All Projects

The Bend Cultural Tourism Fund invests in cultural activities that draw visitors from beyond a 50-mile radius, benefiting our local economy and our community. We fund new activities through our Catalyst Grant program, as well as long standing cultural traditions via our Marketing Grant program. Since its inception in 2015, the BCTF has awarded $2,032,105 for 102 projects. Learn more about these projects below.

American West Art Festival

  • Catalyst

The High Desert Museum’s multi-day art festival will feature visual artists’ depictions of the American West, increasing access to cultural...

View Project Details +

Annual Piano Showcase

  • Marketing

The Sunriver Music Festival is teaming up with the Tower Theatre to present the Annual Piano Showcase (previously known as...

View Project Details +

Après Ski Bash Concert Series

  • Marketing

The Crow’s Feet Commons Après Ski Bash is a series of free downtown concerts hosted from November through April. The...

View Project Details +

Art at Burning Man Exhibit

  • Marketing

To support Vast, Loud and on Fire: Art at Burning Man exhibition and associated programs will recreate the art, community...

View Project Details +

Art in Nature Outdoor Concert

  • Marketing

To fund Art in Nature outdoor concerts at the High Desert Museum Thursday, September 9, 2021 in the evening.

View Project Details +
Central Oregon Center for the Arts logo

Arts Discovery Study

  • Catalyst

To fund a discovery study for the creations of a new facility that will provide a home for the presentation...

View Project Details +

Arts for the People Exhibit

  • Marketing

High Desert Museum will mount the exhibit, “Arts for the People”, which will make art and culture accessible to contemporary...

View Project Details +

Author! Author! Series

  • Marketing

The Deschutes Public Library Foundation will continue its literary Author! Author! series, presenting renowned author Timothy Egan and marketing to...

View Project Details +

Bend A Cappella Festival

  • Marketing

The Tower Theatre Foundation, partnering with local vocal music leaders, will launch “Bend A Cappella Festival” February 19-­‐21, 2016. The...

View Project Details +
Bend Creative Music Project in Bend, OR

Bend Creative Music Project

  • Marketing

To fund marketing for the Bend Creative Music Project, outdoor concerts heard through wireless headphones.

View Project Details +

Bend Podcast Project

  • Catalyst

To fund the development of a set of short, micro podcasts that are single topic-specific relating to Bend’s history and/or...

View Project Details +

Bend Roots Revival

  • Marketing

To fund marketing efforts for Bend Roots Revival, scheduled for September 23-25, 2022.

View Project Details +
Big Butte Challenge in Bend, OR

Big Butte Challenge

  • Marketing

To fund the creation of historical podcasts as part of the Big Butte Challenge, a virtual event hosted over three...

View Project Details +

Central Oregon Maker Faire

  • Marketing

To fund marketing efforts for the Central Oregon Maker Faire, held at COCC campus in September 2023.

View Project Details +

Concerts in Bend Oregon

  • Marketing

To fund shoulder season concert promotion.

View Project Details +
Contemporary arts festival in Bend, OR

Contemporary Arts Festival (Words, Art, Performing)

  • Catalyst

To fund a two-day multi-disciplinary event with performances, talks, workshops, spoken-word performances, poetry slams and interactive art projects.

View Project Details +

Creative Festival

  • Catalyst

To fund the research and development of a new October Festival.

View Project Details +

Cruisin' 97 Exhibit

  • Marketing

The Deschutes County Historical Society (DCHS) will create Cruisin’ 97, an exhibit and heritage program highlighting the history of Highway...

View Project Details +
Cascades Theatrical Company logo

Cultural Connections Video

  • Marketing

To fund the creation of a Cultural Connections video to play before the December showing of the “Miracle on 34th...

View Project Details +
Deschoops basketball tournament in Bend, OR

Deschoops 3x

  • Marketing

To fund part of a cultural experience at the Deschoops 3×3 basketball tournament in Downtown Bend on September 4th and...

View Project Details +

Dinosaurs Take Flight Exhibit

  • Marketing

Presenting the traveling exhibit, Dinosaurs Take Flight: The Art of Archaeopteryx, brings to life the Archaeopteryx a unique creature that...

View Project Details +

Discover Bend: Play Like a Local

  • Marketing

To fund the creations and marketing of Discover Bend: Play Like a Local, self-guided tours,highlighting 25-30 engaging arts & culture...

View Project Details +

Edward Curtis Exhibit

  • Marketing

A6 will present an art exhibit of eminent photographer Edward Curtis and produce several related events, attracting a broad audience....

View Project Details +
Central Oregon Center for the Arts logo

Feasibility Study

  • Catalyst

To fund a feasibility study to determine the suitability of building a comprehensive performing-and-visual-arts facility in Central Oregon.

View Project Details +
GeoTour event in Bend, OR

GeoTour

  • Marketing

To fund the Bend Arts, Culture and Adventure (BACA) GeoTour & AdventureLab, highlighting 12-15 engaging arts & culture places throughout...

View Project Details +

High Desert Music Festival

  • Catalyst

To fund the creations and promotion of the High Dessert Music Festival(HDMF), a music and cannabis culture festival designed to...

View Project Details +

Holiday Events Marketing

  • Marketing

To fund marketing efforts for Downtown Holiday events.

View Project Details +

HomeGrown Music Festival

  • Marketing

To fund marketing efforts for the HomeGrown Music Festival 2024, the fourth annual High Desert Music Collective’s 4/20 celebration and...

View Project Details +

Juneteeth Celebration

  • Catalyst

To fund marketing for the Juneteenth Celebration in June, 2023.The festival will provide unique and family friendly entertainment, music, food,...

