School Description
Provided by Pacific Northwest College of ArtPNCA’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.
Pacific Northwest College of Art
From Wikipedia, The Free EncyclopediaThe Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) is a college in Portland, Oregon, United States that grants Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees and Master of Fine Arts degrees. With nine departments, communication design, illustration, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, intermedia, and the mentor-based MFA in Visual Studies. PNCA also provides continuing education in the arts to the local community.
Programs and degrees
- BFA degree
- MFA degree in Visual Studies
- BFA/BA degree with Reed College
- Continuing Education Program
- Certificate Program: Fine Arts, Graphic Design, Illustration
History
PNCA was created in 1909 by the Portland Art Museum, and remained "The Museum Art School" until 1980. The college changed its name to reflect an independence from the museum. In April 1994, the school formally split from the art museum to become the Pacific Northwest College of Art, a fully independent institution. In 1998, the college moved to its present campus in Portland's Pearl District, allowing the Portland Art Museum to create a new contemporary wing.
Faculty
PNCA employs 18 full-time faculty (nine tenured), 49 part-time faculty, and a large number of continuing education faculty. All faculty are working artists and designers, many showing both nationally and internationally. Of the faculty, MK Guth is noteworthy. Guth recently participated in the 2008 Whitney Biennial, she is chair of the MFA program at PNCA (FIVE).
Students
2007/2008 enrollment in the BFA program is 440 full-time students. 48% of students are from out of state and 52% are from Oregon. The MFA program has 15 students per cohort; the pilot program is an MFA in Visual Studies with anticipated MFAs in sequential art and curatorial studies. The continuing education program serves more than 2,500 students part-time per year. 80 students currently reside in the PNCA housing, Goose Hollow.
Facilities
PNCA is primarily located in a cluster of warehouse buildings in northwest Portland, in the Pearl District. The primary campus building and ancillary teaching facilities in nearby buildings total over 100,000 square feet. The campus includes twelve public exhibition galleries, two professional galleries and ten spaces reserved for student and community showings. The galleries include: the Feldman Gallery, Higgins Gallery, Manuel Izqueirdo Sculpture Gallery, BFA Gallery, special project space, Gallery 214, the IMAG, the Swigert Commons, the In Flux space, the Vorhies Library gallery, the Hall of Illustration, and the little-utilized Stephens Exhibition Space. PNCA supports a fully functioning professional design firm, operated by the students and their mentors, the or C4D. This firm, operated in a separate satellite commercial space, works to execute professional design projects for its clients. The client provides funding for production costs and the students receive a portfolio filled with actual design work and a working client list. In January 2009, the board of the Museum of Contemporary Craft and the board of PNCA agreed to putting MCC under the control of PNCA.
Quick Facts
- Location:
- Northwest
- Setting:
- Large City Setting
- Type:
- Private
- Size:
- Small (Under 2,000 Undergrad)
Students & Campus Life
- Undergraduate Enrollment:
- 306
- On Campus Housing:
- Unavailable
- Full Time Students:
- 100%
- Athletic Programs:
- Unavailable
Degree Programs at Pacific Northwest College of Art
Bachelor's Level Programs
-
Arts & Humanities
-
Visual Arts
See more schools with programs in
Visual Arts
-
Fine Arts and Art Studies
See more schools with programs in Fine Arts and Art Studies
-
Painting
A program that prepares individuals creatively and technically to express emotions, ideas, or inner visions by the application of paints and related chemical color substances to canvases or other materials. Includes instruction in color and color mixing; surface preparation; composition; oil and acrylic media; watercolor media; painting techniques; and personal style development.See more schools with programs in Painting
-
Printmaking
A program that prepares individuals creatively and technically to express emotions, ideas, or inner visions by rendering art concepts onto surfaces and transferring images, via ink or dyes, onto paper or fabric. Includes instruction in monochrome and color printing; tonality; chemistry; equipment set-up and maintenance; techniques such as serigraphy, lithography, intaglio, woodcut, block, stencil, relief, etching, and composite; and personal style development.See more schools with programs in Printmaking
