Pendleton artists paint a new future

Published 5:00 am Wednesday, July 30, 2025

Artisans in the region will have a central place to connect, support one another with Pendleton Artist Network

PENDLETON — A group of artisans and arts supporters in Pendleton are setting up a network to share resources and knowledge.

The Pendleton Artist Network is a nonprofit organization being established for Umatilla and Morrow counties. According to Tom Henderson, founder and board president, the goal is to create a community for artists in the area to support and learn from one another while building, expanding or promoting their businesses.

“Somebody just has to get everybody together on the same page,” he said. “That’s what we’re trying to do.”

Henderson, a potter and owner of Pendleton Ceramics, said he believes having the makers in the area come together will benefit everyone.

“We’re targeting not just Pendleton, but the entire surrounding area of anybody that makes things and wants to network and resource off each other to grow as a group and have a large amount of people that are successful at selling stuff that they make,” he said.

The inaugural meeting of the Pendleton Artist Network Board of Directors was Monday, July 28, and seven people attended. The group elected Henderson as president, Marie Pratuch as vice president, Stephanie Huffman as secretary and Robb Corbett, Pendleton city manager, as treasurer. The other board members are Anna Cavallo, Mark Preslar and Tim Mustoe.

The nonprofit will work in response to feedback from artisans in the area. It’s not just artists in the traditional sense, Henderson said. The network will be for anyone who makes things with their hands — whether physical or digital, lasting or fleeting — as well as consumers.

Henderson said he envisions breadmakers and photographers alongside painters and potters. Mustoe, a local filmmaker, said he’d like to see a film festival in Pendleton. And Pratuch, a potter, printmaker and weaver, said she’s hoping to work with local businesses to create an annual series of rotating murals.

Preslar, an attorney, said he’s on the board as a supporter of the arts, despite not being a professional artist himself.

“In the internet age,” he said, “I think it’s more important than ever that there’s access to local artists for consumers outside of the art sphere who just want to buy things.”

A lot of artists in the area work day jobs, he said, so offering them resources to build and expand their businesses will help them reach goals that would be too challenging without external support.

“Having these resources available to them is also important,” Preslar said. “And it’s an economic driver for the community, and ultimately, the region.”

The organization’s vision statement describes a “thriving artisan community that possesses the agency to use their creativity to make a viable living” and that has access to resources as well as a supportive group of people. The Pendleton Artist Network hopes to “contribute to the vibrancy and richness” of the regional economy.

In the end, Henderson said, the goal is to support artisan entrepreneurs with working on their crafts full time and taking up space in storefronts downtown, making Pendleton a destination for art and culture as well as for the rodeo.

“It’s going to help a lot of people to realize their dream of becoming an artist, maker or entrepreneur,” Henderson said. “Even if we only get two or three people to actually become business owners, it’s still two or three more.”