Speak Directly To City & County Officials
A big part of the Touch Art event is the buy-in we have from public employees, city officials, and private art supporters, both as attendees, but also as a part of the event. At 6pm on Thursday, September 24th, at one end of the event, a public conversation about arts in Portland will take place, with Guest Speakers Jamie Dunphy (Portland City Council), Shannon Singleton (Multnomah County Commissioner), and Meara McLaughlin (Founder of Music Oregon). 4ARTSAKE partner / co-organizer of this event Nick Hash will act as moderator, and ask the speakers questions on artists’ behalf regarding financial issues and other obstacles faced by Portland creatives.
We want your questions and concerns! All contributions will be submitted anonymously!
If you would like to add questions or pain-points to the conversation, please fill out the form below and we will do our best to get your concerns into the program. It is possible that not all questions make it in due to time, but we will get through as many as we can!
Example Pain Points: There are fewer galleries now than at the peak saturation before covid; fewer exhibition opportunities; limited to no art coverage in local press; no free or affordable third spaces for artist meetings and collaboration.
Example Questions: As a city representative, how do you plan to address the rising rent costs that are pushing artists out of the metro area, and in many cases, out of Oregon altogether? Would you support a vacancy tax on underutilized commercial real estate to fund arts and education funding?