Cultural center looks for way to stay open

Nonprofit Ethos Inc. proposes merger after IFCC is denied funds

By Jennifer Anderson

The Portland Tribune, Feb 15, 2005, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Twice a week at the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, 11-year-old Antonio Johnson gets to be a star.

He heads to the center from Beech Elementary School to have a snack, do his homework and join a dozen of his peers in an act they performed this past weekend that includes West African drumming, dancing, chanting and a short improvisational comedy sketch.

Last week, he played Mayor Tom Potter, in a real-life story line that didn’t end the way the IFCC had hoped.

“So, Mr. Mayor, did you like it?” classmate Destiny Fulton asks Johnson after their performance. “Is it going to be a Starbucks or IFCC?”

“I think the IFCC will stay,” Johnson proclaims, receiving cheers and hugs from all.

In reality, the fate of the cultural center, housed in a historic firehouse at 5340 N. Interstate Ave., is in limbo after Potter indicated last week he would not grant $100,000 in emergency funding that the group had requested.

For 23 years, the nonprofit organization has been a North Portland icon and hub for multicultural arts. In addition to after-school programs, it hosts art exhibitions, concerts, all-ages dance and theater productions, lectures, readings and workshops that all focus on multiculturalism and diversity.

The IFCC is facing a $50,000 deficit due to a decrease in funding from the city over the years, as well as a staffing turnover that hurt fund-raising goals.

Talks are under way this week about a unique proposal that potentially could save the program. Charles Lewis, executive director of the nonprofit Ethos Inc., has proposed merging his organization with IFCC, absorbing its debt and combining the staff and missions of both programs.

“Just looking holistically at the two organizations, it seems like they’ve got this great facility that they’re doing some programs in, but could have more programs happening there,” Lewis said. “Our organization Ñ we’ve got a pretty strong management team, and great fund-raising capability. É But we don’t have a (big enough) building.”

Ethos focuses on music

Lewis founded Ethos six years ago in a 1,500-square-foot building at 27 N.E. Killingsworth St. With its tiny, dark-paneled spaces crammed with staff offices, musical instruments and sound equipment, the program offers music lessons on a sliding scale to children and adults Ñ everything from guitar and piano to break dancing, hip-hop turntable techniques and ukulele.

The program quickly outgrew its capacity, so 1,700 of the 2,000 students it serves each year are given their lessons in the public schools.

“If we were able to get a facility like the IFCC, I would think we could easily double the number of students taking lessons on-site,” Lewis said, noting that part of his mission is to make up for the lack of music programming in public schools.

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