The Regional Arts & Culture Council has laid off 15 staffers and says it will hire 15 new employees as the independent organization reshapes how it approaches its mission.

The arts council, known by the acronym RACC, helps define the role the arts plays in the Portland metro area, offering educational programs and annually awarding grants to arts groups, schools and individual artists. With a budget last year of a little over $10 million, the Regional Arts & Culture Council is funded by the City of Portland, along with contributions from Metro, the counties in the region, and private donors.

The changes at the private nonprofit are more than a year in the making. In 2018, the City of Portland audited RACC and found that the organization, while doing good work, wasn’t receiving much oversight. The auditor’s office said “the city may not be getting what it wants.”

And so RACC, which evolved from the city’s Metropolitan Arts Commission agency in the 1990s, says it will be pumping up its fundraising and arts advocacy efforts, “with a deeper focus on reaching underserved communities.”

“We take this transition very seriously and deeply appreciate the work of RACC employees, especially those leaving the organization,” board chair Linda McGeady said in a statement. “These changes respond to what we are seeing and hearing from our community, and position RACC to better serve our region today and in the future.”

Particularly hard hit by the layoffs are staffers involved in The Right Brain Initiative, which brings arts into school curriculums, and the workplace-giving program Arts Impact Fund.

Among the new priorities, RACC says, will be “demonstrating how the arts build livable communities by connecting to politics, education, economics, development, planning and civic engagement.”

“To achieve this vision, RACC needs to become more fiscally sustainable, diversify our funding sources and streamline our organization,” executive director Madison Cario said.

Cario took the helm at the Regional Arts & Culture Council last year.

The agency will continue giving grants, commissioning public art and funding arts education.

RACC will present a “State of the Arts” report to the Portland City Council on Feb. 27.

-- Douglas Perry

@douglasmperry

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