Jordan Schnitzer, in a partnership with the Jordan Schnitzer Museums of Art at the University of Oregon, Washington State University and Portland State University, is establishing a $150,000 Black Lives Matter Artist Grant Program. Each Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art will award $2,500 grants to 20 artists who use their voices, experiences and artistic expression to reflect on social justice efforts in response to systemic racism.

“I have often said artists are chroniclers of our time. We all feel anguish about the death of George Floyd and many others at the hands of racial oppression,” said Jordan Schnitzer, president of The Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation and the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation. “We, more than ever, need artists to help us understand this issue and help us heal.”

The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon will work in partnership with The Lyllye Reynolds-Parker Black Cultural Center to determine grant recipients in the state of Oregon, excluding Multnomah, Clackamas, Columbia and Washington Counties responding to the Black Lives Matter movement. The Artist Grant Program is funded through a generous donation of $50,000 from The Harold & Arlene CARE Foundation.

“We believe museums and cultural centers have a responsibility to educate and teach from an anti-racist and equity lens through our cultural and education programs, and to amplify the voices of artists engaging in this critical work,” says John Weber, JSMA executive director. “I want to thank Jordan for establishing this program. When words are not enough, art can move people to change. Art can be a powerful tool for social justice. We need to do more, we can, and we must. The museum stands in solidarity with Black Lives Matter.”

Artists residing throughout the state of Oregon, excluding Multnomah, Clackamas, Columbia and Washington Counties, are encouraged to submit proposals for new work or projects, or recently created work directly responding to the current Black Lives Matter movement; responding to marginalized communities; experiences with systemic racism and inequality; and artists whose work thematically connects to these experiences. Artists working in all mediums are invited to apply. 

Interested artists should submit their applications no later than September 30, 2020. Submission instructions may be found on the art museum’s website. Selected works will be exhibited at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art when the museum reopens in Fall 2020.

A panel is being formed to review the artist submissions, which in addition to Weber, will include Dr. Aris Hall, coordinator, Lyllye Reynolds-Parker Black Cultural Center; Sabrina Madison-Cannon, Phyllis and Andrew Berwick Dean, UO School of Music and Dance; Jamar Bean, program advisor, Multicultural Center; and Jovencio de la Paz, assistant professor, Department of Art. Grantees will be notified by October 31.

“This grant provided by Jordan Schnitzer will allow for artists to display the pain and hurt that is felt within the Black community and mark a time in history that will forever remind the UO and Eugene-Springfield community of the importance of why Black Lives Matter,” says Dr. Aris Hall, Coordinator. “Lyllye Reynolds-Parker embodies what activism in our community is and the works of art will be an ongoing display of activism for the Black community.” 

The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon’s exhibition history includes the powerful exhibitions Carrie Mae Weems’ The Usual Suspects and hosting a companion exhibition to the University’s common reading of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me, which featured contemporary artists including Mark Bradford, Theaster Gates, Mildred Howard, Chris Johnson, Rashid Johnson, Glenn Ligon, Hank Willis Thomas, Kara Walker and Kehinde Wiley. 

In 2014, JSMA UO exhibited Emancipating The Past: Kara Walker’s Tales of Slavery and Power from the Collections of Jordan Schnitzer and His Family Foundation.  Other exhibitions from Jordan D. Schnitzer and the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation collections featuring artists of color include Mirror, Mirror: The Prints of Alison Saar, Beyond Mammy, Jezebel & Sapphire: Reclaiming Images of Black Women, Second Look, Twice; Social Space; and Witness: Themes of Social Justice in Contemporary Printmaking and Photography.

The JSMA Artist Grant Program in response to Black Lives Matter is made possible by the generous donation from the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, which is committed to fostering greater equity, inclusion and diversity in the Northwest.

Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation • Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art • The Lyllye Reynolds-Parker Black Cultural Center