Portland State University’s Jordan Schnitzer School of Art + Art History + Design is officially open.

Supporters celebrated the grand opening Tuesday evening, though students have been taking classes there since the term started in late September.

The 106,000-square-foot building brings together programs that have been in separate facilities across the downtown campus for years.

It also marks an investment in art education amid ongoing budget cuts in higher education, as well as national concerns about the effects of generative AI on creative fields.

Close to 1,200 students majoring or minoring in related fields will take courses at the building, including drawing, sculpture, textiles, photography and graphic design.

But PSU President Ann Cudd said all of the university’s roughly 20,000 students can attend events, view the art, take classes and visit friends and professors there. Other Oregonians can, too.

“Portland State University is an anchor institution for Portland, and our motto is ‘Let knowledge serve the city,’” Cudd said. “And we really feel that it’s important to have the kinds of spaces that are welcoming to the community as well as to our students.”

As visitors walk through the new building, they’ll see light stream in through large windows. It has studios, labs, seminar rooms and social spaces. And there’s art displayed throughout, including colorful prints of the late entertainment icons Dolly Parton and Tim Curry.

The new building cost $90 million to complete, raised through public bonds and matching donations. The largest individual donation came from the building’s namesake, philanthropist and art collector Jordan Schnitzer. He donated $10 million in 2024, with half set aside for the building.

PSU spokesperson Katy Swordfisk said the school’s naming honors “decades of transformative giving” from the Schnitzer family totaling $26 million.

Schnitzer made a point to thank Oregon taxpayers.

“Oftentimes, we wonder whether the state is spending our money wisely,” he told OPB. “This was a wise investment — an investment not only in Portland State, but in Multnomah County, and for thousands and thousands of students from Oregon and all over the world.”

The opening of the new art building downtown comes as Portland continues to struggle economically, years after the pandemic stifled commerce in the central city. The public celebration of the new art facility also coincides with PSU’s ongoing discussions with the city to build a performance venue downtown.

Leroy Bynum, dean of PSU’s College of the Arts, said the building has been in the making for 45 years, since the university started its art program.

“As the program grew, they needed to be in these various and different spaces,” he explained, “and they grew to the point that no building would contain them. And so, they’ve been spread over into non-contiguous buildings all over this campus since the 80s.”

In the years since, Bynum said they’ve had to prove their excellence and lobby to get to this point.

Tiffany Nguyen, a senior in the graphic design program, said being in one building is already bringing students closer as a community.

“I feel really supported,” Nguyen said. “It feels like it’s really impactful to what I’m working towards and how I can grow as a creative person.”

The building opened as PSU continues to navigate tough budget decisions. Layoffs have served as a key part of the university’s multi-year effort to shore up a projected $35 million budget shortfall before the start of the 2027-28 school year. No arts faculty were part of the layoffs earlier this year.

Bynum argues that, even during tough financial times, we as a society need to “disabuse ourselves of the notion that the arts are okay when times are good, or the arts are dessert.”

“Arts are economic engines,” he said. “Every television program you watch, there’s an artist that is involved in the music, in the script, and in the storyline. And in every ad you see, every car that goes down the street, an artist had their hand in the design.”

The investment in an art building also comes amid conversations about artificial intelligence and its impact on creative work.

Colleges nationwide are grappling with two pathways — the technological world of AI and the humanities. It’s not always one or the other. PSU students, for example, can earn an undergraduate certificate in “AI applications in human contexts.”

“We all still believe that creating something by hand, that bringing humanity into what we’re doing is incredibly important, and that being able to tell our individual stories and perspectives really matters,” said Lis Charman, director of the Schnitzer art school.

Thomas Robinson founded the building’s design firm, LEVER Architecture, which has offices in Portland and Los Angeles.

The new building is the first on the PSU campus made of mass timber — the manufactured wood material that’s growing in use, including in recent renovations at Portland International Airport.

Robinson said he sees PSU’s new facility as a cultural bridge: it connects students studying different art forms; it connects major city blocks; and it sources materials from the Pacific Northwest.

“A big part of the design was really thinking about how to create a new type of art school that really connects with the way people live today and connects with the way students coming to PSU will feel sort of welcome and comfortable,” he said, adding that students gave a lot of input into the design.

Robinson noted that, as a large commuter school, PSU students needed spaces to socialize.

“Architecture is fundamentally about experience that you feel as you walk into a space,” he said. “We want a space that people come into, and they not only feel comfortable, but they feel inspired.”

The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at PSU is a contributor to OPB.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/10/14/portland-state-university-art-building-unite-programs/