— May 22, 11:21 AM — 

Hallie E. Ford

This pledge of $15 million reflects Hallie E. Ford’s desire to see a globally recognized center for visual art and design education located in Oregon. She believes that Pacific Northwest College of Art, with its growing international connections and commitment to the core disciplines of the fine arts, stands on the threshold of achieving this vision. To reach this goal she recognizes there is much work to be done by PNCA and the Portland arts community, but feels PNCA has the capability, commitment and visionary leadership to rally philanthropic support of the arts in Oregon and make the dream a reality.

Mrs. Ford has been a practitioner and patron of the arts and received the Governor’s Arts Award in 1996 for Arts
Patronage and Support of Art Scholarship Funds. She is the benefactor of the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, and has endowed an arts education program for Umpqua Valley Arts Center in Roseburg, Oregon. She is pleased to provide this lead gift for PNCA and has confidence that this highly creative educational community of talented artists, designers and thinkers will move to a new plateau of international recognition. She is particularly excited about PNCA plans for highly innovative new graduate programs and the future generations of
outstanding arts students who will benefit from them.

Hallie E. Ford was born in Oklahoma, where her family persevered through the Great Depression. She learned the value
of higher education at East Central Oklahoma University, where she earned her teaching degree. She migrated to Oregon
and became part of a pioneer forest products family that has established a great legacy in rural communities in the state. She is one of the founders of The Ford Family Foundation, headquartered in Roseburg, Oregon. The Ford Opportunity Scholarship Program that has changed many lives for the better is operated by the Foundation for single parents lacking financial resources for college. As she has said on a number of occasions to gatherings of her Ford Opportunity Scholars, “It’s not what you have, but what you give to your family, your community and your country.”

Mrs. Ford’s ‘community’ is Oregon. It’s her love of education, the arts, the people of Oregon and the region that motivates her to make this investment of her resources in Pacific Northwest College of Art.

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