Re:Boot - Bootstrap Homes

Sarah Cloutier (Illustration ’12), a.k.a. “Rah,” heads to New York City and the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) to show and demonstrate her Bootstrap Homes, which were initially developed as her 2012 PNCA Thesis Project.

Bootstrap Homes are miniature homes on wheels, designed for homeless people to live in while they get back on their feet. They are easy to build (and repair) with simple tools and local, cheap materials. For $300, they provide basics of living such as a stove, sink, and safe storage space. Perhaps most importantly, they are legal space to exist, since they evade the camping and sit-lie ordinances. They provide autonomy and agency, and reject obnoxious, bureaucracy-heavy policing: the only rules are ‘Don’t ruin it for everyone else’ and ‘Pass it on when you’re done.’

Building

Building tracks PNCA’s campus expansion with a vision of a new campus centered on Portland’s North Park Blocks.

Object Focus: The Bowl

“We claim the bowl in the name of craft.”

The concept: Object Focus: The Bowl. On the surface, the bowl is deceptively easy form, but objects that occupy daily lives often can be the most challenging to present, analyze, and consider in a museum environment. How can the museum exhibition be used as a platform to bring discussions relating to the cultural history and value of the bowl together with notions related to its everyday use in dining, communal sharing, and food preparation? How can craft be employed explore the production, aesthetic, and cultural significance of the bowl in contemporary culture?

Object Focus: The Bowl, Part 1 opens March 7 in the Collections Gallery at Museum of Contemporary Craft

Leland Iron Works

Christina Conant ’11 blogs about the developing art residency/enrichment program at Lee Kelly’s Oregon City home and studio, Leland Iron Works.

Drawn From Life

Devin Amato ’15 sketch-blogs for PNCA’s Untitled Magazine with a regular series of autobiographical comics that show an honest – and thus sometimes unflattering – portrait of one man’s life. His relatable yet critical comics highlight details and situations familiar to the everyday life of the art student. Amato is a Illustration major and comics artist. His most recent book, “The Unfortunate Sir Roger Keene” was released by Pony Club in Fall 2012.

MFA Applied Craft and Design

Through the MFA in Applied Craft and Design blog you can travel to the Starn’s brothers “Big Bambu” on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a student spends an internship helping to craft the floating bamboo palace; take a trip to Alabama to Butch Anthony’s 80 acre folk art compound and his own Museum of Wonder or peek ino the MFA studios where students harness hybrid strategies in creating work that addresses social, economic and environmental issues.

Laura's Lens

Laura DeVito blogs about her experiences in PNCA’s MFA in Collaborative Design program. These experiences include interacting with mentors involved in City Planning, ethnobotany and land management practices, GIS (Geographic Information Systems), design ethnography, cultural entrepreneurship and research methodologies across a wide range of disciplines. Besides coursework, guest speakers, outside lectures and other events add to DeVito’s curriculum in pursuit of a capstone encompassing sculptural art, biomimicry, mapping systems and neuroscience.