by School of Art + Design August 15, 2022 Share

The School of the Art + Design and the College of the Arts are pleased to celebrate the tenth year of the Arlene Schnitzer Visual Arts Prize at Portland State University.

We are proud to be able to reward and encourage young artists with this prize, the highest award offered in our school. It acknowledges the achievement and promise of our students and is a meaningful expression of our values and commitment to excellence in higher education and the arts. This year’s submissions represented work in a wide range of media including sculpture, painting, drawing, multimedia, and community-based social practice projects. Recurring themes included racial identity and justice, everyday life, and the environment.

A jury composed of PSU Art + Design faculty and representative professionals from the art and design community reviewed 32 applications from art and design students, both undergraduate and graduate, to be awarded first, second, and third place prizes.

We are pleased to announce that this year’s recipients are Johanna Houska (BFA Art Practice, ‘22), First Place $5,500; Shelbie Loomis (MFA Art + Social Practice, ‘22), Second Place $4,000; and Nia Musiba (BFA candidate in Graphic Design), Third Place $3,000. 

Honorable mentions go to Ashley Yang-Thompson (MFA candidate in Studio Practice), Illia Yakovenko (MFA Art + Social Practice, ‘22), and Joaquin Golez (MFA candidate in Studio Practice). 

We are extraordinarily grateful to the Harold and Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation for their support in creating the Arlene Schnitzer Visual Arts Prize. It was established by Arlene Schnitzer in 2013 to recognize student achievement in the School of Art + Design and to raise awareness of the quality of art education at PSU. With Arlene's passing in 2020, we are grateful for this annual opportunity to honor her memory and legacy as a devoted and inspired leader of art and culture in Portland. The endowed award ensures that each year, three aspiring artists and designers will receive significant recognition and a financial boost as they begin their lives as active, creative practitioners.

An exhibition showcasing the work of our prize winners will be on view at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at Portland State University from February 28 through April 29, 2023. A public reception and awards celebration honoring the prize recipients will be held at the museum (date to be announced). All events are free and open to the public.

Johanna's specialty is developing textiles for use in garments, footwear, and fine art. She applies a radically responsible perspective to textile design through ethical and sustainable sourcing, design, and construction. Guided by the belief that design and craft are tools for problem-solving, she questions which materials can bridge our relationship to nature as she aims to improve connections between people and products.

Through her focus on textile arts, Johanna realized that honing her craft and understanding fashion from a fine arts perspective offered an ideal and well-rounded approach to sustainability. Taking many weaving and textile courses enabled her to explore the intricacies of what it takes to make garments – and the often overlooked respect for fabrics as art: expressions of personal meanings, process, and love of the craft. 

Johanna received a CHE in Fashion from London College of Fashion in 2018 and a BFA in Art Practice from Portland State University in 2022.

Shelbie is a neurodivergent socially engaged artist, illustrator, and the founder of Park Arts: Social Artists-in-Residence at Jantzen Beach. She makes collaborative projects and drawings about life in alternative housing like RV and mobile homes, complex grieving, and the exchange of culture through art during times of crisis.

Shelbie has worked with APANO’s 082 Curatorial Committee and the King School Museum of Contemporary Art. She has been an artist-in-residence for Jantzen Beach RV Park, Hayden Island Mobilehome Community, and Suttle Lodge in Sisters, Oregon. Originally from Santa Fe, NM, Shelbie lives in Portland, where she graduated with an MFA in Art + Social Practice from Portland State University in 2022.

www.shelbieloomis.info Instagram: @shelbieloomis

Nia's creations are about being human. They are about hands and feet and bodies. They are about love and sadness and flowers and sunshine. She views her depictions of Black and brown bodies as a direct response to the hyper-sexualization, brutalization, and overall negative depictions of BIPOC within art and media.

An undergraduate majoring in Graphic Design, Nia lives, eats, sleeps, goes to school, creates art, and makes new friends in Portland, Oregon. Her identity as a Queer Black woman, and the daughter of a Tanzanian immigrant, influence her work and her exploration of Blackness throughout history.

Nia is also the recipient of the 2022 Andries Deinum Prize for Visionaries and Provocateurs from the PSU College of the Arts.

• Kate Bingaman-Burt, Associate Director, School of Art + Design, Professor of Graphic Design         at PSU • Alison Heryer, The Sue Horn-Caskey & Charles F. Caskey Professor of Textile Arts & Costume     Design, Professor of Art Practice at PSU • Lisa Jarrett, Associate Professor of Community and Context Arts at PSU • garima thakur, Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at PSU • Maryanna Ramirez, Director of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at PSU • Sarah Meigs, owner of the Lumber Room, art patron, collector • Kelsey Snook, Freelance Creative Director and Designer • Leah Maldonado, Product Graphics Designer I at Jordan Brand and 2019 Arlene Schnitzer Visual Arts     Prize recipient

Driven by a belief in the power of art to shape society, Portland State University's School of Art + Design and its dynamic faculty provide a place where emerging artists, designers, and art historians can question, create, reflect and learn. With over 1,100 undergraduate majors, a vibrant and growing graduate program, and a faculty of internationally recognized artists, designers, and scholars, PSU's School of Art + Design brings students from various backgrounds together to exchange ideas and cross conventional aesthetic boundaries. Whether in the studio, computer lab, lecture hall, or working in the community via internships, service projects, exhibitions, and collaborations, our students have the opportunity to forge connections between traditions of visual art and their developing expression.