Sport is not entertainment; it is a site of cultural meaning, labor, and identity. We invite mission-aligned partners to sponsor this initiative: two programs, one idea, and a rare alignment of cultural forces in Portland this July.
The Moment
The NMWA Oregon Chapter presents a month-long celebration anchored by a weekend symposium and creative engagements across the city.
The activation runs alongside the launch of Portland's new WNBA team, the Portland Fire, and Sneaker Week programming at the Portland Art Museum, creating an unprecedented convergence of art, sport, and civic identity.
Ronny Quevedo, Sketches 1–3 for Pacha Cosmopolitanism Overtime, 2021.
The Artist
Born in Guayaquil, Ecuador and based in New York, Ronny Quevedo is one of the most compelling voices in contemporary art working at the intersection of sport, migration, and identity. His work, spanning installation, drawing, and print, is held in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Denver Art Museum, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the Baltimore Museum of Art.
He has been the subject of solo exhibitions at The Menil Collection in Houston, the Krannert Art Museum at the University of Illinois, and the Queens Museum in New York. A recipient of the Joan Mitchell Fellowship, the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Grant, and the Jerome Hill Artists Fellowship, Quevedo brings both critical recognition and a dedicated national audience.
Scrimmage marks a significant moment for Portland, a rare opportunity to present his work in the Pacific Northwest.
The Activation
Sport is a site of cultural meaning, labor, and identity, and both artists and athletes deserve institutional recognition and support. The Scrimmage exhibition brings that idea into public view. The Collegiate Athlete Respite puts it into practice.
Exhibition · Stelo Gallery
Building on his acclaimed 2022 installation ule ole allez at Locust Projects, in which Miami's Latin American soccer communities literally made the art, their play leaving marks on gallery walls, Quevedo transforms Stelo into a notional playing field. A vinyl floor installation draws gestures from basketball and the ancient Mesoamerican ballgame, using the rules of sport as a metaphor for migration, memory, and identity.
Respite · Camp Colton
Athletes are frequently visible as performers while remaining invisible as laborers. This fully subsidized week at Camp Colton offers Portland-area collegiate student athletes without NIL deals or endorsements unstructured time, communal lodging, and on-site wellness support. No curriculum, no deliverable. Rest is not a luxury; it is labor's necessary condition.
The Precedent
At Locust Projects in 2022, Quevedo invited Miami's Caribbean and Latin American futsal communities to play matches with chalk- and ink-covered balls, their movements becoming the artwork. The result was a living record of community action: play as migration, marks as memory.
Scrimmage continues this conversation in Portland, at a moment when sport and culture are converging in the city as never before.
Public Programs
Sponsorship Opportunities
Your support anchors world-class contemporary art and meaningful athlete care in Portland. We love championing the local businesses that champion the arts.
Presenting Sponsor
The anchor partnership for the full Portland Art & Sport activation, both programs, one story. Your investment brings Ronny Quevedo's world-class installation to Portland free of charge, and funds a sanctuary for uncompensated student athletes.
Program Sponsor
A meaningful contribution to the activation with direct visibility across both programs. Your sponsorship makes a tangible impact on the exhibition and the athletes at its center.
Community Supporter
We are a grassroots organization that believes in collective care. We welcome financial or in-kind donations of any size; every contribution directly supports Portland's working artists and uncompensated young athletes.
Sponsor Visibility
Get Involved
We'd love to find the right partnership for your organization. Whether you're drawn to the exhibition, the athlete respite, or the full activation, we're here to make it work.