Join us on May 6th for our TADA Gala and PICA Birthday Dance Party in support of TBA:06. Filled with special TBA:06 surprises, abundant food and libation, and the official announcement of our 2006 artists and performers. MC'd by TBA:04 Alum AC Dickson.

6 pm Patron Dinner
$150 ($100 tax-deductible)

10 pm PICA Birthday Dance Party
$10 PICA Members / $15 General

AudioCinema : 226 SE Madison

Call 503.242.1419 or email pica@pica.org for tickets.

tada design dan stiles

PICA welcomed new Guest Artistic Director Mark Russell with Portland visits in February and March. While New York-based, Mark has been flying both across the country and around the world busily developing our 2006 Time- Based Art Festival (TBA:06). Taking place September 7-17, 2006, TBA:06 also marks an exciting Festival expansion into visual art with installations, lectures, and workshops happening all over the city. Mark has been exploring ideas of crossover, connections, and bridging and while our Festival lineup is still being finalized, TBA:06 will include the return of dance favorite Bebe Miller, 2006 Whitney Biennial artist Matthew Day Jackson, and the legendary Laurie Anderson along with many more artists and surprises.

Learn more about Mark’s vision in this Portland Tribune article.

Check out the PICA Blog to hear about PICA's Performing Arts Program Director, Erin Boberg Doughton's recent trip to the National Performance Network meeting in New Orleans.

bebe miller photo Lois Greenfield

The 2006 Visual Program has at its core a series of artist presentations, which form a thesis around ideas of how artists “make history” through explorations and intense interrogations of the past, as well as developing new ways of seeing or defining the future.

This has and will include a number of projects that emerge as the result of residencies and commissions, others as a result of collaboration with regional organizations, and still others as a result of collaboration with audiences. Although the bulk of presentations will take place during TBA:06, there are several things going on right now and others which will radiate activity throughout the year.

Check out the PICA Blog to read about PICA's Visual Arts Program Director, Kristan Kennedy's recent trip to NYC to see the Whitney Biennial and the Armory Show.

• January: artist Harrell Fletcher initiated and curated a free weekly artist lecture series at Portland State University. We are proud to support this ambitious series, which has continued to present the work by regional, national and international artists every Monday night. Artists, students and the curious have been gathering at the Fifth Avenue Cinemas to learn and exchange ideas, work and knowledge. Fletcher’s series goes on spring break beginning March 20 but continues on April 24 with artist Jim Drain.

• March: we worked with both the Anthropology and Art Departments at Reed College as well as the Cooley Gallery to present a lecture by legendary performance and installation artist Marina Abramovic. Vollum Hall was filled beyond capacity and attendees witnessed a transformative and exhaustive presentation by Abramovic including clips of rare performance documentation and personal insight into her work and ways.

• May: we are looking forward to a visit from our artist in residence Matthew Day Jackson who will start research and material gathering for an installation to be included in TBA this fall. The search for an ideal world has been the fixation of artists for a millennium. In Paradise NOW! Matthew Day Jackson will be making a proposal for the beginning of this (or rather his) ideal world in the form of photographs, sculpture and drawing. The artist will be researching the Multnomah Falls myth as the foundation for this principle.

• May-June: artist Pablo Helguera will drive into town with the School of Panamerican Unrest, a collapsible/portable structure will take form in the Feldman Gallery at PNCA. This nomadic think tank will travel from Alaska to Chile over the next year. While in Portland, Helguera will be engaging audiences in and outside of his schoolhouse hosting discussions around the history, ideology and trends, which have had important political and social ramifications in the Americas. Relics from his visit will remain at PNCA along with a video installation updated to follow the SPU’s cross-continent explorations.

• July-September: we will be building out spaces to house projects by Visual Artists as part of the TBA Festival. Expect several important video, sound and object installations, an exhibition, a radio project, a remote drawing initiative and several other collaborative projects that find their roots in the Visual Arts but continue to push its definition and its boundaries.

pablo helguera photo

We've now held two successful and fun nights of PINTS for PICA at the Low Brow Lounge. Mike Raleigh, owner of the Low Brow, opened his lounge up for the night with half of all food and bar sales benefiting PICA. Our friends at Full Sail Brewing also provided a keg for a special PICA Pint of which 100% of sales went to artistic programming. Thanks to Mike and all his great staff and many thanks also to Doug Cameron and Autumn Woods at Full Sail for helping make it a great evening. We raised more than $1,000 in a night of food and merriment with our friends. We are so grateful!

Many thanks to all the artists who participated on December 17, 2005 at PRINTS FOR PICA at STUDIO 333—it was once again an incredible outpouring of support from the arts community and the folks at Studio 333. Thanks also to all of you who bought prints at this great holiday event—we raised an astounding $20,000, all of which goes directly to supporting PICA and our artistic programming.

All of this great programming and thought provoking work would not be possible without the dedication of people like you. It is your commitment and involvement that allows PICA to present so many artists. The financial contributions of donations and ticket sales help not just with creating excellent and boundary-breaking new work but it also helps with myriad aspects of travel for artists from New York, London, or Tokyo, venue space rentals, housing, and international artist visas. PICA could not make it happen without your help.

What does it take to present over 200 artists at more than 15 locations to an audience exceding 20,000 throughout the City of Portland? Here are a few examples of what your donation supports:

• $2,500 visa fees for an international company or airfares for a company of 5 from Europe.
• $1,000 one day of space rental for a venue, piano tuning for the whole festival or housing for one visiting artist for 10 days.
• $500 a plane ticket for a visiting artist from London, 8 hours of stage crew labor, or DJ fee and turntable rental for closing night party.
• $350 a plane ticket for a visiting artist from New York, a day's per diem for 10 artists, or marley tape for all the festival dance floors.
• $100 a night in a hotel for a visiting artist, pizza dinner for 20 volunteers, or 10 days rental of a mirrorball.

It takes you. It takes your support.

Click here to go to our website, and donate via PayPal.

Any donation you make now to the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA) will reduce the pain next April 15th. Make a donation to PICA today then, by December 31, 2006, make a matching gift to the Oregon Cultural Trust.  Your Cultural Trust donation gives back a 100% Oregon State income tax credit, up to $500 for individuals, $1000 for couples or $2500 for corporations. 

email: pica@pica.org

phone: 503.242.1419

web: http://www.pica.org