Having Nike’s Tinker Hatfield and graffiti artist Stash wandering the gallery floor alongside local stars like Stumptown Coffee founder Duane Sorenson at a free event that anyone off the street can just pop into—as they did during the Sentimientos/Sentiments show—is an important step in Valadez’ overall plan.

Where food and music personalities in Portland tended to gravitate toward their own groups, the city’s robust marketing community is similarly insular: Clinging to old rules about not discussing creative work, even once it’s no longer a trade secret and out in the open.

Valadez said he sees Industry’s gallery shows, West End Wednesday events and community networking as a way to not only push the city’s creative community, but to use that wellspring of creativity toward a greater good. 

“It’s to establish Portland as the creative capital of the states,” he said. “That, to me, is the DNA of Portland.”