A lot of culture

This is not the first time you've seen a picture of this building.  Way back in March I wrote about it under "Needs a Paint Job."  

Now looking at this picture, you might say yes, it still needs a paint job.  In fact it looks worse than it did in March.  What could have happened to hasten this sad situation?

But this is actually a happy situation because the building is not in fact peeling at an alarmingly fast rate.  Instead, our wish has come true.  The building is being painted.

It's been quite a job.  First there was the money.  The museum, which is housed in the building, needed $15,000 of it.  That's a lot.

But a series of fortunate events came together.  The money effort was jump started by a handsome $5,000 grant from the Oregon Cultural Trust.  Next came $2,500 from our each local foundations, The Faye and Lucille Stewart Foundation and the Woodard Family Foundation.  Both the Stewarts and the Woodards made their money from the lumber industry, but, there being basically no more lumber companies owned by identifiable people in GroveAtopia, neither family is in that business any longer.

But like other timber money families, they have chosen to do good with their earnings, and they have indeed done that.  This paint job is just one small case in point.

The other $5,000 came from museum coffers - a fund based on a major endowment bequeathed to the museum years ago.

So what about the culture part?

Well, as I mentioned, this whole project was jump started by a $5,000 grant from the Oregon Cultural Trust.  And today was Oregon Day of Culture day - sponsored by the Oregon Cultural Trust.   And the museum was open specially this afternoon to help celebrate Oregon Day of Culture day.  

Furthermore, and as fate would have it, the  Lane County Cultural Coalition, the county arm of the Oregon Cultural Trust, has two members from GroveAtopia.  And the Lane County Cultural Coalition  just had an guest column in today's paper.  

So there I was, visiting the museum housed in the building being painted by a grant from the Oregon Cultural Trust, on a day it was open because today was Oregon Day of Culture day sponsored by the Oregon Cultural Trust, having just read an article about culture written by the Lane County Cultural Coalition.

Now that's a lot of culture.