The Campaign for Literary Arts (2024)

The Campaign for L terary Arts

Dear friends,

The Campaign for Literary Arts will build on our incredible history and prepare the organization to serve the next generation of readers and writers.

It’s fitting that we are launching this new chapter as we celebrate our 40th anniversary because it would not be possible without the visionaries and leaders that helped establish and grow Literary Arts over the past four decades.

Literary Arts was primarily established in the years between 1984 and 1994 (see pages 9–10). It was a time when our region was not known as a cultural center or a community with the global outlook it has today. The work to establish Portland Arts & Lectures and the Oregon Institute of Literary Arts was visionary because these organizations helped create a new identity for us, an identity deeply invested in stories, ideas, and the people who dream them up. This work, alongside the work of other cultural organizations, is what opened the doors of possibility for a community to imagine a new future at a time when we were reeling from industrial collapse.

Today, the same opportunity is before us. The answers to our many challenges we face will be found in the stories we tell, the ideas we share, in the artists and visionaries we choose to listen to and honor. The Campaign for Literary Arts is a $22.5M investment to create new space for our community to dream, and imagine our future, to get informed, to connect, and to be engaged by stories from around the globe right here at home.

We would be honored if you would help us complete this campaign with a gift, and by doing so help us all imagine the next chapter for our community.

In gratitude,

Front cover features

Bena Rodecap, Grant High School student and Verselandia! 2023 second place winner, reading a poem at Literary Arts’ new headquarters at 716 SE Grand Avenue. Photo by Andie Petkus Photography.

Andrew Proctor Executive Director

20,000 readers engaged

Stories move us

By building connections through books and writing, we celebrate the power of words to create more empowered, compassionate, and inclusive communities.

1,500 writers supported

By honoring writers publicly and offering them financial support, we build a stable community of creatives who enhance the education, business, and artistic communities in Oregon and beyond.

4,000 youth inspired

By bringing professional writers and high schoolers together, we inspire students to discover their voices and to embrace a creative life.

Literary Arts amplifies the diverse stories and voices that have the power to shape our future.

Literary Arts is a community-builder. We bring together people from all backgrounds to experience literature in all its forms. And through these interactions, we change what is possible for our society.

As a powerful art form, literature challenges us to discover—to see beyond ourselves. It shows us new perspectives so that we may feel new emotions and imagine a better world.

For nearly four decades, we have challenged our community members to discover what it means to be more empathetic, more inclusive, and more fully alive human beings.

Literary Arts stands out nationally as one of the only literary centers in the country with a balance of programs for readers, writers, and youth. In the past ten years, the number of people participating in our programs—readings, awards, workshops, seminars, and more—has doubled.

And we’re just getting started.

A welcoming and inclusive space

A public destination

A community gathering space

DESIGN JUSTICE

Our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion

We engaged a Community Design Advocacy Committee and our partners at Bora Architecture, who have expertise in applying design justice principles to their projects. In addition, the Literary Arts board committed 20% of the campaign spending with BIPOC owned businesses and is on-track to meeting this goal.

The Community Design Advocacy Committee was composed of a diverse group of community members and led by Literary Arts board member Maurice King, along with support from the design justice firm Coloquate. Participants shared information and gathered feedback at crucial phases of the year-long renovation process, and all members were compensated for their time.

A new home for Literary Arts

We are creating a vibrant new hub in Portland for diverse readers and writers of all ages and backgrounds—a place where everyone can be themselves.

Our vision demands not only that we extend our reach into communities but also that we have a permanent space in which to welcome people. Not just during special events, but every day—for moments big and small. Our current rented space is bursting at the seams; it simply isn’t equipped for the needs of our growing organization.

That’s why Literary Arts’ next chapter begins with acquiring a building and tailoring a space that will be welcoming, inclusive, and accessible. This new hub for Literary Arts will allow us to deepen our engagement with readers and writers, creating a sense of permanence—of being home, of being rooted.

With ample classroom, seminar, and event space, we can welcome more people, host more programs, and engage the community in new and exciting ways.

A new administrative space will allow our team to be more productive and effective. And a new bookstore and coffee bar will encourage visitors to linger, relax, explore, and discover Literary Arts’ programs.

Writers residencies provide focused time, free of the usual demands of life, for writers to write.

