Arts For Learning NW

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Arts For Learning NW Arts For Learning NW connects teachers and schools with professional artists to inspire young people and expand their learning through the arts.

The Oregon Art Education Association conference kicked off at the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation with Artists’ Heroe...
10/14/2026

The Oregon Art Education Association conference kicked off at the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation with Artists’ Heroes: Art Inspiration at The Schnitzer Collection. Jordan Schnitzer himself led us on an interactive tour of the collection, complete with a live phone call with artist Leonardo Drew, who shared a bit about what inspires his work.

Then came the real treat: a behind-the-scenes look at the vault, where thousands of artworks wait for their next moment on the wall. For a group of arts educators, it was basically heaven.

The best part was being surrounded by people who spend their days helping young artists find their own heroes and their own voices. We left full of ideas to bring back to our classrooms and communities.

Thank you, Jordan Schnitzer and team for opening your doors to our community.

Photos: Briana Linden

Nine in ten Americans agree: the arts are part of a well-rounded education.That’s from a national poll of more than 3,00...
10/14/2026

Nine in ten Americans agree: the arts are part of a well-rounded education.

That’s from a national poll of more than 3,000 adults, and 61% didn’t just agree, they strongly agreed. It’s a hopeful number. Across ages, places and backgrounds, people see what we see in classrooms every day: kids lighting up when they get to make something, try something, and share it.

October is National Arts and Humanities Month, a good moment to remember how much we have in common on this one.

What’s an arts moment from your own school days that stayed with you?

Source: Americans for the Arts / Ipsos Public Affairs, 2018.

Teaching Artist & Photo: Jess Graff () at Imlay Elementary

Fifty years from now, today's kindergartners will be leading our region. What kind of place do we want to hand them?That...
10/09/2026

Fifty years from now, today's kindergartners will be leading our region. What kind of place do we want to hand them?

That was the question in the room at the Future 50 Vision Summit, where our Executive Director Briana Linden joined leaders from across greater Portland to start sketching a 50-year vision for the region.

It was a joy to see so many colleagues from arts and education there, and just as meaningful to sit at tables with people from housing, transportation, health, business, and beyond. Strong communities are built by many hands, and we believe creativity belongs at the center of that work, not on the margins.

A highlight: hearing directly from young people about their own priorities for the future. They're the reason we do what we do.

Thank you to for bringing us together.

Are you a teaching artist, community artist, artist-educator, or culture bearer working in partnership with schools and ...
10/06/2026

Are you a teaching artist, community artist, artist-educator, or culture bearer working in partnership with schools and community organizations?

Join us this Friday, October 9th for a Teaching Artist Table Happy Hour — an informal gathering hosted by the Oregon Arts Education Collective (OAEC), part of their Teaching Artist Relationship Building Tour across Oregon.

📍 Swine Moonshine + Wh***ey Bar, 808 SW Taylor St, Portland
🕓 4:30–6:30 PM

This gathering follows right after the Oregon Arts Education Association (OAEA) conference, where our own Briana Linden is leading a session on Arts, Care & Connection. Come unwind and connect with fellow teaching artists from around the region.

Hope to see you there!

Last Sunday, teaching artists and arts administrators gathered around The Teaching Artist Table — an afternoon built on ...
10/01/2026

Last Sunday, teaching artists and arts administrators gathered around The Teaching Artist Table — an afternoon built on an idea we've been sitting with: that the networks beneath our field, the ones that connect and nourish everything around them, don't happen by accident. They take showing up for each other.

So that's what this was. Creative conversations. A generous seasonal spread cooked up in the spirit of radical hospitality. New connections made over yarn, sketches traded between old friends and new ones, and kids making art alongside the adults who make this field what it is.

One reflection from the afternoon stuck with us: "Teaching artists, organizations, and arts administrators are collaborators — not adversaries."

Thank you to Kinship Teaching Artists for building this table with us, and to everyone who pulled up a chair.

