Arlene Schnitzer Visual Arts Prize
The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at Portland State University is pleased to present the Arlene Schnitzer Visual Arts Prize exhibition from February 25 – April 26, 2025. A public reception will be held on Thursday, February 27, from 5 to 7 PM.
The Schnitzer School of Art + Art History + Design and the College of the Arts celebrate the twelfth year of the Arlene Schnitzer Visual Arts Prize at Portland State University. A jury composed of Schnitzer School faculty and representative professionals from the art and design community reviewed 55 applications from art and design students, both undergraduate and graduate, to award three prizes. The 2024 award winners include: Olivia DelGandio (MFA in Contemporary Art Practice: Social Practice ‘24), HD Garner (BFA in Art Practice, Comic Studies Certificate, ‘24), and Michelle Jackson (BFA candidate in Art Practice, ‘25).
“My late mother, Arlene Schnitzer, and her husband, Harold, loved art! They showed me that living with art adds so much to our lives,” said Jordan Schnitzer, President of the Harold and Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation. “She would get so excited coming to Portland State to meet the Arlene Schnitzer Visual Arts Prize winners and see these young creative minds expressing their thoughts, opinions, and dreams in various mediums. I know she would join me in congratulating Olivia DelGandio, HD Garner, and Michelle Jackson as the 2024 Arlene Schnitzer Visual Arts Prize recipients. Also, I thank the committee that did the tough job of choosing these winners. I know that they feel, as I do, that everyone who submitted art is an art winner!”
The Schnitzer School of Art + Art History + Design is 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 Schnitzer School of Art + Art History + Design and to raise awareness of the quality of art education at PSU. To learn more about how the Arlene Schnitzer Visual Arts Prize has offered PSU students a springboard for a career in the arts, please visit pdx.edu/arts/news/arts-artists-making
About the Recipients
Olivia DelGandio is a socially engaged artist based in Portland, Oregon. Through their work, DelGandio looks for ways to memorialize moments and relationships, often focusing on themes of daily life, grief, memory, queerness, and untold histories. With collaboration at the center of their practice, their work has taken on many different forms, such as working with a group of queer teens on a fashion show, spending time at a senior center talking about alternate forms of family, and making a community newspaper celebrating queer history. DelGandio received a BA in Sociology and Gender Studies from New College of Florida and an MFA in Art + Social Practice from Portland State University. They recently developed and taught Queer Art: History and Practice and participated in residence at Sou’Wester Arts Week.
HG Garner is a comics creator who instills a sense of dread and unease through slow pacing and unconventional imagery while telling tales of horror. HG grew up reading comics in Corvallis, Oregon. Immersed in the genre, they developed a passion that eventually blossomed into the desire to explore the unique storytelling opportunities offered by the medium. In the spring of 2024, they earned a BFA in Art Practice with a Comic Studies Certificate from Portland State. This fall, HG is headed to the University of South Florida, where they will pursue an MFA in Creative Writing.
Michelle Jackson is a painter who identifies as queer and fat. Aware of the lack of representation, she is deeply committed to depicting marginalized people and bodies in a neutral or positive manner. She uses vibrant and bold colors to craft figurative works on the topics of fat liberation, LGBTQIA+ identities, mental health, neurodivergence, and silliness. Through her art, she endeavors to cultivate spaces of visibility, affirmation, and inclusion while exploring the multifaceted intersections of identity.
The Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation
The Harold and Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation was established in 1998 as a result of the sale of the historic Claremont Hotel, which provided the Schnitzer family a way to support the community that long supported them. Harold, Arlene, and Jordan always believed in the importance of giving back and the family is honored to join those who also believe that the riches of our cities are our citizens and the cultural, social, religious, educational, and medical institutions that provide so much for all of us!
The mission of the Harold and Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation is to support arts & culture, youth, education, medical, social services, and community activities that enhance the quality of life for the citizens in the community. The Foundation operates two programs: The Care to Share program which anonymously serves low-income and medically fragile children and their families through a partnership with Oregon Health & Sciences University. And CommuniCare, the Foundation’s primary operating program, which was established to encourage youth philanthropy.
For more information on the Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation please visit
Schnitzer School of Art + Art History + Design
Driven by a belief in the power of art to shape society, Portland State University’s Schnitzer School of Art + Art History + 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, a faculty of internationally recognized artists, designers, and scholars, PSU’s Schnitzer School of Art + Art History + Design brings students from a variety of 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 own developing expression.
Image Credit: Olivia DelGandio, In Our Hands (objects), 2024, nine color posters, 24 x 36 inches, Courtesy of the artist
Organizer
The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at PSU aspires to create an environment that sparks creativity, shares perspectives, and stirs curiosity.