Subashini Ganesan-Forbes Elected Arts Commission Chair; David Harrelson Named Vice Chair (Photo) - 09/25/23
Salem, Ore. – Subashini Ganesan-Forbes, the founder of New Expressive Works and former Creative Laureate of Portland (2018 – June 2021), has been elected by the Oregon Arts Commission to succeed Jenny Green as Commission Chair. David Harrelson, the Cultural Resources Department manager for The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and a Grand Ronde tribal member, was elected Vice Chair. He succeeds Harlen Springer. Green and Springer served full terms as Chair and Vice Chair.
Ganesan-Forbes is a choreographer, curator and arts administrator whose contemporary works showcase the nuanced, universal emotive expressions of Bharatanatyam. Her recent choreographic works have been featured at Middlebury College (Vermont), University of Oregon, Portland Opera, Third Angle New Music, Ten Tiny Dances, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art and Portland Center Stage. In 2012 she founded New Expressive Works, a vibrant performing arts venue that supports diverse independent performing artists through residencies, artist conversations and performance seasons.
In 2021, Ganesan-Forbes stewarded “Community Healing Through Art,” an arts-focused, community-informed project designed to leverage the power of arts and culture to support grieving and healing throughout Portland’s diverse communities. Currently she is an integral member of the Our Creative Future Steering Committee that is co-creating goals and strategies for a regional arts and culture plan. She serves as a Community Advisory Committee member of the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center and as a board member for the James F. & Marion L. Miller Foundation.
“Every time we engage with the arts we give ourselves the possibility to experience empathy, healing and our collective humanity,” said Ganesan-Forbes. “Through this new role, I look forward to collaborating with artistic communities across Oregon so that we can build greater opportunities for soulful and meaningful cultural exchange."
Harrelson has championed the use of his people’s ancestral art forms for the purpose of public art. Recently he led the effort to create the Indigenous Place Keeping Artist (IPKA) Fellowship. He has worked in the field of cultural resources for 13 years.
Besides supporting art in an administrative capacity, Harrelson currently approaches art as a hobby, believing that the process of creating art should be accessible to everyone. The primary areas of inspiration for his art include his indigenous heritage and the landscape of western Oregon. He is active in his community serving his second year as an Oregon Arts Commissioner and previously serving on the State Advisory Committee for Historic Preservation, Chehalem Cultural Center Board in Newberg as well as the editorial board for Smoke Signals, a free and independent newspaper covering the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community of Oregon.
"It is an honor to serve alongside qualified and diverse arts commissioners from across the state with a focus on increasing the availability of funding to support the arts,” said Harrelson.
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The Oregon Arts Commission provides leadership, funding and arts programs through its grants, services and special initiatives. The Arts Commission is supported with general funds appropriated by the Oregon legislature and with federal funds from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as funds from the Oregon Cultural Trust.
