December 2024
Hello, alums and friends,
We’ve had a busy fall at PNCA! In addition to our dynamic work in the classroom, we’ve been working behind the scenes to enhance our public programs and free public events. In fact, art schools play a specific role in local creative ecosystems as hubs for student artists, established creatives and alumni to come together to build networks and fuel creative careers. Art schools employ hundreds of working artists as faculty, speakers, mentors and exhibitors. Our Center for Contemporary Art and Culture is the organizing hub for events, exhibitions, training, learning and collaborations that fuel the professional thriving of current and future creative workers in our Pacific Northwest bio region.
- We now host 4-6 national artist and 25+ student exhibitions each year
- We host and coordinate First Thursdays in the North Park Blocks with more than a dozen gallery and business partners
- We have a Fall, Spring and Summer Visiting Artist Lecture & Program Series
- Annual PNCA Multi-day Symposium
- We host community workshops, collaborations and partnerships that focus on art-making, social justice and community on MLK Day and Juneteenth.
A few amazing moments from the fall:
- We partnered with Portland AIGA, the professional design association, on a publication fair and talk for Portland Design Month called Underground Press: Portland’s Counterculture Publications of the 70s & 80s.
- We hosted our Annual PNCA Student Holiday Maker Market, where more than 50 students sold their work!
- We hosted the KATU live televised Portland Mayoral Candidates Forum from our historic atrium.
In January, we will host a new exhibition by artist Brenda Mallory, followed quickly by a new partnership with the citywide Portland Winter Lights Festival, which will feature professional and student projection art at our Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Center for Art & Design.
Other highlights include a spring exhibit guest curated by Portland design-star, Bijan Berahimi of Fisk, focused on design, music and contemporary experience and Warp Speed, a new collaboration with Portland Textile Month, the Museum of Contemporary Craft collection and five emerging textile artists in the region.
It is non-stop, and we want you to be a part of it! We are so happy to be a hub that connects our historic arts community to the vibrant, thriving and always changing contemporary art and design world in Portland!
To stay in the know, sign up for our event notifications, stop by for a lunch talk or a First Thursday, or sign up for our "PNCA Friends" events throughout the year. We can't wait to see you!
All my best,
Jen Cole
Jordan Schnitzer Dean of PNCA
