STUDENT SUCCESS & CAMPUS ENGAGEMENT

Student Success and Campus Engagement

A core mission of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is to enhance and further the academic mission of the University of Oregon—a commitment to exceptional teaching, research, discovery, and service. We believe strongly in the power of original works of art to enrich lives, demonstrate connections across cultures, and foster the development of collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking. As a laboratory for active learning, the JSMA believes that art and artists can help generate change in people’s lives and in society.

2019-2020 Academic Programs Highlights

Even though the JSMA was open for only two-thirds of the academic year, the museum had its biggest year connecting its collections and exhibitions to students and UO staff for a class assignment or guided tour. During the 2019-2020 academic year, 10,223 students from 323 classes across 55 departments at UO visited the JSMA in person or remotely as part of their academic work. As in past years, the museum organized a busy schedule of public programs during fall and winter term that were widely attended by students, and JSMA staff lectured to classes outside the museum, as far away as Moscow, Russia.

University/College Student Attendance, 2019-20

Latinx Student Engagement

With support provided by Art Bridges, the JSMA organized an academic program with the UO’s first Latinxfocused Academic Residential Community (ARC). The Latinx Scholars ARC creates and promotes a positive and supportive space that eases the transition of first-year Latinx students into UO life while empowering them to become prominent campus leaders. The 30 students, along with their academic advisor and planning committee, visited the Resistance as Power exhibition, then participated in a weekend printmaking workshop led by cultural worker Gilda Posada and facilitated by UO printmaking professors and print studio technicians. Few of the students who participated in the workshop had taken an art class. Students selected an issue they cared about, designed an image and text, and printed a silkscreen print. This hands-on art experience was valuable for students’ self-discovery, confidence, cultural and community enrichment, and creative growth and problem-solving. Generous support for this project was provided by Art Bridges.

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Collection Used for Class and Virtual Program

Professor Dorothee Ostmeier spearheaded a special academic program called Satire and Fairy Tale in Contemporary Art Projects of Peregrine Honig. She introduced students in her Magic, Uncanny, Surrealist, and Cynical Tales class to Peregrine Honig’s “Father Gander” print portfolio in the JSMA’s collection. Ostmeier’s class, based on her scholarship on fairy tale traditions in the contexts of gender studies and the history of satire and cynicism, established a framework for the discussion of Honig’s visual mediation of classical knowledge and contemporary critical reflection. Honig’s six lithographs present satirical commentaries on specific traditional tales, mostly from the Brothers Grimm. The students organized and participated in the February 2020 public program: they greeted the public, dramatically interpreted their reflections on and interpretations of Honig’s work, introduced the artist, and facilitated a Q&A with Honig after her presentation on her work. The “Father Gander” portfolio was displayed in the Ford Lecture Hall.