Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission's photostream

A 501(c)(3) non-profit, "The Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission discovers, celebrates, and commemorates contributions to Oregon’s diverse literary and cultural legacy, raising awareness through publications and other media, memorials, and public events" since 1988.

The OCHC Discovering Oregon Originals (DOO) series, now in its 12th season, explores significant figures and facets of the creative culture of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. Programs range from Hazel Hall to Vi Gale, Storefront to Portland Civic Theatre, Ken Kesey to H.L. Davis, the Impossibilists to Sam Simpson, Betty MacDonald to Ranald McDonald, Jim Pepper to Maestro Herbert Weiskopf, C.E.S. Wood to Marian Wood Kolisch, and Anna Belle Crocker to the WPA.

Look for 2009 DOO programs on Joel Weinstein;Doug Lynch; Pat Courtney Gold; Shannon Applegate, Molly Gloss & Jane Kirkpatrick; E. Kimbark MacColl; and George Johanson. Our May symposium will focus on Oregon Poet Laureate William Stafford and his early poems on his WWII pacifism "Another World Instead."

OCHC produced the selection and exhibition "Literary Oregon, One Hundred Books, 1800-2000" in conjunction with the Oregon State Library's 2005 centennial.

OCHC and its Labor Art Forum project staged the first examination of the Oregon Works Progress Administration (WPA), a full-day symposium at Portland Art Museum (PAM).

Six related exhibitions took place at the Pacific Northwest College of Art, Contemporary Crafts, Multnomah County Central Library, and PAM, Portland; Museum of People's Art, Bay City; and Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Willamette University, Salem.

OCHC and Oregon State University Press co-published "Waging War on the Home Front: An Illustrated Memoir of World War II," written by Chauncey Del French with Jessie French. Edited by Lois Leonard and Ted Van Arsdol, the 2004 book was rated "outstanding" by the Association of American University Presses.

OCHC led the charge to save two 1938 WPA murals by Louis Bunce and Clifford Gleason just before Bush Elementary was torn down. They were restored and beautifully reinstalled in the North Salem High School auditorium in 2007.

An independent organization, OCHC collaborates broadly with artistic, educational, business and governmental entities regionally and globally. For a selected list visit www.ochcom.org.