- Organization
- CymaSpace
- Founded
- 2013
- Location
- Portland, Oregon
- Role
- Founder and former Artistic Director
CymaSpace is for all the senses.
I founded CymaSpace in 2013 and served as its Artistic Director. It is a Portland nonprofit that produces arts and cultural events inclusive of the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing, and it is home to the Sign Language Café, a gathering place for Deaf and disabled professionals.
Thirteen years in, CymaSpace runs on a budget of about $850,000 with around 20 full-time and part-time staff and contractors. We produce 50 or more community events a year, which reach about 200,000 people in person and draw more than a million views online.
Our artists and engineers build the technologies and installations those events run on: light, vibration and instruments that carry sound in a form you can see and feel. We also work year-round with other organizations and businesses so their events are accessible to people with hearing loss. Our flagship event is the annual NW Deaf Arts Festival, a live performing arts event for and by Deaf artists and hearing allies.
