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January 2. 2013
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H ealth
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photo by A lli
M aki M aya
Photographer and teaching artist Julie Keefe, working with students at Sunnyside Elementary, will
represent the city as Portland's first Creative Laureate.
Portland’s First Creative Laureate
Julie Keefe guides new program
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Arts
V tN IMlIHISHtM
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C lassifieds
C alendar
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8838.
O pinion
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In one of his last official acts as
Portland’s mayor, Sam Adams ap­
pointed photographer Julie Keefe
as the city’s first Creative Laureate.
Keefe is a professional photog­
rapher with 25 years experience
working predominantly in the pho­
tojournalism , documentary, and
community-based art fields. She
was one of the first teaching artists
at Caldera, the award-winning arts
program for underserved youth, and
for the last 14 years has worked
intensively with underserved youth
and communities, introducing them
to the fine arts of photography and
writing in a variety o f community
settings.
She created the “Hello Neigh­
bor” Project in2007-2008, which used
interviews and photographs to in­
troduce children to their neighbors
and ultimately neighbors to each
other by displaying large-scale pho­
tographic portraits with text in six
cities throughout Oregon - creating
the state’s largest collaborative
public art project.
Keefe is currently working with
the Right Brain Initiative in areaclass-
rooms and the Portland Art Museum
in its Object Stories program.
“It is my hope that the position of
Creative Laureate for the City of
Portland will afford me the opportu­
nity to continue advocating for the
ideas I so strongly believe in - that
art creates conversation, conversa­
tion creates community and every­
one loves poetry written by first
graders reflecting on their first pho­
tographs,” Keefe said.
Mayor Adams created the Cre­
ative Laureate program, adminis­
tered by the Regional Arts and Cul­
ture Council, to create additional
opportunities for creative industry
leadership and arts advocacy in the
community.
“I think Julie Keefe is a fantastic
example of the kind of artist that
makes Portland a national hub for
culture and creativity” Adams said.
N O M IN I M I
New Year Rings in Pay Hike
Oregon's low-paid workers got a
raise with the New Year, when a 15-
cent increase to the state's minimum
wage took effect.
The increase from $8.80 to $8.95
per hour means an extra $312 a year
for a family with one full-time mini­
mum wage worker. The increase is
the result of Measure 25, approved
by voters in 2002, which pegged
He noted that a recent study by
Oregon's minimum wage to rises in the N ational Em ploym ent Law
the cost of living.
Project showed that, while 60 per­
"S tre n g th e n in g the b u y in g cent of jobs lost during the reces­
power of low-wage workers is espe­ sion have been middle-wage occu­
cially critical in this economic cli­ pations, low -w age occupations
mate," said Chuck Sheketoff, execu­ have accounted for 58 percent of
tive director of the Oregon Center jobs created in the post-recession
for Public Policy.
recovery.