August 13, 2010 – Salem, ORE. The third annual Oregon Days of Culture takes place Friday, October 1 through Friday, October 8, the 8th anniversary of Oregon’s unique and powerful cultural tax credit. Presented by the Oregon Cultural Trust, Oregon Days of Culture celebrates the vibrancy of Oregon heritage, humanities and arts.
The eight-day week showcases everyday culture in every Oregon community. Whether it’s taking in a quilt display at the farmer’s market, reading the latest bestseller at the library, imagining pioneer life at a historic cemetery or listening to an opera in a bar, the searchable, interactive website – www.oregondaysofculture.org – makes it easy to sample Oregon culture and encourages donations to support it.
The website opens to the public on Tuesday, August 24. That’s when people can begin searching for Oregon Days of Culture activities as well as post events to the site. The site will accept event postings through Friday Sepetmber 17. Posted events may be public like author readings, exhibitions, performances and screenings; or private, such as knitting group meetings, cultural confession challenges or fundraising parties. The searchable database includes free and ticketed events, community gatherings and volunteer opportunities. Friday, October 8, 2010 is Oregon’s statewide in-service day when many families will be looking for activities for their children. When they search www.oregondaysofculture.org, they’ll find plenty of choices anywhere in Oregon.
This year, www.oregondaysofculture.org invites Oregonians to make cultural confessions …to reveal through a blog post what their secret cultural passion might be. This is part of Oregon Days of Culture’s intent to reveal the secret cultural currents that inform our lives. A medical researcher, a fisherman, or a small town mayor may also be a tap dancer, a poet or a plein air painter. Who knew? When they make their cultural confessions, we all will. And we’ll all share in the unexpected, intriguing, stimulating and delightful nature of cultural expression in Oregon.
October is a time of many celebrations -- National Arts & Humanities Month, National Archives Month, Archaeology Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, and many, many others. It also kicks off the fall fundraising season, not just for the Cultural Trust but for Oregon’s 1,300 cultural nonprofits. That’s why Oregon Days of Culture invites people to Celebrate!Participate!Give! to Oregon culture.
October 8 is the anniversary of the cultural tax credit and, in 2010, the Cultural Trust’s eighth birthday. In 2009, the celebration was expanded from a single day to an eight-day week to be more inclusive and to reflect cultural programming available in Oregon communities.
OregonDaysofCulture.org includes Cultural Trust Facebook and Twitter feeds and allows users to post photos and videos of their cultural confessions. It lists proclamations, speaking engagements, and media coverage; it includes a speakers bureau, sample letters to the editor and a downloadable toolkit for those posting Oregon Days of Culture events. All to make it easy to participate in the celebration and to proclaim support of Oregon culture throughout October 1 through 8.
An innovative public-private fundraising and grantmaking program, the Oregon Cultural Trust relies on donations to create the funds for its annual grant cycle. The Trust recently announced $1.47 million in statewide grants benefiting 57 cultural nonprofits, 40 county and tribal coalitions and five state cultural partners. Those grants are made possible entirely by donors who gave to the Trust and to any number of Oregon’s 1,300 cultural nonprofits (searchable at http://tinyurl.com/cv9nqo) to earn Oregon’s unique cultural tax credit. The cultural tax credit makes Trust gifts free and gives donors the power to create grants that benefit the cultural nonprofits they already value.
The Cultural Trust invests in community by funding Oregon humanities, arts and heritage. Many cultural nonprofits – libraries, heritage societies, art centers – are the heart of community life and learning. Oregon Days of Culture celebrates the value of Oregon culture and encourages Oregonians to support it by giving. Most event pages at www.oregondaysofculture.org include links to cultural nonprofits’ donations pages.
The Trust’s cultural confession: more donations = more grants, benefiting arts, humanities and heritage nonprofits in every Oregon county.