JSMA Black Lives Matter Artist Grant Program Exhibition A Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation Project

“There is a vitality and urgency to the works we’ll be presenting, and a wide range of moods, visual strategies, and voices. We are gratified to be presenting these artists and this art as we continue long-term work to dismantle the legacies of white supremacy and create a more just society.”

John Weber

In July 2021 the museum opened a major group exhibition in the Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Gallery featuring works by artists who received the JSMA Black Lives Matter Artist Grant Program awards. Encompassing drawing, painting, video, performance, photography, installations, sculpture, and digital works, the exhibition highlights work by younger and emerging artists from the Eugene area, with representation by artists from Ashland and Bend as well.

Proposed and generously funded by Jordan Schnitzer through The Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation & the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation to recognize artists making work in support of Black Lives Matter, the grant program spanned the JSMAs of the University of Oregon, Portland State University, and Washington State University. Each artist received a cash award of $2500, and the opportunity to participate in the exhibition. The UO JSMA collaborated with the campus’s Lyllye Reynolds-Parker Black Cultural Center to assemble a selection panel to pick the grant winners.

The grant award selection panel particularly sought out younger and emerging artists for whom the grant could make a real difference while paying close attention to artists’ connections to the Black Lives Matter movement. Works on view will reflect a variety of approaches and mediums, but most of the works are figurative and representational, with photography and video most strongly represented.

Artist Grantees