September 2024
Hello, alums and friends,
The start of another academic year always fills me with excitement. This week, we welcomed 154 new undergraduate and transfer students and 34 graduate students, reflecting our most diverse class on record. I’m thrilled that we continue to evolve as an institution and create space for the next generation of artists and designers to tell their stories.
PNCA’s reputation is a product of the power of our faculty and alumni, who continue to lead and amplify what it means to lead lives of purpose, social impact, and creative innovation:- Steven Hector Gonzalez BFA’15 curated the show “Visions,” which opened in Irving, Texas on May 18th.
- Demien DinéYazhi´ BFA’14 was featured in the 2024 Whitney Biennial.
- Anthony Hudson (aka Carla Rossi) BFA ‘13 activated Jeffery Gibson’s groundbreaking pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
- Kathleen Cosgrove BFA’03’s ‘Feeling Our Age’ art exhibit grand opening and book signing took place on June 20th at the Watermark in Portland’s Pearl District.
- Ximena Bedoya MFA’14 performed at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, on July 14th.
- Rebecca Campbell BFA’94’s show, Young Americans, took over the LA Louver in Venice, California, from May 29th to July 20th.
Rebecca’s interview with Forbes highlights PNCA’s approach to cross-disciplinarity, exploration, and experimentation.
“I learned how to make everything: I took four years of sculpture, four years of printmaking, four years of figure drawing.”
We take great pride in our curriculum, preparing our students for the rapidly changing creative world they will encounter upon leaving school. The true key to its success is our fantastic faculty.
Take faculty members Danielle McCoy and Jordan Jackson, a husband-and-wife team who co-teach Graphic Design and have years of experience in communications and apparel design. They designed the outfits Team Nigeria wore during the Opening Ceremony at this year’s Paris Olympics.
And Associate Professor and Chair of General Fine Arts and Creative Writing Kristin Bradshaw who was awarded a 24-25 Fulbright Fellowship to study at Ruusbroec Institute, University of Antwerp, to focus on the Flemish emblem book, an image-text print combination produced in Belgium and the surrounding regions from the 15th-17th centuries. Her research will explore how printing and typographic history and book production responded to technological and social shifts in Europe; and seeks to understand implications for contemporary word/image practices such as comic books, zines, and alternative press publications.
Our faculty are driving academic scholarship and creative industries–this combination of academic and practical support is vital for our students like Aries Brock BFA’24, who just graduated this spring.
In Assistant Professor Georgina Ruff, Aries found a strong thesis mentor. “Having her in my corner while I made the most important art of my college career was such an honor,” Aries says of Ruff. “She pushed my boundaries in such a thoughtful and growth-oriented way that I will always be thankful for.”
These accomplishments, and the countless others of our entire PNCA community, reaffirm our place as the premier art and design school in the Pacific Northwest.
I look forward to sharing some of the great work to come over the next academic year. Until then, I hope to see you at an upcoming event, like our First Thursday festivities each month.
All my best,
Jen Cole
Jordan Schnitzer Dean of PNCA
