Meghann Gilligan-Koehn

Meghann Gilligan-Koehn is the Assistant Administrative Director of PNCA’s Hallie Ford School of Graduate Studies.

Meghann works with students, faculty, artists, and community partners to create meaningful programming at PNCA centered on creativity, knowledge-sharing and social justice. Programs that Meghann oversees include the Visiting Artist Lecture Series and PNCA’s annual Graduate Symposium on topics such as DIY Practices, Art + Environmental Justice, Critical Pedagogy, and Speculative Futures. Meghann also collaborates with partners like Don’t Shoot PDX to create experiences at PNCA that activate art and design practices to support social justice and community-building, including youth art camps, zine and printmaking workshops, and Community Print events.

Meghann is passionate about the power of art + design education and has been an educator at PNCA since 2017. Meghann continues to engage with the arts through her own active studio practice, as a photographer and printmaker. In 2020, Meghann founded smallaxe projects, a shapeshifting experimental art space designed to build community around small acts of creativity, connection, resistance and resilience. Smallaxe’s collaborative programming has included an array of projects including pop-up art exhibitions, seed + plant shares and participatory projects with partners including the IPRC and Nat Turner Project. Meghann was a recipient of the Regional Arts and Culture Council’s Make+Learn+Build grant in 2022 to support this work. Meghann currently serves as a Board member for the Portland Art Museum’s Contemporary Art Council and is an active member of the Design Justice Network, the SGC International Printmaker’s organization, and the Pluriversal Design Research reading group.

She holds an MFA from Pacific Northwest College of Art + Oregon College of Art and Craft and a Bachelor’s degree with concentrations in Sociology and Philosophy from Boston College.