Christine D'Arcy

As part of Full Spectrum 2019, the Willamette Light Brigade and Portland Winter Light Festival will honor Christine D’Arcy with our inaugural Oregon Luminary Award. Her exemplary contributions to the arts through her vision and leadership have fostered the artistic and cultural landscape in all four corners of the state. Her work has impacted and inspired artistic communities throughout Oregon and encouraged those communities to flourish. D’Arcy’s integrity and ingenuity embody the three pillars of the Oregon Luminary Award: Art as community building, Art as humanity, and Art as hope.

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Christine D’Arcy is an Oregon-based arts and culture consultant who works with state arts agencies, local governments and arts, heritage and cultural nonprofits. She served as Executive Director of the Oregon Arts Commission from 1994 to November 2013. She conceived of and initiated the Arts Commission’s nationally recognized Arts Build Communities program. From 1998 through 2001, she led a team of statewide partners on the development of the Oregon Cultural Trust, managing the work of two Cultural Task Forces, one appointed by the Governor, the second by the Governor and Legislature. In September 2003, she also became Executive Director of the Oregon Cultural Trust whose operations merged with the Arts Commission. Under her leadership, the Trust raised over $32 million to support Oregon’s arts, heritage and humanities.

 

Prior to her work in Oregon, D’Arcy was the Executive Director and Visual Arts Director of the Alaska State Council on the Arts.

 

She’s on the board of Disjecta Contemporary Art Center in North Portland and on the executive committee of Restore Oregon. She also serves on the Oregon Community Foundation Leadership Council for Polk, Marion and Yamhill counties.

 

She has a personal interest in arts and cultural policy, and strategies to build community through the arts.