October

Ragtime Metropolis: Progressive-era Portland
presented in collaboration with the AIA Center for Architecture
October, 2009
Lobby spaces of the Armory

Visual Exhibition, co-coordinated by photo historian-archivist Don Nelson that looks at the impact of immigration, the 1905 Lewis & Clark Exposition and tension between tradition and change in Portland paralleling the narrative of Ragtime.

Portland Center Stage is very happy to be hosting three vital conversations that touch upon three vital threads of Portland DNA:  Education/Youth Activism;  Bike Culture/DIY enterprise; The Arts & Evolving Audience.

The conversations are  part of The New Communicators, a three-day festival of events, being held October 28-30 throughout Portland. The festival is intended to inspire,  educate, and invite questions on the evolving nature of conversation in a rapidly changing public realm.

The New Communicators is a series of events created to share experiences and inspire discussion about how we communicate with others using both online and offline media. It is for anyone interested in exploring new ways of creating conversations in our personal lives, within our communities or in business. It is a chance to share ideas, experiences and lessons learned.

NEW COMMUNICATORS day#1:
Youth Power: Speaking for the Future
Wednesday, October 28, 8 – 10 am
Gerding Theater at the Armory
FREE

Youth are an often overlooked, sometimes hard to reach constituency, but one that (as the “youthquake” of the presidential election proved) has the ability to activate great social change.  Not only do they represent a whole new generation of makers, doers and thinkers, they are a critical mass of highly savvy renaissance-thinkers who can offer new perspectives, innovations, flexibility and passion for the future.

Evolving social media technology is a powerful tool that offers incredible possibilities in the realm of engaging youth in social causes and empowering them to become a generation of leaders for change, as well as for leveraging new approaches to education and participatory democracy. Today’s youth has moved far beyond the traditional “old-growth media” of newspapers to a more open-source, thriving omniverse, rich in digital-connectivity and grassroots creativity.

Discover ways to leverage youth engagement and how youth can contribute not only to your success, but to building the future we want for the region.

Voicebox Media (part of the Multnomah Youth Commission) is a media production company operated by and for youth, whose recent projects include the Regional innovation Forum and Activate Oregon, events fostering youth voice and social activism–from grassroots to public policy.

A CONVERSATION featuring:
Travis Huntington is a strategic communications and grassroots social marketing consultant, as well as a commercial multimedia producer and the founder/leader of Voicebox Media: www.ourcommission.org/youthvoice

Catherine Leedy is a nonprofit and leadership development consultant, was on the design team of the Regional Innovation Forum, and led the Activate Oregon Youth Summit

Liz Grover is an expert in new media communications and engaging the youth audience for social causes

Martin Tull is a leader and activist for Climate Change and serves on the Governor’s Global Warming Commission.

Moderated by  Tim DuRoche, cultural advocate and Community Programs Manager, Portland Center Stage.

RSVP and see you there!

NEW COMMUNICATORS day#2:
Creating Conversations Through the Love of Bicycles
Thursday, October 29th, 8am – 10am
Gerding Theater
FREE

There are many people who love bicycles. But how many can take this love and turn it into a business? And once they’ve started their cycling-related business, how do they engage their audience, market and brand their company?

Join us for a conversation with a group of cyclists who are creating conversations through their love of bicycles… a panel of four cycling and communication experts will talk about why they’re doing what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, and what’s next for cycling as communication.

The panel consists of:
Jonathan Maus, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of BikePortland
Slate Olson, General Manager of Rapha, North America
Natalie Ramsland, Founder and Framebuilder of Sweetpea Bicycles
Heidi Swift, Newspaper Columnist, Freelance Writer, Photographer and Bike Racer
David Lowe-Rogstad, Co-Founder of Substance and former road racer (he’s back on the bike for Cross Crusade this year), will be moderating the panel.

Coinciding with Oregon Manifest , this panel is an opportunity for framebuilders, cycling enthusiasts, and business owners of all sorts to learn how different companies are utilizing events, technology and stories to create conversations.

RSVP and we’ll see you there.

NEW COMMUNICATORS day#3:
10,000 Invitations:
A roundtable on arts institutions and new/social media
Friday, October 30, 4 to 6 pm
The Gerding Theater at the Armory

Hosted by Lisa Radon, Portland Monthly’s Culturephile.

Good minds from Portland arts institutions share the ways they’re using new and social media to engage audiences.

The Portland Art Museum creates conversational videos about works in the collection, creates a community website for its China Design Now exhibition, and tweets as M.C. Escher. Portland Center Stage creates show preview videos that go viral and uses Twitter in innovative ways. The Museum of Contemporary Craft creates video and podcast and invites audience response. PICA integrates Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube into its TBA Festival blog.

In education, programming, and marketing, we’ll talk about what’s worked and what’s on the horizon as the landscape continues to change with new tools and new challenges all the time.

Participants include:
Christina Olsen, PhD – Director of Education & Public Programs, Portland Art Museum
Beth Heinrich – Director of Marketing & Public Relations, Portland Art Museum
Cynthia Fuhrman – Marketing and Communications Director, Portland Center Stage
Patrick Leonard -Public Relations, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art
Rebecca Burrell-Public Relations and Marketing Specialist, Museum of Contemporary Craft
Namita Gupta-Wiggers -Curator, Museum of Contemporary Craft

RSVP and we’ll see you there!

November

The People’s Press: Ben Franklin and Letterpress
presented in collaboration with the Independent Publishing Resource Center and Stumptown Printing
When: November-December, 2009
Where: Lobby spaces of the Armory

Visual Exhibition of Letterpress printing featuring a curated selection of work by local artists; a letterpress/printers fair with demonstration (you too can be Ben Franklin for a day!) on Saturday, November 7 from 10 am to 1 pm, plus a lecture on printing, democracy.

Formative Stages: Theater and the Life of the Mind
Oregon Psychoanalytic Center
When: November 8, 2009 (following the 2 pm matinee)
Where: Main Stage, Gerding Theater at the Armory

Now in its third season, this post-show discussion delves into issues of independence, family, self-reliance in Kornbluth’s play. Discussion moderated by Nancy Winters, M.D.