Celebrating Portlanders’ commitment to providing K-5 students with an arts education

In recent months, the Office of Arts & Culture and its collaborating partners have hosted gatherings, installations, performances, and more, all with the goal of highlighting how unique and impactful the Arts Access Fund is. These celebrations, from our student art installation at the Portland Building to the student art exhibit at Literary Arts and the HeART of Portland, lifted up Portlanders’ commitment to providing every local K-5 student with access to an arts education. 

Now, with Tax Day 2025 in the rearview mirror, we’re taking a look back this year’s key news and developments related to the impact of the Arts Access Fund.

December 2024

Arts & Culture announced that $7.8 million would be disbursed to Portland’s school districts from the Arts Access Fund to pay for elementary arts educators’ salaries for the 2024-25 school year. Powered by the $35 Arts Tax, the Arts Access Fund ensures that every public and charter school elementary school student in Portland—all 28,000 of them—have access to the arts as part of their K-5 education. 

"Before the Arts Access Fund, our 50+ elementary schools had virtually no arts education. This fund has established and sustained arts education in every K-5 school across Portland Public Schools," Portland Public Schools' Director for Visual & Performing Arts Kristen Brayson said. "The arts are where children make sense of the world and connect to their own story and the stories of others. An arts education can develop students' unique identities, provide students with a sense of belonging, and encourage collaboration with peers. The gifts of this learning cannot be understated."

February 2025

Leading up to Tax Day, every Portlander received an Arts Tax mailer—a little reminder about what the arts tax is and how to pay it. In the spirit of arts education, our office used the opportunity to provide community members with a canvas for their own artistic expression. We loved seeing Portlanders’ Arts Tax mailer works of art! 

Also in February, Arts & Culture’s Arts Education Coordinator Dawn Isaacs traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with Oregon’s congressional delegation—including Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici. Alongside Portland Public Schools' Kristen Brayson and Eleanor LeClair, both part of the district's Visual and Performing Arts Department, Isaacs made the trip from Portland to advocate for arts education as part of the Kennedy Center's Any Given Child initiative. The Office of Arts & Culture is the backbone organization for the initiative in Portland.

Related to the Arts Access Fund, Arts & Culture’s grantmaking partners at Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) announced the recipients of their Portland Project Grants—275 awardees, including 185 individual artists and 90 arts and culture organizations. Of the $1.2 million awarded, $350,000 came from the Arts Access Fund. 

March 2025

Beginning in March, the City of Portland, the Office of Arts & Culture, Portland schools, and their partners hosted a number of events and exhibits to celebrate both Arts in Schools Month and the impact of the Arts Access Fund in Portland. Events included: 

Also, Arts & Culture Director Chariti Montez and Isaacs joined KATU Anchor Wesleigh Ogle on March 13 to talk about the City’s 1,700-piece public art collection, the Arts Access Fund, and to invite Portlanders to opening celebration of the student art exhibit at the Portland Building—being held later that day. 

April 2025

April started with news coverage from The Oregonian, outlining how Arts Tax money is used to fund arts education at Portland schools, as well as fund Arts & Culture’s grantmaking programs.  

Next, the Portland Art Museum and Portland Public Schoolshosted the 2025 HeART of Portland, a K-12 arts showcase. Held annually, HeART of Portland is a thank you to Portlanders for paying the Arts Tax, which helps fund arts instruction at the six school districts across town. As the Portland Tribune put it, "HeART of Portland is an opportunity to see those Arts Access Fund dollars being put to work."

The week-long event began with an opening celebration on April 16, featuring an evening of dance, music, and theater performances, as well as the opening of the student visual art exhibition featuring more than 100 artworks. HeART of Portland attendees also experienced the student collaborative art project, Breaking the Grid, inspired by the museum’s exhibition Psychedelic Rock Posters and Fashion of the 1960s. The evening included student performances by: 

On April 24, Isaacs again joined KATU for a live-segment to share more about the HeART of Portland events and to invite Portlanders to the closing celebration—also a Miller Family Free Day at Portland Art Museum—on April 27. 

As it relates to the Arts Access Fund, it has been a busy few months for the Arts & Culture team and its partners, culminating with Tax Day and the closing celebration of the HeART of Portland. While these immersive and inspiring experiences have concluded for 2025, our office’s focus on sustaining and growing students’ ability to access a high-quality arts education are a year-round effort. Thanks, Portlanders, for being the driving force behind the City’s ability to provide these vital, often life-changing resources, in the form of creative thinking, expression, and output, for Portland school children.

“Here in Portland, we see children as artists, musicians, and performers now. We listen to their voices and hear their stories. Having the adults show up, both by paying their Arts Tax and physically seeing their work, is so validating. It’s an essential part of the student experience,” Isaacs says.