Captured in a photo, there’d be dancing and horses, lots of bridges, and a mouth-watering variety of fresh foods. This we learned. And more: Horticulture shows up again and again (we nodded to ourselves, realizing that culture comprises half of the word). Many photographs were taken at the coast or near a river; often water plays a starring role, whether sprayed from public fountains or falling from the sky. Frequently there’s music playing, coffee brewing, grapes ripening on the vine. We’re with family or friends. Celebrating, collaborating, commemorating, cultivating.

Our 2011 photo contest drew 1,187 entries from professional photographers and camera-phone-toting amateurs, alike — just as we’d hoped. From that extensive selection, judges selected 72 finalists…and they’re all collected in this video:

We can’t thank our entrants enough. For seven weeks, the energetic dialogue these photos spawned on Facebook kept us returning to our computers with alarming regularity. We’ve been thrilled and humbled in equal measure.

Congratulations to our winners: Owen Carey (Photographers Grand Prize), Gary Norman (Culture Star V.I.P.), Athena Delene (Oregon Oddball), Lisa Bolden (My Life, My Culture), and Nicholas Manusos (Food Culture).

Three lucky cultural nonprofits came away winners, too. Owen chose the Portland Actors Conservatory and Third Rail Repertory Theater as recipients of $500 Trust grants in his name. Gary directed his $1,000 prize to Theatre Vertigo.

And none of it would have been possible with the generous support of Whole Foods Market, Pro Photo Supply, the Pamplin Media Group, Oregon Public Broadcasting, and McMenamins.

Till next year…

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I was reminded how closely Oregon culture is tied to this incredible place, when Chris Havel, Associate Director of the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, emailed me last week.  The State of Oregon has committed to developing a new state park per year to create more opportunities for Oregonians to enjoy our varied landscape and learn and experience Oregon’s heritage.

To deepen the experience of the dedication of the new parks, State Parks invited Paulann Petersen, Oregon’s Poet Laureate, to consider writing a poem for an opening.   She accepted, and wrote a poem for the recent dedication of the Bates State Park at the confluence of Bridge Creek and the Middle Fork of the John Day River.  

The park’s master plan says that “many Oregonians fondly remember growing up in the town of Bates and working at the Bates Mill.  Although the buildings are gone, this is still a very important place for former mill workers, their families and for Grant County residents.   The park is at the site of the former Bates Mill and is adjacent to the Bates town site. The upper mill pond is the last remaining major feature from the former mill and town.”

The park was welcomed by the residents of eastern Grant County who were delighted to hear the words of Paulann Petersen’s poem. 

Chris Havel reminded me that “her contributions to the state park system are like the state parks themselves … they last for generations and enrich people’s lives.

 Just like culture.

Which is why the Cultural Trust helped rebuild the entrance to Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood, helped the Camp Sherman Historical Society rebuild three Depression-era CCC shelters along the Metolius River, and helped the Oregon State Parks Trust restore the Kam Wah Chung Museum in John Day.  

So they last for generations and enrich people’s lives.   

Relationships were formed that lasted a lifetime.

Rural communities have languages all to their own. If I knew it as a child I forgot it, my world was the block I lived on, the alley that lead to grandma’s house, and the local grocer who exchanged our coupons from the Sunday paper into cold hard cash.

I chased the dream that was promised by jet streams that crossed the rural sky as a kid. I dreamed of discovery.  Four years ago, I came home. I journeyed like a salmon instinctively, to the original place my grandfather brought my father when they arrived to remote Eastern Oregon in 1924, there were laws against them being here in the early years. Exclusion laws.

The past has caught up to the present and is infusing itself in a shared experience in my community.

How does language serve cultural connection? I think of how many conventional languages there are (I don’t pretend to know), there is the language of the heart, the language of youth, of our elders and scholars.  There is also the language of place, a setting where activities are bonded by a common experience, where basic denominators such as work, isolation, hardship, food, even music serve as a bridge that transcends cultural norms and creates it’s own language, culture, roots itself and speaks to the common needs of those it serves. Maxville was such a place for a group of people brought to a landscape with different cultures, traditions, and skills.

Local logging heritage, social and economic practices, and recreational activities are  revealed through the collection, preservation, and interpretation of the multicultural logging community of Maxville, Oregon, championed through Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center, reveal the contributions of these isolated communities in the integration of African Americans and other nationalities over the past 100 years. Our community reflects shades of differences, beliefs, and values today that define culture at it’s best, excluding none.

Then there’s the anticipation of what’s often called the “fall cultural season.” No matter what city you live in, autumn typically offers a wealth of arts and culture experiences. Art museums open scholarly exhibitions rich with treasures drawn from permanent collections. Music and performance festivals take residence in venues all over town. Season brochures arrive in the mail full of exciting performances-to-come at the ballet, at the opera, and at any number of resident theatre companies. (Confession: fall also breeds a certain amount of panic in the cultural omnivore; there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to see everything I want to see.)

But before you head indoors to hear your favorite author speak or enjoy the symphony on a Sunday afternoon, I urge you to take a walk. Take advantage of the changing light and linger outside. Drift over to a food cart and fortify yourself for the trek (food culture!). Look up at the buildings as you walk by (cornices!). Go further afield . . . on your way to harvest seasonal gourds, join a tour of that homestead or historic home you always pass on the highway.

