Arts & Culture presents on venues workgroup recommendations for City’s Arts and Economy Committee

On July 8, 2025, Arts & Culture Director Chariti Montez presented at the convening of the City of Portland's Arts and Economy Committee-chaired by Councilmembers Mitch Green (District 4) and Dan Ryan (District 2).

During the 20-minute presentation, Montez shared background information on the City of Portland/Metro relationship as it pertains to the Portland'5 Centers for the Arts and the resolutions that led to the convening of the Performing Arts Venues Workgroup, the findings of the City's contracted venues experts and the recommendations from the workgroup itself, what's known about next steps for the recommendations, and how this work fits into the overall Future of Keller project.

"The Portland'5 Centers for the Arts consist of five venues that are central to Portland's creative economy and cultural live-drawing more than 800,000 attendees to downtown Portland every year, serving as a home to both local arts groups and national touring productions," Montez said.

Currently, these City-owned venues are managed by a department at Metro. In 2022, an audit conducted by Metro found that the governance structures were hard to navigate and that there was a lack of shared understanding about the costs of the Portland'5 buildings' deficiencies. Those findings and more recent shifts in the arts ecosystem prompted the City to reassess how its cultural assets can be better managed to serve Portlanders, the region, and the cultural economy.

In October 2024, the City and Metro passed parallel legislation to establish the Performing Arts Venues Workgroup to evaluate the management of the Portland'5 facilities. The workgroup, which met every other week between January and May 2025, was tasked with identifying immediate and long-term areas for improvement-which Montez's July 8 presentation focused on. You can watch the full presentation below.

Related materials

Performing Arts Venues Workgroup presentation slides, Arts and Economy Committee, July 8, 2025