Oregon Humanities

From the Director

Cara Ungar-Gutierrez

By now, many of you know about changes that we’ve undergone here at Oregon Humanities, formerly Oregon Council for the Humanities. (See full story on page 5.) How we embarked on making our work and our programs more accessible and relevant in response to a board-directed vision. How we worked with advertising superstar Jelly Helm this year on creating a new image that mirrored these changes, which in large part hinges on three letters: O. Hm., which is not only an acronym for the organization but what we like to say is the sound of hearing a new idea.

But “O. Hm.” suggests more than just a moment of clarity; it represents a moment of insight that changes the way you think about something. For example, when one of our Conversation Project scholars, Elliott Young (see profile on page 10), led a group in Lincoln City on an exploration of thorny topics—immigration, ethnicity, and culture—they began by listening to each other’s stories and slowly realized that, in some ways, they were all immigrants. When seventy high school students from Ashland to Pendleton to Astoria gathered in Portland this summer at Happy Camp, they asked questions, listened closely, and began to consider how they would move forward with their lives. After a Humanity in Perspective student read about and talked with his fellow students about questions of power, justice, and language, he went on to become a vocal advocate for HIV awareness. And when twenty-five high school teachers (who collectively reach 9,000 students each year) gathered at our Teacher Institute to consider class, mobility, and the American dream, they reimagined how they might inspire their students to become better citizens.

Oregon Humanities is doing good, important work. My hope is that the refocusing we’ve done these past few years will be meaningful to Oregonians and will provide us all with a sense of deeper understanding, insight, and connectedness.