Chinese Garden Organizational Profile

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PORTLAND CLASSICAL CHINESE GARDEN

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organizational profle

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Mission 2

Portlands Garden - Lan Su Yuan 7

Garden as Museum 12

Learning in the Garden 13

Cultural activities in the Garden 15

Facilities 17

Funding 19

History 24

Horticulture 26

Leadership 27

Marketing & Communications 28

Neighborhood & Chinese community 30

Political advocacy & public unding 31

School groups and curriculum 32

Suzhou and Sister-City Relationship 33

Volunteers 34

10th Anniversary 35

Glossary o erms 36


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organizational profle| 1

Introduction

Welcome to Lan Su Yuan. Lan Su Yuan is the Gardens Chi-

nese name. Tis name is translated as the Garden o the

Awakening Orchid. Te orchid is a symbol or the amily who

would have built and lived in this Garden. Teir awakening

took the orm o aspiring and persevering towards becoming

upright Conucians in their public lie and wise aoists orBuddhists in their private lie. oday, all o us who enjoy this

Garden stand in the place o that amily and our journey is

also an awakening process, towards understanding and appre-

ciation o Chinas rich history.

We enter the entire culture o China through the moon gate o

the garden. In that privileged spot all the elements o Chinese cul-

ture meet. Edwin . Morris, Te Gardens o China. Above

our Gardens moon gate, these words are inscribed, Enter the

wonderland. We invite you to join us in the journey into theendless delights o this wonderland.

Cynthia Johnson Haruyama

Executive Director

April 2009


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Mission

Te mission o the Portland Classical Chinese Gardenis

to cultivate an oasis o tranquil beauty and harmony

and to inspire, engage, and educate our global

community in an appreciation o a richly authentic

Chinese culture.


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A garden built or pleasure is a universal art orm

ound throughout cultures and throughout his-

tory. Yet each culture produces a dierent orm

o pleasure garden reecting its worldview and

values. As one o the worlds richest and lon-

gest continuous cultures,it is not surprising that

China has produced a

unique aesthetic or its

pleasure gardens. Tis

aesthetic has roots over

2,500 years old and is

largely China-centric

with little inuence

rom outside cultures.

Within Chinese culture,the pleasure garden tra-

dition or private amily

compounds o the city

o Suzhou during the

Ming and Qing dynas-

ties (1364 1912) is viewed as a high moment

or this art orm. oday, the city o Suzhou has

about sixty o these gardens remaining and eight

o them are designated as UNESCO world heri-tage sites. Ater the many upheavals o the 20th

century, many o these gardens are in less than

ideal condition. Yet the traditions that created

and sustained these gardens through centuries

o political, social and economic turmoil have

survived. Tese gardens are being restored and

have opened to the Chinese public and tourists.

Tese gardens were discovered by the West

primarily during thenineteenth and early

20th centuries, just as

the political and eco-

nomic health o the

Qing dynasty began to

decay. Unlike the dis-

covery o Japanese gar-

dens, Chinese gardens

did not immediately

inspire a rush to imitateand incorporate into

western gardens. While

Chinese plant species

have become the staples

o most western gardens,

the worldview and values behind the Chinese

garden art orm remains mysterious and unap-

proachable to many Westerners.

People in the western world tend to associate

the word garden with a plot o land adjacent

to a house used or plants only. o Westerners,

a garden is dened by plants in arranged in an

Introduction to Classical Chinese gardens


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aesthetically pleasing way. We tend to look or

and evaluate by aesthetic design o the whole

and rarity and beauty o the individual plants.

Although gardens in American and Europe are

oten part o estates, the architecture is viewed as

a separate art rom the garden itsel.

Chinese gardens are quite dierent altogether.

Chinese gardens were more properly the true

home o the wealthy, educated classes. Not sur-

prisingly, the garden then is where all the clas-

sical Chinese art orms are ound: architecture,

painting, music, calligraphy, poetry, urniture,

ceramics, carvings, penjing, and horticulture or

aesthetic rather than commercial or productive

purposes.

While the Chinese called such spaces gardens,

it might be more accurate or us to call a classi-cal Chinese garden the combined living room/

amily room/ofce/garden o a wealthy urban-

dwelling amilys home. Other than sleeping and

cooking spaces, the garden was where the am-

ily spent the majority o their time. In keeping

with this tradition, Portlands Chinese Garden

is both an indoor space represented by the our

buildings and a series o outdoor spaces con-

nected by covered walkways which the amily

would have used as hallways to move between

the various spaces within their indoor/outdoor

home.

In addition to being a literal living space or a

amily (usually an extended amily covering sev-

eral generations and siblings and their grown

amilies), a classical Chinese garden was also in-

tended as metaphor and symbol on many levels.

In American culture, we tend to view metaphors

and symbols as intellectual abstract concepts re-

moved rom our actual lives. o wealthy Chinese

amilies living in Suzhou during the Ming Dy-

nasty, men, women and children were steeped(or aspired to be so) in over a thousand years o

continuous tradition in painting, poetry, litera-

ture, music, philosophy, political science and re-

ligion. Te themes and symbols rom these were


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as close to them as literal reality. For example,

the trio o pine, bamboo and plum in the Gar-

dens courtyard are symbols o moral resilience

and perseverance which were the most aspired-

to qualities or the good man. No educated Chi-

nese during Ming times would register those

three as merely attractive plants. Tey would

also have been reading the landscape as they

viewed them, and would have been just as alive

to the metaphorical meaning o the trio.

It may be helpul to think o a classical Chinese

garden as containing ve major elements, all owhich are equally important:

1. Architecture

2. Plants

3. Stone

4. Water

5. Art & Literature

In addition, inside the buildings would have

been collections o urniture, paintings, porce-

lains, books, carved jade, lacquer ware, lanterns,

scrolls, musical instruments and more calligra-

phy. Some o these would have been on display.

Many o the most precious objets dart might

have been wrapped in silk and careully stored

away, brought out reverently or special occa-

sions.

None o these elements were intended to be

experienced as separate types o things. Instead

the design is based upon the Chinese dualisticconcept o the universe as consisting o yin and

yang, the opposites which together always orm

a whole dark & light, stone & water, hard

& sot, male and emale. And the whole is in-

tended to be viewed one rame at a time as i it

were a Chinese scroll painting being unrolled.

Within each rame is a complete picture o yin

and yang composed o some or all o the Gar-

dens elements.

Another important concept inuencing the

Gardens design is geomancy (also known as

engshui)--a belie that an essential spirit (qi)

ows through all objects and space. In the Chi-

nese worldview, qi must be correctly acknowl-

edged through careul spatial arrangements in

order to create auspicious conditions. Tese are just some o the kinds o dierent belies that

inuenced the worldview that lies behind each

Chinese garden. As you can see, the western

concept o garden which is primarily about

plants can be a barrier to our ability to see and

appreciate a classical Chinese garden

Another point to bear in mind is that classi-

cal Chinese gardens are intended to provide a

multi-sensory experience. Te calming tranquil-

ity and beauty is more than just visual. Tere

are ragrances (plants chosen especially or scent

throughout dierent seasons), sounds (the water

dripping rom the tiles), and tactile eelings (the

dierent rockwork o the pathways under your

eet).

