General 1 — ALBERTA HOUSE

ALBERTA HOUSE IS AN EVENT SPACE INTENDED FOR ALL, WITH A FOCUS ON REACHING AND ENGAGING VOICES FROM OUR COMMUNITY THAT HAVE BEEN DISPROPORTIONATELY IMPACTED BY SOCIAL, ECONOMIC, AND OR RACIAL INJUSTICES IN OREGON.

built in 1924

The building now known as Historic Alberta House was originally a Masonic lodge. In 1986 it became a local church. In 2013, after sitting empty for seven years, it was acquired and restored, and became Cerimon House. In 2022 the building became Historic Alberta House. Alberta House is intended for all and is focused on elevating voices that have struggled for many years to be heard. This is your house.

Our mission is to reach and engage voices from our community that have been disproportionately impacted by Oregon’s social, economic, and racial injustices. Surrounded by and intertwined with the reminders of a complex history marked by vibrancy, resiliency, and ingenuity, as well as racism, exclusion, and trauma, we open the doors of this historic building for the community to explore.

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

VIN SHAMBRY

Vin Shambry, is an executive producer, artistic director, published writer, acclaimed storyteller, international actor, director, painter, and community builder. He grew up in Portland and has traveled the world as an artist and creator. He performed on Broadway as Tom Collins in "Rent and recently wrapped filming on “Outdoor School,” a feature film based on his life growing up in Portland and his experiences with housing insecurity. Vin toured and performed with the US State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Arts Envoy trip to Egypt in 2019. He is passionate about creating a safe space for artists in the Black community in Portland to expand their artistic limits, to gather, to create, and to belong. Vin says, “When you create spaces like this, where artists don’t have to conform or change to fit a certain template, their ideas are free to flow and their creativity just expands in a really beautiful way. That is what Historic Alberta House is all about.

MANAGING DIRECTOR

MATTHEW KERRIGAN

Matthew Kerrigan is an award-winning, multidisciplinary artist from Chicago, IL. His professional body of work includes devised theatre, theatre education & outreach, film & television, photography, jewelry making, installation creation, and training empathic communication in healthcare systems across the United States and abroad. Matthew has worked with all major theatre companies across Portland and has trained thousands of participants across the country and internationally through group workshops to develop and grow a capacity for empathic communication. Matthew’s favorite aspect of this training work is its capacity to support the well-being of the medical staff themselves, and participant feedback often highlights a profound realization of how leading with empathy changes lives. Over the past several years he has been producing work with Historic Alberta House including Red, A Nights at The Cotton Club, Poorlandia, How Did I Grow Up to be so Melodramatic, and more. Matthew received his Bachelor's in performance from Illinois State University and took a deep dive into movement at Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre.

in house