PNCA Welcomes Environmental Activist Derrick Jensen to Deliver 2011 Alfred Edelman Lecture
February 02, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 2, 2011
CONTACT:
Leslie Miller, External Relations Specialist
Pacific Northwest College of Art
lmiller@pnca.edu, 503.821.8959
Becca Biggs, Director of Communications
Pacific Northwest College of Art
bbiggs@pnca.edu, 503.821.8892
PNCA Welcomes Environmental Activist Derrick Jensen to Deliver 2011 Alfred Edelman Lecture
Poet philosopher of the environmental movement
Alfred Edelman Lecture: Derrick Jensen
“Civilization and Resistance”
Wednesday, March 9, 6:30 pm
PNCA Main Campus Building, Swigert Commons
1241 NW Johnson Street
Free and open to the public
PORTLAND, OR – February 2, 2011 – Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) welcomes award-winning author, environmentalist and anarcho-primitivist Derrick Jensen to deliver the 2011 Edelman Lecture on Wednesday, March 9, 6:30 pm. Jensen’s narratives question the sustainability of our modern industrial civilization and suggest a radical return to communal agrarian life. For his contributions to the canon of modern sustainability, Jensen was named one of Utne Readers’ “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World.”
During a recent appearance on Democracy Now!, Jensen stated, “I think a lot of us are increasingly recognizing that the dominant culture is killing the planet. I think it’s very important for us to start to build a culture of resistance, because what we’re doing isn’t working, clearly.” Jensen’s call to action includes shifting the Western tendency away from the destruction and exploitation of Earth’s resources in order to find greater harmony through life on a more ecologically healthy planet.
With fifteen books to his credit, Jensen polarizes audiences by calling for the necessary destruction of industrial civilization in order to save the world. In his many speaking engagements and interviews, his topics include toxic mimicry, identification with the system and the concept of dismantling globally and renewing locally. He has amassed followers around the globe who, engrossed by his non-fiction first person narratives, clearly identify with his message touting by-any-means-necessary tactics to restore peace in our violent culture.
This year’s Edelman lecture is co-sponsored by PNCA’s newest MFA program, the Master of Fine Art in Collaborative Design which launches in Fall 2011, with a mission to engage students in revolutionary and revisionary thinking in order to address civilization’s greatest challenges. Students in this new program will utilize design solutions that respond to environmental, social and technological challenges and address ‘wicked’ problems, such as resource depletion, emerging technologies, climate change and global demographic shifts.
About The Alfred Edelman Lecture
When the late Portland architect and photographer, Alfred Edelman, taught three-dimensional design at PNCA he challenged his students to consider the principles of engineering, kinetics, physics and other subjects seemingly dissimilar to art. In doing so he brought the outside world into his classroom. Founded by Carol Edelman, the Alfred Edelman Lecture was created to enhance the student’s understanding of the visual world by presenting timeless and/or unique ways to examine and manipulate three-dimensional space; and to be a catalyst for lively discussions in the classroom at PNCA.
About Pacific Northwest College of Art
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 and design. In addition to its eight Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees, PNCA offers graduate education with an MFA in Visual Studies and an MFA in Collaborative Design, as well as an MFA in Applied Craft and Design developed in collaboration with the Oregon College of Art and Craft.
PNCA is actively involved in Portland’s cultural life through exhibitions and a vibrant public program of lectures and internationally recognized visiting artists, designers and creative thinkers. With the support of PNCA+FIVE (Ford Institute for Visual Education), the College has a partnership with the nationally acclaimed Museum of Contemporary Craft. For more information, visit www.pnca.edu