China, Wordstock, studios, ballet: What a weekend!
ABOVE: “Days at the Cotton Candy #4,” copyright Maleonn, in China Design Now. INSET BELOW: “Graphic Design in China,” poster for the 1992 exhibition, copyright Chen Shaohua. Both photos courtesy Portland Art Museum.
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Quick notes on a Thursday evening:
CHINA DESIGN NOW. I took a much too rapid walk through the installation at the Portland Art Museum this afternoon, and this show’s going to be a dazzler. It opens Saturday and runs through Jan. 17, and you won’t want to miss it. The sheer eye candy is amazing: China’s surge into the 21st century grabs hold of the nation’s traditional love for brilliant color and reshapes it in amazing ways. The show, which originated at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, is barely a scratch on the surface of the new China. But, my, the things you see! An important show for Portland because of the Pacific Rim connection, it’s also a whole lot of fun. I have a short table-setting preview in Friday’s A&E section of The Oregonian, and D.K. Row, the O’s lead art critic, will analyze the feast soon. Look for both.
WORDSTOCK. Portland’s annual writers’ frenzy heads into its big weekend at the Oregon Convention Center with talks, workshops and publishers’ booths Saturday and Sunday. About a zillion Northwest writers will join such A-list types as James Ellroy and Sherman Alexie. Jeff Baker ran a good preview last week in the O. Willamette Week had some good interviews with participating writers on Wednesday, and I had a handful of interviews with participating writers (young adult novelist Rosanne Parry, mystery man Pierre Ouellette/Pierre Davis, Pendleton Round-Up historian Ann Terry Hill, poet Mark Thalman, kids’ writers Dawn Prochovnic and Brian Martin) in this morning’s Washington County edition of the O. The Wordstock Web site has the schedule; should be a kick.
PORTLAND OPEN STUDIOS. This weekend and next, 100 artists’ studios across greater Portland will throw their doors open and welcome visitors. You can see who, where and when here. I should have a bigger piece posted in a few hours. Grab your map and make your plans.
OREGON BALLET THEATRE. Time to forget the offstage drama and remind yourself of why we care about this brilliant troupe of dancers. This retrospective program, which opens Saturday in Keller Auditorium, features George Balanchine’s celebrated Emerald plus excerpts from a whole lot of highlights from OBT’s own history: Dennis Spaight’s Gloria and Ellington Suite; Trey McIntyre’s Speak; Bebe Miller’s A Certain Depth of Heart, Also Love; Julia Adam’s il nodo; Yuri Possokhov’s La Valse; James Kudelka’s Almost Mozart; and artistic director Christopher Stowell’s Eyes on You and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. That’s a knockout of a program. Details here.
DOROTHEA LANGE IN OREGON. In the late 1930s the great photographic documentarian took a large number of photos of Oregon farmers and farm laborers for the federal Farm Security Administration, and the results are a rare combination of art, history and social comment. A selection from those 500-plus images has just opened in the Littman Gallery at Portland State University, and it should be worth going out of your way to catch. The campus paper, the Vanguard, has the story.
CLASSICAL RADIO’S FUND DRIVE. I’ve spent a fair amount of the last few days in my car (don’t ask), and that means I’ve been listening to a fair amount of classical station KQAC during its fall fund drive. Is it my imagination, or has it been a little harder than usual to shake money out of the tree this time around? Seems like every hour the station’s been falling short of its announced goal. I like this station. I wish it were more adventurous in its programming — I’d love to have a more liberal dose of contemporary and even 20th century stuff in the mix — and I shudder every time I hear a listener’s comment that classical music “soothes” them, as if it were some sort of handy on-demand muscle relaxant. But KQAC is an extremely important part of the city’s cultural fabric, and on the whole it does a good job, and it should succeed. Spare a buck?
October 8th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
I am glad you mentioned the KQAC fund drive. I’ll be candid: I believe, and have for some time believed, that KQAC pledge drive goals have gotten too high. I expressed my misgivings this spring on the KQAC blog. After several days, my comments were belatedly posted. I did not intend to comment this fall if the pledge drive’s goal was somewhere near where it was this spring. Much to my dismay, the station announced a goal of $500,000, a $100,000 increase over last spring ($400,000). This does not consider a smaller pledge drive in June with a goal of $150,000. Last week I attempted to post my views at the KQAC blog. This time, my comments were not posted. When I set an e-mail to determine why, my comments were described as “argumentative” and “repetitive.” As you can imagine, this was disturbing to me since my wife and I have contributed a large sum of money to that station over the years, including a $1,000 pledge to help obtain the station license. The station may not like what I say, but I believe that I have earned the right to express my views in the station blog, where other listeners can evaluate for themselves the merits of my comments.
