On August 6, 2024, at 11:30 AM Joseph Gallivan interviews Jordan Schnitzer about his mother Arlene’s influence and the show “Fountain of Creativity” which is on now at the Oregon Historical Society through Jan 2, 2025.
Schnitzer talks family history, his mother’s attending the Museum School of Art at PAM then founding the Fountain Gallery downtown, the artists of the later 20th Century that she represented, and why art and nature are the last two remaining areas of freedom of response.
I am back after taking 6 weeks off.
From the press release:https://www.ohs.org/museum/exhibits/a-fountain-of-creativity.cfm
June 28, 2024 – May 4, 2025
Oregon Historical Society
1200 SW Park Ave
Portland, Oregon 97205
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Part 1: June 28, 2024 – January 2, 2025
Part 2: November 1, 2024 – May 4, 2025
During the late twentieth century, the arts community in Oregon was small, isolated, and offered few opportunities for artists to exhibit and sell their work. While the Portland community valued public engagement with arts and culture, establishing an art museum, symphony, and a public library, local artists were isolated from the wider national art community due to a lack of commercial gallery space to show and sell their work.
Decades later in 1961, Arlene Schnitzer, along with her mother Helen Director and friend Edna Brigham, started the Fountain Gallery. The commercial art gallery, named after its location near the Skidmore Fountain, became a hub for Pacific Northwest modern artists and helped raise the status of the Portland art scene.
Arlene’s son, Jordan Schnitzer, purchased his first work of art when he was fourteen years old from the Fountain Gallery. It was through her and her gallery that his initial acquisition turned into a lifelong pursuit to collect, share, and promote the visual arts. Jordan Schnitzer is now recognized as one of the Top 200 Collectors globally (ARTNews). His collection, one of the most notable in North America, functions as a living archive to preserve art for future generations and share it with the public through groundbreaking exhibitions, publications, and programs.
Arlene Schnitzer was quoted as saying “a city without an art community has no soul.” Honoring her legacy and influence on the history of Portland, A Fountain of Creativity features a range of bold, evocative, and influential works created by Pacific Northwest artists from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation — many on public display for the first time. Featuring notable artists such as Louis Bunce, Carl Morris, Hilda Morris, Mike Russo, and Mel Katz, this original duo of exhibitions reflects the enduring legacy of Arlene Schnitzer and the Fountain Gallery and the ways that her work has helped feed the soul of Portland and of arts and culture across the state
This show was recorded on an iPhone 14 on August 1 and edited by Joseph Gallivan.
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Art Focus on K-B-O-O Portland is the show where artists talk about their work. I want to remind you that KBOO is a volunteer-powered community platform. That means we are funded by you, the listener.
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Joseph Gallivan has been a reporter since 1990. He has covered music for the London Independent, Technology for the New York Post, and arts and culture for the Portland Tribune, where he is currently a Feature Writer. He is the author of two novels, "Oi, Ref!" and "England All Over" which are available on Amazon.com
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