PRESS RELEASE

May 4, 2004

Contact: Pauline Austin, (541) 346-3129, paustin@uoregon.edu
Contact Katie Sproles (541) 346-0942 ksproles@darkwing.uoregon.edu


UO NAMES ART MUSEUM TO HONOR JORDAN SCHNITZER

Editor’s Note: The UO Museum of Art is holding a public open house from 1-4 p.m. on Saturday, May 8. For more information, call (541) 346-3027.

EUGENE, Ore.--The University of Oregon Museum of Art has been named in honor of Portland philanthropist and cultural leader Jordan Schnitzer.

Schnitzer has made a multimillion-dollar commitment to the museum, creating an endowment and supporting its current $14.4 million renovation and expansion project. The project, that will nearly double the size of the facility, will revitalize the historic structure and create an up-to-date visual arts destination for the entire region when it reopens.

The gift is the largest private commitment to the project.

"Jordan Schnitzer's gift will transform the Museum of Art and the lives of countless visitors and students for whom it will provide a perpetual source of inspiration and discovery," says UO President Dave Frohnmayer.

Schnitzer's lifelong passion for the arts has led him to focus his philanthropic efforts at the university on the Museum of Art, following his first gift to the university three decades ago.

"I feel great pride in contributing to something that will have such a lasting effect on our state, and that will impact the lives of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people, as time goes on," says Schnitzer, a 1973 UO graduate.

A former president of the UO Museum of Art Council and current trustee of the UO Foundation, Schnitzer made the gift "so that every young person at the University of Oregon and throughout the Pacific Northwest has the opportunity to experience art and to connect with something that speaks to them."

Upon reopening, the museum will feature greatly expanded gallery space dedicated to American, European, Korean, Chinese and Japanese art. In addition to significant funding, for which the museum is being named in his honor, Schnitzer and his parents through their family foundations also provided support for the new Schnitzer Gallery of Northwest Regional and American Art.

First-year exhibitions scheduled for the new Changing Exhibitions Gallery include 90 Andy Warhol prints on loan from Schnitzer's nationally recognized print collection.

Educational facilities in the renovated building will include a hands-on interactive discovery gallery, art-making studio and lecture hall. A new café, museum store and special events spaces opening onto outdoor courtyards will offer public gathering places.

"This new museum will be a vital cultural center where visitors from throughout the region can bring their own experiences to the objects on display and make them relevant to their own lives," explains David Turner, museum director. "The new spaces will also enable us to significantly increase programming for visitors of all ages and backgrounds."

Susie Papé, museum board president and a member of the UO Campaign Leadership Committee, notes that the gift will help the museum take its place among the major art museums on the West Coast.

Schnitzer, personally and through his family foundation, has long contributed to arts and cultural institutions, including the Oregon College of Art & Craft, the Maryhill Museum of Art, the Portland Art Museum and the High Desert Museum. Additionally, he is an avid supporter of arts education, with a special initiative that loans works from his collections to regional art institutions and provides funding for outreach and curriculum for children in those communities to ensure they are exposed to contemporary art.

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