St. Agatha School Visit

A very cool group of students from St. Agatha Catholic School visited PNCA to participate in a hands on activity inspired by work from the ART.WRITE.NOW Exhibition. Led by Instructor Heather McLaughlin, students were prompted to choose a work in the exhibit and complete a short worksheet. Students then learned about value and ink wash techniques. Their drawing ideas were pulled from descriptive terms they were asked to write down relating to their chosen work of art from the exhibition.



If you would like to check out more images from our activity with the student’s from St. Agatha you can do so by visiting our Outreach Collection on Flickr.

Youth Program Internship

For the last five years the Youth Program has offered an internship to interested BFA students during PNCA’s Spring semester. Our internship program has seen a great deal of change over the years, shifting from a somewhat informal 2-credit internship to a rigorous, hands-on 3-credit internship with an academic component and practicum. Our Interns work in our classrooms on Saturdays and assist Instructors. In the afternoon they learn different teaching techniques, educational approaches, etc. Here are some of our past participants.

It’s really great to work with these BFA students, and to see their enthusiasm for art and education. We have four new interns joining us for our Winter and Spring terms. They will be working in our classrooms starting this Saturday. If you would like to see what our students and interns are up to, visit our In the Classroom collection on flickr.

Winter Classes to Start Soon

Hey There! Did you know that Youth and Pre-College classes are just around the corner. Our Winter term begins on Saturday, January 28th! Woohoo! We can hardly wait for the kiddos and teens to be back on campus! Right now we are in the midst of preparing for youth classes… supply lists are coming in; classrooms are set! Soon, brand new sketchbooks, 140lbs watercolor paper, and other materials will be arriving. Mmmm… fresh, shiny new sketchbooks.

We have some really fun classes on the way including:

MiniMasters(4-6) with MaryEllan Hartman
Drawing + Painting(7-8) with Alice Hill
Art + Storytelling(9-11) with Gary Sweet
Hand Printed Fabric Design(12-14) with Magena Kelly
Beginning Painting(Pre-College) with Benny Fountain

We can already tell that some really amazing artwork is going to be made by the students this coming term!

ART.WRITE.NOW on Exhibit at PNCA

The install is complete! The ART.WRITE.NOW Exhibition looks amazing! If you’re in town, come down to PNCA to check out this wonderful collection of work by talented teens from all across the nation!

ART.WRITE.NOW TOUR stops in Portland!

ART.WRITE.NOW is currently being installed in our commons! Here is a sneak peek at some of the amazing artwork that will be featured. The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards’ Traveling Exhibition showcases work by top teen talent from Portland and around the nation.

The ART.WRITE.NOW Tour, a traveling exhibition of select works from the prestigious Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, is coming to PNCA. This touring exhibition presents some of the most stunning examples of teen-produced work in the nation. Among the more than 100 pieces of art and writing showcased in the ART.WRITE.NOW Tour are winning works from four Portland-area teens. The exhibit represents a small sample of the Alliance’s annual national exhibition, which in 2011 showcased more than 600 works from teens in grades 7 through 12. The ART.WRITE.NOW Tour is central to the Alliance’s mission to provide recognition for creative teens and to highlight the value of arts education.

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards is the longest-running, most prestigious recognition program for creative teens and the largest source of scholarships for young artists and writers. Since 1923, more than nine million students have been recognized through exhibitions and publications and have shared in over $25 million in awards and scholarships that opened doors to prestigious institutions.

The program boasts a long list of distinguished alumni who also won when they were in high school, including Andy Warhol, Robert Redford, Philip Pearlstein, Richard Avedon, Zac Posen, Joyce Carol Oates, Sylvia Plath, John Lithgow, Ned Vizzini, Abdi Farah (winner of the Bravo reality show Work of Art: The Next Great Artist) and John Baldessari. As the program prepares for its 90th anniversary in 2013, the Alliance is calling all alumni to reconnect and join in the celebration.

The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers identifies teenagers with exceptional artistic and literary talent and brings their remarkable work to a national audience through the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. The program is generously supported by Scholastic Inc., Maurice R. Robinson Foundation, Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, AMD Foundation, Command Web Offset, The New York Times, Blick Art Materials, Ovation, and New York Life Foundation.

The Best of 2011

So as far as years go, this one was pretty great for the Youth Program. We got to make a lot of awesome artwork with our students. We met some amazing artists in both our Youth and Teen class offerings. We hosted schools from around the northwest like St. Josephs from Seattle, and joined educators from around the United States for the National Art Education Association Conference. We have welcomed new instructors, staff, and interns into our program, and had the pleasure of working with people who are truly committed to art education and a life of creative practice. If you would like to see some of our favorite moments from the last year, you can visit our Best of 2011 set on Flickr.

A big thank you to the PNCA Staff, Youth Faculty and Program Staff, as well as the parents and students, who support our programs and have helped make 2011 great. With your help 2012 will be even better!

PhotoShop Fun

Here is a glimpse at some of the digital editing work that our Visual Elements students created on their last day of class. There are some interesting approaches with the photoshop tools here. If you would like to see more, as always, make sure to check out our Flickr page. Also, there is still time to register for our winter classes! Just visit our Registration Site!

A CE Gift Guide

As everyone searches for the perfect gift and shopping guides become ubiquitous we decided that we should add our two cents. Listed below are some of our amazing faculty, staff and friend’s work that is available this holiday season.

The multi talented Lizzy House has a new line of Star Fox items available, including Iphone cases .

Stephen Mauldin has recently relaunched his website including his new work that is available for sale.

Ryan Bubnis’ shop features his awesome illustrative style on prints, t-shirts and beer cozies.

Animation instructor Lori Damiano has dvds and prints available. Check out her cool style!

Our office mate Jason and his wife co-founded the letterpress studio Darling Press and Stationers which has fantastic cards and ephemera.

Kim Lakin’s quilts are amazing!

We will add more as we find things.

End of Term

PNCA Continuing Education is currently accepting new Registrations for our Winter Term, having concluded our most recent round of classes prior to the Thanksgiving holiday. Here’s a peek into our classrooms during the final days of Fall Term.

I See You.

hmm…What happens when you give children a magnifying glass on the last day of class?



Oh, the things that you can capture when students don’t think you are looking. The magnifying glasses were used to get up close and personal with plants; Drawing Studio’s final project with Alice Hill, which focused on Botanical Illustration. Here is one of the super sweet pieces of artwork that was completed during student’s final work session.