Hillsboro: Arts Endowment Gives 16 Nonprofits $2,500 Each, More Than Double Last Year
- Sixteen Hillsboro arts and culture nonprofits are each receiving $2,500 from the Hillsboro Arts & Culture Endowment this year, for a total of $40,000.
- The awards opened the presentations at the Oct.
- This year's payout is more than twice last year's.
Sixteen Hillsboro arts and culture nonprofits are each receiving $2,500 from the Hillsboro Arts & Culture Endowment this year, for a total of $40,000. The city’s Oct. 21 announcement says that is more than double last year’s individual awards of $1,152.
The awards opened the presentations at the Oct. 20 City Council meeting, the same evening councilors adopted new data center limits. A staff report in the Oct. 20 council packet says the awards carry “no cost from City budgets.” The money comes from privately raised donations to the endowment, the report says.
How this year compares with 2025
This year’s payout is more than twice last year’s. The table below sets the city’s 2025 awards announcement beside this year’s release.
| 2025 | 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Groups funded | 15 | 16 |
| Award per group | $1,152 | $2,500 |
| Total awarded | $17,289 | $40,000 |
| Business honoree | Tualatin Valley Community Television | Columbia Bank of Hillsboro |
| Volunteer honoree | Jan Simmons | William Crawford |
By our calculation, the total rose $22,711 ($40,000 minus $17,289), an increase of about 131%. The per-group award rose about 117%, from $1,152 to $2,500. Dividing last year’s $17,289 among 15 groups gives $1,152.60; the city’s figure drops the 60 cents.
According to the staff report, the Hillsboro Arts & Culture Council voted unanimously in May 2026 to raise the award to $2,500 per organization. Its members are community representatives appointed by the City Council, the report says. The report does not say how the endowment was able to pay for the larger awards.
Two new names on the list, and one missing
Comparing the two official lists shows 14 groups funded in both years. Children’s Healing Art Project and Native Performing Art Network are new in 2026. The Hillsboro Historical Society was on the 2025 list but is not on the 2026 list, and neither the release nor the staff report mentions it.
The 2026 recipients, spelled as in the city’s release, are:
- Bag&Baggage Productions
- Cultural and Arts Center of OBV
- Golden Road Arts
- Hillsboro Artists’ Regional Theatre (HART)
- Children’s Healing Art Project
- Hillsboro Symphony Orchestra
- Influence Music Hall / Tualatin Valley Artists
- Light Opera of Portland
- Native Performing Art Network
- Oregon Chorale
- Rasika
- STAGES Performing Arts Youth Academy
- The Immigrant Story
- The Young Artists Club
- Westside Community & Youth Orchestra
- Westside Quilters Guild
The two newcomers describe their work on their own websites. Children’s Healing Art Project says it was founded in Portland in 2006 to bring art to children and families facing medical challenges. It runs free programs in local hospitals and a weekly Art Club at its studio, and its site lists a Hillsboro contact address.
The other new recipient spells its name Native Performing Arts Network and says it was formerly the Native Theater Project. Its first production was a world premiere at Bag&Baggage’s Vault Theater in Hillsboro, a show the city featured in September 2024.
The volunteer and the bank behind this year’s honors
Children’s Healing Art Project also figures in one of the year’s two recognition awards. The endowment committee picks a Volunteer for the Arts and a Business Supporter of the Arts through community nominations, and the release says neither honor includes a cash award.
Columbia Bank of Hillsboro was named Business Supporter of the Arts for its ongoing support of the art project. Each month, according to the release, a team of 10 to 15 bank staff members volunteers at the CHAP studio, helping prepare for programs and events.
William Crawford was named Volunteer for the Arts. The release says he serves as HART’s director of operations and volunteers extra hours as a set builder, lighting designer and mentor. It credits him with work on virtually every HART production since 2009.
Where the endowment’s money comes from
The city’s endowment page describes how the fund works. It says gifts are invested by the Hillsboro Community Foundation in partnership with the Oregon Community Foundation, and that every $1,000 donated puts $50 into the community each year.
The staff report traces the fund to March 2013, when an arts council subcommittee raised a $25,000 starting gift for an arts fund in the foundation’s Legacy Endowment Program. It calls the fund a public-private partnership “funded primarily by private donations” that has grown to over $600,000 in 13 years.
The city’s running totals do not all start in the same year, however. This year’s release puts the endowment’s total support at $137,409 since 2015, while the 2025 release said payouts began in 2018. The staff report counts 106 awards and nearly $100,000 over the past nine years.
Subtracting this year’s $40,000 from $137,409 leaves $97,409, by our calculation. The documents do not say whether the staff report’s “nearly $100,000” includes the 2026 awards.
The endowment committee’s Oct. 1 agenda lists plans for a benefit concert, with a VIP reception and donation boxes in the lobby, but gives no date. The arts council that voted for the larger award next meets Oct. 28 at 4 p.m. at the Walters Cultural Arts Center, 527 E. Main St., with a Zoom option listed.
Top image: Illustrative image, 2023: an empty theater set before a performance in London. Photo: Alex Chan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).
