Portland, OR. The Portland Art Museum will have a phased reopening of the galleries following the second pandemic-related closure ordered by Governor Kate Brown in November 2020. Beginning April 10, the Museum will allow visitors access to all galleries, except the main special exhibitiongalleries andsome adjacent galleries. The entire Museum will open on May 5, giving visitors full access to all galleries including the highly anticipated new exhibition Ansel Adams in Our Time.
Due to pandemic restrictions, Northwest Film Center activities will continue to be offered virtually, and outside as part of the Cinema Unbound Drive-In. The Portland International Film Festival is underway now, with many online screening and program options. The Museum will also continue to offer ways to connect virtually with art.
“We are looking forward to welcoming back staff and visitors following months of closure. We believe that art, film and music are essential to our community and to our collective well-being,” said Brian Ferriso, Museum Director and Chief Curator. “I’m also so grateful for the support the Museum and Film Center have received from our staff, our members and other supporters during these difficult times.”
As a show of appreciation to members, the Museum will offer members-only days on April 8-9, and April 28 – May 2.
New, expanded hours of operation will be Wednesday through Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., including the Museum Store. Timed-entry tickets are required, which we recommend booking in advance because capacity is limited. COVID health and safety precautions, including mask-wearing, physical distancing, and staff wellness screening remain in effect. Tickets go on sale March 18, and will be released on a two-week rolling basis.
About Ansel Adams in Our Time
Ansel Adams in Our Time (May 5 – August 1, 2021), making its only West Coast stop at the Portland Art Museum, celebrates the remarkable artistry and visual legacy of the acclaimed American landscape photographer and educator. More than 100 photographs by Adams, from his earliest marketed prints to his world-renowned Western vistas, trace the artist’s development and maturation over five decades while pointing to his continuing influence on landscape photography today. Eighty images by artists working both before and after Adams, interspersed among his vintage prints, provide a deeper perspective on themes central to his practice, demonstrate the power of his legacy, and will spark critical conversations about the state of the American landscape in the 21st century. Organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and curated by Karen Haas, the MFA’s Lane Senior Curator of Photographs, Ansel Adams in Our Time draws from the outstanding Lane Collection of more than 6,000 American modernist photographs, works on paper, and paintings.
Organized by the Museum Fine Arts, Boston, and curated for Portland by Julia Dolan, Ph.D., The Minor White Curator of Photography.
Portland, OR. The nonprofit that takes donated computers, removes all personal information, and gives them to needy people is working in overdrive. Free Geek helped to deliver computers to students at William Walker Elementary School as seen above. The nonprofit delivered 40 devices to families of students in need, but there are still many more people in the Portland area who need to get online.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Free Geek saw a 4,000% increase in the number of requests for computers for low-income people.
The number of requests continues to grow according to Free Geek marketing specialist, Charlie D’eve. She explains how getting online is vital for people. “It’s families of five who received only one computer from the school their children attend when e-schooling began. Its people asking for computers for their parents whom they haven’t been able to contact since the beginning of the pandemic. It’s parents who lost their jobs during the pandemic, looking to find work online. It’s college students who relied on the library for their homework. It’s therapists who have clients with no access to them. It’s social workers. It’s houseless youth. It’s cousins, neighbors, friends.”
In January, Free Geek staff members fill their van with laptops and desktops to deliver a hardware grant to families living at The Louisa Flowers, Multnomah County’s largest low-income apartment building.
For the past two decades, Free Geek has offered a way to divert technology that would otherwise be recycled or thrown away, refurbish it, and give it back to the community at no or low cost.
Since COVID-19 began the organization has been able to partner with programs including SNAP, Every Child Oregon, Project LEDO, Black Resilience Fund, Portland State University, and many more community change organizations according to D’eve.
In their partnership with SNAP, Free Geek has provided 121 devices and is working to provide 300 more. “Our Gift a Geekbox program has been seeing around 20 applications a day since we put the program up on our site. Our highest amount of applications in one day was 240. We haven’t even advertised the program yet,” says D’eve.
