It was staff writer Lindsay Costello who inspired this issue’s theme. During a new year discussion about our team’s goals, she mentioned: “More and more, I am realizing that we need art to survive.”
The phrase seemed deeply relevant, working in two ways: We need art to survive for our personal enrichment and enjoyment. We need art to survive for its own longevity, so it can be around for us and those who come after us.
2025 was difficult for everyone—seriously, show me whose life has been made easier by the second Trump presidency; even his allies are anxiety-sweating through their sheets—but the chaos of sudden, massive cuts to National Endowment for the Arts and other government programs shook arts and culture institutions who had come to rely on and take pride in that funding.
“Once you hit that high standard, it’s a signal to other funders that you’ve made it,” Brian Weaver, artistic director at Portland Playhouse, told the Mercury for a piece in this guide. His theater learned their grant was cancelled on opening night of a show. An even larger theater, Portland Center Stage (PCS), is still trying to close the gap, trying to raise $9 million by June.
This spring, both Playhouse and PCS will team up to stage a Tony-nominated Broadway show which reimagines Hamlet—Shakespeare’s sulky prince of Denmark—as a queer, Black southern kid at a backyard cookout. Fat Ham is a test to see if this sort of collaboration can prove profitable for both companies and if audiences can accept endings that celebrate joy over tragedy.
Because we need art to survive.
Look into the gaze of the child on the cover of this issue. She’s proud. She’s hopeful. She’s getting a little bored with standing in first position. It’s Mercury reporter Taylor Griggs at age three! With her permission, we seized upon this photo for its truly monumental vibes.
Griggs is an incisive journalist, but there’s an undeniably creative side to her, too. In her youth, she tried out different performing arts (ballet was short-lived) and gravitated towards those that involved singing with others. “I think there’s something particularly special and meaningful about creating art with other people,” Griggs said. That’s one of the things that drew her to profile a group of graphic designers working to open a downtown design library called Volumes.
News editor Courtney Vaughn also contributed to the issue, writing up a profile of queer wrestling variety show House of Danger. Asked about her love for the sport, she said: “Pro wrestling isn’t a typical sport. In the eyes of many non-enthusiasts, it’s not even a sport, but for those who watch and participate, it crosses the athletic threshold into something that’s equal parts physical, theatrical, and magical.”
It‘s ordinary enough for those on the culture team to profess our devotion to the local arts scene—it is our bread and butter. So to have the news team join this spring charge felt aligned with what we’re trying to put down. Art is an avenue to joy, contemplation, teamwork, and much more. You don’t have to have an art focus to benefit.
Reporter Jeremiah Hayden saw something interesting in the book he reviewed for this issue. When we handed him Kevin Sampsell’s new novel—surprisingly, only Sampsell’s second—we had no clue we were handing our homelessness and housing reporter a work he would hail for its refreshing, intentional view of street life. “Sampsell’s book, like much of the literature I love, serves as a place to challenge common sense and look at the world through fresh eyes,” Hayden noted. “Is that not what art is supposed to do?”
Suzette Smith,
Mercury Arts & Culture Editor
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