An advisory council composed of writers and literary professionals will select the writers.

To accommodate writers from various backgrounds, residencies will be of varying length and include a stipend.

Collaboration and homecoming are at the heart of Ursula’s writing. Although her reputation is international, she focused much of her energy on the local community of writers, libraries, and literary organizations. So it’s fitting that this residency, ambitious in the breadth of writers it reaches, is nevertheless rooted in the house and city she loved and lived in for a half century.”

Theo Downes-Le Guin, Literary Executor of the Le Guin Estate, Literary Arts Campaign Cabinet member

Ursula K. Le Guin’s writing room

The Ursula K. Le Guin writers residency

We will honor Ursula K. Le Guin— one of Oregon’s most accomplished writers—by transforming her home into a residency program.

Ursula K. Le Guin was a writer of the highest caliber who both delighted and challenged a global audience of readers. Her lived values as an artist and citizen are an example to us all.

Transforming the home where she lived and wrote for more than 50 years into a writers residency will honor Le Guin’s contributions to Oregon’s and our national heritage, preserving a culturally significant asset for our community. Once established, the new Ursula K. Le Guin Writers Residency, to be operated by Literary Arts, will welcome writers from around the world, with a focus on those residing in the Western United States.

Literary Arts is honored to have been entrusted by Ursula K. Le Guin and her family to direct the development and management of this program and to undertake the upgrades necessary to transform this historic family home into a working space.

The Le Guin residency program will give writers a necessary respite from daily responsibilities and uninterrupted time to focus on their work, while also providing an opportunity to engage with and inspire our community.

A

room-of-their-own in which to discover what it is they want to write . . . is often a writer’s real and primary need.”

—Ursula K. Le Guin

Portland Center Stage

Powell’s City of Books

Lincoln High School

Portland Art Museum

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

Dolores Winningstad Theatre

Brunish Theatre

Newmark Theatre

First Congregational

United Church of Christ

South Park Blocks

Oregon Historical Society

The Old Church Concert Hall

Keller Auditorium

STATEWIDE REACH

• The Oregon Book Awards Author Tour has visited over 30 communities across the state since 1999

• 714 applications submitted in 2023 for the Oregon Book Awards & Oregon Literary Fellowships

• 450,000+ gross annual listeners to The Archive Project radio show & podcast

Jefferson High School

Le Guin

Home

Klamath County Library Milwaukie Academy

Annie Bloom’s Books

Ida B. Wells High School

Many Nations Academy

Alliance High School Grant High School

Broadway Books

OUR NEW HOME

Franklin High School

OPB

Roosevelt High School

We are Oregon’s hub for readers, writers, and youth

Partnerships with organizations across Oregon allow Literary Arts to reach thousands of readers, writers, and youth who might not otherwise have access to our programs.

To do this, we operate through a hub-andspoke model: the hub is the main office where we design programs and run the organization, and the spokes are our programs, physically dispersed throughout the city and state.

Our new base of operations will be a super-hub that allows us to connect to even more spokes in the community.

OUR PROGRAMS

For readers

Portland Book Festival

Portland Arts & Lectures

Delve Readers Seminars

The Archive Project radio show & podcast

For writers

Writing classes

Oregon Book Awards & Fellowships

Ursula K. Le Guin Writers Residency

For youth

Writers in the Schools

Verselandia! Youth Poetry Slam Championship

College Essay Exchange

Students to the Schnitz

McDaniel High School

Parkrose High School

Gresham High School

Benson Polytechnic High School

The next chapter in our story

1987

The Oregon Institute of Literary Arts (OILA) founded

2011 Moved to storefront at 925 SW Washington St.

2016

Met with Ursula K. Le Guin and her family to discuss a bequest of her home

1993

Literary Arts formed with merger of Portland Arts & Lectures and the Oregon Institute for Literary Arts

Acquired Wordstock, now Portland Book Festival 2014

Portland Arts & Lectures founded 1984 2018

MARCH

Launched Campaign Feasibility & Planning Study

AUGUST

Launched quiet phase of capital campaign

Signed a memo of understanding with the Le Guin family for the home

Began vision planning for the next chapter of Literary Arts

MARCH

Purchased building at 716 SE Grand Ave.

