$15 Million to PNCA

Portland’s cultural landscape is poised to receive a brilliantly transformative boost in the form of a $15 million gift from Hallie E. Ford to the Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA). Reported today by D.K. Row, the gift will fund the new Ford Institute for Visual Education, allowing PNCA to bring world-class artists and designers to live, work, and teach in Portland…good for the students, great for the college, and phenomenal for the city.

The amping up of a program like this can only be exciting for the existing, talented faculty — artists like MK Guth and David Eckard — and students. For us non-students, the energy ripples outward: imagine exhibitions, panels, lectures, workshops, Q&A’s, little chats here and there with visiting artists. This will do for the visual arts over a longer term, what PICA’s TBA festival does in a short burst once each year for the performing arts. It energizes Portland artists and helps forge connections with artists and arts professionals from elsewhere.

Stay tuned for more on this.

POSTED: May 22nd, 2007 | AUTHOR: lisa | FILED UNDER: art | TAGS: art | No Comments »

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