Arts Central Station

Since 1997 Arts Central has been the regional arts council of the Oregon Arts Commission serving Crook, Deschutes and Jefferson counties. Arts Central is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization with a mission to promote arts and culture in this region through education, advocacy, marketing and participatory activities.

As a regional arts council, Arts Central provides marketing, advocacy and coordinating services to the region’s arts and culture organizations. It publishes a newsletter and a regional arts resource directory in collaboration with the monthly publication Cascade Arts & Entertainment. With the Central Oregon Visitors Association and cultural partners, Arts Central is working on a cultural tourism program for the region. Arts Central provides leadership in promoting collaboration between cultural organizations, artists, social service agencies, environmental groups, businesses, government and educational institutions.

Arts Central operates a number of public-accessible programs. In 1994 Arts Central founded the non-profit Mirror Pond Gallery in a 1907 craftsman bungalow style home on Mirror Pond in historic downtown Bend. Arts Central volunteers worked to save the house from the wrecking ball and restore the historic structure. The gallery’s mission is to promote central Oregon artists in a professional setting through exhibits and sales. The gallery also serves as a gathering place for people to enjoy poetry readings, small music events, artist demonstrations and lectures. The gallery is in part supported by the City of Bend.

In 2001 Arts Central opened the region’s first non-profit art education center, the Art Station. In partnership with a local developer, Bill Smith Properties and River Bend Limited Partnership and a government agency, Oregon Department of Transportation, Arts Central helped restore the historic Bend train depot following its move to Bend’s Old Mill District. The Art Station provides professional arts instruction to people of all levels of experience. Classes and workshops in the visual and literary arts are available to all ages, from children to seniors. Performing arts are offered to the extent the space allows.

Artists in the Schools, a regional program co-sponsored by the Oregon Arts Commission, provides artist residencies in the schools and teacher training from its headquarters in the Art Station. In addition to the three central Oregon counties, Artists in the schools serves Klamath and Lake counties as well covering 22,233 square miles. Arts Central assumed management of this program in 2000. Over 8,000 students are served annually by the artist residency program.

In 2006 Arts Central “rolled out” its newest project, a mobile art studio called VanGo. The fully decaled Honda Element is stocked with art supplies and travels to underserved areas in Arts Central’s service region. During its pilot project year, VanGo traveled 10,000 miles and served over 1,450 youth at risk in juvenile justice, residential facilities, after school programs and Boys and Girls Clubs.

Since its incorporation in 1978 as the Central Oregon Arts Society, Arts Central has grown from a small network of artists with virtually no budget, no home and no employees to a over half-million-dollar organization with two cultural facilities, three full time employees and over 100 active volunteers. Most of this growth has occurred within the last decade and was spurred by the Mirror Pond Gallery project. The project inspired a name change from the Society to the Central Oregon Arts Association. When the organization began to assume a stronger leadership position in arts and culture in the region, the name was changed in 2001 to Arts Central to reflect the organization’s emerging role.