APRIL

Secured funding from city, state, and federal sources

SEPTEMBER

Began renovations at 716 SE Grand Ave.

Launch

Ursula K. Le Guin Writers Residency

JUNE

Launch public phase of capital campaign

SEPTEMBER

Complete renovations and move in

NOVEMBER

Host grand opening at Literary Arts’ new headquarters

Find your story, leave a legacy

Sustain the programs of Literary Arts for years to come.

The final priority in The Campaign for Literary Arts is to create a $4 million Sustainability Fund to support our work and spaces for future generations. We invite you to join Literary Arts’ Legacy Society and leave a lasting impact on our community.

Benefits of joining the Legacy Society

• Recognition in our annual donor listings

• Personal invitations to occasional special events

• Sharing your story and inspiring generosity in others

• Supporting the Literary Arts programs you love in perpetuity

Please let us know if you plan to or have already named Literary Arts as a beneficiary in your estate plans. We would be delighted to personally thank you and welcome you to Literary Arts’ Legacy Society.

To learn more about how to make a meaningful charitable gift through your estate, please contact Brandon Lenzi, Director of Development, at 971-302-2811 or brandon@literary-arts.org.

TRANSFORMATIONAL GENEROSITY

Susan Hammer

Susan Hammer was a powerful advocate for arts and culture in Portland and a leader in the legal community in which she worked for over 40 years. She was deeply passionate about the mission of Literary Arts and served as a member of the Board of Directors and the Development Council. She participated in and generously supported all our programming.

In the summer of 2020, while the pandemic was still developing and our community was in a deeply uncertain time, Susan asked to meet with our Executive Director, Andrew Proctor, to discuss the future of Literary Arts. Andrew went to Susan’s home to show her the preliminary slides for our Campaign for Literary Arts.

Susan passed away on August 26, 2020. In a lasting act of generosity, she had established an Oregon Community Foundation legacy fund to distribute the remainder of her estate to organizations that bring people together in conversation to share experiences, build community, and inspire change. Through work with her advisors, Literary Arts was granted a catalytic, transformational gift of $3 million to launch our Campaign for Literary Arts and inspire our community to support the next chapter of the organization.

We are deeply grateful to Susan for her confidence in Literary Arts and this powerful endorsement of our mission. We trust that she would have been proud to see how our community has invested in this project, and we are proud to honor Susan’s legacy in the naming of our new headquarters at 716 SE Grand Avenue.

The Campaign for L terary Arts

Literary Arts has embarked on a campaign to bring two new spaces to life and endow them with funds that ensure they will remain inclusive centers for literature for generations to come. Join us to write this next chapter.

A NEW HOME FOR LITERARY ARTS

$16.5 million

Purchase of building

Renovations, including seismic upgrades Furnishings

Expanded staffing

THE URSULA K. LE GUIN WRITERS RESIDENCY

$2 million

Preservation of Ursula K. Le Guin’s home as a culturally significant site

Accessibility upgrades and renovations to convert the house into a writers residency

SUSTAINABILITY FUND

$4 million

Continuity of our work and spaces for future generations

$3 million Oregon Community Foundation

$1 million Board of Directors Reserve

Thank you

We are grateful to the many generous investors in The Campaign for Literary Arts. Your support is imperative to our work to create a more just, inclusive, and equitable society. Below is a list of donors as of May 28, 2024.

Jill & Ken Abere

David & Courtney Angeli

Anonymous (4)

