Hello, alums and friends,
It is commencement season! This year as we celebrate and launch our class of 2025 of BFA, MA and MFA students, I am struck by their innovation, optimism and their healthy dose of trepidation.
Creative careers have changed dramatically in the 30 years since my graduation and profoundly since the pandemic. In 2022, we partnered with the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) to survey our alumni on their post-graduation work and careers. One of the key questions asked by the national survey was around core skills needed in alumni work, both in and out of the arts. Topping the list were skills in communication, technology, and project management. Over the last two years, our faculty reviewed this data and hundreds of other bodies of research shaping arts and design careers. In 2024, we revised our overall college learning outcomes to reflect the complex set of skills and competencies that today’s arts workers need to thrive. We followed that by adopting a new general education framework that will go into effect next fall. This revises the historic art history, history, math, and science requirements that make up 30% of the student course work at PNCA.
Next year, students will now take a series of integrated seminars that combine art history, social science, science, and data/quantitative analysis through relevant contemporary topics. Students will focus on projects that test their historical understanding of ideas but also rigorously demonstrate skills in media analysis, AI-understanding, and ethics, and statistical/data analysis, and multiple forms of written, visual, and oral communication–all vital skills for today’s creative worker. We are launching new classes like Data Visualization and Constructing + Deconstructing Data. Additionally, we have added required Creative Practice Courses such as Introduction to Creative Citizenship, Creative Project Management, and Creative Entrepreneurship + Ventures that embed business management, marketing, project management, networking, and collaboration for all students. We believe we are the first independent art school in the US to make this shift in general education, driven by feedback from our alumni and from deep independent research in arts and design careers.
This work would not have been possible without a partnership with faculty–led by a task force led by Dr. Shawna Lipton, Dr. Laurel Reed Pavic, Ardis deFreece (alumni) with support from Melanie Stevens (alumni), Phoenix McNamara (alumni), Sara Huston, Emily Ginsburg, Dr. Pooya Naderi, Dr. Kate McCallum and Atkins Graduate School of Management faculty Dr. Gilbert Park and Jane Manchin. We are thrilled this “reimagination” has been recognized by Forbes and are buzzing with excitement as we build curriculum, community partnerships, industry-based projects, and experiences that will continue to shape the lives of innovation, contribution, and meaning for the next generation of PNCA students!
If you are interested in learning more or would like to support this curricular transformation as a mentor or volunteer, please feel free to reach out to
pnca-dean-info@willamette.edu
I would be remiss if I did not take a pause in this moment of excitement to acknowledge the passing of David Eckard, our friend, mentor, teacher, and Chair of the Sculpture department, on April 16, 2025. Our community continues to celebrate David, who was an iconoclast, a prankster, a craftsman, and a powerful, powerful life force for so many colleagues and students. He was the center of so many interconnected networks that buoyed and cared for creatives in Portland and beyond. This spring, as you work in your studio, visit galleries, dig in your garden, or enjoy the spring sun, remember David and the myriad ways PNCA shapes lives, careers, and communities. Peace, David.
All my best,
Jen Cole
Jordan Schnitzer Dean of PNCA
