News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sisters is rapidly becoming an arts center.
This week’s Make Time Art Stroll and Art Auction drew people from across Oregon to Sisters and events like the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, the Sisters Jazz Festival and the Sisters Folk Festival have gained national recognition.
Now advocates for the arts are asking the Sisters City Council to help create a physical arts center in Sisters, perhaps using the current Sisters Library building.
Vickie Dugger of The Oregon Downtown Development Association presented a study of arts and economic development to the council last week. The study was funded in part by the Community Action Team of Sisters (CATS).
According to Dugger and arts advocate Kathy Deggendorfer, there are three keys to developing the arts as an engine of economic development: a physical arts center; an arts center director and economic development officer; and incentives for arts-based businesses to locate in Sisters.
Deggendorfer told The Nugget that the current Sisters Library would be a good spot both from the artists’ perspective and from the city’s. Once the new Sisters Library is built, that building will be empty. The City of Sisters would have to repay more than $100,000 in grant funding used to build the building if it is used for something other than a library.
The city could avoid that repayment if the facility housed an arts center that included a quality art library.
Deggendorfer said she has met over a period of months with a variety of people with an interest in arts and economic development: people involved in music, fine arts, photography, textile arts, film.
“Everybody was very enthusiastic over the idea of finally having a location that wasn’t necessarily part of the schools, that was an independent center,” Deggendorfer said.
She said the arts center would be run as a business and would be self-sustaining, providing a facility and venue for artists to use and other resources. It would be a location for year-round arts events that could supplement what remains a seasonal tourist-dependent local economy.
While there was interest in the idea and it has garnered support from regional museums and from Senator Gordon Smith, Deggendorfer acknowledged that theconcept is in its infancy.
“It’s so preliminary,” she said. “There’s so much that needs to be worked out.”
City Manager Eileen Stein said that “councilors still have some questions about certain things.”
Those include the mechanism for funding the center and what incentives the city would provide.
Deggendorfer was satisfied with the level of interest from the city council. She was not expecting immediate commitment.
“I think there might be a willingness to make the library available,” she said. “I don’t really even know that yet.
“I think overall it has a very good chance of success,” Deggendorfer said. “I think the city was absolutely right to press hard on some questions.”
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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