

Work for Art
BCA works closely with this workplace-giving program to build financial support and audiences for the arts in our region. A program of the Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC), “Work for Art” raises money primarily through employee charitable campaigns at workplaces in Oregon and SW Washington. The money supports more than 80 arts and culture organizations in Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties.

Creative Advocacy Network
CAN’s mission is to established a new public fund for the arts in the Portland Metropolitan Region to ensure that the arts never become a luxury, and that every child and every community enjoys equitable access to the innumerable benefits of a flourishing arts ecology. Formed in 2008, CAN is mobilizing the region’s elected, arts, education and business leaders and building grassroots support for a proposed funding package to go to the ballot in the next two years.

Right Brain Initiative
This initiative of the Regional Arts and Culture Council is dedicated to integrating arts and cultural resources into all local K-8 classrooms, regardless of neighborhood, language, or income. The Right Brain Initiative promotes whole brain learning, and is a collaboration among educators, parents, artists, local governments, business leaders and donors.

Nonprofit Association of Oregon
This statewide network of nonprofits, foundations, business partners and individuals support Oregon’s nonprofit sector through services to help them fulfill their mission. As a member, BCA partners with NAO on board member training programs.

Cultural Advocacy Coalition
The CAC serves as the political voice in Salem on behalf of Oregon’s arts, heritage and humanities. A nonprofit, non-partisan advocacy organization, CAC was specifically formed to lobby in Salem to ensure that all Oregonians have the opportunity and access to benefit from arts and cultural programs in their communities. BCA is a member of this organization.

Oregon Arts Commission
Established in 1967 to foster the arts in Oregon and ensure their excellence, the commission determines policies and funding levels for statewide arts programs. An agency of Stage Government, the Oregon Arts Commission offers technical assistance to arts organizations and awards a variety of matching grants to support arts programming in Oregon. Grant programs are supported with general funds from the State of Oregon and the Oregon Cultural Trust, and federal dollars from the National Endowment for the Arts. BCA supports the Commission on advocacy issues to promote an environment where art can thrive, and is very grateful to have received grants from the Commission in each of the past six years.

Oregon Cultural Trust

BCA has played a significant role in the creation and growth of this statewide plan to raise funds, build an endowment and award current grants to support more than 1,200 arts, heritage and humanities organizations across Oregon. Since 2002, Oregonians have contributed over $21 million to the Trust. The Trust has awarded over $9 million in grants to every corner of the state. Over 40,000 cultural license plates are fueling the Trust’s efforts in all regions.

Oregon Humanities
This nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities and one of the Cultural Partners of the Oregon Cultural Trust connects Oregonians to ideas that transform communities through grants, public programs and other public projects.

Oregon Historical Society
The mission of this Oregon Cultural Trust Partner is to work to preserve and interpret Oregon’s past with one of the country’s most extensive collections of state history materials.

Americans for the Arts
The parent organization of BCA, AFTA is the nation’s leading nonprofit organization for advancing arts in America. The organization creates opportunities for every American to participate in and appreciate all forms of the arts.