Other programs available through Free Geek include:
Plug Into Portland (computers for K-12 students)
Hardware Grants (free and low-cost technology grants)
Online Shop (low-cost tech through an online store)
Corporate Technology Donation (bring corporate used tech back into the community)
Personal Tech Donation (bring your personal tech back to those who need it)
Data Security (data destruction certification for your tech)
There are a number of challenges Free Geek has faced throughout the pandemic, although one challenge has hit the organization the hardest. According to D’eve there is a great need for laptops to provide for students going through e-schooling, and telehealth services for the elderly.
Vaccines are now available in Oregon, with the elderly (age 65 and older) prioritized receiving the vaccine first throughout February. This does not come without challenges, however, as many people are having trouble navigating an online platform and finding ways to get to their appointments. In response to this, Free Geek is relying on potential partnerships with businesses to ensure they can get devices to those who can sign up for the vaccine but don’t have digital access.
Currently, there are no volunteer opportunities with Free Geek. However, there are many other ways to get involved, according to D’eve, including:
Give a gift to Free Geek at give.freegeek.org
Donate your used technology
Ask your employer about where your used tech goes, and start a conversation about providing that tech to Free Geek
Start a fundraiser for us
Start a tech drive for us
Talk with your friends about Free Geek – shout us out on social media!
Know a community change organization or person that needs a computer? Help them get one from us
“I think what people are starting to notice is that even though they have a device, their next-door neighbor likely doesn’t. And now we’re seeing people notice, and people wanting to make sure that changes,” says D’eve.
Staff members deliver laptops to Title I elementary schools by partnering with project LEDO.
From the Free Geek website: Free Geek’s mission is to sustainably reuse technology, enable digital access, and provide education to create a community that empowers people to realize their potential. Including everyone in our digital future.
27% of Americans do not own a computer. And one out of ten families do not have internet at home. This lack of access is sharply stratified along lines of income, race, age, and education. Low-income families, immigrants, seniors, and children are digitally under-connected, many with mobile-only internet access, which often isn’t enough.
The crisis is growing. Our world is growing more digital every day, and vulnerable populations are being left behind. The digital divide separates individuals along economic lines – from the cost of technology and devices, to which neighborhoods have better broadband access. Day-to-day tasks middle- and upper-class individuals take for granted become massive challenges to communities where basic technology and skills feel alien and inaccessible, due to language or financial barriers. From applying for jobs to completing homework assignments, from paying bills to accessing medical records to communicating with family, people with the means to access technology are at a decided advantage over those who are not. This is a social justice issue. Without technology access, full participation in nearly every aspect of American society — from economic success and educational achievement, to positive health outcomes and civic engagement — is compromised
Now think about this: the EPA estimates that only 27% of e-waste is recycled nationally. E-waste represents 2% of America’s trash in landfills, but it equals 70% of overall toxic waste.
A large number of what is labeled as “e-waste” is actually not waste at all, but rather whole electronic equipment or parts that are readily marketable for reuse or can be recycled for materials recovery. So what if we repaired and reused these devices, in order to keep our community connected while keeping e-waste out of landfills?
Our programs are founded on this very idea. Free Geek has created a unique circular model which points two existing societal problems – excess electronic waste in need of sustainable reuse and recycling, and lack of access to basic technology among vulnerable populations – back at each other to reveal innovative solutions. The computers we grant to our Digital Inclusion participants are saved from ending up in landfills, and instead, go on to find a new life helping provide our community’s most vulnerable populations with the digital literacy skills they need to succeed and thrive.
Want to join the movement helping both our environment and our community? Join us and make an impact. For just $10 a month, you can provide one person a device, tech support, and digital skill training. Join our monthly giving community THE BRIDGE, and give the gift of clean water all year round.
Ashland, OR. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) announced the Festival’s 2021 season; it’s an array of programming with digital and live productions. The combination of multi-format programming is evidence of OSF’s continued commitment to presenting world-class theatre on stage and its recent foray into digital programming, which introduces fans, supporters, and new audiences worldwide to the company’s artistry. (Above is a photo from OSF’s 2020 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Photo: Jenny Graham.) Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and uncertainties associated with it, OSF will hold off announcing specific dates and ticket sales for onstage productions until there is more clarity around reopening, gathering, and social distancing guidelines. All onstage events are subject to change.
Here’s a video about the announcement:
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is a nonprofit professional theatre founded in 1935 and located in Ashland.
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival 2000 production of Macbeth. Photo: David Cooper.
