Nurturing Creativity on Campus & in Community

A building that will match the excellence within it.

That’s how Dean Leroy E. Bynum, Jr., describes the new home for the Schnitzer School of Art + Art History + Design, currently under construction on PSU's campus.

Bynum is dean of PSU’s College of the Arts, which includes the university’s visual arts, architecture, film and performing arts programs. For years, he says, the Schnitzer School has been hindered by their facilities, even while they have nurtured nationally recognized programs in graphic design, art practice and more. Currently, their programs are scattered in several buildings across campus: buildings that lack adequate storage and spaces for people to gather. In short, the School’s facilities do not measure up to the exceptional programs they house.

The new art building — slated to open in Fall 2026 — will provide the Schnitzer School with the facilities they need. “This building will house graphic designers, photographers, art historians and others all under one roof,” Bynum says. “Here, our scholars will create wonderful art, learn about art and be an epicenter for art in this community. It will be such a boon for the city.”

Yet, the new home of the Schnitzer School is more than a facility. It’s a symbol of PSU’s commitment to the faculty, students and community members whose creativity and innovation help define the university and Portland, Bynum says.

This story celebrates the students and faculty across the College of the Arts who are pursuing boundless creativity at PSU, and the partnerships that make their work possible.

The Portland Winter Light Festival illuminates creativity on campus and in community

The Portland Winter Light Festival, held annually in February, is recognized as one of the premier light festivals worldwide. Every year, it brings hundreds of thousands of people into downtown Portland — no small feat on cold, rainy winter nights. And it started on PSU’s campus, with a determined group of community members and faculty.

To get the festival up and running, “Portland’s artists and creatives supported the initiative emotionally and with their expertise, and carried the burden of providing art for free,” explains Jeff Schnabel, professor of architecture and one of the festival co-founders.

It became an event where everyone pitched in and did what was needed — right down to keeping the port-a-potties stocked with toilet paper. As a result, the Winter Light Festival can’t be attributed to one person’s efforts or vision. “It’s an event that relies on and is enriched by an expansive network of contributors, from students to faculty to the community at large,” Schnabel says.

While the festival gets bigger every year, this year’s theme was dedicated to “All the Little Things.” On PSU’s campus, the windows of the Smith Memorial Student Union building and the Simon Benson House featured digital mosaics of behind-the-scenes footage from all five of LAIKA’s Oscar® nominated films and the studio’s next animated feature film, Wildwood. The installations were a testament to the creative process, and one piece of an ongoing collaboration between PSU and LAIKA.

“LAIKA immerses us in these amazing new worlds through intricately detailed sets, props and puppets,” Schnabel says. “This footage provides glimpses into how those magical moments become really immersive worlds on screen.”

A LAIKA Faculty Fellow reimagines her curriculum

Alison Heryer, professor in the Schnitzer School of Art + Art History + Design, is one of the LAIKA faculty fellows. Heryer is a multi-disciplinary artist whose primary medium is textiles. Her work and her classes span multiple industries, from costume design, to fashion, to art practice.

The more we can prepare students and equip them with technical knowledge, as well as the critical thinking and collaboration skills LAIKA really embodies, the more successful our students will be when they leave here.

As a faculty fellow, Heryer is released from teaching one class each term. She has also received funding and formed connections with LAIKA artists.

The LAIKA fellowship provides faculty like Heryer an opportunity to deepen their skills in emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence and 3-D printing, and weave this knowledge into their curriculums. “The more we can prepare students and equip them with technical knowledge, as well as the critical thinking and collaboration skills LAIKA really embodies, the more successful our students will be when they leave here,” Heryer says.

Through her fellowship, Heryer is exploring how technology can make the textiles industry more efficient, ethical and ecologically savvy. She is engaging in classes, training and collaborations through the virtual residency program Fabricademy. She also visits the LAIKA studios regularly to learn from their artists and technicians. Learning from both Fabricademy and LAIKA allows her to see how the same tools and techniques are used across multiple industries.

