Portland’s Art Design Xchange (ADX) is a lot of different things. The organization combines art studios, co-working space, and an event venue in its Southeast Portland building, all with the goal of facilitating creative collaboration.
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Artist Kelley Roy founded ADX in 2011, amid a “swirl of energy” in Portland’s creative community. With the 2008 financial crisis still fresh, and a growing anti-establishment sentiment in the air, Roy says she noticed people wanted a change.
“People wanted to unplug from the soul-sucking corporate world and do something themselves,” Roy told the Mercury. “They really wanted a hub, a place to come together, a community to find like-minded people.”
A decade and a half later, much has changed—in Portland and beyond. The last 15 years have seen the beginning and end of Portlandia, the rise of Instagram and TikTok, a pandemic, and two Trump presidencies. Portland has been declared “over” and “back” countless times. Throughout it all, Roy said, creative-minded folks in Portland have remained scrappy, resourceful, and willing to share. “It’s definitely a darker time now. The larger political and economic situation is really chaotic and disheartening,” Roy said. “But people really want to come together, create and play together, and try to create moments of joy.”
This fall, in honor of its 15-year anniversary, ADX will host a month-long festival to highlight Portland’s unique, community-oriented creative scene. The fest runs the entire month of October, featuring dozens of events at ADX’s Buckman headquarters and other locations around the city.
ADX Fest’s event lineup varies widely from day-to-day. The agenda currently includes several panel discussions exploring topics like “selling out,” spooky dance performances, and hands-on workshops dedicated to collage, needle felting, and cyanotype printing.
“The festival is just a way to say, ‘Hey, look at us!’” Roy explained. “There’s lots of different creative mediums we all work in. Let’s discover each other, and maybe there are new collaborations that come out of it.”
ADX has evolved from its origins as a more traditional “makerspace,” and now features more semi-private studios, where artists focus on sign-making, stop-motion animation, screenprinting, and much more. The building also features a co-op woodshop and a music rehearsal space and recording studio.
One immediate benefit of having so many different types of artists on-site is that it’s easy to get certain logistical needs met. For example, a painter can walk into the woodshop and ask one of the woodworkers to build a custom frame for their piece.
But there are other, less tangible benefits, too. ADX takes collaboration seriously, as may be evident from its name. The word “exchange” is key—ADX is focused on art and design, yes, but also on sharing ideas and learning from others. (Its website defines “Xchange” as “the networking, swapping and sharing of all things creative,” including tools, resources, knowledge, time, and even vibes.)
Syd Spencer, ADX’s community manager and head curator, told the Mercury the organization started as a way to explore the question: “What happens when you bring all kinds of creatives and makers together under one roof? How can it support and uplift across all mediums?”
“We found when artists are working in proximity to each other, it invites a lot of inspiration and motivation for people to invest in their art, and to create deeper and more meaningful projects,” Spencer said.
To Roy, ADX encapsulates a generous mindset she sees across Portland’s art scene.
“We’re very resourceful and collaborative, and we love to support our other creative friends,” she said. “A lot of people from other cities come here, and they’re like, ‘Wow, you guys all really like to help each other, and it’s not competitive.’”
When Roy was planning ADX’s 15-year anniversary, she wanted to restate and celebrate the organization’s core values, specifically community and inclusivity.
“ADX Fest is really meant to celebrate the mentality that I think is really special about Portland,” Roy said. “It’s meant to be a way to celebrate all the incredible things that are going on locally, and give people an opportunity to explore and discover, and maybe participate in something they don’t normally participate in.”
Some of the events on the ADX Fest calendar, like the PNW Miniature Show and Makerspace Sellwood’s sip and clay night, already occur regularly and weren’t planned with the festival in mind. But the hope, Roy said, is that putting everything on one calendar will expose people to new things they wouldn’t have otherwise heard about.
Music Craft Northwest, a showcase for locally-made instruments and gear, is likely to be one of ADX Fest’s biggest attractions. The October 24 event will show off Portland’s notable but largely unsung music manufacturers, who build everything from microphones to synthesizers to string instruments, all widely exported around the world.
Other noteworthy events on the ADX Fest calendar include Volumes Design Library’s Portland designers showcase, featuring a century’s worth of work from Oregon designers (October 7), a Museum of Stop Motion Animation/Crow Collective pop-up exhibit and market (October 17), and a punk battle-vest contest (October 29). More events are likely to appear on the calendar as the fest grows near. The only stipulation for a business or organization to get involved, Spencer said, is that they must be locally-operated and independently-owned.
“We want Portland to remain indie. ADX Fest is our way of standing in that,” Spencer said.
Roy said she sees Portland as a “constantly creative place where you could be ‘festing’ every month.” But she hopes ADX Fest could become an annual way to dedicate one month to “celebrating and supporting each other and bringing new people into the fold.”
“This is a festival by the people, for the people, to say, ‘Hey, we’re all here to support each other,’” Roy said. “No matter what’s happening in our city government or the federal government or wherever, we’ve got each other, and we’ll be there for each other. That’s the spirit of it.”
ADX Fest will be at ADX, 417 SE 11th, and various other locations around the city, Oct 1-31, events at ADX are FREE, other ticket prices vary, more info at adxfest.com.