The 2021 season features classics and new works streaming from the OSF archives, new works presented on OSF’s digital platform, O!, and a Fall 2021 live season on OSF’s campus in Ashland, Oregon, extending into January for the first time with OSF’s first winter special. All live performances will be subject to health department guidelines and government restrictions on large gatherings.
“2020 marked a paradigm shift in which OSF was catapulted into different ways of creating and supporting artists and art-making. In launching our digital platform, O!, nearly a year ago, the initial goal was to provide an exploratory space to intersect theatre with other forms of media,” said Nataki Garrett, OSF artistic director. “Now joined together with a compelling schedule of Fall and Winter onstage programming, O! has evolved into a marquee fourth stage, where new and innovative projects will play alongside some of OSF’s most beloved and well-known productions.”
“I could not be more excited and honored in partnering with Nataki to introduce this extraordinary combination of digital and onstage programming as the OSF 2021 season,” said David Schmitz, OSF executive director. “This unique first-ever multiformat season reflects OSF’s commitment to innovation, agility, and progress throughout the most extraordinary global circumstances we are all facing. And we are eager to get back to creating live performances when the health authority and governmental restrictions allow us to do so.”
The 2021 digital on-demand streaming season includes a limited-run schedule of favorites from the OSF archives beginning with Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, directed by Shana Cooper; Manahatta by Mary Kathryn Nagle, directed by Laurie Woolery; and Snow in Midsummer by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, based on the classical Chinese drama The Injustice to Dou Yi That Moved Heaven and Earth and directed by Justin Audibert. Tickets are now available for all three productions. More streaming productions curated from OSF’s digital archives will be announced in the coming months.
“Along with our archival streaming shows, O! will continue to present exciting new programming—digital theatre, film, and immersive projects—throughout the year, bringing OSF’s celebrated artistry of OSF into homes around the world,” added Garrett.
OSF 2021 On Stage programming includes a repertory of four productions: August Wilson’s How I Learned What I Learned, featuring Steven Anthony Jones and directed by Tim Bond; the West Coast premiere of unseen by Mona Mansour, directed by Evren Odcikin; the American Revolutions world premiere of Confederates by Dominique Morisseau, directed by Nataki Garrett; and the season will culminate in OSF’s first winter special, It’s Christmas, Carol! by beloved OSF actors Mark Bedard, Brent Hinkley, and John Tufts.
OSF is known for its large-scale productions like this 2018 production of Romeo and Juliet directed by Dámaso Rodríguez. Emily Ota (Juliet) and William Thomas Hodgson (Romeo) joined a large cast in the timeless story of love as seen in the video below.
From OSF:
Our mission statement helps guide us in all of our endeavors here at OSF: Inspired by Shakespeare’s work and the cultural richness of the United States, we reveal our collective humanity through illuminating interpretations of new and classic plays, deepened by the kaleidoscope of rotating repertory.
A major theatre arts organization, OSF offers a diversity of plays as well as events and activities to enhance your overall experience.
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is a not-for-profit professional theatre founded in 1935. Our eight-month season runs through the month of October, and we have three theatres: our two indoor stages—the Angus Bowmer Theatre and the Thomas Theatre—and our flagship outdoor Allen Elizabethan Theatre, which opens in early June and runs through mid-October. We offer up to 11 different plays that include works by Shakespeare as well as a mix of classics, musicals and world-premiere plays. When you visit you can see one or two plays or up to nine plays in one week!
A Lifestyle story. Portland, OR. Some singles put romance on hold to avoid Covid-19, but Isabel Klein just went on 52 dates—a date a week for a year. “I dated through the pandemic and did NOT get COVID! Take that Covid!” Klein exclaimed. “It was a simple screening process. Imagine a windowless interrogation room, naked light bulb swinging overhead, and me screaming in a guy’s face ‘You got an N95? You sing your ABC while you wash your hands?’ But seriously, it’s all about communication.” Klein is pictured above with (Covid-negative) podcast co-host Ryan Opton. (Photo by Julia Donlon) Klein talks about dating on a new Podcast. Date a Week listeners can check it out for free on Spotify.
The Oregon native/LA-based comedic actress became an authority on dating while waiting for the entertainment industry to re-start.
