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Assembly 2025: An Art + Social Practice Gathering

Thursday June 5th 2025 - Saturday June 7th 2025 - All day

A co-authored multi-day gathering of participatory events, discussions, and presentations by the PSU Art and Social Practice MFA Program.

Join us for a collection of student-led experimental and experiential offerings from our Art + Social Practice MFA program artists working in socially engaged forms.

What does the public domain mean to you? Is it the physical space and services that belong to a city? Is it knowledge that is free to use? Is it the people who have become public figures, like actors or government officials? Who is the public domain about and for? Whose knowledge is considered relevant to become public? Who gets access to public spaces and why? Who gets to be a person in public? Why are some spaces public and others private, and who decides which is which? These are some of the questions the students of the Art + Social Practice MFA Program at Portland State University have been considering, and these questions resulted in the theme for this year’s Assembly conference.

Assembly is the Schnitzer School of Art + Art History + Design's annual gathering of participatory events, workshops, and presentations highlighting the collaborative work and inspirations of our MFA cohort. Started in 2014, Assembly is a student-created event that assembles communities around participatory art making over three days of programming and projects. This year’s Assembly has something for everyone.

Follow @psuartandsocialpractice for more info


Schedule of Events


Thursday, June 5

  • 10:00-11:30 am | Xavier Pierce, KSMoCA Exhibition Opening
    KSMoCA (King School Museum of Contemporary Art)
    Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School
    4906 NE 6th
    Portland OR 97211
  • 4:00-5:00 pm | The PDX Hour: The Aging Well Project
    by Manfred Parrales
    Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at PSU
    1855 SW Broadway
    Portland OR 97201

Friday, June 6
The Portland Building
1120 SW 5th Avenue
Portland OR 97204

Hosted by the Portland Office of Arts and Culture

  • 1:00-2:00 pm | Permission to Leave
    by Simeen Anjum and Midori Yamanaka
  • 2:15-3:15 pm | In Our Ways
    by Dom Toliver, Gwen Hoeffgen, Adela Cardona, and the Watershed Community
  • 3:45-4:45 pm | The Happiest Hour
    by Clara Harlow
  • 5:00-8:00 pm | Art + Social Practice Graduate Lectures
    by Midori Yakanaka and Manfred Parrales

Saturday, June 7
South Park Blocks
827 SW Columbia Street
Portland OR 97201

  • 10:00-11:00 am | Songs Against Dark Times: PDX Edition
    by Lou Blumberg and Simeen Anjum
    Event starts at Pioneer Square (on 6th Avenue between Morrison and Yamhill Streets) and ends at the South Park Blocks.
  • 11:30-12:30 pm | Diaspora Kitchen
    by Sarah Luu
  • 1:00-2:00 pm | Give Me Shelter
    by Gwen Heoffgen and Dom Toliver
  • 2:15-3:15 pm | Monument Speed Dating
    by Nina Vichayapai