PNCA’s First Gala at New Landmark Campus Raises More Than $550,000
June 17, 2015
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 17, 2015
Contact:
Becca Biggs, Director of Communications
bbiggs@pnca.edu
503-821-8892
PNCA’s First Gala at New Landmark Campus Raises More Than $550,000
PORTLAND, OR — June 17, 2015 – On Saturday, June 6, Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) held its 2015 Landmark Gala at the college’s new home, the Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design on Portland’s North Park Blocks. The signature fundraising event was attended by 450 people and raised more than $550,000 to benefit students, faculty, and programs.
It was a grand celebratory coming together of PNCA’s community of supporters at a pivotal point in time as PNCA for the first time held the annual event at its new campus flagship. Along with the support that was raised for the college’s Annual Fund, the evening included a cocktail reception in the building’s Ann Payne Edlen Creative Corridor and an exhibition of work by this year’s graduating students throughout the first floor and mezzanine.
Guests were entertained by Portland Opera, Tango Berratin, Jamey Hampton and the BodyVox Junior Artist Generator (JAG) Dancers, and by a performance by Do Jump entitled, “Nude(s) Descending a Staircase” in the building’s atrium. The presenting sponsors were Arlene Schnitzer, Jordan Schnitzer, and the Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Care Foundation.
“It was last year at this time, the Gala before us and a $34 million renovation project underway, that I noted it would be the last time PNCA’s annual soiree would be held anywhere other than its own campus,” said President Tom Manley. “Thank you to the PNCA community for seeing us to this day. And for this Gala, thank you honorary co-chairs Brenda Smola Foti, David Savinar, and Aric Wood; to all of our board members and our sponsors; and to the staff, faculty, and students, who are the lifeblood of this place. Tonight this landmark surges with life, we revelers breathing vitality and joy into its seams and its luminous spaces.”
ABOUT PACIFIC NORTHWEST COLLEGE OF ART
As Oregon’s flagship college of art and design since 1909, Pacific Northwest College of Art has helped shape Oregon’s 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 College’s vision of a new campus home on Portland’s 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. PNCA’s 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. For more information, visit pnca.edu.