Baker County Cultural Coalition grant to bring arts to new eyes

Published 1:00 pm Monday, July 25, 2022

BAKER CITY — The Baker County Cultural Coalition Access Grant is a new program designed to bring art experiences to disabled, elderly and special needs residents as well as and low income families of Baker County.

A recent press release from Crossroads Carnegie Art Center noted that the program resulted from a $5,000 grant from the Oregon Community Foundation, which has given that amount to each of Oregon’s 36 counties and to federally recognized tribal coalitions.

In Baker County, the Cultural Coalition is offering $500 grants to nonprofits, social service agencies, community-based organizations, governmental agencies, and artisans or guilds.

“I am so appreciative of the work put in by the Baker County Cultural Coalition to work through the details of this new program,” said Ginger Savage, Crossroads director and chair of the Cultural Coalition.

“We’re really hoping that something like a senior center group can be formed who can do cultural activities, such as a veteran’s group who needed to rent a van to bring them to a play. The Eastern Oregon Film Festival could apply, artists’ guilds can apply. The Oregon Community Foundation didn’t put many restrictions on it, but emphasized accessing art.”

Grant money could be used to offer free tour days at museums marketing to young families, to supplement events with sign language interpreters, or even expand disabled bathrooms access, according to the press release.

The ultimate goal with the new program is to make local art and culture experiences possible for those who can’t conveniently connect to them.

Approval also hinges on certain trackable points, be it new visitors to a museum, positive experiences from participants or other data.

Savage hopes the grants can be issued with some mind to the national circumstances.

“How do we get more people out and about if COVID gets crazier?” she said. “How do we make it happen given financial restraints? We want to get some ideas on where we could meet (in the middle).”

In addition to the new grant program, the Baker County Cultural Coalition continues to offer grants through its traditional grant program, funded by the Oregon Cultural Trust.