We should also remember that these gardens

were lively places where riends were enter-

tained, children played, and servants hurriedto and ro. Te most quintessential activity in

such gardens has been immortalized in Chinese

paintings or centuries: on-the-spot poetry com-

posing contests among riends, lubricated by co-


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pious amounts o wine. As the eects o wine

took hold, the verses would veer rom erudite

reerences to past master poets to bawdy puns.

At other times, the Garden would be used or

playing music or painting in one o the pavilions

with riends, or earnest discussions o Conu-

cian texts or aoist philosophy. Perormances by

hired proessionals were also common: theater,

dance, opera, puppet shows, and music.


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Portlands garden is one o the very ew gardens

built in the Suzhou-Ming Dynasty style that

have been built outside o China. Garden

designers and artisans rom Suzhou designed

and built this Garden. It is arguably the most

authentic representation o this art orm outsideo China. Compared to the surviving gardens

within Suzhou, it is in much better condition

and thereore closer to what such a garden

would have looked like in its heyday. Like the

original gardens o Suzhou, this Garden is

unique masterpiece o this traditional art orm.

And also like the original gardens, this Garden

is intended as a reuge rom urban lie a place

or reection, contemplation and connection to

nature.

Te enclosed garden was intended as a

representation in miniature o the beauty o

the wild natural landscape, evoking images

o mountains, orests, streams and lakes and

conveying as much sense o unlimited space aspossible within the midst o a densely populated

urban metropolis. Straight lines and symmetry

are avoided since they evoke the manmade

rather than nature. Small hidden recesses open

up into unanticipated viewpoints to accentuate

the gardens expansiveness within its limited

space. Under the prevailing Conucian moral

code, all pure hearts aspired to the simple lie

as a gentleman armer surrounded by nature.

However, as in much o history in other parts

Portlands Garden

Lan Su Yuan


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o the world, wealthy amilies preerred to

congregate in cities where lie oered more

opportunity or social gatherings, entertainment

and consumer luxuries. Tese gardens allowed

them to live (or pretend to live) the simple rural

lie in the midst o one o the largest and most

sophisticated urban centers o the world during

the 15th through 19th centuries.

Architecture

Architecture in a Chinese garden is more than

just decorative outbuildings such as we see in the

ollies sometimes placed in western gardens.

Instead, in a Chinese garden, buildings are some

o the most heavily-used rooms in the entire

home. Tere is traditionally a reception hall or

anyone coming to visit. echnically, these publicspaces were intended as the only public space in

the garden while the rest was private space or

the amily. However, in practice, gardens were

built as much to be enjoyed as to display ones

prosperity and renement, so that in act both

visitors and the public were allowed access to

much o these gardens at various times. Portlands

garden has the Hall o Brocade Clouds nearest

the entrance and looking out on to the lake as

its reception hall.

Other buildings usually include a lounge house

which we might today describe as the amily

room. It is the room in which children oten

played and Chinese athers might spend time with

their children. Portlands garden has the Xuan

building in the southeast corner which represents

this unction. In a more secluded place in the

garden, one would nd the scholars hall which

in todays parlance we would call Dads ofce.

Here the male members o the amily, especially

the patriarch (ather, grandather or uncle),might practice traditional gentlemanly arts such

as painting, music, calligraphy and poetry. Here

also they would study or the government civil

service examinations which were the gentlemens


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highest attainment in the Conucian tradition.

By and large, all Chinese were Conucians

in their public lives. Conucianism was a

moral philosophy emphasizing righteous roles

and duties towards amily, society and most

importantly, government. In their private lives,

many Chinese were also aoists or Buddhists,

ocused on awakening and developing their

inner spiritual and moral qualities by withdrawal

rom the secular world yet which paradoxically

was intended to prepare them to be even better

Conucian moral actors in society.

wo nal buildings were the two-story building

which the Portland Garden uses as a public

eahouse and the smaller semi-enclosed building

on the lake. Te second oor o the ea House

would have been womens space where wives,

concubines, daughters and unmarried women

o the amily congregated daily to practice

their traditional arts o embroidery and dowry

preparation and probably some o the same

arts and studies as the men in the scholarshall. Children would have spent time up here

as well. Oten the women o the household

managed the amilys estates and nances while

the men dedicated themselves to the civil service

examinations (which took years to prepare or

and pass) and i they were ortunate, the highly-

coveted government jobs. Women rom wealthy

amilies seldom went out in public so the 2nd

story vantage point was their window into the

world as it looked out over the enclosing walls o

the garden and into the teeming streets beyond.

Te small building on the lake was a symbolic

representation o a boat and was a venue or

small gatherings to enjoy the scenery and the

lake.

Plants

China has been reerred to as the mother

o gardens. Over one-eighth o the worlds

plant species are native to China. Many o the

plants we know and love in the West such as

owering peach, camellia, magnolia and peonies

originated in China. Te Garden contains over

400 tree and plant species typical to a classical

Chinese garden. Many o these species are rarely

seen in cultivation outside o China.

During the course o 2,500 years o gardening

tradition, the Chinese came to cultivate specic

plants that were treasured or both their symbolic


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meanings and beauty. For example, one o the

most admired plants is the tree peony. Beginning

during the ang Dynasty (618 906 A.D.),

gardeners began to selectively breed to develop

large, brilliantly covered blooms. Tese plantsbecame coveted treasures so that over centuries

o cultivation, peonies came to symbolize honor,

wealth and aristocracy.

Just as Chinese plants became standard in western

gardens over the centuries, some western plants

also were incorporated into traditional Chinese

gardens such as the Southern Magnolia. oday

in our garden, 90% o the plants are native to

China while the other 10% have been adopted

by Chinese horticulture over time.

Another part o the Gardens plant collections

are the minature landscapes known as penjing.

Everyone knows about Bonsai, those tiny

clipped trees in pots associated with Japan.

However, Bonsai is a derivative o the Chinese

Pensai meaning potted tree landscape. Te

Chinese were translating large landscape intominiature pots or centuries beore the Japanese

ever picked up their pruning clippers!

Mark Vossbrink, penjing expert and volunteer

curator o the Portland Classical Chinese

Gardens collection, explains; Penjing is an

ancient Chinese art o translating the world

landscape into the miniscule and has been traced

back to 221 BCE. ypically there are two types;Landscape penjing made up o rocks, moss,

plants and sometimes small gurines, boats

and structures and Pensai penjing which eature

trees. Te Gardens penjing are on long-term

loan rom Mr. Vossbrinks private collection.

Stone

As in the West, Chinese culture has a reverence

or mountains. Te use o rock in a Chinese

garden symbolically represents the presence o

mountains. As the Ming dynasty poet/painter/

garden designer Wen Zhengming said, ruly in

the midst o a city there can be mountain and

orest. Stand-alone rocks in a Chinese garden

are oten called peaks or roots o clouds and

piled up rockeries (as above the waterall in our

Garden) are known as articial mountains.

