The nonprofit group that’s called itself Arts of Clark County for the past decade has changed its name and is working to expand its game.
What used to be Arts of Clark County is now Artstra. That’s a palindrome (it reads the same backward and forward) for a reason, organizers say: It contains “arts strategies,” and suggests a broader range of possibilities and partnerships beyond Clark County, across all of Southwest Washington.
Avoiding confusion is one reason the group retitled and redefined itself, chairwoman Karen Madsen and marketing chief Cameron Suttles said during a recent interview. Artstra is an independent, nonprofit organization that raises and distributes dollars for arts projects, but going by the name “Arts of Clark County” for the past decade meant the group was frequently confused with the Clark County Arts Commission, a related-but-different board.
The Clark County Arts Commission is a public body that champions the arts and advises policymakers but has no budget. Arts enthusiasts urged its creation in the late 2000s, after the closure of the Columbia Arts Center in downtown Vancouver and the disbanding of the Vancouver Cultural Commission. Those departures left a “hidden and mostly underground” arts scene in Vancouver, which was seen as a “drive-through” town that arts lovers would bypass on their way to great experiences in Portland and Seattle, a statement from Artstra says.
So the county created the no-budget Clark County Arts Commission in 2010. But to raise and supply actual cash flow, volunteers also launched the independent Arts of Clark County group. The two memberships started out almost identical, with the intent that they would work together seamlessly, according to former commission chairman Andy Gregg.
But over the years, the memberships and pursuits of the two boards moved apart, Gregg said, with the county commission chartered to represent Clark County only, while the independent Arts of Clark County group grew keen to explore new possibilities. The two boards ran into increasing conflicts and delays when it came to handling money, according to both Gregg and former vice chair Barbara Wright (whose terms both ended at the end of 2018).
“Over the years, sometimes it’s worked well and sometimes it hasn’t,” said Wright.
“Two volunteer organizations, neither of which has volunteers who are professional managers or accountants,” Gregg described the situation. We’re talking about small amounts of money, he added — only between $5,000 and $10,000 per year — for things like placards and awards and a small stipend for the curator of the county’s Anstine Gallery, on the sixth floor of its public services building.
Dollars and projects
Arts of Clark County’s main projects, its officers said, have been sponsorship of the annual Open Studios weekend, now headed for its seventh year of guiding art tourists to the places where local artists do their work; Poetry Moves, posting the works of local poets in C-Tran buses; more than $25,000 granted to artists and art organizations; and many workshops and mixers and even a couple of big stakeholder summits about the future of the arts here.
Gregg said the Clark County Arts Commission’s main pursuits have been its (voluntary, uncompensated) Clark County Poet Laureate program; its Lifetime Achievement award for an accomplished local artist; the Anstine Gallery; an annual artistic “empty bowls” fundraiser for the hungry; and arts outreach in schools.
This year, Gregg and Wright said, they anticipate that the Clark County Council will authorize a reconstituted Clark County Arts Commission to raise and spend money, after all.
“It’s too early to say, but I think we will be able to go out and raise money,” Gregg said. “How it’s going to work is up the new commissioners.”
Space solution
The fall 2017 summit convened by Arts of Clark County — now Artstra — helped convince the city of Vancouver to approve, in April 2018, its first new Culture, Arts and Heritage Plan in 20 years. The new plan’s top priority is hiring two full-time staffers to “coordinate and champion” arts, culture and heritage programs. Those hires are expected this year.
The summit focused on the endless-seeming dilemma of real estate for the arts: how rising prices and gentrification drive the ongoing lack of any dedicated arts space. Conversations have been ongoing for decades, about an arts center or theater on the campus of Clark College, or at Vancouver Barracks, or anywhere else an appropriate and affordable space can be found.
As always, Madsen said, “Every arts organization is having a difficult time finding performance space on this side of the river.” A recent production of the comedy “I Hate Hamlet,” by the grassroots Pacific Stageworks, was staged in a banquet room at the Hampton Inn and Suites hotel in east Vancouver. Nothing else is available and affordable, Pacific Stageworks’ Heather Blackthorn said.
“We’re agnostic about what the solution ultimately is,” Suttles said. “We advocate generally for the arts. No one else is doing that across Southwest Washington.”
Vancouver’s arts scene continues to churn, but the Artstra officers believe their renamed, reoriented organization is positioned to develop broader partnerships and go after bigger grants. They’re also eager for new volunteers on the Artstra board, they said.
“Everything is in flux right now,” Madsen said, “and that could be really great for the arts.”
