126 NE Alberta St
Portland, OR 97211
SERVICE WORKS is a speculative, semi-visible service platform that partners with a range of individuals and institutions to create access to socially relevant resources, opportunities, and information through relational art practice and social design.
SERVICE WORKS launched at The Alberta Abbey on October 1, 2022 with an American Red Cross Blood Drive to repossess instances of human brutality and continued to produce objects and workshops related to family law, local history, vocational education, and social services to connect the Abbey to its neighborhood. Each program related to a series of SERVICE OBJECTS, a SERVICE ARCHIVE, and a SERVICE RESOURCE GUIDE. See additional details below for more information about project elements.
This project is rooted in the Abbey’s mission to nurture community access to education and the arts, and comes at a time when the Abbey is still in its organizational infancy with its momentum largely halted by the pandemic. Drawing from the site’s history of service beginning in the1920’s, SERVICE WORKS will function on a variety of levels in a range of ways to benefit the community. At its most basic, the project archive, functional objects, and resource guide offer opportunities to consider local history, mutual aid, and service impacts on individuals and communities.
What is the Alberta Abbey?
The Alberta Abbey, located at the historic site of the Mallory Avenue Christian Church (MACC), is a nonprofit arts institution dedicated to providing free and affordable education, gallery, studio, and performance space while improving the lived experiences of neighborhood residents through access to social resources. Mallory Avenue Christian Church was founded in 1922 with the purpose “to serve its community without distinction of person or race.” Construction of the basement was completed in 1925, and the congregation met there until adding two additional floors in 1948 to become what the historically registered building is today. Founded as a predominantly White congregation, the Mallory Avenue Christian Church observed the substantial increase in Black residents during the 1940s and was unsettled by the impact of long-time discriminatory housing practices in the area through the 1950s. Barriers to upward mobility driven by systemic racism heightened Black Portlanders’ socioeconomic and social struggles and, by the 1960s, civil rights activism and social unrest surged. Churches during the era took notice and began community-based “reconciliation” programming to improve race relations and to mitigate the effects of poverty, particularly with the youth. Mallory Avenue Christian Church is believed to be the first historically White church to hire a Black community minister in Portland in the 1960s. In the 1970s, the church became home to the YWCA and “People are Beautiful” program, which offered youth activities, cooking workshops, art classes, and other services to the neighborhood. In the 1990s, Portland Parks & Recreation operated after-school programs out of the building. By early 2012, the building was in poor shape and no longer in use. A pair of Portland developers with an appreciation for history decided to give it new life, turning it into a performance venue that also provides workspace to artists and arts organizations. In 2018, the Alberta Abbey was purchased by Community Development Partners, an affordable housing developer, and the Alberta Abbey Foundation was formed to extend the socially productive work of previous occupants in ways that directly benefit the lives of community members through education, the arts, and the facilitation of relevant social resources.
What is “Service”?
“Service” is a direct contribution to the welfare of others, where labor may not produce outcomes that are attributable to one person but exists as a marshaling of resources in response to a need.
What is a SERVICE ARCHIVE?
All Service Works project elements relate to and draw content from the Service Archive. This mobile, living archive, seeded with documents and information related to the building’s founding, is parked in the Alberta Abbey’s “Piano Room”, a room that opens into the building’s two-story auditorium, where most live events take place. Throughout the project’s run, individuals and community groups contribute content to this mobile archive as it is moved throughout the building when used for public programming in different spaces. At the conclusion of the project, the archive stay with the Abbey to serve as permanent, reconfigurable, open storage for the continued collection and preservation of historical materials related to the institution and its community.
What is SERVICE PROGRAMMING?
Public programming is the primary way the Abbey connects to its community. Service Works programming is organized with input from the community and Abbey staff, and will exist in a variety of forms on up to 6 weekends throughout the run of the project. The project opens and closes with American Red Cross blood drives positioned as opportunities to intentionally reclaim historic moments of human brutality by giving blood. A workshop related to family, property, and housing law will be conducted by attorneys from the community to connect and interpret resources while offering legal guidance. Vocational training workshops focused on skills related to the Abbey’s activities, including bar tending, food handling, and performance technology and design, will also be led by community members. A Social Services Summit will create a space for service providers and service users to be in a collaborative, safe, and productive space to address systemic issues related to access and unused resources.
Who are SERVICE WORKS partners?
This project is still in development and conversations with a number of individuals and groups from the community are in process. As of now, a formal partnership has been established with the following:
The African People’s Socialist Party
What are SERVICE OBJECTS?
Service Objects are a series of utilitarian, sculptural objects related to institutional operations and the collection, storage, and distribution of information. Finding these objects throughout the building offers the opportunity to see different ways the Abbey functions and what its core priorities are.
What is a SERVICE RESOURCE GUIDE?
The SERVICE RESOURCE GUIDE serves as both a reference for the SERVICE WORKS project and as a project record that extends its work to directly aid the community. The Alberta Abbey maintains this page as a central access point for links to a range of social services in the Portland metro area, with an emphasis on North/Northeast Portland. This is an aggregated, living resource that benefits from periodic updates and contributions by anyone. Suggested links can be sent to info@albertaabbey.org.
Who Contributes to Service Works?
While this project is directed by Brian Gillis, an Oregon-based artist, educator, and organizer, every element of Service Works relies on partnership and collaboration with individuals and institutions from Portland and Alberta area communities, and beyond. This project is made possible with the support of the Oregon Arts Commission, the University of Oregon, and individuals in Portland and beyond. In addition to material and personnel costs related to project elements, project resources fund a community board member position at the Alberta Abbey and a budget for confidential attorney consultations for the community.
When is Service Works?
October 1, 2022 - June 2024
*See AlbertaAbbey.org for an up to date schedule of events
Where is Service Works?
126 NE Alberta St
Portland, OR 97211
For Additional Information: