"OUR COMMUNITY NEEDS SUPPORT IN A VARIETY OF WAYS. OUR GOAL IS TO BECOME AN INVALUABLE RESOURCE FOR THE ARTS COMMUNITY."

— Constance Bracewell

Get to know TOC's Executive Director

The Old Church (TOC) has a familiar face with Constance Bracewell as its Executive Director. Originally a board member with the 57-year-old non-profit, as Board President, she helped steer the organization through COVID, focusing on strategic planning, asking critical questions with direction for impact. And she updated how they worked as a board. 

"We changed when, how, and why we met,” Bracewell explains. "But that was just the start. Spearheaded by past executive director, Amanda Stark, in 2016, TOC leaned fully into it's place as a Portland concert hall and premiere listening room. We installed high-end, audio equipment specifically designed to enhance and support the natural acoustics of the gloriously reverberant auditorium. As a collective, we acknowledged that other elements of the organization needed to align with the production quality of the new infrastructure. Organizations grow in stages, and we’re evolving every day.”

Art as the Great Equalizer

The position of executive director utilizes many of Bracewell’s skills. At University, she studied art and design, and then went on to create it, both in Toronto and Los Angeles, where she ultimately came to oversee visual effects on some of the most notable films of the decade. All the while, she was involved with, and supporting, nonprofits and the local art communities. Her strong belief is that the arts are essential to a healthy and complete life and shouldn’t be just the purview of the financially privileged. 


Bracewell explains how this belief guides her work at TOC: “Our community needs support in a variety of ways, and our mission guides how we pitch in. It's social service through culture; allied with the arts and a concert hall.”


Which also explains why Bracewell has focused so much on community and accessibility in her efforts. Since her first day, she’s been steadfastly preaching TOC’s unsurpassed quality as a music experience. But her vision reaches far beyond that. The goal, ultimately, is to become an invaluable resource for the local arts community: A place for artists of all types to perform, collaborate, and be nurtured, while offering a cultural oasis for audiences, regardless of identity, class or wealth.

“I changed when, how, and why we met,” Bracewell explains. "But that was just the start. In 2016 TOC leaned fully into it's place as a Portland concert hall, and installed high-end, audio equipment specifically designed to enhance and support the natural acoustics of the vaulted main auditorium. As a collective, we acknowledged that other elements of the organization needed to come in line with the production quality of the new infrastructure. Organizations grow in stages and we’re doing that now. On the board, my focus was strategy. As Executive Director, it’s all about programming and outreach ”

Art as the Great Equalizer

The position of executive director suits her, utilizing many of Bracewell’s skills. At University, she studied art, and then went on to create it, both in Toronto and Los Angeles, where she ultimately came to oversee visual effects on some of the most notable films of the decade. All the while, she was involved with, and supporting, nonprofits and the local art communities. Her strong belief is that the arts are essential to a healthy and complete life and shouldn’t be just the purview of the financially privileged. 


Bracewell explains how this belief guides her work at TOC: “Our community needs support in a variety of ways, and our mission guides how we do it. It's social service through culture; allied with the arts and a concert hall.”


Which also explains why Bracewell has focused so much on community and accessibility in her efforts. Since her first day, she’s been steadfastly preaching TOC’s unsurpassed quality as a music venue. But her vision reaches far beyond that. The goal, ultimately, is to become an invaluable resource to the arts community: A place for artists of all types to perform, collaborate, and be nurtured, while offering a cultural oasis for audiences, regardless of identity, class or wealth.

Community as a Driver

Free programming has been the cornerstone of TOC since its inception as a non-profit fifty-six years ago. Created as a way of thanking the countless volunteers for their extensive efforts to save and then revitalize the building, the Wednesday concerts also provide local artists with an opportunity to perform.

TOC has expanded their free programming to include concerts on their "Box Office Stage" in the front of the building under the historic porte cochére.



“We love supporting local arts development by providing opportunities for local musicians to open for touring acts in our 300-capacity main auditorium and are thrilled we can also offer the opportunity for them to headline our open air stage where the community audience gathers to celebrate them,” says Bracewell. All of our stages bring people together.


More than Music

Bracewell is also proud to discuss TOC’s efforts to support downtown revitalization, including the gallery space launched in February of 2024. Bracewell describes the new effort, “There’s no other gallery in Portland with a space like ours. It’s not a white box but a grand historic building with an ornate 20-foot ceiling. You have all this gorgeous Victorian and colonial architecture in fantastic contrast to the artists’ contemporary work.

When you step into the space you see contemporary work in contrast with history, and the historic architecture becomes grounded in the present”