Portland's first-ever Arts Week kicks off Thursday with dozens of free events designed to showcase the city's robust arts ecosystem.

Why it matters: The theme is sports, capitalizing on two of Portland's biggest audiences and the excitement building around our new WNBA team and the World Cup.

The big picture: The festival isn't only about celebrating art, but about bringing Portlanders back to the central city, says one of the organizers, prominent gallerist Elizabeth Leach.

• "We need to remind people that there is a lot going on in the Pearl and downtown," she tells Axios. "These businesses should be patronized, and it's a lot of fun down here."

Context: The four-day celebration grew out of Portland's Cultural Corridor — a 2024 project Leach worked on with the Oregon Alliance of the National Museum of Women in the Arts to show the sheer diversity of the city's arts scene.

• The corridor maps 65 galleries, bookstores, museums and contemporary arts centers, making the case that we have one of the West Coast's densest collections of arts spaces.

What to expect: Most of the programming is free, with events concentrated downtown, in the Pearl and Central Eastside. Highlights include:

• A symposium at Portland Art Museum featuring conversations on the cultural and economic impact of sports, with Lisa Bhathal Merage of RAJ Sports and Sport Oregon CEO Jim Etzel.
• An evening gallery walk through the Pearl to view sports-themed installations, such as a tennis show at Adams and Ollman and a dissection of women's basketball fashion at The Black Gallery.
• Activities in the Park Blocks: pickleball, soccer and bocce ball games plus skateboarding, street mural painting and poetry readings.

The newly opened Darcelle XV Plaza hosts a closing ceremony Sunday, featuring performances from the Portland Symphony, Oregon Ballet Theatre and Franklin High School dance team.

The bottom line: With several of Portland's largest arts institutions facing financial difficulties in recent years, the city's independent galleries are often an overlooked, untapped asset, Leach says.

• She hopes the festival lowers the barrier for Portlanders who may have never been to a gallery before.
• "Its an invitation to participate, you don't have to come with a checkbook," she says.

Tell a friend

Every day, our newsroom works to bring you clear, trustworthy reporting that helps you understand what's happening in your community.

Why it matters: Behind every edition is a team committed to covering the stories that matter most. Member support helps us continue that work and keep our journalism focused on your city.

📬 Become a member today. You'll help support independent local reporting and strengthen the newsroom behind the stories you rely on.

Thank you for supporting local journalism.

Open embedded content from datawrapper.dwcdn.net

As Portland tries to get more people to live and work downtown, a large percentage of workers continue to stay home.

Driving the news: 35% of U.S. workers did some or all of their work at home last year, per new government data. That's significantly higher than in the previous decade.

Flashback: The pandemic permanently altered the workplace. In 2019, only 24% of workers did some or all of their work from home. By 2022, that number had risen to 34% and has stayed relatively steady since.

• In 2023, roughly 21% of workers in the Portland metro area were clocking in from home.

Zoom in: Proponents argue that remote work has increased worker productivity.

• For parents, particularly college-educated mothers, it's been life-changing.

Friction point: Remote work is a part of the clear trend in the U.S. toward social isolation. More people are working alone at home, and not replacing workplace socializing with anything else.

🧑‍⚖️ A Multnomah County judge will hear arguments this week on the city's bid to revoke the land use permit for the ICE facility in South Portland. (KATU)

🪾 Several live trees inside PDX are looking a little rough, and officials said that's because some travelers are dumping their coffee and letting their pets relieve themselves at the base of the trees. (The Oregonian)

In a bid to improve Multnomah County's little-used drug deflection center, the county tapped a new nonprofit operator that promises to increase participation and treatment completion. (Willamette Week)

💧Some farmers are already facing irrigation cutbacks and could run out of water before the growing season ends. More than half of Oregon's 36 counties are under a drought emergency. (OPB)

Three cousins have turned a century-old family recipe into one of Portland's newest pop-ups this summer.

• Kuzyn serves handmade Polish pierogi inspired by the meals they ate growing up together.

The big picture: Kyle Broughton, Dan Skuret and Griffin Bariluk launched Kuzyn earlier this year after realizing Portland lacked options for the traditional Eastern European dish.

The trio pulls eight-plus hour days making dough, cutting out shapes, adding fillings like butternut squash, sauerkraut and potato, crimping the edges and then pan-frying each one.

• They hope to keep the menu affordable — typically $10 for a plate of three with a side of sauerkraut, onions and sour cream.
• "Pierogi are traditionally a poor man's food," Skuret tells Axios. "We want to offer a plate of food that's accessible to everybody."

🇵🇱 The last time Kuzyn popped up at Beer on Southeast Stark they sold out in 90 minutes.

• Skuret credits their early success to the fierce pride and support of Portland's Polish community, many of whom he said continue to "show up and show out."

If you go: Kuzyn plans to pop up at Beer every first Monday (today!) at 5pm through the summer.