The Rules and Regulations for Creating Murals in the City of Portland

Facilitator: Peggy Kendellen, RACC Public Art Manager

Panelists: Robin Corbo, Joe Cotter, Kristin Cooper

Learn how to organize, fund and navigate two distinct paths for creating murals in the City of Portland.  Artists Joe Cotter and Robin Corbo will join Peggy Kendellen, Manager of RACC’s Public Art Murals Program and Kristin Cooper, from the City’s Bureau of Development Services for a discussion on how to navigate the various systems.

Facilitator:

Peggy Kendellen

Peggy Kendellen has worked in the public art field for over 18 years. She manages both site specific and temporary public art projects, the Public Art Murals Program, and intersections, an artist-in-residence program.  She has conducted professional development workshops for artists and has spoken locally, regionally and nationally on public art issues.  In 2010, Peggy was re-elected to a second three-year term on the Public Art Network Council, an elected advisory body to Americans for the Arts that assists in developing policies, programs, and resources to promote knowledge and understanding of the public art field and is currently the council’s chair elect. Peggy earned her BFA and MA in art from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and is a recipient of an NEA Midwest Artists Fellowship.  Her breadth of art world related experiences have provided her with a rich perspective of multiple aspects of the creative life, including portfolio preparation, creating/exhibiting/selling art, teaching, and serving as a juror.

Panelists:

Kristin Cooper

Kristin Cooper is a Senior Planner with the City of Portland and currently works in the Bureau of Development Services with the Planning and Zoning Review section.  She is responsible for implementing Title 4, the City's Original Art Mural regulations.  In that role she answers questions about where murals are allowed and how the mural code requirements can be met.  She also works with mural permit applicants through the permit process from application to inspection.

Robin Corbo

Robin Corbo has been an established Portland muralist for five years. Public art has been a marriage of her passion for painting along with her love of working with large groups of people to execute a shared vision. The seeds of this art practice were planted 10 years ago when she graduated from the College of Santa Fe with a BA in Art Therapy. After years of working as a social worker and success coach she has cultivated a method for facilitating mural projects that illustrate communities missions in public places. Her projects have mirrored her own personal interests in bicycle transportation, feminism, local people’s history, public health education, and forest activism. Other recent projects have involved performance, puppetry, guerilla theater, masquerade, and interactive installations.  

Joe Cotter

Eagle Creek artist Joseph Cotter was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1949 and attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, majoring in Journalism, from 1971-1975. He moved to Portland in 1977 and began to participate in art shows in 1982. He studied life drawing at Portland State University in 1983-1984. Mr. Cotter’s first started painting on murals in Portland in 1988 and he began to paint for McMenamins in 1990. He has been painting on murals in Estacada as a member of the artists cooperative “Artback” since 1994.

Joseph Cotter was lead artist for the old Outside In mural, 1989-1990, as well as the “Cycle of Wood” (1996) and “The Arts in Estacada” (2003) and “Tales of the Trails” (2008) murals in Estacada. He was fortunate enough to design and paint a section of the mural on the Musicians Union in 2006. The coordinator on that mural was Isaka Shamsud-Din and the other artists were Isaka, Hector Hernandez and Baba Wague Diakite. The Musicians Union is located on NE 20^th between Burnside and Sandy. The Buckman Community mural (2008 -2011) on the Plaid Pantry at SW 12th and Morrison in Portland was the last mural in which Mr. Cotter was lead artist. It was painted with the help of Kolieha Bush.

For accessibility information please contact Tonisha Toler at 503-823-5866.