Art Out Loud | PCC Art Student Exhibition
Posted by petra.sairanen
Dates: May 5 – June 7, 2025
- Award Ceremony with Juror Jess Nickel: May 29, 5 – 7pm
- Gallery hours: Monday – Friday, 9am – 4pm
- All events are free and open to the public
The Helzer Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Art Out Loud: 24/25 PCC Art Student Exhibition. This is Portland Community College’s 5th Annual college-wide art student exhibition featuring student art made across the PCC District. The show takes place in each of our PCC Art Galleries: The Helzer Gallery at Rock Creek, The Northview Gallery at Sylvania, and the Paragon at Cascade.
All art students were asked to select a PCC gallery, then each gallery worked with a juror, who chose the student work to be displayed in that gallery. Guest juror Jess Nickel, selected art for the Helzer Gallery, Sheyam Ghieth selected art for the Paragon Gallery and Jamin London Tinsel selected art for the North View Gallery. Each gallery will also host a reception featuring a conversation with their juror and awards announcements.
During a time when the arts and humanities are facing unprecedented challenges, the arts at Portland Community College are also experiencing cuts that will inevitably impact the access to art that our students currently have. But PCC students are passionate and resilient. They have spent this past year making art that speaks openly about their struggles, fears, joys and even the beauty that they still find in the world around them. Art Out Loud amplifies the diverse voices of PCC students and honors their commitment to education and their deep engagement with the arts.
All of the work submitted to the Helzer Gallery will be on display throughout the central Mall area of Building 3 at the Rock Creek Campus. Our juror, Jess Nickel, selected works to be displayed within the Helzer Gallery and will be selecting five artworks to receive a Juror’s Choice Award and one to receive a Best in Show Award. Please come to the awards ceremony to celebrate the amazing artwork, hear some comments and observations from art faculty and juror Jess Nickel, and prize winner announcements. We will also be distributing a People’s Choice Award, selected by the public.
Funding for awards was generously provided by HARTS (The Humanities and Arts Initiative) along with the Art Student Supplies Fund through the I Heart Art project and the Associated Students of Portland Community College (ASPCC).
About the guest juror
Jess Nickel is an independent curator, writer and arts manager based in Portland, Oregon. She received a BA in Fine Art focusing on painting, and a BA in Literature from the University of Oregon in 2009 and began her career in the arts as an artist. During a year-long artist residency in 2010 at Engage Studios in Galway, Ireland she found her artistic practice in curating, organizing pop-up shows of fellow residents in vacant spaces. A career in arts administration followed, with directorship positions at Disjecta Contemporary Arts Center, Upfor Gallery, Converge 45 and public art collective Site Specific. Nickel founded SATOR projects, a roving exhibition program with the mission to seed arts into fallow spaces in the community through exhibitions, public programs and events. She has organized sixteen exhibitions over the past four years, with more to come! She currently works for Saatchi Art with the art advisory team, and as a coordinator for the Oregon Arts Commission Percent for Public Art program.