2024 Round 1 Scale Up Event Grant Awardees
In partnership with Travel Portland The Events & Film Office at Prosper Portland is proud to announce the Scale Up event grant recipients: Fertile Ground Festival of New Works, Kickstand Comedy in the Park, and Good Food Awards Weekend. For more info on the awardees and selection process, read on!
Fertile Ground Festival of New Works
Fertile Ground Festival of New Works is an 11-day festival featuring new performances by local artists including world premiere projects, staged readings, developing works, and a myriad of other arts events from the Portland creative community.
After a strategic hiatus, the Portland Area Theatre Alliance (PATA) is presenting their first in-person Festival since 2020.
Fertile Ground showcases new and local "acts of creation" at various stages in their development. In 2020, the Festival included 52 unique projects by 46 different producers, including fully staged world premieres, readings of new scripts, songs from new musicals, solo shows, puppetry, dance, circus arts, and panel discussions with local artists. In 2024, the Festival will expand to include local restaurants and bars near venues and invite them to offer a discount for Festival attendees.
Kickstand Comedy in the Park is a series of free Friday evening comedy shows curated for an all-ages audience. The event was created in 2021 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic-related closures of comedy and performing arts venues and has continued every summer. Hosted in Laurelhurst Park from late June to early September, Comedy in the Park regularly attracts 4,700 Portlanders and out-of-town guests to the park each week.
The Good Food Awards Weekend is a nationally recognized three-day celebration of sustainable, socially responsible, and delicious food and drink makers from all over the country. The first day features a welcome dinner that bring together local Portland and Oregon leaders in food and farming for a special dinner highlighting local agriculture and small food businesses. The second day includes an Oscars-style awards ceremony where 200 top national food makers will be awarded medals and give inspiring acceptance speeches, followed by an after party. The third day is the Good Food Mercantile, where 240 local and national sustainable food makers sample their products for grocery store owners, food media, and distributors from all over the country.
The office received 18 applications and each application was scored based on the following five criteria:
Long Term Vision: What is the applicant’s vision for the long-term growth and potential of this event?
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: Does this event center historically marginalized communities? (i.e. communities who have experienced systemic barriers to business/property ownership, affordable housing options, high-wage income, access to capital, quality education, safe transportation options, or other access barriers)
Location Investment: Does this applicant prioritize areas that have experienced a significant impact from COVID (including high losses in number of businesses and employment, high increase in office vacancies, and considerable change in visitor & employee foot traffic such as in the Central City)?
Creative Spirit: Does this applicant exemplify Portland’s culture, spirit, and creativity?
Attendance: Does this event attract between 750-7,500 attendees with proposed capacity to attract more?
Applications open in spring 2024 for the second round of Scale Up Grants to support eligible events happening July – December 2024.