The funny girl/dating expert blogs about her journey on Date-A-Week.com. “A lot of cringe-worthy things happened, so I used it as fodder for TikTok videos, and they took off.” The 24-year-old plays multiple parts as she recreates dates at her handle, @frizzyhairizzy. One of her #dateaweekla TikToks has already been viewed over 2 million times.
Klein explained, “I went on 52 dates! Speed dating on an app, blind date setups, virtual cookie making, I’ve done it all. I got stiffed by a guy who ‘forgot his wallet’ and went on over a dozen of social distance walks. But I never found a sexy way to pick up my dog’s poop.”
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Isabel Klein is offering advice to singles.
Top Three Valentine’s Dating Tips:
Start with a FaceTime date. It’s safe and helps prevent romantic letdowns. Pre-screen with a ‘Covid talk’ to ensure prospective sweethearts are using best practices.
Make a commitment to date regularly. It takes the pressure off individual dates so you’re freer to be yourself. If a date’s a bust, even on Valentine’s Day, there’s always next week.
Put yourself out there! It is not an act of desperation; it’s a bold, empowering, and intentional search for love!
“Look, if I can do it, you can do it,” Klein said. “Before I committed to going on a date a week, I got so nervous would dry heave before walking out the door. Last year I finally made overcoming my fears a priority.” It’s a technique that’s also working for readers who are trying it for themselves. Many offer Testimonials on Date-A-Week.com.
Klein hoping others will follow her lead and face their anxiety by committing to date more frequently.
Like other singles, Klein had to pivot during the pandemic but didn’t want to stop meeting new people. “It’s a hard time to be alone. There’s not much to do because of Covid and we all need human connection.” Klein has a list of safety tips on her blog. “I’m not taking any chances. Covid-19 is serious business. Also, I can’t lose my sense of smell and taste, because Frappuccinos and chocolate croissants are my life.”
Isabel is represented by Julie Smith of Smith and Hervey/Grimes Talent Agency
Theatrical and Commercial – 310.475.201. Email:[email protected]
Portland, OR. After a four year search and evaluation of over 700 possible music professionals, the Oregon Symphony announced that Austrian-born conductor David Danzmayr will serve as its next Music Director.
Current Music Director, Carlos Kalmar will move into an advisory position with the organization after 17 years at the helm.
Because of the pandemic, symphony concerts have been canceled through June. But Scott Showalter, Oregon Symphony president, says the orchestra should be back in the fall. “We will reunite in-person with our community in Fall 2021, as we celebrate our 125th anniversary with adventurous new programming and exhilarating performances.”
Regarded as a gifted conductor, Oregon Symphony describes its new Music Director, David Danzmayr as, “a creative leader with a unique artistic vision, reflecting his desire to embrace wide-ranging cultures while inspiring and challenging audiences.”
According to the symphony’s announcement, Danzmayr has won prizes at some of the world ́s most prestigious conducting competitions, including at the International Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition and the International Malko Conducting Competition. He was also awarded the Bernhard Paumgartner Medal by the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum, and was a finalist in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s First International Sir Georg Solti Conducting Competition, where he was judged by a panel including longtime Oregon Symphony Music Director James DePreist.
Danzmayr was strongly influenced by Pierre Boulez and Claudio Abbado in his time as conducting stipendiate of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and by Leif Segerstam during his additional studies at the Sibelius Academy. Subsequently, he gained significant experience as assistant to Oregon Symphony Music Director Laureate Carlos Kalmar, Neeme Järvi, Stéphane Denève, Sir Andrew Davies, and Pierre Boulez, who entrusted Danzmayr with the preparatory rehearsals for his own music.
the Oregon Symphony is the oldest orchestra in the western United States.
Here is a video about this new chapter in the life of the Oregon Symphony.
From Oregon Symphony:
The multi-Grammy Award-nominated Oregon Symphony ranks as one of America’s major orchestras. Led by Music Director Carlos Kalmar, it serves more than 235,000 people annually through live concerts and award-winning education and community engagement programs. The Oregon Symphony has broken attendance and fundraising records in recent years, while innovating on stage through new series such as SoundSights, Sounds of Home and SoundStories. Additionally, syndicated programming for broadcast reaches tens of millions of people throughout the world. As 2021/22 will mark its 125th anniversary, the Oregon Symphony is the oldest orchestra in the western United States. For more information, visit www.orsymphony.org.
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