Drawing on what she’s learned, Heryer has reimagined two of her PSU courses and will pilot them this spring. One is an updated version of her costume design class, which will include 3-D animation; the other is a textile technology course focused on teaching fundamentals like laser cutting, digital printing and other skills.

LAIKA also offers a student scholarship, which supports undergraduate arts majors in many different areas of practice. Artists who are multi-disciplinary, and who are willing to explore and take risks, “are the kind of talent LAIKA is looking to bring in,” Bynum says.

A LAIKA Student Scholar pursues her craft with confidence

Catherine Olivares is one of this year’s six student scholars. A first generation college student, Olivares didn’t always think she would be able to afford college. She came to PSU because the school provided good financial aid and allowed her to major in film — her long-time passion.

Now a fourth-year student, Olivares has participated in a range of activities from production classes, to independent studies, to the student-run film collective. “Filmmaking is not just picking up a camera,” she explains. “It’s the role you play in whatever is being made. At PSU, I’ve really gotten to flourish in these roles and understand what I want to do after graduating.”

Olivares’ interests lie in post-production, specifically editing and coloring. As a LAIKA student scholar, Olivares is honing a unique method of editing film. She starts by printing, frame by frame, a black-and-white version of a film she has created. She then draws in color on the prints, and scans them back into the computer. Finally, she edits the frames back together into a film.

Before the LAIKA partnership, she worried that this time-intensive mixed-media practice was “a waste of time,” she says. But receiving the scholarship has given her “the confidence to do what I want to do, and reassurance that what I’m doing is good.”

Forging connections with LAIKA staff has been crucial for building her confidence. They have been open and responsive to her questions and encouraging of her work. Particularly in an industry as competitive as film, this warm welcome is what students need to grow and succeed, Olivares says.

Thanks to increased interest in stop-motion animation, PSU has developed a stop-motion lab in the Lincoln 330 Building. This allows students taking a stop-motion class to check out a key and work at the studio on their own time. The building is affectionately nicknamed the Ruff House as a nod to its former life as a dog daycare. It’s an apt name, Olivares says, because the time-intensive and meticulous work of stop-motion “is rough sometimes.”

Olivares used the lab to design a stop-motion film set. As an active member of the School of Film, Olivares sees the impact of these investments on other students, too. “A lot of students are really starting to get into stop-motion, because they’re seeing these opportunities to grow their skills and work with LAIKA,” she says.

A Creative Nexus for Portland’s Future

PSU’s commitment to fostering creativity extends beyond students and faculty. Just as the Winter Light Festival began through the joint collective of community members and faculty on PSU’s campus, PSU serves as a convener and connector for the whole city.

Already, PSU attracts thousands of visitors to downtown even beyond the festival. Whether it’s to attend an award-winning PSU Opera production, explore the newest exhibit at Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at PSU or experience a performance from one of the many community organizations like White Bird Dance which have long called Portland State home, campus is an epicenter of creativity.

That’s why the university was proud to answer the City’s call for proposals on a bold vision for the future of performing arts in Portland. PSU is co-creating plans for a new Performing Arts + Culture Center on campus that will feature a Broadway-capable theater, academic and community spaces, a smaller community theater, as well as spaces for local arts organizations and an on-site boutique hotel.

The new Center will sit on more than four acres of land at the southern end of campus, anchoring an arts corridor that connects the Portland Art Museum, Keller Fountain and other performance venues by pedestrian walkways including the South Park Blocks and the Halprin Sequence.

We’re proud to partner on this project that will create so many opportunities for students, artists and our community. It will be a real creative nexus — one that will set Portland apart for the next 100 years.

Portland State looks forward to continuing its partnership with the city of Portland as the next phase of the project begins, with plans to welcome audiences to the Center in 2030.

“We’re proud to partner on this project that will create so many opportunities for students, artists and our community,” Bynum says. “It will be a real creative nexus — one that will set Portland apart for the next 100 years.”