SALEM ART ASSOCIATION

The salem art association's community arts education program aims to support a broad range of dynamic local arts projects. Most notably, cae engages thousands of students, administrators, teachers and parents each year through our artists in the schools initiative and the high school mentorship program. With the 2016 renovations of the annex and at the bush barn art center cae programming has expanded. The newly renovated bush barn annex now serves as the headquarters for saa's cae program and features a dedicated studio space for a year-round artist-in-residence program, and a main space for art workshops, exhibitions, classes and other programming.

The historic bush house museum is preserved and interpreted to explore the lives and legacy of salem's bush family, the early development of salem, and the history and diversity of early oregon. The rooms are furnished with a significant number of the bush family's original furnishings to show what the house looked like around 1913. The house was modern when it was built, with gas lighting, indoor plumbing, and a central heating system; as the home of a wealthy family, it doesn't reflect the lifestyle of most oregonians living in that era. Salem art association has started the process of re-examining the life and contributions of asahel bush whose racist rhetoric and support of exclusionary government structures still impacts native americans and communities of color today and finding ways to de-emphasize his individual story while creating space for the stories of salem's diverse early communities.