PORTLAND, Ore. – (July 31, 2020) – Jordan Schnitzer, in a partnership with the Jordan Schnitzer Museums of Art at the University of Oregon, Washington State University, and Portland State University, is establishing an $150,000 Artist Grant Program to respond to the Black Lives Matter movement. Each Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art will award $2,500 grants to 20 artists who use their voices, experiences, and artistic expression to reflect on social justice efforts in response to systemic racism. The Artist Grant Program is funded through a generous donation of $50,000 from The Harold & Arlene CARE Foundation.

“I have often said artists are chroniclers of our time. We all feel anguish about the death of George Floyd and many others at the hands of racial oppression,” said Jordan Schnitzer, president of The Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation and the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation. “We, more than ever, need artists to help us understand this issue and help us heal.”

Artists residing throughout the state of Oregon and Washington are encouraged to submit proposals for new work or projects, or recently created work directly responding to the current Black Lives Matter movement; responding to marginalized communities; experiences with systemic racism and inequality; and artists whose work thematically connects to these experiences. Artists working in all mediums are invited to apply.

Interested artists should submit their applications no later than September 30, 2020. Submission instructions may be found on the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation’s website beginning on July 27. Grant recipients will be notified October 31, 2020. Selected works will be exhibited at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art when the museum reopens in the Fall 2020.

The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon will work in partnership with The Lyllye Reynolds-Parker Black Cultural Center and will review applications from all counties in Oregon excluding Clackamas, Multnomah, Washington, and Columbia Counties. The panel to review the artist submissions includes: John Weber, Executive Director JSMA UO; Dr. Aris Hall, Coordinator, Lyllye Reynolds-Parker Black Cultural Center; Sabrina Madison-Cannon, Phyllis and Andrew Berwick Dean, UO School of Music and Dance; Jamar Bean, Program Director, Multicultural Center; and Jovencio de la Paz, Assistant Professor, Department of Art.

“We believe museums and cultural centers have a responsibility to educate and teach from an anti-racist and equity lens through our cultural and education programs, and to amplify the voices of artists engaging in this critical work,” says John Weber, JSMA Executive Director. “I want to thank Jordan for establishing this program. When words are not enough, art can move people to change. Art can be a powerful tool for social justice. We need to do more, we can, and we must. The museum stands in solidarity with Black Lives Matter.”

The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at Portland State University will work Global Diversity and Inclusion and the College of the Arts at PSU and will review applications from Clackamas, Multnomah, Washington, and Columbia County. The museum will work in partnership with Global Diversity and Inclusion. The panel to review the artist submission includes: Lisa Jarrett, Assistant Professor, Art Practices, Arvie Smith, Portland-based artist, Michael Stephenson, candidate for the MFA in Art and Social Practice, and Leroy Bynum, Dean of Portland State University’s College of the Arts.

“We are delighted to partner with the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation,” said PSU’s incoming Global Diversity and Inclusion Director Ame Lambert. “The visual and performing arts have always been a way for Black people across the globe to center and demand their humanity, create and communicate their narratives and counter narratives, resist, express their rage and grief, survive, heal, and triumph. So I appreciate the generous support of this opportunity to respond to this national moment through the arts.”

The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at Washington State University will work in partnership with the WSU Office of Outreach and Education; the Black Student Union; the Department of Fine Arts; the School of Languages, Cultures, and Race; and the Honors College and will review applications from all counties in Washington. The Panel to review the artist submission includes: Ryan Hardesty, Executive Director JSMA WSU, Lo Palmer, Department of Fine Arts WSU, Lisa Guerrero, School of Languages, Cultures, and Race WSU, Trymaine Gaither, Honors College WSU, and representatives from the Office of Outreach and Education WSU, and the Black Student Union WSU.

“We are committed to fostering greater equity, inclusion, and diversity in all our work, recognizing museums must do more as true allies in places of education, learning and community-building,” said Ryan Hardesty, interim executive director at the museum. “Coupled with progressive programming, art and artists act as powerful agents of social change moving people to new understandings of diverse perspectives.”

ABOUT THE JORDAN SCHNITZER FAMILY FOUNDATION

The Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation’s mission is to share the extensive post-war prints and multiples in the collections with qualified museum through exhibitions and loans in order to further the appreciation of and education associated with the printmaking practice of the major artists of the late 20th and 21st century. Jordan D. Schnitzer grew up surrounded by art in his mother’s Portland, Oregon art gallery. What began as an interest in his formative years became a passion in 1988 when he began collecting post-war prints and multiples in earnest. Attracted by the collaborative and egalitarian nature of printmaking, Jordan naturally developed a program to share the work from his personal and Family Foundation collections in 1997. The collection, which has grown to be one of the country’s largest private print collections, exceeds 16,000 works and includes many of today’s most important contemporary artists. Exhibitions from Jordan D. Schnitzer and the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation collections featuring artists of color include: Mirror, Mirror: The Prints of Alison Saar; Emancipating The Past: Kara Walker’s Tales of Slavery and Power; Beyond Mammy, Jezebel & Sapphire: Reclaiming Images of Black Women; Second Look, Twice; Social Space; and Witness: Themes of Social Justice in Contemporary Printmaking and Photography. He generously lends work from his collection to qualified institutions and has organized over 110 exhibitions and has had art exhibited at over 150 museums. The Foundation publishes scholarly brochures, exhibition catalogs, and catalogue raisonnés in conjunction with exhibitions drawn from the collections. It also funds museum outreach and programming that furthers the mission of promoting education and engaging non-traditional audiences.

CONTACT: JSFF: Caitlin Pihl, Marketing Director – 503-460-7279 • caitlinp@jordanschnitzer.org