In any event, the above is not point of this posting. As I write this, the station is still trying to meet its goal on what is supposed to be the last day of the fall pledge drive. They are well short of $500,000. To me, this illustrates that KQAC has exceeded the limits of what can be comfortably raised over the air. If one examines the station staff roster you will count roughly 20 employees. I suspect that much of the dollars donated go to staff salaries. You might say, well aren’t staffs of a similar size true of all classical stations? We need only look a 100 miles to the south for an answer to that question.
In contrast to the rapidly increasing pledge drive goals of KQAC, the Eugene classical station, KWAX, has had pledge drive goals in the mid $100,000s for as long as I can remember (I am able to listen to both KWAX and KQAC over the air during the day). Their fall pledge drive goal is only $165,000. How do they do it? I called to find out. An on-air host who answered the phone no less informed that there are only 3 full time employees. You might also ask, well don’t they receive university support? The answer to that is KWAX does not budget for university support because it is unreliable. Like KQAC, KWAX depends entirely on listener contributions and business underwriters. I am not saying that KWAX is as good a station as KQAC, which has more locally produced programs and better internet services. However, KWAX streams over the internet, covers an area similar in size to KQAC (on the central coast, in central Oregon and reaching to Salem), and has excellent syndicated programming to augment on-air hosts, which helps them run what must be the tightest ship in classical music.
I do not assert that KQAC should be as frugal as KWAX or that its staff should be as small. I do maintain that KWAX demonstrates that quality classical music need not be labor intensive and that it can apparently be delivered in a much less expensive manner than at KQAC. I am not asking people to stop contributing to KQAC. I believe that a vibrant classical music station is vital to the arts community. I only ask those reading this to consider these points when they contemplate giving their hard earned money to KQAC. I would also suggest to KQAC that when they plan to increase a pledge drive goal by $100,000 that they acknowledge before the drive that this is a significant increase and that they give specific reasons for it. Also, when pledge drive goals get to current levels, the station should provide readily accessible, understandable budget information that explains how much money is allocated to salaries, cds, maintenance, internet streaming, electricity etc. The station should also explain how all these overseas trip the staff takes are funded and, if donor dollars are involved, why these trips are necessary. Are they staff perks, part of donor development? I don’t believe that what I suggest is unreasonable, especially when we consider the substantial funds that are now ostensibly required to run the station.
I apologize to those who believe that I have gone on too long. However, I believe that someone should raise these points. Since I apparently can’t express these views to fellow listeners at the KQAC blog, I do it here. Thanks for your consideration.
October 8th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
Interesting points, Curtis. You’ve thought about this a lot more deeply than I have. Anyone out there agree? Disagree? Anyone at the station, or a friend of the station, care to respond? Free space available for rebuttals/expansions/civilized dogfights.
October 9th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
I know nothing of KQAC’s situation, but have a couple of opinions, nonetheless. First, in the current economy, every nonprofit organization I know is reducing their budgets and their fundraising expectations. If KQAC has, indeed, increased their goals as Mr. Heikkinen suggests, they do owe their listeners and supporters and explanation. Second, I second your nod for more contemporary classical music. Not a lot more; I think balance is important for a station that must rely on a wide range of listeners, but some more, please.
October 16th, 2009 at 10:41 am
Although it may seem late and a bit fussy,
I would like to add a comment on the All
Classical fund drive.
Curtis’s presentation of problems with KQAC
and their fund raising certainly resonants
with me and my friends. Associated with
his points is the fact that there has always
been an unspoken agreement of no single
association bleeding the “community funds”
dry, but allowing all other non-profit
organizations have a chance for a portion of
the public pie. KQAC and their marketing
consultants seem to be unaware of that
understanding leaving those like KMHD, KBOO
and the Charity Organizations, gasping. The
give away your “clunker car” request is a
good example of KQAC’s attitude. Groups like
Volunteers of America, use those donations to
help people in need. KQAC uses it to help
themselves.(The Art Museum, under the
previous management, operated in a similar
self-serving manner and nearly put the Oregon
Historical Association out of business.) This
approach, along with the disingenuous
pretense of being a non commercial station
while resorting to playing only snippets so
as to get in ’sponsor’ ads, displays a lack
of respect for many of their long time listeners.