In addition, the Chinese have an aestheticappreciation o individual rocks, especially those

with odd, irregular shapes. Te most treasured

rocks in Chinese culture are water-worn

limestone rom Lake ai near Suzhou.


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Water

Water is viewed as stones opposite sot and

nurturing. Abundant water is symbolic o

natures abundance and o the two essential

products that created wealth or Suzhou, sh

and rice. In a classical garden, water was used to

simulate the natural landscape by channeling it

into miniaturized lakes, wateralls and streams.

Te use o the word lake or what is really a

pond in the middle o Portlands garden is an

example o the illusion o greater space and wildnature. A manmade pond with goldsh ringed

by exotic exquisitely tended trees and plants

becomes a lake. An articial waterall and pile

o rocks becomes a mountain with a cascading

natural stream.

Art & Literature

On top o this articial pastoral landscape,

the Chinese also added layers o meaning and

beauty through art. Poetry and calligraphy

adorns the buildings and rocks. Te poetry and

calligraphy throughout the garden is difcult

or a westerner to appreciate. We cannot read

the language and even when it is translated, it

oten is only a ragment or reerence to a poem

or saying which the highly educated Conucian

amily would have recognized and understood. It

is said that ew westerners appreciate the beautyo great calligraphy such as that produced by

venerable masters or Portlands garden so we

can only take it on aith that these inscriptions

have an innate grandeur.

Te Garden also has a collection o replicas

o Ming and Qing dynasty urniture in the

buildings.

Te Cultural Advisory Committee is seeking

to collect appropriate cultural artiacts to be

displayed in the Scholars Hall. Tis Committee

is comprised o volunteers and the Gardens

Volunteer Coordinator serves as a liaison.


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Te Garden is not merely a replica o a classical

Chinese garden, it is a living masterpiece o

art in its own right. In Chinese art orms, the

blending o past masterpieces is not viewed as

copying but rather the ideal way to create new

art. Te Garden represents this tradition. Itintentionally incorporates elements rom what

are considered as the our best surviving classical

gardens in China but is still a unique landscape

and viewed as a separate masterpiece created by

Chinese designers and artisans.

As a masterpiece, the Garden is a living museum

o collections o plants, architecture, art, stone,

calligraphy and garden design, urniture,

penjing (the miniaturization o landscape

originated in China and is known as bonsai to

most westerners) and other artiacts. Just as art

museums protect and curate their collections,

the Gardens obligation as a living museum is to

document the collections so that both visitors

and scholars can know what it has and to care

or and preserve its collections (in the case o

plants, to grow and replace over time).

Documenting the collections is one o the rststeps in curation. Te Gardens inscription

collection (the calligraphy on rocks, buildings

and gateways) has been documented in a

published book which is available in the git

store. Te plant collection is being documented

in a plant database that will serve both as a

management tool and inormation resource.

Te plant database is accessible via the Gardens

website. Artiacts are being gathered together to

eventually be used in some way in the Scholars

Hall. Curation o the other collections ought to

occur eventually but there are no current plans

to do so.

Garden as Museum


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A classical Chinese garden represents amillennium o continuous history o the worldsmost populous and, or much o the time wealthiest and most technologically advancedcountry relating to almost every aspect otraditional Chinese culture:

Religion and philosophy Art, music, architecture Horticulture and agriculture Politics and government Social and economic history Regionalism and ethnic/cultural distinctions

within China

In addition, Portlands Garden serves as a portalto local issues such as historic Chinatown,the Chinese-American community, Suzhou-Portland sister city relationship, community

involvement and local leadership that createdthe Garden, and the long history o culturalinuence between China and the West.

Yet these topics, like the Garden itsel, are quiteoreign to most o our visitors. Te Gardens

mission to engage, educate and inspire cannotbe ullled merely by providing access to theGarden via admission. Without conceptualrameworks to understand the Garden, manyvisitors literally cannot see it. By bringing their western concept o garden to the experience,they are looking only or plants and cannot see

the rest o the Garden. For example, they can seethe buildings but they wonder why theyre theretaking up so much space and leaving so littlespace or the plants.

Learning in the GardenA Comprehensive Visitor Experience


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In order to ulll its mission, the Garden mustactively seek to engage visitors. Tis can only be

done by starting rom the visitors worldviewand expanding outwards rom there. Tis meansthe Garden must begin where the visitor begins with western experiences o garden, amily,metaphor and use language and concepts that will help them both connect to their currentworldview and reveal what heretoore most othem hadnt known even existed an exotic world500 years ago o great wealth and sophisticationwith both universal and distinct ways o relating

to the natural world through a garden.

Te Garden is in the middle o a comprehensiveVisitor Experience planning process to: ensure an enjoyable experience thatwill create desire to return and tell others o theexperience plan and promote high-qualityeducational inormation and experiences eliminate obstacles to learningTis planning process seeks to understand what

will motivate visitors to come, what promises will help visitors orm expectations or theexperience that the Garden can reasonably ulll,and what will motivate visitors to return andspontaneously spread the word to other peoplethat they also should come or the experience. We will be aligning this planning processtogether with the branding program to ensurethat we are creating the correct promise.

Tis project is being paid out o the East Meets West grant unds designated or developingvisitor materials and programming.


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Hal o the Gardens mission is to engage, inspire

and educate. Programs and events are a way to

invite visitors into a more immersive experience

that transorms them rom mere observers into

participants. Participation is known to provide

more compelling, memorable experience whileacilitating deeper and longer-lasting learning.

In addition, cultural activities help to remind

visitors o an important element o this kind

o garden people worked, lived, played

and entertained in such spaces. Variety and

quantity o programs and events also helps drive

admissions and retail by creating awareness that

the Garden is a compelling place to visit again

and again.

Te Garden hosts a variety o programs or

visitors, members, donors and new audiences

throughout the year. Starting in 2008, the ocus

o the Gardens programs is to provide low-cost

introductory programming to the majority o

the 120,000 visitors and 4,000 members who

are unamiliar with Chinese gardens, history

and culture and not particularly knowledgeable

about horticulture. Prior programming waspitched towards visitors and members who were

already deeply interested/knowledgeable about

China or horticulture. Tis kind o programming

served only a small number o the total visitors

and members and had a per capita cost that

would have made it prohibitive to provide to a

majority o visitors and members. Programming

aims to provide a window or entryway or visitors

into Chinese cultural traditions. Tis can take

the orm o demonstrations that visitors can

join in such as ai Chi, mahjong, Qi Gong and

calligraphy. In other cases, there are lectures on

such topics as eng shui or acupuncture. Other

Cultural activities in the Garden


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activities are story-telling or art activities making

simplied versions o traditional art orms. Still

other activities encourage visitors to use the

Garden as their personal retreat rom urban lie

such as Western orms o sketching or painting.

