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.

November News and Notes

A great fall term has just finished, thanks to all of the great students and instructors. You can get a peek in classroom by visiting the adult program Flickr site.

The Animation class, led by Lori Damiano presents their work Friday December 2 at 7:30. This screening will be held at the IPRC and is free and open to the public.

Check out Paul Missal’s show at Blackfish Gallery.

Currently on display in the CE Hallway are works from Sara Kaltwasser, Youth Program Coordinator and prints from this Fall’s Screenprinting class.

December 16+17 we are having Illustrator Patterns and Repetition with Damien Gilley. In this new class students learn to make repeating patterns utilizing the power of Adobe Illustrator.

The Continuing Education office will be closed Thursday the 24th and Friday the 25th.

Looking Back…

We’ve had the opportunity to meet some great students, and share some especially lovely experiences over the last 8 weeks. Here are a few choice moments that we will remember from this term. We had so much fun!






As always, it’s been a blast! Visit our Flickr site to check out more of the goings on from our classes this Fall. Don’t forget to visit our Flickr after Saturday November 19th to see additional artwork and class candids.

Sneak Peek - Online Exhibition!

Two more days until the conclusion of our Fall term. Wow. I can’t believe classes are over for this year. We’ve had so many great Youth and Pre-College instructors teach with our program during 2011, and we’ve had so many awesome students join us. While there are still a few works to be documented from this round of classes, the majority of images are up on our Flickr Site! Here is a sneak peek of the amazing art from our Art Explorers, Drawing Studio, and Visual Elements students!



If you would like to see more visit our Online Exhibition Collection.

Winter Classes and Scholarships

Our Fall classes will be ending this Saturday. Looks like we’ll have to take a break from “Art Stretches” with Wayne Bund; a ritual that our 4 to 6 year old students practice each week prior to starting the day’s project. But don’t worry, we have a lot of great class options starting over the next few months! Our Winter term starts on January 28th and runs through March 17th, 2012. We will be offering Mini Masters (4-6), Drawing + Painting (7-8), Art + Storytelling (9-11), Hand Printed Fabric Design(12-14), and Beginning Painting Techniques (Pre-College). You can read more about upcoming Youth Program classes by visiting the registration section of our website.

Did you know that we also offer scholarships to attend classes with our Program? Our application deadline for Winter Term is Friday December 9th, 2011. You can learn more about Youth Program scholarships including required materials and information, download a PDF of our application, or apply online on the Youth & Teen section of our website.