| Pacific Northwest College of Art | |
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Bike parking at PNCA |
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| Established | 1910 |
| Type | Private |
| Endowment | $15.0 million[1] |
| President | Thomas Manley |
| Academic staff | 67 |
| Students | 545 |
| Location | Portland, Oregon, United States |
| Campus | Urban |
| Website | pnca.edu |
The Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) is a private fine art and design college in Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. Established in 1910, the art school grants bachelor of fine arts degrees and master of fine arts degrees (MFA) and has an enrollment of about 550 students. The college has ten undergraduate departments: Communication design, illustration, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, Intermedia, and Animation; and three masters programs: a mentor-based MFA in visual studies, an MFA in applied craft and design and an MFA in collaborative design.[2] PNCA also provides continuing education in the arts to the local community.
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PNCA was created in 1909 by the Portland Art Museum, and was called "The Museum Art School" until 1980. The college changed its name to reflect its independence from the museum. In April 1994, the school formally split from the art museum to become the Pacific Northwest College of Art, a fully independent institution. In 1998, the college moved to its present campus in Portland's Pearl District, allowing the Portland Art Museum to expand into the neighboring building (a former Masonic temple) and establish a new wing devoted to modern and contemporary art, photography and select decorative arts from the permanent collection.
PNCA is primarily located in a cluster of warehouse buildings in northwest Portland, in the Pearl District. The primary campus building and ancillary teaching facilities in nearby buildings total over 100,000 square feet (9,300 m2).
In March, 2008, the PNCA announced the U.S. Department of Education and the General Services Administration approved PNCA's application to make the 511 Federal Building a permanent part of the school's campus.[3]
In January 2009, the board of the Museum of Contemporary Craft and PNCA's board of Governors agreed to securing MCC under the banner of PNCA.[4]
The campus includes twelve public exhibition galleries, two professional galleries, and ten spaces reserved for student and community showings. The galleries include: the Philip Feldman Gallery + Project Space, Higgins Gallery, Manuel Izquierdo Gallery, BFA Gallery, Gallery 214, the Interactive Media Gallery (IMAG), the Swigert Commons, the InFlux Gallery, the Charles Voorhies Fine Art Library gallery spaces, the Hall of Illustration, and the Stevens Studios.
PNCA employs 18 full-time faculty (nine tenured), 49 part-time faculty, and a large number of continuing education faculty. All faculty are working artists and designers, many showing both nationally and internationally. The college employs many talented faculty. For example, MK Guth recently participated in the 2008 Whitney Biennial,[5] she was chair of the MFA program at PNCA (FIVE) until Spring 2009. In 2009 the chair was taken over by Arnold Kemp.
PNCA supports a fully functioning professional design firm, operated by the students and their mentors, the or C4D. This firm, operated in a separate satellite commercial space, works to execute professional design projects for its clients. The client provides funding for production costs and the students receive a portfolio filled with actual design work and a working client list.
2009/2010 enrollment in the BFA program is 500 full-time students. 54% of students are from out of state and 46% are from Oregon. The MFA program has 15 students per cohort; in 2009 there will be three cohorts. Two in the MFA in Visual Studies and one in the new MFA in Applied Craft and Design a joint program with the Oregon College of Art and Craft. The continuing education program serves more than 2,500 students part-time per year. 80 students currently reside in the PNCA housing, Goose Hollow.
PNCA is led by Thomas Manley, an expert in Asian studies and an art collector. Manley has brought about advances in contemporary art education including his innovative Global Studios courses. Manley, a 22-year veteran of the Claremont Colleges, primarily Pitzer College, has expanded the college both physically and academically. He negotiated with the federal government to secure the historic 511 Federal Building that allowed the campus facility to double in size.
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