ArtsEast Information
Founded in 1977, ArtsEast the home of Eastern Oregon Regional Arts Council is a non-profit organization serving, facilitating, and promoting the arts, arts education, and artists living in the ten easternmost counties of Oregon. Since its inception, ArtsEast has sponsored numerous visual arts exhibitions, several performance series, and outreach programs in regional schools; we have also supported artists as well as local arts councils in Eastern Oregon.
The mission of the ArtsEast's in Education program is to implement and facilitate arts education residencies, projects, performances, and programs in school and community settings in Baker, Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Malheur, Morrow, Umatilla, Union, Wallowa, and Wheeler counties. The Arts in Education program's primary goal is to increase the quality and accessibility of the arts for rural youth who are disadvantaged due to the isolation of this geographical area.
Through its Artist-in-Residence program, ArtsEast has provided arts experiences to regional schools since 1980, serving an average of 8,000 school children per year. Eighty-six weeks of residencies were delivered in the 2004-2005 school year and we expect the number of weeks to increase next year. Many rural students would have no exposure to outside cultures and varied art forms without this residency program.
The organization is led by a volunteer board of 12 members who meet monthly and oversee all projects. In addition to providing area school children with artist residencies, other current Arts in Education projects delivered by ArtsEast include booking touring performers and ensembles into rural school districts, sponsoring on-going after-school arts programs for Latino youth featuring artist Eva Castellanoz, and facilitating several levels of arts education workshops and institutes for public school teachers.