RACC’s Grant Process

by Matt Stangel

“They said, ‘He’s swallowing something’ and one [cop] went to put his finger in my mouth. And then I came down and I bit down on it, you know?” The unnamed man continues describing how he gnawed through a cop’s finger while being beaten by a group of police at NE MLK and Shaver. As with other episodes of Neighborhood Diaries, the walking-tour podcasts created by Abraham Ingle, “Police Beating” pairs a location with a story.

Neighborhood Diaries was among the 52 individual projects supported in 2009 by a grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC). RACC awarded Ingle a project grant of $4,750, which Ingle says helps him pay for “equipment rental, studio rental, [and] fundraisers.”

Local, regional, state, and federal governments, as well as private donors fund the RACC, which serves Portland’s tri-county area with an ambitious mission to “integrate arts and culture in all aspects of community life.” Ingrid Carlson, the RACC’s grants specialist, says the RACC is “one of the few arts councils in the country that did not have to slash our budget this year” and is still giving out grants to folks like Ingle.

With deadlines for 2010 grant applications fast approaching, it’s worth revisiting some of the projects supported by RACC grants in 2009