45 BRAND STORY give meaning to our lives are as diverse as the many cultures and languages spoken here,” explains Aili Schreiner, Trust Manager, Oregon Cultural Trust. “The work of the Trust to me is about an ongoing investment in community-led meaning-making activities.” The Trust, which was founded in 2001 and has now awarded nearly $40 million in grants, prioritizes projects that fall under one of four categories: access to culture, heritage preservation, creativity and organizational capacity. Its capacity category provides an avenue for the Cultural Trust to fund the essentials that keep nonprofits alive, such as human resources, strategy or infrastructure. Back in Warm Springs, an important local museum that spotlights stories and artifacts from the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs received $22,000 to install a new HVAC system to help keep the museum running – not a flashy project, but an essential one. Each year the Trust awards funding to at least a dozen first-time recipients. One such project is the Artists Mentorship Program, a drop-in center where homeless youth can access advanced art and design resources, such as a fully equipped performance and recording studio, art supplies, art teachers and lessons. “We hear all the time, especially through county programs, that one grant, even one that seems small, is life-changing to an individual who might have been sitting on an idea for decades,” Schreiner says. “The idea is that all the grants are an investment that leads to new opportunities.” Importantly, the grants foster innovation too: CymaSpace, which enables inclusivity within arts, culture and media, and enTaiko, a Japanese taiko drum school and performance group, received funding to create a multisensory concert for the deaf community. The new artform will transform traditional Japanese drum music into light for the enjoyment of audiences of all abilities. Another boundary-pushing creative initiative, The Evolve Experience, uses storytelling to bridge divides, namely between law enforcement and Black communities. The organization behind the award-winning initiative, The Red Door Project, was granted funding by the Cultural Trust to conduct a data-driven study of The Evolve Experience and, more broadly, the arts as a tool for systematic change. “We want to invest in cultural nonprofits who are clearly making a difference in the state of Oregon and whose projects are catalytic,” Schreiner continues. “Everything we do is peer-reviewed. We’re very intentional in terms of where taxpayer dollars go, and we want people to see the impact of those dollars.” Working with partners and coalitions lets funding happen at the community level, ensuring effective, informed, community-led change. “We’re big believers in ‘nothing for us without us,’” Schreiner adds. “Thanks to the Trust, we know that there isn’t a county in Oregon that doesn’t have some kind of cultural investment. Any community you visit here will have some sort of theater program or historical society or community college arts program…There are more than 1,600 cultural nonprofits in Oregon.” The final design selected by the Cultural Trust for its Celebrate Oregon! Oregon license plate attempts to capture that abundance of culture. The imagery, created by Eugenebased artist Liza Mana Burns, features 127 different symbols that together depict the diversity of the state’s heritage and cultural practices. Proceeds from the plate sales help support the Trust’s marketing and communications efforts, among other service-based activities. The Cultural Tax Credit funds the grant awards budget, which dipped slightly last year just before a record-breaking number of grant applications were submitted. This year, the Trust team is hard at work to ensure funding increases for the next round of applications. Between now and Dec. 31, they are urging those who contribute to cultural organizations to also make a donation to the Trust, which will come back to them at tax time in the form of an Oregon tax credit. “If people are looking to impact their fellow Oregonians in every part of the state, this is a powerful way to do that,” Schreiner encourages. “If you’re already making charitable donations, take advantage of the Cultural Tax Credit. It’s a super smart investment and its impact is unquestioned.” n 2022 Tule Mat Making Class at The Museum at Warm Springs, supported by a FY2024 Cultural Trust grant award. Photo by Elizabeth Woody. EnTaiko performs at a Northwest Children’s Theater event. EnTaiko’s collaboration with CymaSpace, funding in part by the Cultural Trust, will make drum performance more accessible to the deaf community.
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