-
Sculpture
A program that prepares individuals creatively and technically to express emotions, ideas, or inner visions by creating three-dimensional art works. Includes instruction in the analysis of form in space; round and relief concepts; sculptural composition; modern and experimental methods; different media such as clay, plaster, wood, stone, and metal; techniques such as carving, molding, welding, casting, and modeling; and personal style development.See more schools with programs in Sculpture
-
Fine Arts and Art Studies
-
Visual Arts
See more schools with programs in
Visual Arts
-
Communication & Media
-
Graphic Design
A program that prepares individuals to apply artistic and computer techniques to the interpretation of technical and commercial concepts. Includes instruction in computer-assisted art and design, printmaking, concepts sketching, technical drawing, color theory, imaging, studio technique, still and life modeling, communication skills and commercial art business operations.See more schools with programs in Graphic Design
-
Illustration
A program that prepares individuals to use artistic techniques to develop and execute interpretations of the concepts of authors and designers to specifications. Includes instruction in book illustration, fashion illustration, map illustration, rendering, exhibit preparation, textual layout, cartooning, and the use of various artistic techniques as requested by clients.See more schools with programs in Illustration
-
Photography
A program that focuses on the principles and techniques of communicating information, ideas, moods, and feelings through the creation of images on photographic film, plates, digital images and that may prepare individuals to be professional photographic artists. Includes instruction in camera and equipment operation and maintenance, film and plate developing, light and composition, films and printing media, color and special effects, photographic art, photographic history, use of computer applications to record or enhance images and applications to the photography of various subjects.See more schools with programs in Photography
-
Graphics & Multimedia
See more schools with programs in
Graphics & Multimedia
-
Intermedia/Multimedia
A program that prepares individuals creatively and technically to express emotions, ideas, or inner visions in either two or three dimensions, through simultaneous use of a variety of materials and media.See more schools with programs in Intermedia/Multimedia
-
Intermedia/Multimedia
-
Graphic Design
Students
General
|
Full-Time vs. Part-Time
|
Men vs. Women
|
||||
|
Race/Ethnicity
|
Geography
|
In State vs. Out-of-State
|
Top States for Incoming Freshman
|
| Percent of Students International: | 1% |
Housing
| On-Campus Housing Available: | No |
| Tuition & Fees (undergraduate) | Expenses | ||
Published Tuition and Fees: |
$ 17,296 | ||
Average Tuition for Full-Time Undergrads: |
$ 16,490 | ||
Required Fees for Full-Time Undergrads: |
$ 1,170 | ||
| Financial Aid | Avg. Amount Received | % of Students Receiving Aid | |
Federal Grants: |
$ 3,450 | 35% | |
State and Local Grants: |
$ 2,158 | 13% | |
Institutional Grants: |
$ 2,769 | 65% | |
Student Loans: |
$ 4,880 | 68% | |
Any Aid: |
81% |
Selectivity (Undergraduate Only)
| Acceptance Rate: | 72% (Selective) |
Application Requirements (Undergraduate Only)
| Application Fee: | $ 35.00 |
| Formal Demonstration of Competencies: | Required |
| High School Diploma or Equivalent: | Not Required |
| High School GPA: | Required |
| High School Rank: | Recommended |
| High School Record: | Required |
| Recommendations: | Required |
| TOEFL: | Required |
| Test Scores: | Not Required |
College Advice
|
 |
|
Question: How is the illustration program at Pacific Northwest College of the Arts (PNCA)?I'm thinking of going back to school for Illustration (I previously got a BA in Photography) so I wouldn't be retaking the foundation courses, just the Illustration/electives. Is the program very rigorous? Would you say it prepared you well for a career in illustration?6 months ago
Best AnswerI'm starting the CE program at PNCA and I had a look at some of the illustration track's output (I'm interested in illustration as well) and they have made some incredible things. PNCA is a very close knit school and from what I know of it they really help you make that transition from school to career. I don't know for sure since I haven't taken any of their illustration classes but I know that PNCA is a fantastic school with a great reputation and amazingly talented students. |
|
|
Question: Which college would you recommend for graphic design?Art Institute of Portland or Pacific Northwest College of Art?29 months ago
|
