Governor Kulongoski Appoints Two to Oregon Arts Commission

(SALEM, Ore.) - Governor Ted Kulongoski has appointed Josie Mendoza of Lake Oswego and Roger Hull of Salem to the Oregon Arts Commission.

After 17 years as an executive in the high tech industry, Josie Mendoza is now focusing her energy on support for the arts in Oregon.

She was recruited to Oregon by Tektronix as part of a turn-around effort and co-led its subsequent transformation into three separate companies. Prior to joining Tektronix, she held senior management positions at Apple Computer and Hewlett-Packard in Silicon Valley.

She began her business career in Florida's aviation industry. She served on the Artists Repertory Theatre's board of directors for nine years as it moved from rented space at the YWCA, to the creation of the of the Alder Stage, to the purchase and launch of its performing-arts campus encompassing an entire city block.

With Artists Rep, she served in a variety of leadership roles, including vice-chair, and was particularly focused in leading its board development. Mendoza is currently on the board of the Regional Arts & Culture Council, where she serves on the executive committee and chairs the Work for Art committee. She received a BA from the University of Florida.

"I believe a vibrant arts community is crucial to both the quality of life and the economic health of our state. The employment opportunities of the future will require greater creativity than ever before and having arts education integrated into our schools will be a competitive necessity," said Mendoza. "The Arts Commission plays a crucial role in advancing those arts issues in Oregon."

Roger Hull is an adjunct curator and professor emeritus of Art History at Willamette University in Salem where he taught from 1970 through 2010.

He envisioned and helped establish the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette and has served as curator of Northwest art at the museum since it opened in 1998.

In that capacity, he has organized many exhibitions at the Hallie Ford, including six retrospectives and accompanying books exploring the work of Oregon artists including Salem painter Carl Hall (2001), Eugene sculptor Jan Zach (2003), Portland painters and printmakers Charles Heaney (2005) and George Johanson (2007) and Portland painter and sculptor Harry Widman (2009).

He is currently working on the sixth exhibition and book in this series, which will feature Portland painter Henk Pander. Roger Hull received a BA from Whitman College and a Master of Arts and a PhD in Art History from Northwestern University. He was the recipient of an Oregon Governor's Arts Award in 1999.

"As an art history professor at Willamette University, I taught courses on American art and architecture for four decades and sought to relate Northwest creative traditions to broader trends. Through that, I became familiar with the work of many area artists, which set the stage for my research and writing about the art of our region. I bring that background to the important work of the Arts Commission – supporting and promoting the work of Oregon artists," said Hull on his appointment.