Line-up:
Speaker | Description | Bios | |
September 2 | |||
September 3 | |||
September 4 | Gordon Grant and Stan Gregory | ||
September 5 |
DRAFT Willamette Chautauqua Proposal
Purpose
The purpose of the Willamette Chautauqua is to provide insightful information easily understood by the general public on the history, geography, economy, and ecology of the Willamette River.
Talks in the Chautauqua will be characterized by their clarity, depth of preparation, and the degree to which they engage the audience. Ideally, the talks should inform, surprise, inspire, and provoke thought.
Venue and Scheduling
The Willamette Chautauqua would be well-suited for weekday evenings during Riverfest at an inviting venue. One such example would be OMSI, which has sufficient meeting rooms, is right on the river, and has a mission of education. The Chautauqua could be paired with an OMSI promotion that week (e.g., maybe all exhibits stay open later than the normal 5:30 p.m. for talks at, say, 7:00 p.m.). There might also be an opportunity to have one of the nights feature a barbecue or refreshments by the river.
Possible Talks
Possible Speaker | Background | Possible Topic |
former architecture critic for Oregonian, now editor of new Portland Spaces magazine | Portland’s River Design: Good, Bad, or Indifferent? | |
Gordon Grant or Stan Gregory | Expert Willamette hydrologists | how the Willamette flows, how we can better live with it, and what climate change might mean for the river |
Chet Orloff and Dick Montgomery | city and river historians par excellence | What Put the Port in Portland |
Brent Walth | author of the Tom McCall biography, Fire at Eden’s Gate (honorarium?) | the True Story of Tom and the Willamette |
?? | ?? | River of Life: the Native American View of the Willamette |
David James Duncan | Author of the River Why and My Story as Told by Water; grew up in Portland and learned to fish on Johnson Creek. (travel/honorarium required) | Finding Room for the Personal on Big Rivers in Big Cities |
Mike Houck | Director, Urban Greenspaces Institute | Wild in the City |
Concept description June 2008
The purpose of the Willamette Chautauqua is to provide insightful information easily understood by the general public on the history, geography, economy, and ecology of the Willamette River. Talks in the Chautauqua will be offered by articulate experts in their fields and characterized by their clarity, depth of preparation, and the degree to which they engage the audience. We expect the talks will inform, surprise, inspire, and provoke thought.
The Willamette Chautauqua is being planned for weekday evenings (roughly 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.) during Riverfest at a riverside venue. We are currently exploring collaboration with OMSI in terms of location (which could represent an intriguing match, as OMSI's OmniMAX film that week is Colorado Adventures: River at Risk); other alternatives include the Oregon Maritime Center and Museum (the Steamer Portland); or the former McCall's restaurant/visitor center.
River Renaissance is in the process of making contact with potential river speakers to determine interest and availability.
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in a 6/18/08 email to Rachel Wray…
Hi, Rachel,
I'd like to take you up on your offer to work on the Willamette Chautauqua concept.
While I don't have a venue locked-in, I'm confident we can get one (including by possibly taking you up on your kind offer of a Port room...)
But right now, I feel I'd better get busy and line up speakers.
I'm attaching an earlier sketch of what this could be. It envisions one speaker per evening over 3-4 evenings (possibly Tuesday through Friday of Labor Day week).
Another alternative would be to use a topic and panel approach, where we get 2-3 speakers per evening, with a panel discussion and/or Q&A... For example, we might have...
• Willamette at Work--How has the River generated wealth in Portland--how will it in the future? (maybe Chet Orloff, Bill Wyatt or other PDXer (like former commissioner Michael Powell); possibly TravelPortland person);
• Willamette By Design--What does it mean to live in harmony with our river? (maybe Randy Gragg, PDC's Larry Brown, Homer Williams, Travis Williams, or Mike Houck);
• Willamette Wonder--The True Story of an Amazing River (Gordon Grant (hydrologist--how our river flows and what it means for the future); Brent Walth (how the Willamette was saved by Tom McCall--again); ...
• Willamette: Work Ahead--what we're doing to help the River (Travis, Dean Marriott/Rick Applegate, Jim McKenna, etc.)
Well, you get the picture...
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Willamette: River of History
Grand Ronde
Chet Orloff
Brent Walth
Willamette By Design:
Randy Gragg
Mike Houck
Gil Kelley
Willamette H2O
Gordon Grant
Stan Gregory