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The story is all too familiar. In the early morning hours of Nov. 20, two masked individuals, using a crowbar, forced their way into Artichoke Music—the music venue, store and school that has been a hub for Portland’s folk community—and walked out with instruments and music equipment worth around $8,000.
It’s also a tale that has been repeated with alarming regularity for the space. “There’s been 10 break-ins since 2021,” says Artichoke executive director Shelley Garrett. “Music shops are a soft target.” (Strum Guitars, Vinyl Resting Place, The Fixin’ To, and other local music-related local businesses have also suffered break-ins.)
For fans and supporters of Artichoke, the burglaries feel like a personal affront. Ever since the nonprofit opened its doors on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard in 1973, it’s become a beacon for burgeoning folk and blues musicians, setting them up with instruments, teaching them the ropes of songwriting or harmony singing, and giving them stage time through a regular series of open-mic nights and jam sessions. And for established artists, it’s a cozy home they can return to, with a built-in audience who will hang on their every note.
With each incident that Artichoke and its loyal team of volunteers have endured, they’ve managed to bounce back—maybe not stronger than before, but wiser and more determined. Sitting in the nonprofit’s humble performance space as members of songwriter Jo Alexis’ backing band set up, Garrett says work is being done to secure the building from future break-ins. She takes the more valuable instruments home with her and is in discussions to get metal gates and window bars installed.
But Garrett keeps steering the conversation to the future and the next batch of shows and master classes, like a new series of open mics for queer artists and hip-hop performers. The kind of evenings that inspired her to become part of the Artichoke team in 2022 as a music booker after nearly five decades as an executive for Kroger and Meier & Frank.
“It’s not the easiest job to walk into on the first day,” Garrett admits. “It’s overwhelming. You’ve got to be tough. Forty-eight years in retail makes me tough. I still am almost in tears a couple of times a week.”
Garrett is more than forgiven for a few crying jags. Artichoke has had to deal with a lot in the years since moving in 2017 from its original location on Hawthorne to its current home on Southeast Powell Boulevard. The business, which relies heavily on income from live shows and fees for the music school on the second floor of the building, barely survived the pandemic thanks to some government grants and the largesse of supporters. In 2023, right around the time Garrett was brought on as director, things were so dire financially that Artichoke came close to shutting down the shop side entirely. “We had less than two weeks of cash on hand,” Garrett says.
Any other tears she has shed have been a result of joy and appreciation for the community that has helped Artichoke weather the storms. “Marv Ross of Quarterflash was here talking about another show he wanted to book,” Garrett remembers, “and he goes, ‘By the way, I have a 1970 Martin guitar that’s just sitting in my closet. I wrote all of my hit songs with it. I want to give it to you.’ That paid our rent for a month.”
More patrons have leapt to the fore to protect this little jewel of Portland’s folk scene, especially in the wake of the recent burglaries. A volunteer who works as a carpenter helped put up plywood to block the windows that look out on Powell. An anonymous regular paid for new gates for the shop’s front door. And there was a sizable donation from someone that Garrett says “no one here seems to know who lives out of the area but said [they’ve] known about us forever.”
It’s enough to pay back the consigners whose guitars were stolen last month and, once again, let everyone at Artichoke breathe a little easier as they look to 2025.
“I’m pretty protective of trying to do original acoustic singer-songwriter [performances] as the core of what we do,” Garrett says. “There’s all kinds of places to do that in town, but you don’t get this type of thing.” She gestures at the top-tier sound system and video equipment that captures every performance. “We had five sold-out shows last week. Don’t tell me there’s something wrong with us. There’s so much opportunity here.”
SEE IT: Artichoke Music, 2007 SE Powell Blvd., 503-232-8845, artichokemusic.org. Noon–5 pm; shows 7 pm Thursday–Sunday.