Just last weekend, a couple of friends and I made time on a Sunday afternoon to marvel at John Yeon’s Watzek House, a landmark of modern architecture tucked away in the hills of Portland. It was a misty afternoon so the spectacular view of Mt. Hood was veiled by clouds (alas), but I can safely say were were stunned by the fact that such remarkable a house exists. Right here. In Oregon. Take a look:

So I’m now inspired to offer you this autumnal challenge: go find out something new about Oregon. Come back from the experience, invite some friends to dinner (perhaps accompanied by a local Pinot Noir?), and tell them what you learned about Oregon culture. Then give them the same challenge . . . and make them cook you dinner next time. You might not realize it, but that simple act of breaking bread together is also culture.

Need some help? Visit oregondaysofculture.org and plan an outing this weekend. You know full well that winter is on its way, so do yourself a favor and make time for some Oregon culture that doesn’t require you to sit in the dark with a bunch of strangers. There will be plenty of time for that in the wet months to come.

Todd J. Tubutis, Executive Director, Blue Sky, the Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts

Here’s a submission from Sabina Samiee, School of Architecture and Allied Arts, University of Oregon.   This photo is taken at the Watzek House,  part of The John Yeon Center for Architectural Studies at University of Oregon, a Cultural Trust grant recepient for 2011-12.

It’s a pleasure to be invited to participate in Oregon Days of Culture.  Since receiving the email two days ago, I’ve spent many hours debating what to write.  “What does culture mean to me?”  Quite a bit, it seems!

An extraordinary aspect of culture is that at the moment we acknowledge its existence, we become part of its kaleidoscopic array.  We all have unique stories to tell about our involvement with culture, as observers and participants.  My “day job” as an English teacher finds me in a  sparkling classroom, perennially attempting to pass along my love of words to high school students.  However, when I am asked to write about culture, my mind turns first to music, since that has always been a strong, artistic force connecting me with my family, my friends, and my community.  Perhaps some of my musings will strike a chord with you.

Our families provide the first window to the world, and that was definitely the case for me.  At the center of our music-filled home was an old upright piano, where my sisters and I harmonized to Mom’s accompaniment.  We sang at church, for weddings, and for other community events—first in Portland, where we were all born, then in the Rogue Valley, where we moved when I was four.  We played various instruments in our school bands, and sang in our school choirs.  Our older brother’s tenor voice and solid trumpet skills carried him from high school through four years in the Navy, to a lifelong appreciation of jazz and classical music.  The five of us now live in Medford, Roseburg, Bend, and Portland.  Echoes of our performances, together and separately, form a major part of the soundtrack of our family history.

Another part of that soundtrack would include the concerts we attended.  Even though money was  scarce when we were young, there were plenty of low-cost opportunities to hear good music.  Thankfully, the Rogue Valley is rich with talented people who generously share their gifts.  I can’t remember a summer when I didn’t attend free concerts in Ashland’s Lithia Park, and more recently, Medford’s Bear Creek Park.  For a price, we now also enjoy events presented by local organizations such as Rogue Valley Symphony Orchestra and Rogue Opera.  A renovated movie theater is a home to many traveling musical acts throughout the year, and world-class musicians take the stage every summer at the Britt Festival.  Sometimes I’ve visited that hill to hear a well-known performer or group, and am pleasantly surprised to be introduced to a phenomenal warm-up act.

One of my favorite musical memories was the time local choirs joined forces with the Britt Orchestra to perform the Mozart Requiem, under the direction of James DePriest.  That 1989  performance happened early in my ongoing participation in the Southern Oregon Repertory Singers.  My deepest involvement with music is through that group.  Long-time director Paul French brings together some of the area’s best voices.  The group’s personnel changes over time, but at its core is the familial, harmonic bond that feeds my soul.  Many of us enjoy friendships that extend far beyond rehearsals and performances.  Whether we are performing light-hearted carols or last spring’s momentous Bach Mass in B minor with period instruments and world-class soloists, I love finding myself in the center of a beautiful sound.

Music has always provided me with connections to the people around me, whether I am onstage or in the audience.  To me, those connections are the essential ingredient to culture.

Elizabeth Quinn accepted the proclamation and made the following comments to the Deschutes County Commissioners:

This proclamation by Deschutes County is exciting.  Because I grew up here, am the managing editor of High Desert Journal and am involved in different arts discussions around central Oregon right now, I am honored to accept this proclamation.

I believe Deschutes County is on the cusp of fully defining its creative economy. Creative economies of cities and states all over the country are being heralded as vital to whole economies. They are pushing forward the edge of innovation, of rich community interaction and cross-disciplinary solutions to current civic needs and problems.

At the inception of the Cultural Trust, Kim Stafford wrote in the Oregonian, “For wisdom is not speed or magnitude or physical wealth. It is the integrating power of imagination that illuminates. This is what my father called “being rich the only way we can: to look around and understand.” I think this is our imperative today and this proclamation is yet one more step towards our future.

Elizabeth Quinn is the Managing Editor at the High Desert Journal.