Pacific Northwest College of Art Launches Campaign to Expand Campus

Portland, OR (PRWEB) June 05, 2012

At its 10th annual gala on Saturday, June 2, Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) announced a $15 million philanthropic campaign, CREATIVITY WORKS HERE, directly supporting the ambitious PNCA campus expansion plan.

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PNCA announced a significant gift of $ 5 million from The Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation to name the renovated building the Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design. The gift is the largest from an alumna or alumnus in the schools 103-year history. Arlene Schnitzer will serve as an honorary co-chair for the campaign, along with Dorothy Dolly Lemelson, a longtime supporter who has established a major scholarship program at PNCA and is a Visionary sponsor for the Colleges annual gala to support its Annual Fund.

Supporters have committed more than $ 6.5 million to the Campaign to date. Gifts include $ 500,000 from the late Ernie Swigert in honor of former PNCA president Sally Lawrence, $ 100,000 from the late Ed Cauduro, who established the Ed Cauduro Scholars at PNCA in 2008 with a gift of $ 1,000,000 through the Oregon Community Foundation, and a planning award of $ 50,000 from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. PNCA also has received a $ 740,000 grant from the Portland Development Commission for project planning and design.

Acclaimed architect Brad Cloepfil and his firm, Allied Works Architecture, revealed a dramatic design for the adaptive reuse, which is anticipated to cost $ 30 million and be completed during the 2014-15 academic year. The overall project will be funded through a combination of private philanthropy, tax credits, financing, and grants.

This is an historic moment for the College and for the City of Portland, said Ann Edlen, Chair of the PNCA Board of Governors. We are extraordinarily grateful for Arlene’s support and leadership in this transformational effort. This gift, coming from a committed alumna, validates all that we believe about the power of a PNCA education to change the world with creative and design thinking and making. I am also pleased to announce that the project has 100% participation from our talented and dedicated Board of Governors.

The generosity of Arlene Schnitzer, the CARE Foundation, and the entire Harold Schnitzer family puts us in a strong position as we launch this campaign, noted PNCA president Tom Manley. Like Hallie Ford, whose $ 15 million gift in 2007 helped to launch our graduate programs, Harold Schnitzer was an early believer in the Colleges ability to transform the creative landscape in Oregon by establishing itself as a world-class institution of art and design.

In a 2010 speech, the late Harold Schnitzer praised the College for its role in Portlands future economic growth: As a businessman, I see that what we need most in our world are young people with new, great ideas. He noted that PNCA, which brings half its student body from out of state, has a substantial impact on the economy. The young people that PNCA attracts, said Schnitzer, …are contributing dollars to our economy. Arts are not a luxury. Art is part of our economy and should be encouraged to grow.

President Manley also recognized Jordan Schnitzer for his support. Jordan Schnitzer has been a key advisor and has been an instrumental part of the Colleges major philanthropic initiatives, including the gift from Hallie Ford to establish the Ford Institute for Visual Education (FIVE). Jordan Schnitzer has chaired the Colleges Benefit Art Auction for four years now and helped to bring nationally known visiting artists to our renowned printmaking program.

We are enormously excited to support PNCAs campaign, said Arlene Schnitzer, who, with her late husband, Harold, was awarded an honorary Doctor of Art Honoris Causa degree in 2011. I wouldnt be who I am today without the experiences I had at the Museum Art School, now PNCA. The College has helped to shape the cultural landscape of our community for more than a century, and is now poised to do even more in the years ahead. I think the Wall Street Journal was absolutely on target when it called Portland the nations next art capital.

The Colleges ambitious expansion to PNCAs Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design creates a world-class learning center anchored on the North Park Blocks near its partner, Museum of Contemporary Craft, and ArtHouse, the new PNCA student housing facility, scheduled to open in Fall 2013.

The announcement of the campaign lead gift was made before nearly 500 supporters at PNCAs Spring Gala: Transformation, which raised more than $ 465,000 for the Colleges Annual Fund. The campaigns theme, Creativity Works Here, was in evidence as guests viewed the work of recent graduates in the 2012 BFA and MFA Thesis Exhibitions, as well as work from students, alumni, and creative community partners. John and Janet Jay and Elizabeth Leach served as honorary co-chairs for the event, which supports faculty, student scholarships, and annual programs.

TRANSFORMING THE NORTH PARK BLOCKS

“For more than a hundred years, PNCA has been a force in attracting creative talent and energy to Portland,” says Mayor Sam Adams. “Today, with Portland’s rising profile as a center for creative entrepreneurs, PNCA’s campus on the North Park Blocks signals the central role of the College in growing the city’s creative sector as an engine for economic activity.”

In 2005, PNCA created a comprehensive Campus Master Plan with Allied Works Architecture in response to its rapid growth. The student population has doubled since 2004 and is expected to reach 1,000 undergraduate and graduate students by 2018. The College has added five graduate degrees since 2007 and now has ten undergraduate degrees. Currently, in addition to the Main Campus Building at 1241 NW Johnson, which the College owns and will continue to utilize, the College leases several facilities to accommodate its student body.

PNCAs Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design will provide students with cutting edge liberal arts classrooms, studio and critique spaces, and exhibition spaces. Allied Works Architectures design preserves key historical features while creating a new realm of public interface and arts education, including a dramatic central atrium, a black box Mediatheque theater, a beautiful two-tiered library, and a comprehensive object studies collection space, which will showcase work not only from the PNCA collection but from Museum of Contemporary Crafts permanent collection.

In a separate North Park Blocks initiative, PNCA has recently partnered with the Powell Family on the new ArtHouse. Designed by Thomas Robinson of Lever Architecture, ArtHouse will be a dedicated PNCA student residential community on the Powell-owned property at 33 NW Park Avenue.

This significant investment will directly fund critical infrastructure and program enhancements, ensuring the successful PNCA campus expansion.

Stakeholders are eager to see how the PNCA campus expansion will transform the student experience and the college’s presence within the artistic community.

The 7-story, 55,000 square feet building at the former location of Powells Technical Books will house 150 students beginning in Fall 2013. ArtHouse will have spaces to showcase art, places to make art, plus retail space and a caf

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