View Project Details +
Late summer concert at Hayden Homes Amphitheater in Bend, OR

Late Summer/Fall Concert Marketing Campaign

  • Marketing

To fund marketing efforts for post-Labor Day concerts at the Hayden Homes Amphitheater.

View Project Details +
Les Schwab Amphitheater in Bend, Oregon

Les Schwab Amphitheater Concerts

  • Marketing

The Les Schwab Amphitheater increase visitor traffic by promoting several of its concerts to specific out-­of-­area markets that have shown...

View Project Details +

Little Shop of Horrors

  • Catalyst

To fund the creation of annually recurring musical experience around the cult classic musical: “Little Shop of Horrors.”

View Project Details +

Living Stories Exhibition

  • Marketing

To fund the marketing for Living Stories: Exploring Dynamic Artforms of the Indigenous Plateau (working title), where six native artists...

View Project Details +
Central Oregon Film office logo

Location Manager Familiarization

  • Marketing

To fund part of the costs of bringing up to ten location managers to Bend to scout for filming.

View Project Details +
Central Oregon Film office logo

Location Scout Tour

  • Catalyst

Central Oregon Film Office is researching and developing a new program to bring in approximately six to eight leading location...

View Project Details +
High Desert Makers Festival in Bend, OR

Maker Festival

  • Catalyst

To fund a maker festival planned for November, organized through the High Desert Makers and affiliated sponsors.

View Project Details +
Cascades theater in Bend, OR

Off-season Marketing

  • Marketing

To fund marketing for shoulder seasons productions.

View Project Details +

Opening Japan Woodblock Prints Exhibit

  • Marketing

A6 will present a major art exhibit, “Opening Japan: Three Centuries of Woodblock Prints,” this fall. These works of art...

View Project Details +
Winterfest in Bend, OR

Oregon Winterfest

  • Marketing

Every year, over a long wintry February weekend more than 20,000 people are drawn to the Old Mill in Bend...

View Project Details +

Performing and Visual Arts Venue Planning

  • Catalyst

To partially fund planning and consulting for COCA, which intends to build a facility that will be Central Oregon’s home...

View Project Details +

Piano Flow Live Concert Series

  • Catalyst

To fund the development of a concert series that will take place in outdoor settings throughout Bend through wireless headphones,...

View Project Details +

Play Series

  • Marketing

To fund marketing efforts for four plays and musicals in the shoulder season.

View Project Details +

PLAYA Art + Science Symposium

  • 2022
  • PLAYA
  • $10,000
  • Catalyst

To fund the first iteration of what it intends to make a bi-annual Art and Science Symposium in Bend on...

View Project Details +

PNW Photo Summit

  • Catalyst

Bend Photo Tours’ Pacific Northwest (PNW) Photo Summit is a 3-day conference comprised of a 2-day speaker series, trade show...

View Project Details +

Podcast Marketing

  • Marketing

To fund the creation and execution of a comprehensive marketing plan for the cultural podcasts that completement many of the...

View Project Details +

Something in the Woods: Sasquatch in the High Desert Exhibit

  • Marketing

To fund marketing efforts for “Something in the Woods: Sasquatch in the High Desert,” a new exhibit that will use...

View Project Details +

TEDxBend

  • Marketing

Sparked by the celebrated TED conferences worldwide, TEDxBend is our very own locally-organized event featuring a dozen talks, demonstrations, and...

View Project Details +

Theater Events Website

  • Catalyst

Stage Right Productions will develop a website that will be a single source for all theatre-related events in Central Oregon....

View Project Details +
Eastern Cascades model railroad open house in Bend, OR

Train Club Open House

  • Marketing

To fund website improvements and social media for the 25th Anniversary of the Train Club’s Open House, which has always...

View Project Details +
Imagine a world exhibit at the High Desert Museum in Bend, OR

Utopias Exhibition — Imagine a World

  • Marketing

To fund Utopias (name changed to Imagine a World), an upcoming High Desert Museum exhibition, that will look at the...

View Project Details +

Vámonos Outside Latinx Outdoor Film Festival

  • Catalyst

To fund the first outdoor-focused film festival for Latinx community members.

View Project Details +

Water in the West Exhibit

  • Marketing

The High Desert Museum’s innovative, interdisciplinary exhibition, Water in the West, will use art, science and history to explore this...

View Project Details +

Weekend of Art

  • Marketing

Bend Art Center will host the 2nd Annual Weekend of Art in Bend on April 26-28, 2019. Weekend of Art...

View Project Details +

Winter Comes Exhibit

  • Marketing

The Deschutes County Historical Society will prepare a major exhibit, “Winter Comes,” telling the history of Nordic skiing, a state-­‐wide...

View Project Details +
Winter Pride Festival in Bend, OR

Winter Pride Festival

  • Catalyst

OUT Central Oregon proposes to further develop and establish an LGBTQ winter festival in Bend: Winter Pride Festival. Winter Pride...

View Project Details +

Words in Action Literary Festival

  • Catalyst

Words In Action is a two-day literary festival sponsored by OSU-Cascades Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing. The...

View Project Details +

World War II High Desert Homefront Exhibit

  • Marketing

The High Desert Museum (HDM) will commemorate the 75th anniversary of the United States’entry into World War II (WWII) with...

View Project Details +

A Few of the Awarded

Grantees

Dirty Freehub

2 Projects

  ·   View Website

High Desert Museum

9 Projects

  ·   View Website

OUT Central Oregon

2 Projects

  ·   View Website