Focus Area
Volunteer for Arts & Culture in Central Oregon
Matching organizations, in a different order on every visit
Connect Central Oregon is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that strengthens communities in Crook, Deschutes, and Jefferson counties (plus Warm Springs) by connecting people with volunteer opportunities, board positions, and mentorship. It promotes civic engagement, community leadership, and innovation through platforms like Central Oregon Volunteer Connect.
Volunteers help run CCO's community events, from volunteer and board fairs to robotics and drone expositions, support community media production, and help keep the Volunteer Central Oregon directory accurate by reviewing organization listings. Students and groups are welcome, and CCO can sign off on community service hours.
Tower Theatre Foundation, Inc., The
also known as Tower Theatre
The Tower Theatre is downtown Bend's historic performing arts center, a 460-seat Streamline Moderne landmark whose neon tower has lit up Wall Street since 1940. Saved from closure by the nonprofit Tower Theatre Foundation and fully renovated in 2004, it hosts concerts, theater, dance, film festivals, lectures, and community events, along with its LessonPLAN youth education programs. The Doug Watson Scholarship for Performing Arts honors Doug Watson, the Foundation's longtime board chair and a co-founder of Connect Central Oregon, by helping graduating seniors across Central Oregon pursue the arts in college.
Tower Theatre relies on a large crew of volunteers to keep the venue running. Opportunities include ushering, photography, giving tours, administrative support, hospitality, community liaison work, and helping with special events, with weekly trainings offered.
BendFilm is a Bend nonprofit, founded in 2003, that celebrates independent cinema's power to enrich lives, amplify diverse voices, and inspire change. It presents the annual Bend Film Festival each October, which brings more than 100 independent and student films, filmmaker Q&As, panels, and parties to venues across town. Year-round, BendFilm owns and operates Tin Pan Theater, the downtown arthouse cinema, and runs Free Movies in the Park, the Basecamp filmmaker program, and youth filmmaking camps and workshops.
Volunteers run nearly every part of the Bend Film Festival, including box office and ticketing, theater and venue operations, guest and filmmaker hospitality, event and party support, and distributing the festival guide. Year-round, volunteers also help with screenings, special events, and parties. Perks include a festival volunteer tee, screenings when seats are available, and free Tin Pan Theater tickets.
Caldera, founded in 1996 by Dan Wieden and Priscilla Bernard Wieden, inspires and supports youth from underserved urban and rural communities by awakening the potential of their creative voice. Its free, long-term youth program pairs kids with artists and mentors for seven-plus years through school-year programming and summer camps at its campus on Blue Lake west of Sisters, blending art, music, dance, writing, film, and time in nature. It also hosts an Artists in Residence program. In 2015 it was the first Oregon nonprofit to win the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, presented at the White House.
Volunteers support events and workshops that bring the community together, help in operational roles that keep programs running, and take on youth program support roles, sharing their knowledge and creativity with students ages 12 to 18. Commitments range from a few hours a month to more, year-round, in Central Oregon communities and the Portland area.
High Desert Robotics & Rotors Expositions
also known as HDRex
High Desert Robotics & Rotors Expositions (HDRex), a program of Connect Central Oregon, inspires the next generation of Central Oregon leaders through hands-on robotics and drone experiences. It organizes expositions, workshops, and competitions, including the region's Aerial Drone Competition for middle and high school pilots and programmers, and connects robotics teams, clubs, schools, mentors, and the wider community.
Art in the High Desert is a juried fine art and fine craft show held each August along the Deschutes River in Bend's Old Mill District. Run by artists for artists, it brings more than 100 artists from across North America to Central Oregon and is ranked among the top art shows in the country, with volunteers helping make the show happen.
Volunteers help staff the show across setup, show days, and teardown — greeting artists and the public, staffing information points, and generally keeping things running smoothly. Shifts are typically 3-hour blocks, and you can bring family or friends to volunteer together.
Tin Pan Theater is downtown Bend's arthouse cinema, a 28-seat historic theater tucked into Tin Pan Alley with old-fashioned red velvet seats, homemade popcorn, and local beer and wine on tap. Owned and operated by BendFilm since 2019, it screens curated independent and international films, documentaries, Oscar contenders, and cult classics daily, hosts special events and outdoor summer screenings, can be rented for private movie parties, and serves as a signature venue of the Bend Film Festival.
Volunteers join BendFilm's crew to help with special screenings, events, and parties at Tin Pan and its outdoor alley and summer screenings, and the theater is a core venue during the Bend Film Festival each October. Volunteering runs through BendFilm, whose perks include two free Tin Pan tickets.
Friends of Westside Village Magnet School
also known as Friends of Westside, Friends of WVMS
Friends of Westside Village Magnet School is a grassroots 501(c)(3) formed in 2008 by Westside Village parents and the wider community. Going well beyond a typical PTO, it runs the school's after-school program, where students and families bring their own ideas for clubs, activities, and experiences, and it funds camps during school holidays and summer break, school events, materials, staff development, curriculum, and student transportation.
Parents and community members volunteer by proposing and leading after-school clubs and activities, sharing a skill or passion with students, helping run holiday and summer camps, supporting school events and fundraisers, and serving on the Friends board.
Museum at Warm Springs
also known as Middle Oregon Indian Historical Society
Oregon's first tribal museum, opened in 1993 by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, home to one of the country's largest tribally owned collections of Native artifacts, art, photographs, and documents. It preserves and shares the living traditions of the Warm Springs, Wasco, and Paiute people through exhibits, cultural demonstrations, and education programs, with walking trails and an outdoor amphitheater along Shitike Creek.
Volunteers help with community cleanup days on the museum's grounds and trails along Shitike Creek, and support exhibit openings, cultural demonstrations, and education days like the annual fourth-grade science visit.
GFWC Central Oregon Woman's Club
also known as GFWC of Central Oregon, General Federation of Women's Clubs Central Oregon, GFWC Central Oregon Woman's Club
Women's volunteer service club formed in 2003, affiliated with the General Federation of Women's Clubs, founded in 1890. Members of all ages and occupations improve Central Oregon communities through service projects across arts, environment, education, civic engagement, and health, along with domestic violence awareness and prevention. Members helped dedicate Redmond's Flag City Pavilion.
Members take on hands-on community service projects in arts and culture, the environment, education and libraries, civic outreach, and health and wellness, and support domestic violence awareness and prevention, GFWC's international signature project. Monthly Wednesday-evening meetings feature speakers from local causes.
A nonprofit youth theater that empowers young people through performing arts, offering classes, camps, mainstage productions, and in-school workshops throughout Central Oregon.
Volunteer opportunities include serving on the Board of Directors or committees (Development, Communications), helping with studio maintenance, and supporting productions with set building, costuming, and sound or lighting.
Bend Brews & Beyond is an Oregon craft beverage festival held in downtown Bend's Drake Park on Memorial Day weekend (May 23, 2026). Replacing the former Bend Brewfest, it features over 50 local breweries, cideries, and non-alcoholic producers, plus a Hempgarten, live music, "Meet the Makers" sessions, and a Brewers Decathlon.
Volunteers help staff festival stations throughout the weekend — pouring and serving at beverage tents (including the non-alcoholic tent), greeting attendees at the gate, and supporting event setup and cleanup. Shifts are typically a few hours, and volunteers receive free festival entry, food, and event swag in exchange for their time.
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