Oregon Contemporary faces funding, programming cuts [Video]

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) – The Oregon Contemporary Arts Center is facing thousands of dollars in lost funding at the city and national levels, and programming is already suffering.

Executive and Artistic Director Blake Shell said they have canceled their summer exhibition, which would have focused on bringing back Indigenous language in the modern age.

In the fall, the Northeast Portland Arts Center in the Kenton neighborhood learned that, due to the restructuring of arts funding distribution, it would receive $14,000 less in annual funds from the City of Portland.

They also learned that due to recent federal budget cuts, they will no longer receive a $50,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts that they were expecting for next year.

Shell said that they started the year excited to celebrate their 25th anniversary.

“Going into 2025, we were really celebrating that and excited for having gotten here,” she said. …