Visit Bend awards total of $300,000 to 20 local organizations for arts and cultural tourism projects
Barney Lerten
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — Twenty organizations dedicated to Bend’s arts and culture scene will receive a total of $300,000 in grants from the Bend Cultural Tourism Fund to spread the word about upcoming events and to maximize the number of people who get to experience them.
Visit Bend funds the grants using taxes paid by guests who spend the night at Bend hotels, vacation rental properties, RV parks, and other lodging facilities.
An independent review board, the Bend Cultural Tourism Commission, considered 28 projects before voting on May 8 to fund the final 20. Projects range from a new volcano exhibit and programming at the High Desert Museum to supporting Bend’s very own TEDx talks.
Other grantees include OSU–Cascades for a First Peoples Celebration, Central Oregon Latin Festival and its Taco Fest, and 1988 Entertainment, the group behind Bend’s nine-time award-winning Volcanic Theatre. Visit Bend’s board of directors approved the commission’s recommendation at its monthly meeting on May 20.
The BCTF was created in 2015 to promote and grow Bend’s arts and cultural offerings by reinvesting a portion of the fees collected by Bend’s lodging properties levied on overnight stays. The vast majority of this “transient room tax” money goes to the city’s general fund to help pay for public safety, and other core services and infrastructure.
Visit Bend manages the remaining portion on behalf of the city to support Bend’s $386.3 million annual tourism economy—a critical part of the city’s overall economic well-being.
“This fund is about more than tourism—it’s about reinvesting in the creative heartbeat of our community,” says Zavier Borja, Visit Bend’s destination stewardship director. “By directing visitor dollars into arts and cultural experiences, we’re supporting the people and organizations who make Bend such a dynamic and inspiring place to be.”
The BCTF, now in its tenth year, invests in promoting cultural activities that have enough allure to attract visitors from beyond a 50-mile radius, predominantly during Bend’s shoulder seasons.
The grants are broken into two categories.
The Small Marketing/Research Grant program seeks to help groups grow lesser-known but highly creative events. The Large Marketing Grant program promotes high-quality, cultural-tourism activities that demonstrate a clear and measurable economic benefit. Since its inception in 2015, the BCTF has awarded $2,587,418 for 134 projects.
“Art doesn’t happen in a vacuum,” says Visit Bend CEO Jeff Knapp. “We are an extraordinary community that can hit above its weight when it comes to arts and culture because we’ve been smart about using visitor dollars to help local groups flourish.”
For more information, visit the BCTF website.
2025 BCTF grantees, project, and amounts:
1988 Entertainment LLC – Volcanic Arts – $23,000
Art Sprouts, Inc. – Ukrainian Alliance of Central Oregon: Cultural Nexus Project – $14,000
BendFilm – Bend Film Festival – $31,000
Blue Moon Media LLC – Beertown Comedy – $8,000
Cascade Relays Foundation – TEDxBend – $8,000
Central Oregon Center for the Arts – Site Evaluation Analysis – $10,000
Central Oregon Latin Festival – Central Oregon Taco Fest – $13,000
High Desert Museum – Volcanoes Exhibit – $33,000
La Bon Burlesque – Murder-Mystery Series – $9,000
Lara Media Services – Dia de los Muertos Bend (Bend Day of the Dead) – $18,000
Lay It Out Events – Bend WinterFest Light Art Exhibition – $20,000
Luscious Supper Club – Luscious Bend Food + Wine Festival – $8,000
Old Mill District – Diversity in Music – $8,000
Oregon State University – Cascades – First Peoples Celebration with the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs – $12,000
OUT Central Oregon – Winter PrideFest – $20,000
Paula Dreyer – Piano Flow Live – $6,000
Sacred Art of Living Education & Retreat Center – Circle of Life Event – $6,000
Scalehouse – Bend Design Conference – $20,000
The Greenhouse Cabaret – The Greenhouse Cabaret 2026 Season – $20,000
Tower Theatre Foundation – Live at the Tower Marketing Campaign – $13,000