Maintaining the Legacy of Craft Education in Portland

About RAINMAKER CRAFT INITIATIVE

Rainmaker Craft Initiative (RCI) is a 501c3 non-profit organization established in 2013, now under the direction of four former faculty of Oregon College of Art and Craft (OCAC). The initiative is driven to propagate the intellectual capital of OCAC’s creative education. Envisioned as a decentralized organization of nodes, RCI intends to perpetuate material practice through the discourse of contemporary craft. Though OCAC will no longer exist as an institution, the faculty have an opportunity to seed new beginnings founded on OCAC’s principles. RCI will honor OCAC by generating creative ecologies in the Northwest and throughout North America.

Focused on advancing partnerships with a variety of constituencies within the greater Portland community, RCI will support learning communities fostering self-reliant, critically engaged makers across a spectrum of mediums, capabilities, and aspirations. As an asset granting enterprise RCI will strengthen experiential, alternative creative education platforms focused on a Craft ethos.

Our MISSION

Rainmaker Craft Initiative is an educational platform committed to creative inquiry founded on Craft. Focused on advancing partnerships within the greater Portland community and nationally, RCI emphasizes material practice and community exchange. RCI is dedicated to fostering socially conscious, critically engaged makers across a spectrum of mediums, outcomes and aspirations.