PNCA Alumnus Michael Curry is Creative Director for Spring Gala

Portland, May 13th, 2013. The Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) will present its 2013 Gala, Transformation: The Power of Creativity on June 1, against the dramatic backdrop of Vigor Industrial’s shipyards. The College’s signature annual fundraising event provides vital support for PNCA students, faculty, and programs.

Award-winning designer and PNCA alumnus Michael Curry is serving as the Gala’s artistic director, bringing to the shipyards the same creativity that has earned him worldwide acclaim for his The Lion King costume designs. Michael Curry Design delivers spectacular audience experiences globally through his award-winning costumes, puppetry and stage design for Cirque de Soleil, the Walt Disney Company, the Olympics, and theater and opera.

This year’s Gala will feature the inaugural awarding of the PNCA Joan Shipley Civic Imagination Award. The award, being given to the Maribeth Collins Family, recognizes inspiring civic leaders who have demonstrated significant lifelong achievement in imagining, creating and promoting a vibrant artistic, cultural and educational community in Portland and throughout Oregon. The award honors the late Joan Shipley, whose visionary leadership has made an indelible impact on the entire community.

The College will also announce the naming of the Hallie Ford School of Graduate Studies, just as students are graduating from the College’s five graduate programs, including Critical Theory and Creative Research, which celebrates its first class. The naming of the School honors Hallie Ford, who in 2007 gave $15 million to PNCA, the largest gift ever made to an arts institution in Oregon.

In tandem with the Gala for the first time will be the 2013 MFA Exhibitions, featuring thesis work from students in the Collaborative Design and Visual Studies programs. Vigor, the Gala’s visionary partner, is located at 5555 N. Channel Avenue, Swan Island. Tickets are $250 each.

“We have much to celebrate this year, including the work of our graduate students, who affirm every day that creativity works here,” says Tom Manley, president of PNCA. “We also celebrate our Gala supporters and our visionary partner, Vigor Industrial, honorary chairs Brenda Smola, Frank Foti, PNCA board of governors member Susan Hammer, and Lee Kelly ’59, along with an extraordinary committee of community leaders, all of whom believe as we do in the transformative power of creativity.”

Other members of the 2013 Gala Committee include Gwen and Tom Burns, Satbir Couture, PNCA Board of Governors Chair Ann Edlen and Mark Edlen, Holly Freres and David Horning, Randy Higgins, Sally Ann Hopper, Janet Hull, Suzanne Johnson, Elizabeth Leach, Al Solheim, Michelle Weisenbach, and Jane Wood.

Visionary Circle supporters include Ann and Mark Edlen, Dorothy Lemelson, Al Solheim and AWS Real Estate, and Brenda Smola and Frank Foti. President’s Circle supporters include Rick Caskey and Sue Horn-Caskey and the Maybelle Clark Macdonald Fund. Studio Circle supporters include Anthony and Marti Belluschi, Susan Hammer and Lee Kelly ’59, Casey Mills and Carmen Calzacorta, Michael Curry Design, LAIKA, Miller Nash, Project ^, Harold and Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation, Wieden+Kennedy, and Howard S. Wright. More than two dozen corporations and individuals are supporting the event through the Collector’s Circle.

The evening will feature entertainment by Alan Jones Academy of Music and Legacy Parkour and Freerunning, with PNCA Board member Jamey Hampton as master of ceremonies. Auctioneer Jonathan Holiday will lead a special appeal for the PNCA Annual Fund. The evening will close with surprise announcements regarding the PNCA Creativity Works Here campaign to renovate the federal building at 511 NW Broadway into the Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design.

The 500 Gala guests will enjoy dinner from Larry Grimes and Art of Catering. Community supporters include Bridgeport Brewing Company, Dave Holt and Dalla Terra, and New Deal Distillery.

For more information about the Gala, please visit http://www.pnca.edu/about/giving/c/gala

About Pacific Northwest College of Art

As Oregon’s flagship college of art and design since 1909, Pacific Northwest College of Art has helped shape Oregon’s visual arts landscape for more than a century. In the last seven years, PNCA has doubled the student body and full-time faculty, quadrupled its endowment, and added innovative undergraduate and graduate programs. PNCA is now embarking on its boldest venture yet by establishing the Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design, which will anchor a new PNCA campus on Portland’s North Park Blocks. The capital campaign, Creativity Works Here, was launched in June 2012 with a lead gift of $5 million from The Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation. PNCA’s new home will be a bustling hub of creativity and entrepreneurship, reflecting the influential role of art and design in the 21st century economy of Portland and beyond. For more information, visit pnca.edu.