When Corbett School District was ready to bring The Right Brain Initiative back into classrooms after a hiatus, they put...
09/28/2026

When Corbett School District was ready to bring The Right Brain Initiative back into classrooms after a hiatus, they put their own funding on the line to get started.

Then Starseed Foundation stepped in with a matching gift — and together, it now funds a full year of Right Brain for every K–5 student in Corbett: multi-day residencies with teaching artists in every classroom, plus training so Corbett's teachers can carry the arts forward long after.

Thank you, Starseed Foundation, for believing in what's possible when a community shows up first.

TEACHING ARTISTS & ARTS EDUCATORS: Arts for Learning NW and Kinship Teaching Artists, with support from the Oregon Arts ...
09/26/2026

TEACHING ARTISTS & ARTS EDUCATORS: Arts for Learning NW and Kinship Teaching Artists, with support from the Oregon Arts Education Collective, invite you to gather around The Teaching Artist Table.

This Sunday, September 27th | 2:00 – 4:00 pm
Portland Playhouse, 602 NE Prescott Street, Portland, OR 97211

We’ve been inspired by mycelium, the hidden network beneath the forest floor that nourishes and connects everything around it— much like how Teaching Artist work in our field. This gathering is a chance to connect, share, learn from one another, and strengthen the networks of support across our community.

And of course, there will be food. In the spirit of radical hospitality, Briana (Arts for Learning NW) and Michelle (Kinship Teaching Artists) are cooking up a generous seasonal spread inspired by what grows here. It’s our way of honoring where we live and nourishing all of us into creative conversation.

We’ll also provide childcare — a teen artist leading artmaking for the kids in your life.

Join us!

Portland is celebrating Dolly Parton today — and we're joining in.In 1995, Dolly founded her Imagination Library after w...
09/25/2026

Portland is celebrating Dolly Parton today — and we're joining in.

In 1995, Dolly founded her Imagination Library after watching her own father go through life never having learned to read. What started in one Tennessee county has since mailed more than 200 million free books to children from birth to age five, across five countries.

Dolly's mother once stitched her a coat out of scraps of fabric — a coat of many colors, made from whatever there was, sewn together with love. It's an image that feels familiar to us. The teachers, parents, parent volunteers, and teaching artists doing the work of arts education in our community are stitching something the same way — each adding their own color, their own care, for the kids of the Northwest.

Happy Dolly Parton Day 🦋

Four students. Four self-portraits. Four ways of answering the same question: who am I, really?Behind these images is Ju...
09/24/2026

Four students. Four self-portraits. Four ways of answering the same question: who am I, really?

Behind these images is Julie Keefe — a documentary photographer with over two decades of experience before she turned her lens toward teaching. Her practice centers on what she calls literacy through photography: using the camera and the written word together as tools for young people to see themselves clearly, and to say something true about what they find.

This is what arts education can do that's hard to measure but impossible to miss: it gives students room to discover their own potential, and the language to name it themselves.

Want to bring Julie's work — or one of our many other teaching artists — into your school or classroom? Explore our full Artist & Program Guide — link in the comments below.

Teaching Artist: Julie Keefe

Arts for Learning NW and Kinship Teaching Artists, with support from the Oregon Arts Education Collective, invite teachi...
09/22/2026

Arts for Learning NW and Kinship Teaching Artists, with support from the Oregon Arts Education Collective, invite teaching artists and arts education community practitioners to gather around The Teaching Artist Table. Inspired by mycelium—the often unseen network that nourishes and connects an ecosystem—this gathering is an opportunity to connect, share, learn from one another, and strengthen networks of support across our teaching artist community. In the spirit of radical hospitality, Briana of Arts for Learning NW and Michelle of Kinship Teaching Artists will prepare a generous seasonal spread celebrating the bounty of Fall, with salads, tarts, soup, and more. Together, we’ll make space to recognize the often-unseen impact of our work, celebrate what makes us unique and what connects us, and imagine how stronger relationships can help our creative ecosystem thrive.

Come gather, eat, connect, and nourish the networks that sustain us.

Address

8911 SE Stark St
Portland, OR
97216

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+15032255900

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