Programming in the next ew years will ollow

the recommendations and priorities set out in

a comprehensive Visitor Experience Plan. Te

planning process is underway with a completed

plan and initial implementation underway by

the end o 2009. It is likely that programming

will primarily consist o introductory materialssuch as the website, an introductory video

presentation, a new audio tour, and a variety

o brochures. Te planning process and initial

implementation is being unded by the East

Meets West grant. Further unding will be

needed and it is anticipated that the Plan will

identiy other grant-undable opportunities

to be pursued. In uture years, as the majority

audience o visitors and members becomes more

educated and interested in the Garden and

Chinese culture and history that programming

will also grow to include classes and programs

or more knowledgeable audiences.

Beginning in 2009, each program has specic

objectives and a budget:

a) educate and inspire Chinese New Year,

school tours and outreach, educational programs

or visitors in Garden, music & poetry ineahouse, docent-led tours

b) generate revenue uesdays by wilight

summer concert series, Chinese New Year,

school tours, group tours

c) bring new audiences to the Garden Chinese

New Year, uesdays by wilight summer concert

series

Te Garden seeks sponsorship to underwrite

most o these programs. In the past, sponsorship

solicitation has been relatively late and one event

at a time. In 2009, sponsorship solicitation will

begin beore the beginning o the calendar year

and oer a ull year o sponsorship choices

and opportunities. Many programs and events

are also the result o partnerships with other

organizations that provide expertise and their

own enthusiastic volunteers. Tis allows us toprovide quality programming at little to no

cost.

Programs and events are created and staed

by the Event & Program department, headed

by Event Manager, Gary Wilson and Event

Assistant, Michele Starry with much help rom

volunteers.


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As the majority o the Garden consists o built

structures exposed to the elements and heavily

used by 120,000 visitors per year, acility

maintenance is a key operational unction.

Facility maintenance runs the gamut rom

ensuring sh and plant-sae water conditionsin the pond to constant dusting, oiling and

repainting o the extensive woodwork, to

repairing the hand-laid stone mosaic pathways,

to hiring and supervising contractors to repair

electrical, water, sewer and many other issues.

Behind the scenes are things such as the electric

room, the underground vault which houses

the pumps or the waterall and pond, water

connections, air compressors or heating in theeahouse and the list goes on. Facilities sta also

cares or the interior o the ofce space, are rst

responders to ater-hours security alarms, and

prepare the Garden or major events by hanging

lanterns or other exhibits, putting up tents,

rigging lighting and audio/visual equipment.

Te eahouse is owned by the Garden but

rented to Te ao o ea as a concession. Major

maintenance and repairs to the eahouse all tothe Garden. In addition, the Garden rents roughly

nished space at the corner o NW 3rd & Davis

or its administrative ofces. All employees have

their ofces here and a conerence room is used

or Board meetings, volunteer meetings, staging

area or perormers at Garden events, and or

event preparations. Te lease is a year-to-year

lease and the landlord has plans to redevelop

the property once he can obtain permits andnancing. Te Garden subleases a portion o

the space to NW China Council on a year-to-

year lease, earning some revenue. Eventually, the

Garden will need to nd permanent ofce space.

Facilities


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Te Garden also leases a windowless storage

space immediately across the street rom the git

store or inventory and maintenance equipment

storage. Large architectural replacement parts

are housed at an outdoor storage area under the

Steel Bridge.

Current Facilities sta consists o a Facilities

Manager (Sam Dresselhaus) and a seasonal

assistant or 4-5 months in the dryer summer

months when much o the painting and repair

work needs to be undertaken. Tere is always

considerably more work to be done than canbe handled by this amount o stafng. A long

term goal o the Garden must be to increase

the Facilities maintenance budget either to

hire additional sta or allow or more contract

services.

A Facilities Committee consisting o several sta

members and Board members and the Executive

Director has been recently ormed to:

Identiy priority capital projects to

enhance visitor experience, revenue-

generating rental capacity or inrastructure

needed or more eective, efcient operations.

Includes cost estimates, sequencing and

prioritization.

Determine desired maintenance levels

or Garden and cost estimates.

Prioritize maintenance tasks within

current budget constraints

In addition, ater a lie-threatening workplace

injury to the Facilities Manager in 2008, a Saety

Committee was ormed. Te Saety Committee

includes a Board member, several members o

the operations sta, and a representative rom

the eahouse. Tis Committee has already

brought many saety innovations to the

Garden and continues to prioritize and oversee

implementation o urther improvements.

Tis Committee is comprised o Garden sta

members, a representative rom the eahouse,

and a Board member.

Renovations & improvements to acilities

In 2007, the City o Portland allocated $100,000to the Chinese Garden rom the System

Development Charges (SDC) allocated to

Portland Parks. Tese unds were designated or

capital projects that improved carrying capacity

to serve the public.

Te Garden is currently compiling project

budgets or the highest capital priorities that all

within this price range:

Heating and air-conditioning

improvements or eahouse

Replace back-up waterall pump

Upgrade electrical grid or entire

Garden

Electric carpet or one o Garden

buildings (an experiment to nd a less costly

solution than installing radiant heating

under the current oors)

Design and implement rst phases ooutdoor lighting improvements

In the spring o 2009, the Garden will be

submitting a grant proposal or these projects in

order to qualiy or the SDC unds. Construction


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on these projects should be nished by end o

2009.

Back-end technology to support visitor services

and administrative unctions are needed. Highest

on the list are new point-o-sale and phone

systems. Te Garden is considering applying or

some technology grants during 2009 to try to

und these needs. Website eatures and upgrades

such as on-line ticketing and membership are

being added in 2009.

Further capital improvements await developmento other undraising/capital campaign plans.


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Most non-prots struggle to achieve and sustain

adequate unding or their programs and assets.

Without adequate unding, a non-prot cannot

ulll its mission. So non-prots are paradoxically

not in the business o making money but must

still pay a great deal o attention to money inorder to provide the services or which they are

intended. Te Garden is still in the process o

trying to achieve appropriate unding levels

or both annual operating costs and long-term

capital needs. Te Garden began its lie in

2000 with construction debt and without any

operating reserves or endowment. Construction

debt was in the orm o low-interest loans rom

the Portland Development Commission. In

business terms, this meant that it was highlyundercapitalized.

High visitation in the rst two years which is

the norm or brand-new institutions brought

in adequate revenue to support operations at

rst. However, there was not enough revenue

to make payments on the construction debt

or build up any kind o operating or capital

reservers. As visitation leveled o at lower levels

by the third year, the Garden sought to diversity

and strengthen its other revenue sources

rentals, retail, membership, contributions,

sponsorship and endowment. In addition the

2004 settlement over the pond leak added to

the reserves. And in 2005, the Garden obtained

a loan write-o rom the Portland Development

Commission, thereby erasing all construction

debt. Tese steps combined to begin to provide

sufcient unding or the Garden but as is quitecommon with non-prots, it was still not quite

enough.

Beginning in 2003, the Garden conducted

a successul capital campaign (the Lotus

Campaign) that generated some cash reserves,

as well as unding or some specic projects such

as three years o school outreach, development

o K-12 curriculum materials, and new plants.

