City Club hosts the Arts Foundation of Western Oregon (AFWO) to celebrate distinguished contributions to the cultural life of Eugene. On behalf of AFWO, a fund of the Oregon Community Foundation, Mayor Kitty Piercy will make the 2008 Eugene Arts Awards.

First is the Eugene Arts and Letters Award, established in 1982 by Lee and Hester Bishop. It honors those who have enriched Eugene's cultural life. Second is the Fentress Award, established in 1984 by Carroll D. and Harriet Fentress as a small but continuing gift to Eugene's performing and visual arts groups. They hoped their gift would provide a "drop or two in the bucket of Eugene's cultural future." AFWO conveys the award annually to local arts organizations that deserve special recognition for a job well done.

The program features a presentation by Fred Crafts, "Creating an Artistic Community and Living an Artistic Life." Fred is an arts consultant who has extensively covered the arts as a journalist. He has worked as the fine arts editor of the Los Angeles Times and the anchorman of a CBS radio affiliate in Los Angeles. His familiarity with the Eugene arts scene comes from his many years as the Arts and Entertainment Editor of the Register Guard, an arts commentator for KVAL-TV, a founder of the First Friday Art Walk, judge for art competitions, host of the Hult Center's SHOcase concert series, the Oregon Bach Festival's "Let's Talk" series, and president of the Lane Arts Council, among other positions. Fred's dream for the arts in Eugene is the creation of a community of all sorts of interests, working together.