In a special event last week at Maxtivity Arts and Crafts Creative Space in Philomath, several folks turned out for a meet-and-greet with Sarah Lench, the organization’s recently-installed executive director.
Lench, who has been in the job since April 1, said that coming in, she has been talking to a lot of people from families to community partners about what the organization can do for them.
“Some folks who are really involved with us don’t even know that we’re a nonprofit — that we provide all of our programs at a subsidized or free rate,” she said.
Maxtivity launched in November 2018 and in February 2020 officially became a nonprofit to be able to apply for grants, accept donations and collect corporate sponsors for various events. The organization was expanding at the time through art opportunities for tweens and teens.
“I’m really excited to grow and build a program where we can think about how young artists can become creative leaders, you know, not just advancing their art technical skills but to think about how their creativity can be applied to making their community a better place,” she said, “whether it’s a storyteller, placemaker, community organizer and facilitator.”
Lench first became acquainted with Maxtivity through her own son during the pandemic.
“We were looking for summer camp options for him, he was 6 or 7, but he’s autistic and we can’t just throw him into the wild of any old summer camp,” Lench said. “When I contacted Maxtivity, they asked all the right questions and so more than just saying words like ‘we’re inclusive and accessible’ — they walked that talk and I knew it was going to be small and creative and supportive.”
Lench comes into the position with a background in education policy and systems change. Over the past couple of years, she’s been doing consulting work with foundations and nonprofits.
“But before I entered into education policy, I was really deeply rooted in community arts,” she said.
Lench’s first job was at a community arts nonprofit in the Portland area and her graduate research was on access to arts education in Oregon public schools. She also partnered with the Oregon Arts Commission to publish a data study on access to arts education.
“The big revelation there was that a lot of rural schools don’t have art teachers on staff,” she said. “Classroom teachers may be doing it on their own but there was that big gap.”
And that’s where an organization such as Maxtivity comes in — offering artist residencies in rural public schools serves as an example.
Lench said she loves that Maxtivity pushes the boundaries when it comes to strengthening young people across disciplines — not just limited to watercolor and markers.
“It’s being the owner of one of the largest and oldest kinetic sculpture vehicles in the country … where engineers and artists and bicycling enthusiasts collaborate to turn this giant vehicle into a moving work of art for fun and for glory,” she said, referring to “The Glory,” a five-seat, seven-wheeled human-powered creation that weighs 1,500-plus pounds.
On the evening of the meet-and-greet, Maxtivity launched a fundraising campaign called “Blossoms and Seeds.”
“What’s blossoming in here and what seeds are we going to plant for the future?” Lench said. “I’m not going to say that community arts is a lucrative enterprise in the philanthropic world but I think we’re uniquely situated and have a vision where as we continue to work in relationship with community, that community will continue to show up and support us.”
2. City unveils new website
The city of Philomath has launched a redesigned website aimed at improving user experience and access to information. The updated site features a streamlined design and enhanced functionality, including customizable notifications, updates on city projects and private developments, and a centralized payment portal.
Additional improvements include an upgraded calendar and easier navigation of public meeting materials. Residents can now more efficiently access agendas, minutes and video recordings for City Council, Planning Commission and other committee meetings.
Chelsea Starner, assistant city manager, has been heading up the website transition. Asked about what feature she likes the most or what might be most helpful to the public, she mentioned the alerts and notifications feature.
“I really think that the subscription capability for folks to subscribe to City Council news or just general city news or a certain board or committee is probably the best added feature that we have,” Starner said. “So you can sign up for what you want and you can unsubscribe to anything that you don’t want to have any longer.”
The city has been putting out information to the public about how to create an account and navigate the alerts and notifications portal. For anyone who needs help, call the city at 541-929-6148.
“We really hope that people use that feature just to stay connected with the city,” Starner said. “There are a lot of great features but as far as the community goes, I think that’s going to be the best thing for them to get information from us.”
The city budgeted money for the new website in the current fiscal cycle and started looking for vendors last July.
“This has been in the works for a little while,” Starner said. “We’ve known that our former website company was going to be changing and the cost was going to go up. It was just a perfect opportunity for us to increase what the functionality could be for the community.”
Originally, there were hopes to launch the new website by the end of last year but a priority was incorporating the city’s new look into Philomath’s online home.
“Some of the timing for us is we were doing the rebranding and getting the new logo and we wanted to make sure that was done,” Starner said. “We had all of our colors and the logo done before we moved over to the new website, or, we’d be kind of stepping on top of things to get it updated.”
CivicPlus, a company that specializes in local government websites, is behind the city’s online solution. Behind the scenes leading up to last week’s launch, a migration of existing data from the old site to the new site occurred. That includes archives, such as old City Council minutes and agenda.
“They pulled over all the information from our old site,” Starner said. “We’ve gone through and cleaned up a little bit of it. We do have our laser fiche archives, which we’re trying to utilize more for those documents that are going back a long way … so you will see on our site links to our archives that will get you to those older documents that you’re not seeing on the website.”
The city hosted a ribbon-cutting for the website’s launch last week at City Hall.
“I’m really excited that we’ve put in so much work … into getting this new website up and going,” Mayor Christopher McMorran said, a reference to the staff’s efforts. “And I hope people will take a moment to explore and see all the new features and sign up for notifications and really engage with the city with this new platform.”
3. Vinwood Taphouse to be featured
“America’s Best Restaurants,” a media and marketing company that travels around the country to highlight good food and share stories of locally-owned establishments, plans to visit Vinwood Taphouse in Philomath in a couple of weeks.
Popular dishes will be highlighted, along with an extensive on-camera interview with mother-daughter owners Lorie Harwood and Melissa Harwood-Muir. The episode will be aired extensively on social media channels at a later date.
The filming is scheduled to occur on the afternoon of June 5.
“America’s Best Restaurants,” headquartered in Florence, Kentucky, has filmed more than 3,000 episodes featuring independent restaurants. The company said that restaurants are selected “based on their customer reviews, menu items, social media presence and level of involvement with their community.”
Appearing as a featured restaurant does involve a financial investment to cover production expenses and travel costs. As part of the package, the business also receives social media content derived from the episode, press releases to engage local media and a comprehensive marketing campaign to boost the restaurant’s visibility .
Vinwood’s story highlights Lorie and Mark Harwood’s venture into the restaurant business.
“Lorie and her husband Mark had full-time jobs working for others and no restaurant experience prior to completing a full remodel of an old True Value hardware store and jumping into the hospitality industry with both feet,” America’s Best Restaurants wrote in a press release. “They remain a family-owned-and-operated business, with their daughter Lisa also involved, as well as Melissa’s husband Troy, and in the past their daughter Chelsea.”
Established nine years ago, Vinwood Taphouse has become a popular spot in town and its owners have expanded the menu while expanding the kitchen.
“The kitchen is headed up by chef Justin Pawley, who serves up appetizers, burgers and sandwiches, baskets and salads,” America’s Best Restaurants wrote, following up with a rundown of specific items available on the menu and stating that burgers, clam chowder and a popular sandwich or two will likely be featured on the episode.
(Brad Fuqua is publisher/editor of the Philomath News. He can be reached at News@PhilomathNews.com).
