Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Diversity of Artists, Events Highlight PCC Art Beat 2001

Photos and story by James Hill

PORTLAND, Ore. – From African-American dancers to Asian-American drumming and Latin-American dance, Portland Community College’s Art Beat 2001 will showcase a diversity of events and artists May 7-11. Each PCC campus will feature a variety of performances everyday of the weeklong art festival. The best part is that Art Beat 2001 is free to the public! This is the 15th consecutive year of Art Beat, which features local, regional and national artists and a potpourri of visual art, dance, music, theater and literary arts to help expose the community to artistic visions."We try to have diversity every year with our events,"said Doris Werkman, PCC speech instructor and chair of the Art Beat committee. "This year we have a little more. Art Beat allows students and the community to be exposed to art they normally would not have had the opportunity to see."The diversity this year will include the high-spirited Northwest Afrikan Ballet which will feature dance from the Senegal, Guinea and Mali regions of West Africa. Portland Taiko will showcase drum performances in the Japanese tradition with a contemporary twist. Sabor Latino, a Portland Salsa group that uses Cuban rhythms along with hip-hop and jazz dance, also headlines at the three campuses. The featured artist for this year’s Art Beat will be local textile artist and painter Adriene Cruz. She will present a slide lecture, "Creativity, Art, and Survival,"where she will discuss the differences between studio and public art, and her commissioned quilt, "Spiral of Consciousness/Temple of Light,"will be on display at the Cascade Campus. Cruz will present her lecture on May 8 at the Sylvania (9 to 10 a.m.) and Rock Creek (noon to 1 p.m.) campuses and May 9 at the Cascade Campus (11 a.m. to noon). "Each campus offers something unique to Art Beat,"said Sharon Anthony, English instructor at Sylvania. "It’s a unified week, but each campus has evolved with its own flavor."For more information, consult the Art Beat schedule of events attached to this release for days, times, locations and descriptions of the activities planned for this year’s event. The events will be held at the Cascade Campus (705 N. Killingsworth), Rock Creek Campus (17705 N.W. Springville Road), and the Sylvania Campus (12000 S.W. 49th Avenue).You can view the Art Beat 2001 schedule on the Internet at: artbeat.pcc.edu. For schedule information, call 503-977-4270.