I’ll be real with you: This package was a happy accident. For this issue, I asked staff writer Garrett Andrews to write about the conflict that arose after Live Nation announced plans to open a music venue in the Portland area, one large enough to hold between 2,000 and 4,000 people—occupying the “missing middle” of music venues in a town that has plenty of small venues and a handful of very large ones. Some welcomed the news — but others ranged from apprehensive to angry about what it will mean for Live Nation to build a venue in Portland, the last major city in the United States that doesn’t have one. Separately, I looked into stories about Literary Arts’ move and expansion into a new space in the Central Eastside. The new space, which includes a bookstore and cafe as well as classroom space, is scheduled to open this fall. And I also spoke to Andre Middleton, the executive director of Friends of Noise, as his organization was finalizing a lease agreement that will allow them to build a new, all-ages venue in a building that until 2020 contained a strip club. It wasn’t until I was partway through my own reporting process that I saw the common thread running through all three of these stories. They’re all about either arts spaces in Portland that are either completely new or newly accessible to the public. There are important differences in these stories. One is a small, relatively new nonprofit. Another is a large, for-profit company that is currently the subject of a federal lawsuit for anticompetitive practices. Another is a decadesold arts organization that is almost certainly one of the largest organizations exclusively devoted to the literary arts. But considered in aggregate, these stories suggest that big things are happening in Portland’s arts community. And they aren’t the only signs of big changes afoot. As this issue went to press, Portland City Council was mulling the future of Keller Auditorium, which hosts touring Broadway shows as well as performances by the Portland Opera and Oregon Ballet Theatre. The Portland Art Museum has unveiled plans for a major transformation of its downtown campus. And there are changes beyond Portland as well. Brian Rogers, executive director of the Oregon Arts Commission, notes that there is a movement to renovate old theaters — ones originally built to show movies or touring Vaudeville acts, but that became other things, like retail storefronts, as television became more popular. But in recent years, local arts groups have taken the time and trouble to renovate old theater spaces for live theater or music performances, or to reopen as movie theaters. In INTRODUCTION BY CHRISTEN MCCURDY We took a look at three big, physical shifts in Portland’s arts spaces this fall. MAKING SPACE Ongoing construction at the new home of LIterary Arts in Southeast Portland COURTESY OF LITERARY ARTS 24
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