Since 2003, the Garden has dipped into thosereserves every year (except or 2007) to cover

operating costs. When the new Executive

Director began in mid-2008, this practice o

continuing decits was brought to the Boards

attention and a commitment was made to bring

the operating budget into the black by 2010.

As a result o ocus on increasing revenues and

strategically controlling costs, the anticipated

decit or 2008 was cut in hal. In response to

the economic crisis, additional cost reductions

including some personnel lay-os were made

in early 2009 to bring the budget into balance

in 2009. Considerable eorts will need to

Funding


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continue to increase revenues and control costs

in order to achieve balanced budgets in the

next ew years. In addition, the organization is

committed to raising additional unds or capital

improvements.

Unrestricted vs. restricted income

Unlike the or-prot sector, non-prots oten

have sources o income that can only be used to

pay or specic kinds o expenses. Tese unds

are called restricted. Examples are grants or

specic projects. Such unds cannot be usedor any purpose other than that which was

promised to the donor. Te majority o a non-

prots expenses, however, are operating costs

which cannot be paid or out o restricted unds.

Tereore, a non-prot must always ensure that

it generates enough unrestricted (or operating)

revenue to cover its operating costs such as

personnel, utilities and rent. A successul non-

prot has a mix o both unrestricted and restricted

income to und operations and projects. A third

category o unding is an endowment which is

called permanently restricted. Endowment

principal cannot be touched but the interest

earned becomes unrestricted income.

Earned Income - Retail & admissions(unrestricted)

Admissions provide almost hal o the Gardensincome and retail another 15%. Ater the initial

high visitation during the Gardens rst two

years, visitation has hovered at the 120,000/

year range or the past ve years. 64% o visitors

come rom outside the Portland metropolitan

area rom all over the country and world. Te

primary motivation or visiting the Garden

is word-o-mouth recommendations rom

riends and amily. Out-o-town visitors also

provide most o the Gardens store spending, in

even greater proportion than their share o the

admissions.

Visitor surveying began in 2008 and we have

preliminary data about the aspects o the Garden

visitors most enjoy (the view o the Lake), their

domicile and reasons or coming. We have aclear understanding that currently many visitors

do not truly connect with the Garden unless

they have some prior knowledge about China or

take a docent-led tour. Te Visitor Experience

Plan will address this issue.

Te Gardens goal is to increase admissions to

150,000 by 2011. o this end, the Gardens

advertising or non-Metro area audiences will

continue, with an emphasis on ree advertising

opportunities and group tours. Also, the Garden

will promote local visitation at community

events and in local media, again searching or

ree or low-cost opportunities. However, much

o the ocus will also be on making the in-

Garden experience more compelling through

the Visitor Experience Plan so that the most

powerul engine o advertising, word-o-mouth

recommendations, will increase. We know that150,000 is a reasonable goal in that in 2006,

Portlands Japanese Garden had had admissions

o 120,000 or many years and then with new

marketing to out o town visitors and members


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and more events and programming in the

Garden, their attendance exceeded 200,000 in

2008.

Simultaneously, the Garden is working on

increasing retail sales. Te volume o retail sales

is clearly linked to admissions so as admissions

increase, so do sales. Research shows that the

better the experience is at the site, visitors will

then spend higher amounts in a git store.

However, the dollar value o sales is also aected

by the quality and variety o merchandise in the

store. Since August o 2008, the Garden storehas been reurbished with new lighting and

display shelves and the merchandise increased

and upgraded. Te stores inventory is now o

sufcient quality to be advertised to members

and others as a destination store or Chinese-

related merchandise.

Admissions and retail are supervised by the

Operations Director (Jane DeMarco). Retail

is managed by the Git Store Manager (Becky

Dresselhaus) and staed by the Manager and

Visitor Services sta (Andrea Bottger, Harris

Goodman and a seasonal employee).

Earned Income Rentals (unrestricted)

o generate revenue, the Garden rents out

the entire Garden, a building or specic site

within the Garden, or the eahouse ater regularbusiness hours. Te Garden maintains a list o

approved caterers that renters may use, covering

a range o price points and types o ood. Te

exclusive catering list is necessitated by the

unique challenges the Garden poses to caterers

(lack o kitchen, little staging space, no water or

power sources in key areas) so prior experience

in the Garden is necessary. In exchange or the

exclusive rights to cater in the Garden, each

caterer on the list is required to donate ood or

service to at least one o the Gardens own events.

Rentals are handled by the Event Director and

Event Assistant (Gary Wilson and Michele

Starry). Photo shoots using the Garden are also

handled by the Rental Department.

Beginning in the all o 2008, rental opportunitieshave been more actively promoted and

advertised, especially to the wedding market.

Earned/Contributed Income Membership (unrestricted)

Membership provides 15% o the Gardens

income. Membership at an admission-based

institution is a nancial transaction or most

members whereby they calculate how many

times they will want to visit the Garden and

members only benets vs. the annual cost o

membership or the cost o per visit admission.

Te value o membership to an institution is to

provide a stable revenue source and cashow

and to identiy potential donors. Donors are

people who make a nancial contribution to

the institution that is more than they receive in

actual benets. Members above the $100 levelare considered to be donors. Te majority o

members live within the Portland/Vancouver

metropolitan area.


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Currently, the Garden has just over 4,000

members. Tere are membership levels or

individuals, students and amilies. Membership

entitles them to ree admission during regular

hours, 10% discount at the Garden store,

early purchase on the summer concert series, a

newsletter, and a series o members only evening

hours in the summer. Whenever possible, the

Garden arranges or other benets such as

reciprocal admission at the Japanese Garden one

month o the year and discounts at other China-

related cultural events in the Portland area.

Membership is best promoted to visitors rom

the Metro area on their rst or second visit to

encourage them to think about returning again

and becoming users o the Garden rather than

just visitors. Beginning in 2008, membership

is being much more actively promoted during

ticketing and Garden store transactions. o

support membership promotion, starting in

2009 advertising or the Metro area will promote

the Garden as a place or repeat use rather than

just a place or a single visit in a lietime.

Membership is staed by the Membership

Manager, Van Machado, and is part o the

Development department.

Contributed income Development(unrestricted & restricted)

Te goal o development is to create, nurture and

sustain relationships with individuals, businesses

and oundations which will collectively and

continuously provide the philanthropic resources

(money, leadership, volunteers, skills, advice,

advocacy, connections) the Garden needs in

order to ulll its mission. Te primary ocus

o development is on individuals as they give

84% o the $260 billion that is donated in the

U.S. each year. Foundations comprise another

11% and corporations only 5%. Successul

development requires the entire organization to

ocus on recruiting and thanking donors and to

view all visitors as potential donors.

Tere is a 2008-09 Development Plan that

explains basic acts about undraising and outlinesthe 2008-09 activities and appeals the Garden

will conduct in order to recruit and connect

with donors and to raise money. Prior to August

2008, there had been no sustained development

eorts or several years and earlier development

eorts had been the single responsibility o a

single employee rather than an organization-

wide imperative. As a result, donor relationships

are troubled and need to be mended prior to

attempting to raise money. Much o the 2008

and 2009 donor communications and events are

aimed at repairing these troubled relationships.

