Rehearsals for a Better World, PNCA's Fall 2026 Faculty & Staff Exhibition

November 5 - December 19, 2026
Opening Reception at November First Thursday
Nov. 5th from 5-8pm
First Thursday Information Here
Exhibition Reception at December First Thursday
Dec. 3rd from 5-8pm
Join us at PNCA on First Thursday, November 5, for the opening of Rehearsals for a Better World: PNCA’s 2026 Faculty & Staff Exhibition!
Returning after a multi-year hiatus, the PNCA Faculty & Staff Exhibition brings together more than 100 works by over 50 faculty and staff members, celebrating the artists, educators, and dedicated community members who help shape one of the Pacific Northwest’s most dynamic creative communities. Curated by Portland-based artist Melanie Flood, the exhibition offers a sweeping portrait of the creative practices, ideas, and perspectives that make up the PNCA community.

At its heart, Rehearsals for a Better World asks: What does it mean to practice building a better world? Drawing on ideas of utopia, community, and collective possibility, the exhibition considers a better world not as a perfect or distant destination, but as an ongoing process of imagining alternatives, experimenting with new ideas, and finding different ways of being together. Across a wide range of works, participating artists explore themes of ecological grief, identity, memory, illness, overlooked histories, exclusion, and the interconnectedness of human and nonhuman worlds, alongside the beauty and complexity of everyday life.

As Flood writes in her curatorial statement, “An art school is a place where small versions of that world are practiced every day, however imperfectly. A studio is where you try things before they work.” This spirit of experimentation and possibility runs throughout the exhibition, bringing diverse perspectives into conversation and recognizing the importance of curiosity, vulnerability, collaboration, and mutual support in shaping what comes next. Ultimately, Rehearsals for a Better World celebrates not only the work of PNCA’s faculty and staff, but also the collective creativity and care that make an artistic community possible—and the ongoing practice of imagining a more generous, inclusive, and connected world.