Dear Readers, Friends, and Supporters of Zena,

We end 2020 with hopes of transitioning from thinking, researching and contemplating, to realizing our next Artist Project Season. In many ways, we have benefitted from the time to plan and reflect, aware of the challenges and opportunities ahead. We hope to manifest and share Zena’s programs with you in 2021. 

We are grateful to everyone from artists and scholars to individual supporters and funders who have supported Zena Zezza this year. We were especially fortunate to have received a grant from the Oregon Cultural Trust’s Coronavirus Relief Fund for Cultural Support which supported post-production of previous Dialogues event recordings, an upgrade of our website with O-R-G, and implementation of a new design and system for sending you news, offerings, and updates. An Oregon Arts Commission Small Operating Support grant and gifts from individuals and Zena members will provide crucial support to realizing our work in 2021. 

Collaboration and partnerships with cultural and academic institutions are at the heart of Zena’s Artist Project Seasons. We are hopeful that the constraints of 2020 will be replaced with new opportunities for sharing ideas and resources with previous and new partners to expand engagement with our local communities and our national and international audiences. We are thankful for exhibitions, screenings, and dialogues with artists and guests from other fields that were made possible through collaborations with the Portland Art Museum/Northwest Film Center for Zena’s Chantal Akerman season and our 2019 Hans Coper: Less Means More season at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education. Since 2016, Zena’s Dialogues events have been presented at the Pacific Northwest College of Art. While Zoom is on our minds for 2021, we also look forward to in-person gatherings, engagements with artists, and conversations that move us beyond this moment. We are enriched by the generosity of others and committed to sharing our resources.

A special collection of contemporary artists’ monographs, books, and editions has been donated to Zena to benefit upcoming Artist Project Seasons. The collection spans from the 1980s on and includes many publications from Europe, the US, and beyond. In this period of constraint, these publications can expand our points of reference and bring us closer to artists’ ideas and their work. Periodically, new selections will be added. 

Visit ARTIST PROJECT SEASONS (2013-2019) to view the work, ideas, and engagement of a wide range of voices in Dialogues Events with artists: JOSIAH MCELHENY — ANTHONY MCCALL — STAN DOUGLAS — CHANTAL AKERMAN — HANS COPER.

Please join us and SUPPORT our work by making a year-end donation, becoming a member, or purchasing artists’ books from the new collection Zena offers.

 

We remain mindful, creative, and grateful and we wish you and everyone inspiration in the New Year.

 

Sandra Percival

Founding Director and Curator