Readers respond: Culture and business are stronger together

Thirty-five years ago, I led an education and funding campaign for the Portland Art Museum. While we had strong champions in leaders such as Doug Goodman, Pete Mark and Harold Schnitzer, we hoped to build on business support while local artists and the arts were on the verge of exploding. We organized a series of educational breakfasts and met additional leaders invested in strengthening Portland.

I remember Oregonian Publisher Fred Stickel, whose message about the arts reverberates in my memory. Portland was in a unique position, he said, because the Park Blocks created a place where nature, culture and commerce met and grew together. This area brought together a university, an historical society, an art museum, the theater which became the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall and – a few blocks away – the Keller Auditorium.