PORTLAND, Ore. — Oregon arts and community groups recently received more than $90,000 from the PacifiCorp Foundation for Learning to help broaden and preserve worthwhile cultural programs. The PacifiCorp Foundation, which serves as the charitable arm of Pacific Power, assists organizations projects that help further learning.

“As budgets become tighter throughout our service area, we know how critical it is to lend a hand in broadening an appreciation for the value of arts, particularly the important mission of arts education” said Isaac Regenstreif, executive director of the Foundation. “This appreciation is not only important in large cities, but we are pleased to help smaller Oregon communities receive quality arts education programs.”

Regenstreif said that, according to research, less than 21 percent of Oregon children engage in any art form due to diminished school budgets and class offerings.

The largest gifts of $12,500 each were given to the Oregon Symphony Association for its Coos Bay music residency program, and to the Portland Opera Association’s statewide educational tour. Newport’s Oregon Coast Aquarium’s education efforts received $10,000, Portland Center Stage received a $7,500 grant and Bend’s Oregon High Desert Museum $5,000. All of the grants focused on community outreach and each organization’s education programs.

Since the PacifiCorp Foundation was established in 1988, it has awarded more than 6,300 grants totaling more than $37.3 million to communities served by Pacific Power, Utah Power and PacifiCorp.  

The following Oregon organizations received support from the PacifiCorp Foundation for Learning:

Oregon High Desert Museum  – Bend –  Funding for Sense-Sational Saturdays, which presents eight monthly programs with live animals, stories, drama, educational games, and hands-on crafts and activities for K-6th grade children.

Oregon Symphony Association’s Community Music Partnership residency program  – Coos Bay –  Help design, implement, strengthen and sustain a comprehensive music education program.

Arts Council of Pendleton  – Support for Art Saves Lives, a free, after– school and summer series of arts programs designed to provide entertaining, youth-driven activities for ages 12-18.

Inland Northwest Musicians  – Pendleton – Outreach program to augment the region’s school music programs and bring classical music experiences to people in underserved rural communities.

STARS After School  – Corvallis – A collaboration with the Corvallis Arts Center to provide quality after–school arts programs.

Cascade Head Festival  – Lincoln City – Support for Encounters, an ongoing program featuring master musicians from Europe, Asia and the U.S. who lecture and demonstrate musical instruments from the time of Beethoven and Mozart.

Lane Arts Council  – Eugene – Supporting the ArtsConnection youth arts program in Cottage Grove. About 100 K-8th grade children participate in 2-4 week summer programs guided by professional visual, performing and literary artists.

Youth Symphony of Southern Oregon  – Medford – Help continue established programs: Youth Strings for elementary school, Youth Orchestra for middle and high school, and the Youth Symphony for high school and university students.

Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center  – Portland – Contributing to IFCC’s new after–school program has adult mentors introducing theatre arts to middle schoolchildren in North/Northeast Portland.

Northwest Children’s Theater and School  – Portland – Funding will subsidize theater arts education at the King Elementary School in NE Portland.

Oregon Ballet Theatre  – Portland – Student Performance Series arts education program – Helping the OBT make its program available to nearly 8,000 students in public, private and home schools in Oregon and Southwest Washington.

Oregon Museum of Science & Industry  – Portland – Supports a bilingual exhibition where children are invited to compare and contrast environmental conditions, explore the interactions between plants, animals and the environment, and gain an awareness of the connections between living things.

Portland Center Stage  – Portland – Supports Visions &Voices– Supporting the student playwriting program, now in its 6th year. The program provides in-school artist residencies with professional actor/writers helping high school students develop their own short plays. Also supports its Stage Door program, introducing young people to a live theatre experience.

Profile Theatre Project  – Portland – Foundation funds support the writing and printing of study guides for the Education Enrichment Program, which promotes academic achievement in literacy and the arts at Portland-area high schools.

The Haven Project  – Portland – Help fund the Spotlight Programs, which pair underserved kids, ages 9 to 19, with professional artist to create original theatre. Younger children act in a short play or write them. Teens experience a year–long writing, performing and improvisation classes, and excursions to the professional theater.

The Library Foundation, Inc.  – Portland – Funding for the Raising a Reader early literacy program, which reaches children and parents who are at risk of not reading together. Foundation funding will help launch and evaluate the program at two childcare locations in Northeast Portland’s Vestal community.

World Affairs Council of Oregon  – Portland – Subsidize season tickets to the Council’s International Speakers Series for young audiences throughout Oregon.

Oregon Coast Aquarium  –  Newport – Help implement the aquarium’s onsite and outreach programs for pre-K through 12th grade during the next year.

Oregon Childrens Theatre Company  – Portland – Provide master teacher mentors to support classroom teachers in exploring new teaching methods and tools to integrate curriculum with theatre.

Portland Opera Association  – Portland –Help fund Portland Opera Works!, a 10-week statewide school tour providing access to the arts for students, teachers and community members. This year’s tour will bring professionally staged opera to every region of the state.