DON’T SHOOT PORTLAND LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN TO RECLAIM ALBINA ARTS CENTER AS A RESOURCE FOR THE BLACK COMMUNITY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE :
DON’T SHOOT PORTLAND LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN TO RECLAIM ALBINA ARTS CENTER AS A RESOURCE FOR THE BLACK COMMUNITY.
Don’t Shoot Portland is demanding that the former Albina Arts Center, a historically significant place for the Black communities of North and Northeast Portland, be reclaimed as a non-profit resource owned and managed by and for Black Portlanders. After a 2015 court decision, the Oregon Department of Justice failed its obligation to oversee the process which required the impartial selection of another charitable organization by a court-appointed Receiver. As a result, the property is currently operated by an organization under primarily white leadership without the requisite 501(c)(3) status focused on commercial and business interests rather than prioritizing service to underrepresented community members; perpetuating a long history of systemic and structural betrayals of trust and policies of displacement and dispossession predicated on classism, racism, and white supremacy.
Portland, Oregon, December 18, 2021 — In the 1960s, the Albina Arts Center was created at the 8 NE Killingsworth building to provide a means of developing the cultural and intellectual resources of Albina through visual arts, music and drama classes. The building was acquired by the Albina Women’s League in 1969 to sponsor charitable programs in the Albina neighborhood.
In 2012, the Albina Women’s League came under the leadership of a director of two other nonprofits, who allegedly misappropriated charitable assets from 1999 - 2015. In 2015, the Oregon Department of Justice, which is responsible for overseeing charities operating in the state, dissolved the charity and appointed a third-party Receiver to resolve the charity’s debts, sell its assets, and direct the remaining charitable funds to a similar charitable purpose.
In 2019 Don’t Shoot Portland reached out to the Oregon Department of Justice to discuss acquiring the Albina Arts Center property. It was then discovered that the court-appointed Receiver had selected an organization to receive the benefit of the property based on personal relationships and without any application process or Requests For Proposals. That organization was also not an established 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charity as required by the Oregon Department of Justice, and was not aimed at serving the Black communities of North and Northeast Portland; rather, the organization is focused on commercial and business interests. Although the organization had been initially provided with time to obtain its 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status by December 31, 2017, that date has long-since passed and to this date the organization has still failed to meet the requirement of being a non-profit 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
The Albina Arts Center was a lively community resource and gathering place for Black Portlanders established in effort to reinvest in the Black communities of North and Northeast Portland. The Oregon Community Foundation (OCF), the property’s interim owner/trustee, has the discretionary authority to select a new organization to receive the benefit of the Albina Arts Center property. As such, Don’t Shoot Portland is demanding that the OCF exercise that authority as part of its obligation to assure that benefit is provided to an established 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization. Don’t Shoot Portland is insisting that it be provided the opportunity to acquire the property in order to carry on the legacies of both the original Albina Arts Center and the Albina Women’s League in its mission to create a community action plan that uses art, education, and history to promote community engagement and preserve the roots of our local Black communities to allow the branches to grow and to flourish.
A press conference is scheduled for Monday, December 20th at 11:00 am led by Don’t Shoot Portland board members, community activists and institutional community partners. Please join us as we make demands to reclaim a historically significant space for Black Portlanders to receive services, build community, and engage and learn from social justice organizing. Livestream will begin on our YouTube channel at 11am.
###