PNCA and OCAC Present Design/Build Expert Steve Badanes With the Launch of the New MFA
August 10, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 10, 2009
Contact:
Leah Bobal | Communications Specialist
Pacific Northwest College of Art
lbobal@pnca.edu 503 821 8964
Becca Biggs | Director of Communications
Pacific Northwest College of Art
becca@pnca.edu 503 821 8892
Jody Creasman | Communications Director
Oregon College of Art and Craft
jcreasman@ocac.edu 503.297.5544
PNCA and OCAC Present Design/Build Expert Steve Badanes With the Launch of the New MFA in Applied Craft and Design
Applied Craft and Design Lecture: Steve Badanes
Wednesday, September 2, 6:30pm
MFA Studio Open House and Celebration
Saturday, September 12, 8:30pm
MFA in Applied Craft and Design Studios @ The Bison Building
421 NE 10th Ave.
PORTLAND, OR – Join Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) and Oregon College of Art and Craft (OCAC) as they prepare to launch their joint MFA degree program in Applied Craft and Design. As the program commences its first academic year this September, these institutions invite the community to celebrate this unique venture with two events, both free of charge and open to the public.
The launch begins with a talk by Steve Badanes, a pioneer in the design/build movement and Chair of the University of Washington (UW) College of Built Environments. Badanes serves as the inaugural speaker of the MFA in Applied Craft and Design lecture series Wednesday, September 2 at 6:30pm at the new MFA studios in the Bison Building, 421 NE 10th, entrance between Flanders and Glisan.
The new Bison Building is owned and developed by Twenty Four Seven, a multi-disciplinary design firm with headquarters across the street. In addition to being the location for this first year of lectures, the building will house studio spaces for the 15 students in the first class of the MFA in Applied Craft and Design. A refurbished vintage Airstream trailer will also reside in the building, serving as the computer lab and office for JP Reuer, Chair of the program.
Steve Badanes will work at the Bison Building during the first two weeks of September to guide the new MFA students on their first challenge: creating their own personal and communal studios. The design/build system assigns both the design and construction responsibilities of a building project to a single source, requiring the project manager to exercise a comprehensive knowledge of all aspects of the production process. Design/build fosters more feasible, more innovative thinking-intrinsic values to the MFA in Applied Craft and Design.
“So many elements have come together with the launch of this program to make it a very extraordinary couple of weeks,” said JP Reuer. “The rare and inspiring brand of collaboration between these two educational institutions, our partnerships with Twenty Four Seven and Steve Badanes will coalesce to create a very unique space for a new type of degree program. With his sense of integrity, social consciousness and genuine creativity, Badanes is the ideal resource to help us get the program started.”
At the September 2 lecture, Badanes will discuss his work and ideals, giving the public their only opportunity to see the studio space while it is still in the process of being designed.
Saturday, September 12 at 8:30pm, part two of the MFA program launch celebrates the completed studio spaces with an open house, also a public event. The event will top off with a performance from Grammy-nominated alt-country singer Tift Merritt.
With this degree program, OCAC and PNCA collaboratively foster a forward-thinking model of art and design education. The program fuses craft, design and environmentalism to pursue solutions to contemporary challenges through both conceptual investigation and creative practice.
“We will emphasize communal spaces in the Applied Craft and Design studio building to encourage open conversation and cross-pollination between artists coming from different mediums and perspectives,” adds Reuer. “We ask the students of this program to set a new standard in the industry by learning to fully execute all phases of the design and production process. Makers will become designers-and vice versa.”
The Applied Craft and Design lectures at the Bison Building will continue on Thursdays throughout the 2009-10 academic year. Highlights during the fall term include author and designer Zahid Sardar (October 22), theorist Ellen Dassanayake (October 29), jewelry designer Arthur Hash (November 12) and furniture maker Po Shun Leong (December 3).
About Steve Badanes
Steve Badanes is an architect and educator widely known for his practice and teaching of design/build. He is currently a Professor in the University of Washington Department of Architecture, where he holds the Howard S. Wright Endowed Chair of the University of Washington College of Built Environments. Badanes received a BA from Wesleyan University in 1967, and a Masters of Architecture from Princeton University in 1971. In 1972, seeking an alternative to conventional practice, Badanes and partners Jim Adamson and John Ringel founded the Jersey Devil design/build firm. The firm has designed and built a wide variety of projects over the ensuing three decades. Their work has been the subject of two books, Jersey Devil Design/Build Book (1985) and Devil’s Workshop: 25 Years of Jersey Devil Architecture (1997). Their work has also been featured in numerous articles in various professional and popular media.
About OCAC
Established in 1907, Oregon College of Art and Craft has become a principal center for education, dialogue, and the mastery of contemporary craft for future generations of artists. The College offers a four-year BFA in Crafts, a three-year Certificate Program, a one-year Post-baccalaureate Certificate Program, the new joint MFA in Applied Craft and Design with PNCA, and year round studio classes and workshops for adults and children of all ages and skill levels. As the only accredited private art college west of the Mississippi to offer a BFA in Crafts, OCAC is a superb laboratory for the invention of modern craft. www.ocac.edu
About PNCA
Since its founding in 1909, Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) has become a leader in innovative educational programs that connect students to a global perspective in the visual arts. With the recent addition of FIVE: the Ford Institute for Visual Education, the College is enhanced through visiting artists, representing the most accomplished artists, designers, and creative thinkers from around the world. The innovative programs of PNCA+FIVE serve as an incubator for new programming at the College and establish collaborative relationships between students, international artists and the region’s vital art, design and business communities. The College offers Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in Communication Design, General Fine Arts, Illustration, Intermedia, Painting, Photography, Printmaking and Sculpture. PNCA is the only school of art in the Pacific Northwest to offer graduate education in art and design, now offering two MFA programs. The first, an MFA in Visual Studies and the second, an MFA in Applied Craft and Design, was developed in collaboration with the Oregon College of Art and Craft. For more information on PNCA’s Public Programming, visit www.pnca.edu.