Wallowa County will benefit from two major artworks either currently in process or being developed for 2018.

Oregon Community Foundation has awarded two large grants to cultural organizations that will broaden the historical and cultural presentation of the county.

The foundation’s Creative Heights program is a 4-year initiative (2014-17) to award creative types for taking creative risks.

Josephy Center for Arts and Culture has received $85,000 to recognize the 140th anniversary of the Indian removal through a program that will add a Tribal artistic perspective to Joseph’s Main Street artscape. Josephy Center will commission an original sculpture created by an enrolled tribal member artist from any Plateau tribe. The artwork will be placed on Main Street.

A call to artists will be sent out, and qualified jurors selected from the tribes will judge, according to Cheryl Coughlan, executive director of the Josephy Center for Arts and Culture.

“We know there are fine, fine tribal artists,” said Josephy Director Rich Wandschneider. “For instance Doug Hyde (Nez Perce, Assiniboine and Chippewa), who is teaching in the Southwest, is a leading bronze artist in the west and Virgil Smoker Marchand (Colville Confederated Tribes) is doing massive steel sculptures.”

Another grant in the amount of $80,000 was awarded to the Portland Jazz Ensemble, a 12-piece jazz chamber orchestra, to create a community-guided music, text and video piece that tells the story of African Americans in Oregon “From Maxville to Vanport.” The program will examine the two communities with significant black and immigrant populations and the cultures that made them unique. The presentation will include musical performances, readings by Fishtrap, a presentation at the OK Theatre in Enterprise, workshops and performances in La Grande and a “full-on” finale featuring international jazz vocalist Marilyn Keller at the Vanport Mosaic Festival, May 26-27, 2018, in Portland.

“Maxville gets to be across the state, and we get to have the story revealed –– it won’t be just a ‘hidden history,’” said Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center Director Gwen Trice. “People will no longer be saying, ‘I never heard of black loggers, Japanese loggers, Philippine loggers, Hawaiian or any of the above.’ They’re going to be able to understand that as part of the Oregon narrative.”

The dates of area showings and activities are pending. The first showing is Sept. 30 at Oregon Historical Society Museum in Portland. Other performances are to be announced.