The Clackamas Review

Oregon City will use a National Endowment for the Arts $100,000 grant to create a permanent art exhibit using light as the medium to wash projected color, pattern and images on the municipal elevator.

The grant was one of only four awarded in the state.

Through Our Town grants, the NEA supports creative placemaking projects that help transform communities into lively, beautiful and sustainable places with the arts at their core.

The $240,000 project in downtown Oregon City — called Illuminate Oregon City — is a collaboration between the nonprofit Main Street Oregon City, the city of Oregon City, The Clackamas County Arts Alliance, PSU’s Architecture Department, and Metro’s Development Center.

The NEA recognized the Municipal Elevator as a purely Oregon City icon and an ideal focal point for gathering, reflecting and illuminating community identity.

“Cities and towns are transformed when you bring the arts — both literally and figuratively — into the center of them,” said NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman. “From Teller, Alaska, to Miami, Florida, communities are pursuing creative placemaking, making their neighborhoods more vibrant and robust by investing in the performing, visual, and literary arts.”

The NEA received 317 applications for Our Town grant funding. For the downtown Oregon City art project, Federal funds will be matched dollar for dollar and will include preparing the municipal elevator for use as a focal point of this art commission. A national search for an artist skilled in public outreach and light as a creative medium will begin later this year.

“This community building initiative has at its base a great collaboration that is a foundation for a brilliant project,” said Lloyd Purdy, director of Main Street Oregon City. “The addition of Federal funds from the NEA will make this icon shine, and help focus the spirit and identity of this community on an iconic landmark and focal point.”

According to the NEA, with only 80 grants emerging from the 317 applications — a success rate of 25 percent — competition was strong, a testament to the artistic excellence and merit of the downtown Oregon City project.