I Wanna Be an Artist!!!

Think a weird public/private secret whozis will give me the big bucks?

Time for an update on my application to be one of the artists selected—via super-secret process—to get some bucks from the super-secret Regional Arts & Culture Council. This the gang of fellow “citizens” who get the excess dollars dribbling down from the city’s most odious tax—the $35-per person “arts tax,” aka a poll tax, which is technically unconstitutional, but it’s for a “good cause,” so what the hell.

We wrote here and here about the RACC, which might interest some of our recent subscribers (and another tip ‘o’ the hat to PDX.Real); and may strike others as merely obsessive. Guilty as charged.

As we noted at the time…

We are about to meet a strange bird…or maybe it’s a sludge-like liquid, seeping into the nooks and crannies of government, then solidifying into something immovable, dense, and utterly opaque.

Awwww, c’mon, they only spend an estimated $745,000 on grants ranging from $1K to $5K to finance 193 of our budding Michelangelos. “Estimated,” because you will look in vain on the colorful, self-congratulatory RACC website for anything remotely resembliing a budget.

That’s because the city stupidly set up this organization as a 501c3 “non-profit.” Which means the only real public accounting is through something called IRS Form 990, which all non-profits must file yearly. Small problem: the IRS is slow in posting those documents…and in the case of RACC this means that the 2022 report (its numbers are for the prior year) is the most recent. In that pre-pandemic year, RACC got more than $7-million (your tax dollars!) and managed to spend $2.1-million of it on hired help. If anything, the payroll has continued to boom post-Covid. Just check out the “team” on their website…

The last person on the display above is Ms. Carol Tatch, whose main “external operation” seems to be telling inquiring citizens to pound sand. Here’s her reply to our emails asking for, like, facts and figures and hints about how they decide who gets the handouts…

“The completed applications for RACC grant and public arts programs are not available to the public (and yes, we do keep them). If you have specific questions, such as those regarding the demographics of our applicants and recipients, please let me know. We are able to provide such data and we do this as a matter of course for our contract reporting requirements.”

Short version: buzz off.

As we noted in our prior report, all of the grant recipients tend to fall into the progressive agitprop category, with the possible exception of funding for a few tattoo parlors—god knows what they’re inking on all those guilty white skins.

Around the time we wrote about the shrinking violets at RACC, they opened the process (highly secret) of inviting a new tranche of artists to vie for the freebies. We decided to take a shot; we love to doodle and since overtly political seems to be the key to the kingdom, we decided to go whole hog…

My primary goal is to enhance voices of dissent to the oppressive system of progressive culture in Portland. We believe in giving voice to the ethnic majority of the city's citizens through comedy, song, and speech.

We will celebrate our true diversity on the 4th of July in a stirring day-long "We Are Still Here" celebration of bravery and reimagination. We plan to focus on freedom of speech with a recitation of forbidden (but legal) words in a poetic series of public readings.

Our purpose will be to reaffirm the miracle of the US Constitution and its Bill of Rights. We plan on particular focus on freedom of speech.

One of our core events will consist of volunteers from the majority community gathering in public spaces for a mass recitation of the Bill of Rights and an affirmation of our nation's core values, the presentation of "Don't Tread on Me" banners and the symbolic dropping of tea into the Willamette River from each of the city's bridges as a way to portray our nation's rise from colonial repression.

Seems pretty simple. It has been logged and accepted by the RACC. But then we got a rather tart email…

…no surprise, since that would seem to be the main preoccupation of the RACC, which has said they put…

…particular emphasis on programs directed to communities who are underserved by local arts providers.

…which is standard-issue progspeak for “let’s move some races to the head of the line.”

So, my finger on the mouse trembled as I took the “demographic” survey, although a few questions bumped around my brain: why would the RACC care about this “demographic” stuff, given the 14th Amendment and the civil rights act of 1964 which outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. Since that discrimination is outlawed, why ask the questions in the first place?

And why the ominous words about “reach and scope?” Quotas, anyone?

So I did my best to respond….

…and…

No response—yet—from the RACC. Expect things to move at a measured pace: after all, the Portland.gov website tracking RACC’s response to a scathing 2018 city auditor’s report, and its recommendations for action, (which led to a significant trimming of RACC’s wings) seems, well…leisurely…

You’ve got to hand it to the surreptitious artist who put together the city’s web page dealing with the clean-up of RACC’s problems…

Meanwhile, sometime—who knows when—I’ll be judged. If they give me the dough, you will be invited to the celebration. I’m stocking up on bunting and pom-poms. Hope springs eternal.