Building a marketing function for Portland’s new Arts & Culture office
About Portland’s Arts & Culture office 🎨
The City of Portland’s first dedicated Office of Arts & Culture launched on July 1, 2024. Led by Director Chariti Montez, the office’s goal is to put arts at the center of public life for all Portlanders.
Joining the team in September 2024, I was Arts & Culture’s fifth hire and the City’s first marketing pro charged with letting Portlanders know about the office and its main bodies of work.
Launching Arts & Culture’s marketing function
To get Arts & Culture’s marketing function running, I’ve focused on:
Finalizing and implementing the office’s brand
Updating the website, including its IA and navigation options, layering in new brand elements, and publishing a consistent cadence of news content
Overhauling the e-newsletter, revamping its look and feel and creating a fresh, timely approach to its content
Planning and launching the office’s Instagram account, as well as ongoing management and content creation for the channel
Establishing myself as the media relations lead
Data Crystal by Refik Anadol, part of the City of Portland’s 1,700-piece public art collection, at the Portland Building. Photo by David Kressler.
Creating and implementing an Arts & Culture brand
I led and participated in conversations related to building a new brand in coordination with our brand design agency, Future Work Design (FWD). In collaboration with my colleagues, I was part of the group that evaluated a handful of brand concepts and ultimately chose which to go with. To tell the story of the office, why it exists, and what it does, we chose an Arts & Culture brand that’s confident, colorful, and connected, built on our mission:
Putting arts at the center of public life in Portland
I worked closely with FWD to finalize the brand style guide, including the creation of copy-specific instruction. I disseminated brand documentation with the office’s colleagues and partners, as well as led the implementation of new brand assets across all of Arts & Culture’s marketing channels. Some of those channels are highlighted below.
Website updates and management
Brand components ready, implementation began with the Office of Arts & Culture website.
We knew that the existing website was hard to navigate and reflected a hodgepodge of design styles, copy approaches, and formatting choices. Overall, it didn’t represent Portland’s vibrant arts and culture landscape.
In partnership with FWD, we developed plans for a new IA, including streamlined navigation options, a new approach to featured content, and the creation of new user-friendly landing pages accessible from the homepage. We also wrestled with how to best reflect the bold new brand within the confines of the City of Portland’s website CMS, which offers few customization options.
I was on tap to implement the decisions we’d arrived at—from sourcing more inspiring photographs and rewriting our introductory “about us” blurb to wrangling the CMS to reflect our IA decisions. Since relaunching the website, I’ve written a steady cadence of articles to share news and information from the office, as well as developed and published content across the site’s sub-pages.
Office of Arts & Culture homepage, before and after rebrand.
Social media management
After rolling out Arts & Culture’s brand across its existing marketing channels in Q3 2024, I started thinking about adding a new social channel to the mix. When evaluating platforms, Instagram rose to the top for a few reasons—
• Arts and culture activations and performances are often visual and/or aural, and Instagram is the most dynamic social platform for photo- and video-based sharing. I knew we could leverage Instagram to uplift Portland’s creatives and the city’s thriving arts ecosystem, as well as invite Portlanders to engage with it.
• As the team’s only marketer, I knew I wouldn’t be able to manage and create content for more than one social channel. So, I analyzed the social presence of several peer offices and found that, on average, they see higher engagement on Instagram than other channels.
Next, I developed an Arts & Culture Instagram launch plan, which got buy-in from Portland’s Chief Communications Officer, the Chief of Staff for Portland’s Vibrant Communities Service Area, and the Director and Assistant Director of the Office of Arts & Culture.
I launched the Arts & Culture Instagram page with an introductory post on January 13, 2025.
In the account’s first five months, I published 44 posts—including collaborations with the City of Portland, Portland Art Museum, and Portland Public School’s accounts—and grew the channel’s audience to 700+ followers.
The Office of Arts & Culture’s first post on Instagram, January 13, 2025.
Media relations
As Arts & Culture’s media relations lead, I help tell the story of the office’s work through securing local and regional media coverage—from crafting and sending proactive pitches and supporting my colleagues with interview prep to script development for a bi-weekly broadcast segment.
Diving into the 'HeART of Portland' this weekend (KATU, April 24, 2025)
Here’s where Portland’s arts tax money went last year (The Oregonian, April 2, 2025)
Portland's new Office of Arts and Culture boosts grant opportunities for local artists (KATU, March 27, 2025)
City announces $4 million+ in arts grants (Oregon ArtsWatch, November 2, 2024)
Portland’s Office of Arts & Culture Splits $4 Million Art Tax Between 80 Creative Institutions (Willamette Week, October 31, 2024)