Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon Portland Community College

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Why choose Art at PCC?

Galleries and events

PCC has art galleries and art collections at each campus, as well as exciting events throughout the year:

The Portland Community College Art program provides quality education in an atmosphere that encourages you to fully realize your artistic potential. Studio and art history classes play a vital role in a general liberal arts education as well as training you to become a working artist.

The PCC Art faculty are a committed group of educators, working artists and art historians, active in personal, professional, and community development.

Art studio classes are limited to 24 students. The average enrollment in art history classes is about 35 students. Comparable classes at other institutions can number into the hundreds.

Degrees and certificates

Degrees and certificates by number of terms to complete
Award Length Financial aid eligible Currently accepting students?
University transfer 2 years at PCC + 2 years at university

Facilities

PCC campuses have excellent studio facilities. Learn more about what each campus offers:

What will you learn?

We welcome you to deepen your relationship to art and connect to a vibrant creative community whether you are a degree or non-degree seeking student. Most PCC art classes contain a mixture of general education students, transfer art majors, and non-degree students who are both at introductory and advanced levels. You will find a stimulating and diverse community of various ages, cultural backgrounds, and skills. We feel this is the healthiest environment for creativity and art education.

Many studio classes may be taken up to three times for credit for you to challenge and cultivate your visual intelligence.

What will you do?

You will exercise a wide range of technical, aesthetic, communication, and problem-solving skills applicable to many career opportunities.

Most art classes fulfill lower-division transfer credit requirements to other schools and programs. Check with an academic advisor regarding what classes fulfill your degree-specific requirements. Many of our students transfer to Portland State University, Lewis and Clark, Pasadena Art Center, and the San Francisco Art Institute among others.

One way PCC gauges student success is in progress reports from students who have gone on to other institutions of higher learning. Statistics show that PCC students who transfer to schools in the Oregon University System perform as well as or better than students who started there as freshmen.

Many PCC alumni have pursued careers related to the visual arts. Many former students have had exhibitions of their work, received awards, and are represented by galleries.

Next steps

Applying to PCC is free and only takes a few minutes.Apply now

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Related programs

PCC offers more than 90 programs.