Kathy Deggendorfer: Bringing Sisters together
By Jim Cornelius

Kathy Deggendorfer believes in the power of art to bring people together.

The Sisters artist and entrepreneur has been doing just that for the past 15 years, after moving here from Bend in 1994.

Through the preceding years, Deggendorfer and her husband Frank owned three Columbia Outfitters stores in Bend and Kathy focused on being a mom to her daughter Erin. She had always been a painter and she occasionally took on art projects, including writing and illustrating a children’s book for St. Charles Medical Center called “Charlie the Bunny,” designed to help kids face their fears.
Deggendorfer’s artistic odyssey began in earnest in 1998.

“When Erin graduated, we sold all our stores,” she said. “And then we retired to the ranch — which was really scary. I thought, ‘what am I going to do with myself?’”

Kathy said that her impetus was a sense that the fabric that knits America together was getting frayed.

“How did we all get so separated from each other?” she wondered. “I was really searching for things that brought people together.”

She found what she was seeking in the Sisters Folk Festival. She attended the folk festival in 1998 and was immediately hooked.

“I just loved the folk festival and thought the artists were so approachable,” she said.

With her usual energy and enthusiasm, Deggendorfer got involved with the festival organization, became chair of its board of directors and helped launch the festival’s educational outreach program, the Americana Project.

She was also instrumental in establishing the organization’s major spring fundraising art auction, My Own Two Hands, which has become one of Central Oregon’s premier art events.

At about the same time, her rather casual painting career took a serious turn. She got a piece framed for a friend at High Desert Gallery in Sisters and the gallery operator, Todd Dow, asked her if she ever sold any of her pieces.

Soon enough, Kathy was painting in a serious way, represented by the High Desert Gallery. She formed an artistic partnership with noted quilter, Tonye Belinda Phillips, and the two have collaborated on numerous works ever since.

While pursuing her art, Deggendorfer’s entrepreneurial spirit cropped up again when she saw an opportunity to turn the former site of a publishing company’s offices into an arts center.

She purchased the building and created Sisters Art Works, at 204 W. Adams Ave. Sisters Art Works houses artists’ studios, a workshop space, offices for several Sisters non-profits, spaces for practitioners of the healing arts and both indoor and outdoor concert venues.

Sisters Art Works is part of Deggendorfer’s vision for using the arts as an economic engine for Sisters.
“We’re not going to have another widget factory,” she asserts. “We’ve used up our ability to cut down trees and send them someplace. So what have we got? We’ve got an incredibly creative and thoughtful community. We’ve got the deepest talent pool around.”

Deggendorfer’s own talent earned her the signal honor — bestowed by then-Senator Gordon Smith — of crafting the state ornament for the National Christmas Tree in 2008.

Deggendorfer was invited to the White House for a holiday ceremony — and lobbied for arts in Central Oregon while she was there.

With typical self-effacement, she’ll tell you that her passion for art and friendship and community is really selfish at it’s core.

“That’s the kind of world I want to live in,” she said.

And in Sisters, she’s creating it.

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