Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA)

PNCA’s mission is, and has always been, to transform students into knowledgeable, articulate, practicing visual artists and designers with the ability to significantly contribute in original ways to the ongoing dialogue in art that shapes our culture.

For ten decades PNCA has served as the flagship art school for Oregon and the wider region and in the course of those years its faculty, students, alumni, and staff have contributed indelibly to the spirit and substance of this institution, its city and region, and to the creative community that connects us to a wider world of possibilities, concerns and obligations. Imagine a life without the high places of wonder, joy and insight to which the arts lift us. Then imagine what the impact that the tens of thousands of creative citizens who have been associated with the school over its first 100 years have had on the quality of our personal and public lives today.

We believe that a PNCA education prepares you for a life of creative practice. We make this claim based on our confidence in the blending of a studio-based education and liberal arts learning the College offers. And we make this claim based on what you have accomplished with the PNCA faculty in your time with us.

In the close-knit community of PNCA, academic and student services are personalized. Students can take advantage of academic advising, housing services, and career services; they can also investigate study abroad and student opportunities at other art colleges. Personal counseling is offered, with special workshops focusing on issues like life transitions and coping with stress.

As a PNCA student, you’ll belong to an active community of artists with the opportunity to exhibit your work in numerous campus galleries, participate in collaborative installations, and host opening receptions for your shows. Students can study abroad, travel, or join campus activities from yoga classes to art clubs.

As an active student you may find yourself on a trip to Seattle museums, at a design conference in Canada, or at a Native American printmaking seminar in Eastern Oregon. Field trips may take you kayaking on the Willamette River, painting on Sauvie Island, or to numerous artist studios and galleries. Perhaps you’ll take an intensive workshop with a renowned visiting artist or create coursework for offsite exhibition, such as recent projects showing intermedia work at a vacant apartment complex and broadcasting student audio work on the radio.

Student activities and organizations include Student Council, Print Club, Focus Group, Open Figure Drawing, and leadership meetings. Yoga classes are held regularly, and students gather for broom hockey at Lloyd Center ice rink. The Student Art Promotion Group will put you behind the scenes of curating, promoting, and understanding the exhibition of art. As one student puts it, involvement in Print Club brings her “absolute joy.”

Pacific Northwest College of Art moved into the current campus in 1998. The campus consists of three academic buildings, which are located within two city blocks of each other in Portland’s Pearl District.

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