In the development eld, nurtured relationships

begin to yield nancial results above and beyond

the investment ater 2-3 years so we expect

undraising results to remain relatively low until

2010-11. We will be measuring success in the

quality and quantity o re-engaged relationships

and many o the initial results may come in theorm o non-nancial contributions.

Te Development department is headed by the

Development Director (Wendy Mitchell). Te


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Board Development Committee works with the

Development Director to plan and implement

relationship-building and undraising eorts.

Tis Committee is chaired by Mia Nicholson.

Contributed income Grants (restricted)

Grants are a orm o unding or specic time-

limited projects. Generally, oundations do not

make grants to cover operating costs except or

the start-up costs o new programs. Obtaining

grants requires identiying unders likely to und

the desired projects, developing relationshipswith the under, preparing ull project budgets

and plans, and writing grant applications.

Grant-writing tends to generate low returns

unless a relationship is rst developed with the

under and the under has indicated interest in

the project.

Current grants:

East Meets West

3-year school outreach program

(completed)

Visitor programming & materials (see

Learning in the Garden)

Living Collections

Documentation o plant collections

(partially completed)

Horticulture related classes & events

(completed)Visitor materials (see Leaning in the

Garden)

Other grant opportunities are being considered

or high-priority needs.

Endowment (permanently restricted)

Te Gardens endowment und is approximately

$125,000. Earned interest becomes unrestricted

revenue while the principal is never touched.

Currently, the Garden holds its endowment

in a interest-bearing Money Market Account.

Over the next year, the Garden should look into

long-term investment and management o these

unds. Current best practices on endowment

management includes retaining some earned

interest to grow the principal to match ination

while paying out the rest as unrestrictedincome.

Financial Management

Day to day nances are handled by the Business

Manager (Dianne Sherwood) with oversight

by the Executive Director. Monthly nancial

statements are reviewed by the reasurer and

distributed to the entire Board. An annual

review is conducted by a CPA. ax returns are

prepared by the CPA.


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Te Garden began as a dream in the early 1980s.

It became a reality in 2000 through the vision,

perseverance and generosity o elected ofcials,

community leaders and many, many citizens.

In 1985, City Commissioner Mike Lindbergand Congressman David Wu travelled to China

to explore a sister city relationship. Tey visited

one o Chinas most abled historic cities, Suzhou

(in the Yangzi delta, inland rom Shanghai)

and were enthralled with the beautiul gardens

there. Commissioner Lindberg resolved to have

a garden built in Portland as the centerpiece o a

sister city relationship with Suzhou.

It took until 1988 or a sister city relationship to

be ormally established. A year later, Lindberg

created a task orce to investigate the easibility

o constructing a garden. Te Old own

Chinatown neighborhood was selected and the

non-prot Classical Chinese Garden Society

was ounded. Four years later, Mayor Vera Katz

pledged to civic leader Bill Naito to spearhead an

eort to obtain a site or the Garden. Trough

her eorts, the board o Northwest Natural Gasdonated a 99-year $1 lease on a site at the corner

o Northwest Tird Avenue and Everett Street

or a Suzhou-style Chinese garden.

Portland then signed a partnership resolution

with Suzhous Mayor or design and construction.

Drawings and a model were developed by the

Suzhou Garden Board and the Suzhou Classical

Garden Architectural Company. In 1997,a separate non-prot, the Classical Chinese

Garden rust, was ormed to raise unds to

build the Garden and undraising is pursued

under Mayor Katz leadership or the next two

History


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years. Many oundations and individuals pledge

their support along with a major loan rom the

Portland Development Commission.

Ground-breaking occurred in June o 1999. U.S.

companies perormed the site and oundation

work while Chinese artisans worked in Suzhou

on the wooden parts o the building and

decorative windows. Every piece is then shipped

to the U.S., including ve hundred tons o rock.

Over seventy Chinese workmen arrive in the

all to actually construct the gardens buildings

and pathways. Trough a cooperative eort olandscape designers, generous local and out-o-

state nurseries, volunteer horticultural experts,

other volunteers and the Portland Parks bureau,

the plant collection is amassed and planted. A

third non-prot, the Portland Classical Chinese

Garden, is ormed to operate the Garden once

it is nished.

September 14, 2000, the Garden ofcially opens.

Over 400,000 people visit the Garden during

its rst two years. Te Gardens rst Executive

Director, Gloria Lee, is hired. Ater the rst

two years, annual Garden visitation levels o at

about 120,000.

In 2002, urniture collections are added to the

Gardens buildings in honor o volunteer Marcia

Weinstein. A pond leak discovered in the early

years requires extensive negotiations with thearchitects and contractors to reach a nancial

settlement. By 2004, extensive repairs are

undertaken to x a leak in the pond liner and

the Garden is closed or a ew weeks. In 2003-

2004, the Garden launches and successully

completes a undraising campaign (the Lotus

Campaign) to improve horticulture collections,

develop K-12 curriculum materials and a school

outreach program, and build up operating

reserves.

In 2008, Gloria Lee announces her pending

retirement. Cynthia Haruyama is hired in the

spring o 2009 as the Gardens second Executive

Director.


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As classical Chinese gardens originated in a

warmer summer-rain climate, it requires great

skill to grow authentic plants in Portlands climate.

Te Horticulture department is responsible or

all plants within and around the perimeter o

the Garden as well as the water plants. Te

Horticulture department works rom the original

planting plans and according to a yearly work

plan developed in conjunction with the original

garden designer, Ms. He o the Suzhou Garden

Bureau. Ms. Hes ocus is on the major plantings

placement and pruning o trees, shrubs and

vines - and the sightlines within the Garden. Te

Horticulture department is also concerned with

the authenticity, health and viability o all o the

plantings plus the smaller understory plantings

that add horticultural interest to the Garden.

Te horticultural sta maintains the health and

aesthetics o each plant, grows replacement plants

in the o-site greenhouse, moves and removes

the aquatic plants seasonally, and replaces and

adds new plants as needed. Since a garden is

always a work-in-progress as plants are living,

changing entities, the horticultural department

is constantly anticipating and responding to

change.

Tey also are responsible or a greenhouse (rented

rom Portland Public Schools) where they grow

replacements or the unusual plants, winter over

the water lotus plants which might reeze in

our climate i let in the pond, and propagate

plants or the semi-annual plant sales. Tey lead

horticulturally themed tours on a regular basis.

As the most visible sta members to visitors,

they must always project a cheerul willingness

Horticulture


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to answer questions about the Garden. Behind

the scenes, they are also responsible or keeping

the plant database up to date.

Te horticulture sta consists o one Horticulture

Manager (Glin Varco), a horticultural assistant

(Lucy Baker), and a seasonal worker (usually

6 months o the year). As with the Facilities

sta, there is considerably more work to be

done and another goal should be to increase the

Horticulture sta by at least one more ull-time

person.


