Got $5? SNAP recipients can catch discounted shows

The starving artist is cliche. So is choosing between supporting the arts and paying your bills. 

The broad art world still has a reputation for being elitist and exclusionary. While plenty of the Portland area’s creative organizations are committed to making their programming culturally inclusive for current audiences, many still wind up priced out of spendier shows. Arts for All — the program affording steep discounts or free admission for beneficiaries of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — celebrates 15 years in 2026 of making Portland’s artistic offerings more readily available to audiences. 

Some organizations allow SNAP cardholders to purchase $5 tickets ahead of time through Arts for All’s online pricing, while others require them to show proof of benefits (i.e. show your Oregon Trail card) in person the day of the event, as capacity for this price point might be limited. 

Portland Art Museum, for instance, does allow Arts for All tickets to be purchased online, but requires in-person purchase for movies at the onsite Whitsell Auditorium or the Center for an Untold Tomorrow at the Tomorrow Theater. LiveWire Radio, meanwhile, sometimes sells out its Arts for All tickets ahead of its pricier general admission seats. Partner organizations also have attractions not included with their Arts for All programming, so it’s always a good idea to check ahead of time with a box office over the phone or via email rather than show up and be disappointed.  

The Regional Arts and Culture Council first paired with Work for Art and Go Classical Portland on the pilot program, originally called Music for All, which discounted concert tickets for SNAP cardholders. New and repeat Music for All customers claimed just over 1,400 tickets during the first six months. Due to its success, Music for All became Arts for All, expanding in October 2011 to include theater, visual art, dance and film events, as well as discounted access to manicured gardens like Lan Su Chinese Garden and Leach Botanical Garden. RACC manages Arts for All, and while the organization’s relationship with the city of Portland changed in 2024 — when the city’s last contract for RACC to manage its artistic funding distribution expired — there are still plenty of theater companies, art galleries and musical ensembles committed to the cause.

Representatives from creative entities — including 21ten Theatre, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Literary Arts, Third Angle New Music, Friends of Chamber Music, Forest Grove’s Theatre In The Grove, Portland Playhouse and Portland Piano International — make decisions with RACC, like guiding how many Arts for All tickets are made available. Partner organizations decide how many Arts for All tickets are released and how they’re obtained, which can vary. 

While Arts for All patrons can’t use their SNAP cards to cover their costs, they can enjoy some of spring’s most exciting cultural events with as little as $5. 

Meech Boakye, RACC’s communications lead told Street Roots the Arts for All committee “is also beginning to explore ways to better track usage of Arts for All tickets, including collecting information this year about how many tickets are being used through the program.”

“While funding is certainly top of mind, many organizations continue to emphasize how important it is that all members of the community have access to arts and culture — whether through museums and galleries, music venues, or performances by theater and dance companies,” Boakye said. “Programs like Arts for All remain one way that participating organizations help ensure that access continues.”

The following picks should have a little something for everyone. Unless otherwise noted, they are Arts for All’s $5 ticketed events. A full list of participating organizations is online at racc.org/artsforall.

Ongoing Attractions

Portland Art Museum (1219 SW Park Ave., 503-226-2811, portlandartmuseum.org) not only offers discounted admission like free entry on First Thursdays and quarterly free Museum Days, but Oregon Trail cardholders can purchase two PAM tickets for $5 each, as well as $5 tickets to movies and events with an advertised $15 general admission at both the museum’s in-house Whitsell Auditorium and PAM CUT at the Tomorrow Theater (3530 SE Division St., 503-221-1156, tomorrowtheater.org). PAM’s multimillion dollar renovation was well worth the wait, affording not only more gallery space — especially for art by Black artists and artists of color — but more accessible flow between the museum’s previously labyrinthine buildings. Work by artists including Mark Rothko, Mickalene Thomas, Marco Brambilla, Lisa Jarrett, Pipilotti Rist and scores of other artists must be experienced in-person, while PAM CUT’s curated new releases and second-run screenings often feature extra events to give new life to beloved classics, deep cuts and new rising indie projects. 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Tuesday – Sunday. 

Oregon Museum of Science and Innovation (1945 SE Water Ave., 503-797-4000, omsi.edu) also offers up to four tickets for $5 each to SNAP beneficiaries. Its programming ain’t just for kids, inspiring awe and wonder in teens and adults through not only fascinating specimens and displays, but in-depth presentations to make the fun educational. Some OMSI attractions like the submarine USS Blueback and film screenings at the Empirical Theater aren’t discounted, but plenty of movie tickets are under $10. One extra space that does take Art for All discounts is the Kendall Planetarium, which hosts the play The Life of Galileo at 7:30 p.m. on March 6–8 and 13–15. Starting March 21, OMSI will host Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition, a show featuring recreations of the RMS Titanic’s storied first class cabins and belongings recovered from the North Atlantic Ocean floor (it’s your guess whether they found a sexed-up 1912 Coupe de Ville). 9:30 am–5:30 pm Monday–Friday.

The Littman and White Galleries at Portland State University’s Smith Memorial Student Union (1825 SW Broadway, littmanandwhite.com) are not formal Arts for All partners, but they are the United States’ only entirely student-run art galleries. RACC highlights them as a year-round resource on Arts for All’s website. The Littman Gallery’s ongoing exhibition, the group show Faces in Everything, closes March 13 (11 a.m. – 4 p.m. Monday, Noon – 7 p.m. Tuesday, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday), while the White Gallery’s group show Cure is on view through April 8 (8 a.m. – 4 p.m. Monday – Friday). Faces in Everything features mixed media work by Anne Mavor, Lalo, Nicki Eybel and Andy Clift that, per curator Deven Truong’s exhibition statement, “explores the ephemeral nature of pattern by honoring objects and faces we remember and using their memory as a tool for self-exploration.” Cure, meanwhile, features designs by nail artists Verania Rojas, Isabel Choi, Alyssa Glaze, Anya Talbert and Adina Erb, fitting the growing trend of reconsidering cosmetic fingernail decoration as a labor-intensive, culturally specific artform. Free.

Blue Sky is not a formal Arts for All partner, but like the Littman and White Galleries, RACC shouts out the photography art center for its commitment to financial accessibility. Its solo exhibitions, Death|s|trip, by Terri Warpinski and Valparaíso, by Éléonore Simon, are on view through March 28. Both shows concern themselves with place: Warpinski documented present-day Berlin, while Simon lensed the namesake Chilean coastal town. 122 NW 8th Ave., 503-225-0210, blueskygallery.org. Noon – 5 p.m. Wednesday – Saturday. Free.

Calendar

This article appears in March 11, 2026.