Ellyn Bye

Clifford and Doris Carlsen Family Fund of Oregon Community Foundation

Jane Carlsen

Joan Cirillo & Roger Cooke

The City of Portland

The Collins Foundation

Anne Conway & Lou Baslaw

Ginnie Cooper & Rick Bauman

Roberta & Raymond Davis

Rebecca & Michael DeCesaro

Jodi Delahunt Hubbell & Todd Hubbell

Julie Strasser Dixon

Amy Donohue & Paul McKean

Theodore & Nancy Downes-Le Guin

Ann & Mark Edlen

Ann & Ron Emmerson

The Energy Trust of Oregon

Marilyn Epstein

Lana & Chris Finley

Alyce Flitcraft & Richard Solomon

Cheryl Francis & Sam Tannahill

Patricia Frobes & Richard Smith

Bob Geddes

Thomas & Elizabeth Gewecke

Sarah Gibbon

Nancy & Ron Gronowski

Susan Hammer Fund of Oregon Community Foundation

Pat* & Kelley Harrington

Susan Hathaway-Marxer & Larry Marxer

Betsy & Tom Henning

Jonathan & Jennifer Hill

Mary E. Hirsch

Mark Holloway & David Kahl

Georgia Lee Hussey

Mitchell S. Jackson

The Jackson Foundation

Jon V. Jaqua & Kimberly B. Cooper Fund of Oregon Community Foundation

Susheela Jayapal

The Johnson Family Foundation

Maurice & Dori King

The Kinsman Foundation

Molly Kohnstamm

CORPORATE PARTNERS

Caroline Le Guin

Charles Le Guin

Elizabeth Leach & Bert Berney

Literary Arts Board of Directors

M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust

Jenny & Carter MacNichol

Michael Mason

Maybelle Clark Macdonald Fund

Carolyn McKinney

Josie G. Mendoza & Hugh Mackworth

Sarah Miller Meigs

Anis Mojgani

National Endowment for the Humanities

Justice Adrienne Nelson & Ted Poole

Katherine O’Neil & Toby Graff

Corrine Oishi & Lindley Morton

Jan & Steve Oliva

The PGE Foundation

The PGE Renewable Development Fund

Amy Prosenjak & Steven Guy

Prosper Portland

Bonnie & Peter Reagan Fund of Oregon Community Foundation

Halle & Rick Sadle

Barbara & Norm Sepenuk

Penny & Peter Serrurier Fund of Oregon Community Foundation

Bob Speltz

The Standard

The Standard Matching Gift for Bob Speltz

The State of Oregon

Dennis Steinman

Lee Stewart & Chris Sherry

Donald & Roslyn Sutherland

John & Sandra Swinmurn

Geoffrey Tichenor & Stephanie Engelsman

Debra Turner Hatcher

Christine Vernier

Chabre Vickers

Kristin & Nick Walrod

Renée Watson

Amy Wayson & Ken Moran

Priscilla Bernard Wieden

Jackie & William F. Willingham

Tom & Marcia Wood

Sue Wright

Dr. Candace Young

*Deceased

Literary Arts Campaign Cabinet

I have loved and supported Literary Arts for a long time. Now I am pleased to support the Campaign for Literary Arts to fund a permanent home for Literary Arts, establish a writers residency in Ursula K. Le Guin’s home, and to secure the future of Literary Arts. This is my first ever Capital Campaign, and I am so proud of what we have accomplished so far. I am honored to be part of the community that supports the mission of Literary Arts. Like you, I have confidence that this work will benefit future generations.”

BOARD OF DIRECTORS STAFF

Andrew Proctor, Executive Director

Alexei Bien

Amanda Bullock

Rui Dun

Jennifer Gurney

Olivia Jones Hall

april joseph

Brandon Lenzi

Hope Levy

Susan Moore

Denver Olmstead

Leah O’Sullivan

Allyson Quirico

Meg Ready

Laura Renckens

Juliette Rousseve

Jyoti Roy

Alberto Sveum

Alexa Winik

Bob Speltz, Chair

Joan Cirillo

Ginnie Cooper

Tavo Cruz

Amy Donohue

Lana Finley

Sarah Gibbon

Jonathan Hill

Mary E. Hirsch

Janet Hoffman

Mitchell S. Jackson

Susheela Jayapal

Maurice King

Anis Mojgani

Corrine Oishi

Amy Prosenjak

Dennis Steinman

Geoffrey Tichenor

Chabre Vickers

Kristin Walrod

Renée Watson

Marcia Wood

Joan Cirillo Theo Downes-Le Guin

Mitchell S. Jackson Jan Oliva

Amy Prosenjak

Bob Speltz

Chabre Vickers Marcia Wood

Ginnie Cooper, Chair

Stories move us

Stories push us beyond the boundaries of what we’ve known and into what could be. They open our eyes, expand our worldview, and teach us to walk in another’s shoes—or to feel more comfortable in our own.

We invite you to join us.

For more information on how to support The Campaign for Literary Arts, contact Brandon Lenzi, Director of Development, at 971-302-2811 or brandon@literary-arts.org