Portland art organizations ask for unspent Arts Tax funds, more public support • Oregon ArtsWatch

A coalition of more than 50 nonprofit Portland arts and culture organizations is asking the city to distribute approximately $8.5 million in unspent Art Tax funds as part of a comprehensive plan to increase public support for the arts culture.

The unspent funds were first reported by Oregon Public Broadcasting on Feb. 9. The story was published after the city Office of Arts and Culture reduced funding to arts organization by 44% in the most recent regular round of grants funded by the tax, officially known as the Arts Education and Access Income Tax.

Some of the organizations have also lost federal funding under the Trump Administration.

“We bring this request forward at a moment of significant strain for the arts sector, alongside the recent discovery of approximately $8.5 million in unanticipated and likely unauthorized reserve funds. At a historic low point for arts funding, this reserve presents a critical opportunity to stabilize Portland’s arts ecosystem,” reads the letter released on March 9.

Those making the request span the scope of Portland arts organizations, from small ones without offices to the large Portland Art Museum. They include Portland Arts and Culture for Equity (PACE), a coalition of hundreds of smaller arts organizations and supporters formed after the reduction in grant funding.

“This request represents arts and culture organizations from across the City of Portland, spanning all disciplines and operating at every scale — from organizations with annual budgets exceeding $15 million to those under $75,000,” reads the letter.

Until the city’s arts & culture office was created on July 1, 2024, arts tax-funded grants had been distributed by the nonprofit Regional Arts and Culture Council. The cty office moved to change some of the requirements to qualify for grant-funding after taking over the program, and the arts organizations want them reversed or postponed.

An analysis of the reduced city funding conducted by PACE documented a shift between smaller and larger organizations, with smaller organizations receiving less money and larger ones receiving more. The request calls for all organizations to receive more funding, however, including those that use post office boxes as their addresses.

The analysis also claimed the city office eliminated support for equity outreach efforts that were among the goals of the Arts Tax when it was approved by Portland voters by a large margin of 62% to 38%.

“While many of our organizations currently receive City Arts Funds, a number have lost funding due to the restructuring of Equity Investments in FY25 or the elimination of Equity Investments in FY26. Still others — despite meeting eligibility requirements consistently — have not yet received funding from the Office of Arts and Culture (formerly the Regional Arts and Culture Council),” reads the letter, referring to the fiscal years that run from July 1 to June 30.

The request aligns with new City Council President Jamie Dunphy’s response to the OPB story. Dunphy told Oregon Arts Watch that he will ask the council to distribute the unspent funds in coming years. Dunphy also wants to make it easier for Portlanders to pay the tax, and to find a larger funding source, such as a fee on streaming services such as Netflix.

“There are definite needs for short-term, medium-term, and long-term adjustments now. I plan to begin asking the council to make changes in April,” Dunphy, a musician with a history in arts advocacy, said.

Details of Arts Tax, spending requests

The Arts Education and Access Income Tax imposes a flat annual $35 tax on city residents aged 18 and older who earn $1,000 or more in taxable income, with exemptions for those living at or below the federal poverty level. The primary purpose was to pay for one music or visual arts teacher for every 500 elementary students in Portland’s elementary schools. Any remaining funds were then supposed to be distributed to nonprofit arts organizations, originally for them to provide high-quality arts access for Kindergarten through 12th grade students, and to make arts and culture experiences available to underserved communities.

The Office of Arts and Culture said it is normal for the amount of unspent Arts Tax funds to fluctuate over the course of a year. They are mostly collected like other income taxes by April 15 and then distributed through funding later funding cycles. The $8.5 million reported by OPB was the available amount on June 30, 2025, the Office said. The story nevertheless helped inspire the ongoing debate.

The March 9 request presumes that the City’s support of the arts has consistently fallen short of the need, including programs funded by other sources. It calls on the unspent Art Tax funds to be distributed as part of a larger plan to increase support for arts and culture in Portland.

“We respectfully request a multi-year, structured drawdown of reserve funds to stabilize and preserve arts nonprofits across the City over the next several years. These funds should serve as a bridge toward a renewed era of increased public investment in Portland’s vibrant arts and culture community and creative economy,” reads the request, which proposes the following allocations:

1. Restore overall funding levels to FY22-24 amounts, inclusive of equity and access-related support, with flexibility to refine program requirements in future years.

2. Maintain organizations at their current funding tiers, eliminating funding ranges that may fluctuate downward year-to-year.

3. Continue funding organizations with budgets under $200,000, potentially with reduced reporting requirements to reflect limited administrative capacity.

4. Maintain eligibility for organizations operating without permanent physical addresses, including those using post office boxes while serving Portland residents through program-based venues.

5. Allow new qualifying organizations to apply annually, even within a two-year funding cycle, and avoid introducing new eligibility barriers that disproportionately limit access.

6. Most importantly, these reserve funds should be used intentionally as a bridge strategy while the City develops a long-term plan to increase sustained public investment in arts and culture.

Looking ahead, the organizations identified the following as critical to the future health of Portland’s cultural landscape:

• Significantly increased public investment in the arts at the City and State levels.

• Significant funding for larger organizations as originally envisioned during the strategic planning of the Art Tax.

• Substantially increased direct funding for artists, including flexible, unrestricted funding beyond narrowly defined project grants.

• Increased investment in arts education in schools.

“We remain open to collaborative approaches to restoring funding to prior levels while long-term structural improvements are developed,” the request ends.

The following organizations signed the request:

Portland Arts and Culture for Equity (PACE); Portland Arts Leaders (PAL); Parallel; Alberta Abbey Foundation; Art in Oregon; Artists Repertory Theatre; Blue Sky Gallery (Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts); BodyVox; Boom Arts; Chamber Music Northwest; CoHo Productions; Converge 45; Cymaspace; Friends of Chamber Music; From the Ground Up; Hand2Mouth Theatre; Independent Publishing Resource Center; MediaRites;

Milagro Theatre; My Voice Music; North View Gallery, Portland Community College; Open Hearts Open Minds; Open Space; Oregon Ballet Theatre; Oregon BRAVO Youth Orchestras; Oregon Contemporary; Oregon Children’s Theatre; Oregon Symphony; PDX Jazz; Peer Tribe Foundation; PHAME; Portland Art Museum; Portland Baroque Orchestra; Portland Center Stage; Portland Gay Men’s Chorus;

Portland Institute of Contemporary Art; Portland Lesbian Choir; Portland Opera; Portland Piano International; Portland Taiko; Profile Theatre; Scrap PDX; Siren Nation; Takohachi; The Black Gallery/ Don’t Shoot Portland; The Theatre Company; Third Angle New Music; Vibe of Portland; White Bird; Willamette Light Brigade/Portland Winter Light Festival; and Write Around Portland.

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• A previous Oregon ArtsWatch story on the Portland Arts Tax controversy can be found here.
• More information about Portland Arts and Culture, including its analysis of Portland Arts Tax spending, can be found at portlandartsandculture.org.
• The Oregon Public Broadcasting story on the Portland Arts Tax can be found here.