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Te Board and Executive Director are jointly

responsible or ensuring that the Garden

is ullling its mission. Tis translates into

determining and monitoring strategic direction,

working to create appropriate and adequate

resources or the Garden to do its job, andnancial oversight. In addition, the Board has

the role o monitoring the Executive Directors

perormance in terms o the goals and objectives

set orth in the mission, annual budget and

Strategic Plan. An Executive Committee works

closely with the Executive Director to more closely

monitor operations, strategic plan priorities and

prepare inormation and recommendations or

the entire Board to consider.

Te Executive Director is responsible or

managing the Gardens sta, nances and

operations and keeping the Board inormed about

all key issues and trends. In partnership with

the Board, the Executive Director also works to

develop appropriate and adequate resources or

the Garden to do its job. Te Executive Director

must ensure and monitor her own workplan plus

those o all sta and departments, the annualbudget and goals to match the mission, Strategic

Plan and the Gardens resources.

A Board Nominating Committee is responsible

or identiying, recruiting and orienting new

Board members. Te Committee is chaired by

Anne Naito-Campbell.

Leadership


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Communications and marketing supports

admissions, retail, rentals, volunteers, events,

programs, development and membership by

designing and printing advertising copy, signage,

collateral materials and website postings. Design

and printing are outsourced as needed. Te

Communications department is responsible

or the design and content o advertising, the

website, collateral materials (Membership

brochure, event invitations, etc.) and the

newsletter. Te Communications department is

responsible or developing an annual advertising

plan and budget, preparing and sending out

press releases, seeking ree and in-kind marketing

opportunities and managing media relations.

Te Communications department consists o the

Marketing Manager (part o the responsibilities o

Operations Director Jane DeMarco)

and Communications Manager (ScottSteele). Eventually, the Garden needs

a ull-time Marketing Manager.

While the Garden has a logo and

tagline, its brand identity needs to be

strengthened and standards developed

or and implemented in all collateral

materials. In addition, the Garden

needs to determine the messages that

will be most compelling and relevantto the variety o audiences it must

engage visitors, members, donors,

volunteers, and public ofcials.

Branding project rereshing the image

In the business world, it is elt that identity

materials need to be rereshed every ve years.

Te Garden is thereore overdue to re-invigorate

its image and message in the community. Parallel

to the Visitor Experience planning project, we

are working with a creative rm to identiy the

primary and secondary themes and audiences

Marketing & Communications


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or our brand. Once these are agreed to in a

Creative Brie, design and messages, the creative

rm will develop messages and design. Most o

this work is being perormed pro bono.

You might expect that ater nine years o

explaining the Garden, we would know which

core messages and experiences resonate with our

visitors and members and those which inspire

them to return and become supporters. Yet we

have neither data nor consensus on this. For

most o the Gardens history, we have relied

upon the idea that the Garden sells itsel oncevisitors come, they will get it and our job is

done. At the same time, we have been telling

stories lots o them trying to cram in all o

the 1,000 years o history and culture and the

local issues into each introductory visit. In act,

however, ad hoc visitor debries suggest that

many visitors nd the Garden pleasurable but

only ater overcoming their initial impressions

o it not being a garden, not being a big enough

experience to justiy the cost o a ticket, and the

lack o inormation to help them understand

and appreciate all the non-plant aspects.

While branding cannot address the experience

itsel, we believe a more communicative brand

identity would help visitors correctly anticipate

what their experience will be like and thereore

actually enjoy the experience more. It should

also both guide and relate to the stories weare telling about the Garden so that all o our

messaging - branding, marketing, interpretation

and education is creating and ullling the

same promise to our visitors and members.

Te deliverables or this project are:

A comprehensive brand identity platorm1.

including design guidelines, templates and

key messages which eectively communicate

our essential identity to visitors, members,

donors, readers o advertising, web browsers

& volunteers

Key messages2.

New logo3.

Style guide which will guide our external4.

& in-house designers

Design template or newsletter5.Tese are all the deliverables we can aord at

the present time. Using the styleguide, we

will continue to create other materials in-

house. When budget permits, we will probably

outsource some o the materials back to the

creative rm to ensure we are maximizing the

new brand.


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Te Garden is located in the heart ohistoric Chinatown/Japantown. Tis areawas vacated by the Japanese when they weremoved to internment camps during WorldWar II. Chinese businesses began to move

out over the lasttwo decades sothat i there is aChinatown inPortland now, itis out on 82ndAvenue.

Te currentneighborhood is

a mix o socialservices, somebusinesses, low-income singleoccupancy hotels, nightclubs and morerecently more restaurants and other non-prots such as the University o Oregonand the soon-to-be new MercyCorpsheadquarters. For generations, this has been

an economically depressed area where theiconic images are o a Skid Row nature.

Public nancing assisted the construction othe Garden in the hopes it would provide an

anchor or economic redevelopment in theneighborhood. Experience has shown thatthe Garden by itsel is not enough. However,there have been new restaurants, coeeshops,retail, and middle-income housing units

added in thepast decade.Te Gardenengages withand participatesin the threeneighborhoodg o v e r n i n gassociations.

Te Garden wishes to honorthe historicalc o n n e c t i o n

between it and the Chinese communitythat once lived in the neighborhood. Tis isaccomplished through supporting Chinesecommunity major events and associations.Te Garden actively seeks to include

members o the Chinese community on itsBoard, among its volunteers, and to hireChinese-Americans or Chinese speakers orits sta.

Neighborhood & Chinese community


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Te Garden is owned by the City through the

bureau o Parks & Recreation. Te non-prot

organization operates it through a license

agreement with the City. Te non-prot is

obligated to support itsel while caring or and

operating the Garden or the communitys benet.Major acilities and capital improvements can

technically be reerred to the City or unding

subject to its own budget limitations. Since

the City is not overowing with extra unding,

obtaining any City unding is an uphill challenge.

Constant monitoring o the city and Parks

bureau budget situation is needed, as well as,

constant (but riendly) advocacy at all levels (City

Council, Parks bureau leadership, Parks bureau

line personnel) or compelling unding needso the Garden. Tere are also opportunities to

obtain in-kind services rom Parks many service

departments such as tree care, pest management

and greenhouse. Since no sustained advocacy

has been conducted since the Garden opened,

there have been little public unding or in-kind

services. However, there is now a public unding

ask Force consisting o some Board membersand the Executive Director and they believe that

by applying strategic consistent advocacy over

time, some public unding opportunities will

arise or the Garden.

Another area o political advocacy by the

Garden is on neighborhood development

issues. Te Garden participates along with the

neighborhood associations on many issues such

as land use, Portland Development Commissionnancing and the ratio o social services to other

businesses.

Political advocacy & public funding


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Te Garden has conducted a 3-year school

outreach program primarily to rural Oregon

schools outside o the Metro area rom 5/06

5/09. Tis entailed developing K-12 curriculum

materials introducing classical Chinese culture

and the Garden. Ten the Gardens EducationalDirector (a position unded or only 3 years as

part o this project) took the materials on the

road. Final tally was over 35,000 students and

teachers reached by this program. Tis project

was part o the East Meets West grants. Te

grant unding or this project comes to an end

in May 2009 and cannot be renewed.

