A member of the troupe SloMo performs at the Community Day Celebration for the Armory’s opening last fall. (Photo: Lee Ann Gauthier)

Portland Center Stage has been awarded a $200,000 grant by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation which will be used to support our community-focused artistic programming over the next three years.

This is the second grant PCS has received from the Foundation’s Performing Arts Program, which provides grants on an invitation-only basis to theater companies and other performing arts organizations that contribute to the preservation and development of their art form, provide creative leadership, and present the highest level of institutional performance.

Based in New York City, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation was established in 1969, at which time it had assets of $220 million. By the end of 2005, the Foundation’s assets totaled $5.6 billion and approximately $210 million in grants were being awarded each year.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s previous partnership helped us plan for PCS’s move to the Gerding Theater at the Armory, offer ambitious productions like West Side Story, launch the GreenHouse school, expand community events at JAW (where all festival events are now also free!), kick off our First Thursday series at the Armory, and much more.

Liminal Performance Group’s “Static Theater,” performed at last summer’s JAW festival. [Photo: Chris Coleman]

With this new grant, we’ll be developing even more programs – like Ken Kesey & Other Great Notions, coming up in late March. Tied in with PCS’s world premiere of Sometimes A Great Notion, Aaron Posner’s stage adaptation of Kesey’s epic novel, this series of free panel discussions and talks is being offered in partnership with Literary Arts, Inc., the Oregon Council for the Humanities, the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission, Multnomah County Library, and Ecotrust.

Be sure to check back regularly at our website’s Community Events page to see what new things will be on the calendar – thanks to the support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation!