Putting the Creativity in Creative Partnerships

Regional Arts + Culture Council held its annual breakfast with a slightly different thematic twist this year to capture the energy and creativity of collaboration. Called Juice: Fueling Innovation, the event hoped to spark ideas and inspiration for support of the arts. Guests walked in to a juice bar featuring several flavors of a local juice company’s product. There were centerpieces of glowsticks on tables and the event was kicked off by the Portland General Electric mascot, Larry the Lightbulb.

The goal of the program was to highlight partnerships between the business and arts sectors, and honor businesses working outside of the box to support arts and culture. It’s an activation event, turning attendees into champions for RACC’s Work for Art program. RACC has a long history of building a business case for support and the business community is responding to cuts in arts funding and increasing their support of the Portland-area arts community.

Juice specifically highlighted people and organizations who went the extra mile to create new possibilities for what collective creative endeavors can and should be. Oregon’s Daimler Truck North America donated a 24-foot truck to Portland Center Stage so they could move props more easily from storage to main stage. Portland seniors living with Alzheimer’s benefit from evidence-based music therapy through a collaboration between Earthtones Music Therapy Services and the Oregon Symphony. And Nike, Inc. and Oregon College of Art and Craft created Nike Design Atelier to enhance the network connecting educational and professional makers.

Juice integrated the power of video effectively into the one-hour event by telling dynamic stories in an engaging format to the early-morning crowd. Video can be a great way to keep a program on track, especially when award winners speak from the stage which can very easily add time. The event gave out three special awards, and used a video to introduce each. In doing so, they allowed the audience to hear the voice of the award winner in an arts context as well as see the organization they supported. See the story of Miguel Elias, owner of MEK Design and why he won this year’s Outstanding In-kind Contribution award for his work mentoring young artist Ash on pro-bono graphic design for Young Audiences HERE.