Ashland is a city in Jackson County, Oregon, United States. It lies along Interstate 5 approximately 16 miles (26 km) north of the California border and near the south end of the Rogue Valley. The city's population was 21,360 at the 2020 census.
Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant research university based in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the seventh-largest engineering college in the nation for 2023. Undergraduate enrollment for all colleges combined averages over 32,000 while an additional 5,000 students are engaged in post-graduate coursework through the university. In 2023, over 37,000 students were enrolled at OSU - making it the largest university in the state. Out-of-state students typically make up over one-quarter of the student body. Since its founding, over 272,000 students have graduated from OSU. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity".
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government by an act of the U.S. Congress, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 29, 1965. It is a sub-agency of the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities, along with the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Philip Hampson Knight is an American billionaire business magnate who is the co-founder and chairman emeritus of Nike, Inc., a global sports equipment and apparel company. He was previously its chairman and CEO. In April 2023, Knight along with his family was ranked by Forbes as the 24th richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $47.7 billion. He is also the owner of the stop motion film production company Laika. Knight is a graduate of the University of Oregon and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He was part of the track and field club under coach Bill Bowerman at the University of Oregon with whom he would later co-found Nike.
David B. "Dave" Frohnmayer was an American attorney, politician, and academic administrator from Oregon. He was the 15th president of the University of Oregon, serving from 1994 to 2009. His tenure as president was the second-longest after John Wesley Johnson. He was the first native Oregonian to run the University of Oregon. Frohnmayer previously served as Oregon Attorney General from 1981 to 1991, and subsequently served as dean at the University of Oregon School of Law before serving as president of the university. He served in an "of counsel" attorney role with the Oregon law firm, Harrang Long Gary Rudnick P.C.
The "NEA Four", Karen Finley, Tim Miller, John Fleck, and Holly Hughes, were performance artists whose proposed grants from the United States government's National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) were vetoed by John Frohnmayer in June 1990. Grants were overtly vetoed on the basis of subject matter after the artists had successfully passed through a peer review process. John Fleck was vetoed for a performance comedy with a toilet prop. The artists won their case in court in 1993 and were awarded amounts equal to the grant money in question, though the case would make its way to the United States Supreme Court in National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley, which ruled in favour of the NEA's decision making process. In response, the NEA, under pressure from Congress, stopped funding individual artists.
John Fleck is an American actor and performance artist. He has performed in numerous TV shows, including Babylon 5, Carnivàle, Murder One, and the Star Trek franchise. He also appeared in Howard The Duck, Waterworld and the music video for the ZZ Top song "Legs". He made a minor appearance in the Seinfeld episode "The Heart Attack". He played a minor character during the sixth season of Weeds. He wrote and performed "Mad Women" at La MaMa E.T.C.
Robert Blackford Duncan was an American politician from the state of Oregon. A Democrat, he served multiple terms in the Oregon Legislative Assembly and as a U.S. congressman from Oregon. In the Oregon House of Representatives he served as speaker for four years, and in the U.S. House he represented two different districts. The Illinois native and World War II veteran ran three unsuccessful campaigns to be elected to the U.S. Senate.
John Patrick Williams is an American Democratic legislator who represented Montana in the United States House of Representatives from 1979 to 1997.
The 2008 United States Senate election in Oregon was held on November 4, 2008. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Gordon H. Smith sought reelection to a third term. Smith was the only Republican Senator from the West Coast and the only Republican holding statewide office in Oregon. He was opposed by Democrat Jeff Merkley, the Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives, and David Brownlow of the Constitution Party of Oregon. Merkley won by a narrow margin, with Smith not conceding until two days after the election. Merkley became the first Democrat to win this seat since 1960. And since Smith was the only Republican holding statewide office in Oregon at the time, this was the first time since 1860 that no Republicans won or held statewide office in Oregon.
The MarAbel B. Frohnmayer Music Building is the home of the School of Music and Dance at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon. The building was originally built in 1924, expanded in 1948, 1955, and 1977, and was renamed after MarAbel B. Frohnmayer in 2005.
The history of Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, United States, began in the era of the Oregon Territory. At first a private school, the college later became a state supported agricultural institution. Nineteen presidents have led the school over the years while the school has been transformed from a single building to a campus of 577 acres (2.34 km2) and approximately 30,000 students in 2015.
The Oregon Arts Commission is a governor-appointed body of nine commissioners who allocate grants for artists based in the U.S. state of Oregon. It receives the bulk of its funding through the National Endowment for the Arts, the state, and the Oregon Cultural Trust. The commission provides funding for local artists through their fellowship programs.
James Anthony Redden Jr. was an American judge and politician from Oregon. He was a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Oregon, from 1995 to 2020, and, before that, had served as a federal judge since 1980. Before his appointment to the bench, he was a trial attorney, and a career Democratic politician, serving as a legislator and in two of the state's constitutional offices, as Treasurer and Attorney General.
Frederick Manson White, commonly known as F. Manson White, was an American architect based in Portland, Oregon. White was known for his work in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. Among the buildings he helped design, as part of the firm McCaw, Martin and White, or designed as a sole practitioner, are several that are on the National Register of Historic Places. These include the Imperial Hotel, Waldschmidt Hall at the University of Portland, the Dekum Building, the Auditorium and Music Hall, the Sherlock Building, the Flatiron Building, Woodrow Wilson Junior High School and the John G. Shedd Institute for the Arts in Eugene, the First Presbyterian Church in Medford, and the Corvallis Hotel in Corvallis. White also designed Agate Hall on the campus of the University of Oregon, and the Central Presbyterian Church in Portland.
David Schuman was an American attorney, who served as a judge of the Oregon Court of Appeals from 2001 to 2014.
National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley, 524 U.S. 569 (1998), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled that the National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities Act, as amended in 1990,, was facially valid, as it neither inherently interfered with First Amendment rights nor violated constitutional vagueness principles. The act in question required the Chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to ensure that "artistic excellence and artistic merit are the criteria by which [grant] applications are judged, taking into consideration general standards of decency and respect for the diverse beliefs and values of the American public". Justice O'Connor delivered the opinion of the Court.
David Bowman Nicodemus was a physicist, Physics Professor and Administrator at Oregon State University, and part of the Manhattan Project team.
Eugene Ballet is an American ballet company based in Eugene, Oregon. A resident company of the Hult Center for the Performing Arts, it performs a repertoire of full-length classical ballets, contemporary pieces, and operates a ballet academy. For more than 20 years, the National Endowment for the Arts has funded Eugene Ballet performances throughout the Pacific Northwest and nationally.
Frank Jackson Van Dyke was an American politician, attorney, and a United States magistrate judge from the state of Oregon. He was a Republican who served eight years in the Oregon House of Representatives, where he represented a district in southern Oregon. He served as Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives during the 1949 legislative session. He was elected speaker by a unanimous vote of House members. Later, he served as chairman of the Oregon Board of Higher Education, chairman of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, and chairman of the Oregon State Board of Education. He also served as a federal magistrate for 27 years.
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