However much o the impact o this program

will continue as the curriculum materials arenow available via the website and CD to teachers

throughout Oregon. Also, docent tour guides

have been trained specically or school groups

and the program has been advertised to teachers

in the Metro area.

School groups and curriculum


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Te Garden is a product o the sister city

relationship between Portland Suzhou, China.

While today cities such as Shanghai and Beijing

are best known in the West, rom the 14th

through 19th century, Suzhou was the most

amous city within China. While the imperialcourt and ofcials resided in Beijing, the

paradise on earth sought by most

Chinese was Suzhou, a city on

the Yangzi delta, inland rom

present-day Shanghai.

During those ve centuries,

Suzhou was the wealthiest,

most prosperous and most

sophisticated city in China. All the best merchandise and

agricultural products came

to Suzhou and most o it was

manuactured in Suzhous

workshops or silk, cotton,

embroidery, urniture, lanterns,

silver, paper woodblock

printing, etc. Te wealthy

and powerul sought to live inSuzhou or retire there ater their government

service in ar-ung posts o the empire. Around

their homes they spent ortunes building

elaborate gardens. Surviving today are sixty

o these original gardens, eight o which are

UNESCO world heritage sites.

Due to the sister city relationship, Portland built

the most authentic Suzhou-style garden outside

o China. As delegations rom Suzhou andother parts o China visit Portland, a must-see is

Portlands Chinese Garden where

they eel they have stepped into

the glory days o Suzhous past.

Te Garden works closely with

the Portland Suzhou Sister

City Association to maintain

a vibrant government-to-

government and people-to-people link with Suzhou. oday,

Suzhou retains its lovely old

character in the center o the

town with its historic canals,

bridges, city gates and gardens.

raditional handicrats are still

practiced by many artisans so

that Suzhou is still a center

or silk, embroidery, paintingand other arts. Yet Suzhou is also an economic

powerhouse in modern China with industrial

parks and high-tech manuacturing.

Suzhou and Sister City Relationship


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Volunteers enhance all aspects o the Gardens

operations rom docent-led tours, gardening

and acilities assistance, stafng events and

programs, and helping with mailings and other

ofce unctions. Volunteers add great vitality to

the Garden through their presence within theGarden and the passion and knowledge they

bring. Trough their interactions with visitors,

members and the community, they develop and

are knowledgeable about what the Garden needs

to do to connect to people. Tey also serve as

a dedicated constituency in the community to

spread word-o-mouth recommendations about

the Garden.

While volunteers are not ree, they are a relatively

low-cost way to increase the Gardens unctions

and services. o keep volunteers happy and

engaged requires sta time enthusiastically

dedicated to recruiting, training, scheduling and

thanking volunteers. Te volunteer program ismanaged by the Volunteer Coordinator, Katie

Hill. However, working harmoniously with and

acknowledging the contributions o volunteers

are a responsibility o all sta.

Volunteers


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Signicant anniversaries create the opportunity

to re-engage donors, members, volunteers,

elected ofcials and the community. Te Garden

will be using its 10th anniversary to remind our

community o the Gardens presence and value

and to encourage them tocome or another look. Many

in our community have still

not visited the Garden.

Many came once during the

rst two years and eel they

have seen that, done that.

Tis is an opportunity to

intrigue them to come

again and help them realize

that the Garden is a placeo many layers and innite

experiences, worth visiting

and re-visiting all the time.

Te anniversary celebrations

will kick o on June 7,

2009 with a ceremony

honoring Mayor Vera Katz

who was so instrumental inmoving the Garden rom dream to reality. Tis

will mark the tenth anniversary o the ground-

breaking or construction in 1999. Over 1,200

o the Gardens ounders and early leaders have

been invited. More news and anniversary-related

events will ollow. Te nal celebration will be

a gala dinner held at the Portland Art Museum

ballroom on September 16, 2010 marking the

10th anniversary o the Gardens opening.

Te 10th Anniversary Gala

Committee is chaired by

Gayle Cheldelin and is

staed by the Development

Department. Honorary co-

chairs are Arlene and Harold

Schnitzer.

10th Anniversary


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ConuciusConucius, a wise man who lived sometime

around 500 B.C., is the ounder o an intellectual

tradition that seeks to provide wisdom and

structure to ensure a just and eective political

and social order. At the heart o the Conuciantradition is the belie that all things and people

must be in right relationship with each other

and rom this harmony will ow social and

political justice and harmony. Conucians

thereore are both ocused on internal character

in order to understand and live up to every right

relationship and on external deeds in that such

right relationship prepares them to be eective

government administrators. Te highest idea o

every Conucian gentleman is to be o service tohis community through government service.

DynastyStarting rom 220 B.C., Chinese governments

and historians have divided time into eras

known as dynasties, named ater the ruling

amily who ounded the primary government.

Tere has been remarkable similarity in style

o government over this time, broken onlyby the rise o a brie republican government

and then communist government in the 20th

century. An emperor ruled rom a capital city,

with governance unctions executed by a class

o people known as the scholar-ofcials (see

below).

Literati

Another name or scholar-ofcial (see below),this term also suggests the other cultural pursuits

o the scholar-ofcial. Beyond mastering the

Conucian classics, the literati sought to develop

their aesthetic and spiritual sensibilities through

practicing the arts o painting, calligraphy,

poetry and music and by staying close to the

natural environment through such places as a

garden. Women o these households also were

part o the literati class, becoming well-educated

in the same texts as the men and also practicingthe same arts.

Ming Dynasty1368 1644

PenjingMiniaturized rendition o the natural landscape

similar to a landscape painting. Tis tradition

started in the 7th century in China. Subsequently Japanese culture adopted this practice and

developed the art o bonsai. Tou sharing

a common origin, bonsai and penjing have

Glossary of Terms


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developed distinct dierences, most notably

in bonsais adherence to an idealized vision o

the tree or plant. Penjing, in contrast, seeks

the lively poetry o wind, water, and time in

shaping a composition. Penjing oten includes

gurines and rocks to complete the miniaturized

landscape.

Qing Dynasty1644 - 1912

Scholar-ofcial

Unlike most o the worlds history whereleadership positions were primarily based upon

kinship or xed classes o nobility, Chinese

government ofcials have always been drawn

rom a meritocratic process created to discern

knowledge and wisdom. Over time, this

process became known as the examination

system which tested scholars knowledge o the

Conucian classics. It took years and sometimes

a lietime to rise up through examination levels

so the class o people who pursued this course

became known as the scholars or the aspiring

part o their lives and ofcials or the time

when they actually passed a high enough level to

be awarded a government post. Any male could

aspire to become a scholar-ofcial. Preparation

or this lie became widespread at all levels o

Chinese society during the Ming and Qing

dynasties. Although ew actually succeeded, the

equal opportunity to compete regardless o classor birth, created a social mobility that was at the

heart o Ming and Qing dynasty social stability.


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