Pacific Northwest College of Art prepares students for a life of creative practice. Undergraduate students choose from ten majors ranging from animated art to painting to writing, and benefit from interdisciplinary collaborations throughout their fine art and design education.
As Oregons flagship college of art and design since 1909, Pacific Northwest College of Art has helped shape Oregons visual arts landscape for more than a century. PNCA students study with award-winning faculty in small classes. In the last seven years, PNCA has doubled both the student body and full-time faculty, quadrupled its endowment, and added innovative undergraduate and graduate programs.
PNCA is now embarking on its boldest venture yet by establishing the Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design as an anchor for the Colleges vision of a new campus home on Portlands North Park Blocks. Focusing on the transformative power of creativity, the capital campaign, Creativity Works Here, was launched in June 2012 with a lead gift from The Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation of $5 million. PNCAs new home will be a bustling hub for creativity and entrepreneurship, reflecting the influential role of art and design in our 21st century economy – both in Portland and beyond.
PNCA students balance studies in the humanities and sciences with hands-on art making. Undergraduate students choose from ten concentrations within four majors and benefit from interdisciplinary collaborations throughout their fine art and design education. Eleven galleries and a nationally acclaimed museum of craft and design offer students myriad opportunities for showing their work. Farther afield, students take advantage of PNCA Global Studios in Europe, Asia, Latin America, or Africa. Our Career Services Center and BridgeLab help students prepare for life after college through workshops, internships, and career counseling.
The Hallie Ford School of Graduate Studies at PNCA is the result of an historic $15 million gift to PNCA, the largest single gift ever made to an Oregon cultural institution. At the time Hallie Ford made her unprecedented gift, she wrote in a statement that it reflected her desire, to see a globally recognized center for visual art and design education located in Oregon. Since receiving the gift in 2007, PNCA has launched six graduate programs: the MFA in Visual Studies, the MFA in Collaborative Design, the MA in Critical Theory and Creative Research, the Low-Residency MFA in Visual Studies, the MFA in Print Media, and the MFA in Applied Craft and Design (offered jointly with Oregon College of Art and Craft in an innovative partnership). These graduate programs are now united within the Hallie Ford School of Graduate Studies.
