Oregon College of Art and Craft

The Oregon College of Art and Craft (OCAC) has been a center of community cultural activity in the region since 1907. The college has contributed significantly to the continuity of contemporary craft as an artistic expression and offers degreed undergraduate and post-graduate programs.

As part of the school’s outreach to Native American communities, the A. Susana Santos’ Journeys in Creativity program provided ten Native teens from the NW region with the opportunity to embark on a fourteen-day journey through hands-on intensive arts workshops and mentorships. The program, Catching Our Shadows, explored the art of photography through a Native lens. Nine master Native artists instructed the students.The mentoring artists ranged in age from 22 to 50-plus and represented the Tlingit/Nisga’a, Cochiti Pueblo, Warm Springs/Navajo, Yakama, Klamath, Swinomish, Chinook and Coquille/Miluk Coos. In addition to the art projects, the students shared cross cultural experiences, trekked to museums and galleries and visited local tribal communities and cultural sites. The program was free to the selected participants and included housing, food and materials. The students’ final projects were shown in four exhibitions at OCAC, the Water Resource Education Center in Vancouver, at the Squaxin Island Tribal museum and at the Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts. An estimated 900 community members viewed the works and attended the talks, gallery showings and lectures.